Home Grown: “My records have been with me through good times and bad”

Because every record collection has a story.

Home Grown is our series profiling you lot and your excellent record collections. Taking our cue from the brilliant submissions to the #VFRecordCollections thread on Instagram, we want to share a little of your hard-earned love for vinyl with the world.

Each week, we’ll be profiling a different collector from around the world and finding out what makes them tick. Want in? Send us a pic and a few words about your collection to [email protected]

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Name: Tony Macpherson

Location: I am a born and bred Londoner but now live in Edinburgh.

# of records (approx.): 2,500, ordered aphabetically(ish!) and by genre(ish!)

How long have you been collecting for? 40+ years

What part of your set-up are you most proud of?

My turntable sounds pretty good now, I’ve spent more on upgrading it than the cost of the original deck and I’m not finished yet. I love to mess around with my DJ decks too, even though I’m a home DJ only.

What record(s) are you most proud of?

Too many to favourites to list but I have a lot of ’70s funk and it’s my go-to music on those rare days when I can’t find anything else I really want to hear. I have all types of music, from funk, indie, rock, roots and dub reggae, deep house, electronica, drum & bass, garage, hip-hop, even classical. Music has to have passion and be made with feeling, I’m not a fan of the pop charts and souless X-Factor stuff!

What does your record collection mean to you?

It’s a major part of my life, I see it every day and love to play them. I have friends that stream all the music they listen to and, whilst I do that too, the sound, experience and tactile nature of vinyl can’t be beaten. Visually it is a comfort. As someone once said, “a record collection is an unfinished art installation.” My records have been with me through good times and bad, and I can’t imagine life without them.