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ROB SAMPSON
@sammaz
Rob is also a musician and plays the guitar as a hobby, usually gigging around the North of England to earn some extra money. His musical influences include some of the guitar greats like Noel Gallagher amongst many others. These influences throughout most of his record collection and the predominant genres of music he says he listens to are Indie Rock, Classic Rock and Alternative Rock. He did admit he has a guilty pleasure for collecting Christmas records also.
Rob and I share a love for one major artist in particular and thats “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen and like myself, Rob is on the hunt for all his albums released on vinyl, recently acquiring one of the white whales missing from his collection “The Rising” which recently received a welcome repress on vinyl.
If you like great records, great guitar covers and the odd Christmas album (strictly posted in December only) then go follow his Instagram and you wont be disappointed.
How long have you been a record collector?
I would say that I’ve been a serious collector for around five or six years now. I was always quite a big collector of CD’s and have always had an obsessive compulsive thing about getting a lot of releases by the same artist. There have been records in my life for quite a long time and one of the first I bought was “Dookie” by Green Day on green coloured vinyl and that was around the time it was released in 1994. I bought that on vinyl because I thought in years to come it could be worth some value. I did buy it for the music though as I’ve always been a big Green Day fan. Also in 2009 when Oasis released the career spanning boxset of studio albums, I thought the same thing about value in later life and bought that which is extremely rare these days. I think it cost £100 and it is sold for upwards of £600 now. The reason I came back to records to become a serious collector later in life was after scrolling through Instagram and saw someone posting records which made me feel nostalgic and get my old records out and that’s where it started. Then I started to buy what I had on CD on vinyl and of course that is a huge undertaking and I had a lot of CD’s back then still. Something else I loved to do was go on Discogs and start to pick up the classic albums on vinyl setting myself a budget to try pick up these albums for around £5 a time. You couldn’t do that these days however as prices seem to have gone quite crazy.
Were there records in your house growing up?
This is quite a sore subject really as my father gave away his record collection to friends when I was really young so I never got the chance to inherit any of his collection. My father has always been on the cutting edge of new technology so he didn’t feel he had any need for vinyl anymore and moved to CD. However, also before I was born, my parents lived in a flat and had a lot of original records including first UK presses by The Beatles. Unfortunately they were burgled and their whole collection was taken. He did start collecting again and then as I said, he gave it away before I had any chance to claim it. He always would warn me about going too close to the turntable and never to touch the needle which I suppose has stood me in good stead for being a record collector now.
Where do you shop for records the usually?
I don’t shop in record shops as much as I should do so most of my purchases are done online mainly as pre orders for new records due to be released. The only time I really step foot in a record shop is either on Record Store Day which I take part in every year and I go to Hot Rats Records in Sunderland. Mainly the only other time I get to record shops is when we are away on holiday or city breaks and I get to build in some time to go record shopping. When I’m buying records online I do try make a conscious effort to pre order from the local shops in Newcastle to give them some support. One shop I’ve been supporting as much as I can is Beyond Vinyl (@beyondvinyl) and Dave the owner is even hand delivering records on his bicycle during the uncertain times of the pandemic. I also try pre order from Reflex Records (@reflexrecordshop) and they are always really fair with their prices. Beatdown Records (@beatdownncl) also have the great loyalty card scheme where you spend so much and get money off purchases. Newcastle has some great record shops.
Do you have a favourite ever record or album?
My favourite ever album is “Definitely Maybe” by Oasis and the favourite record is probably that Oasis studio albums boxset not only because it’s by Oasis but also for rarity and value and it’s such a good body of work. I’m so happy that when I was a poor student when it was released that I bit the bullet and bought it when I probably couldn’t really afford to buy it.
Do you have a want list of records you are looking to add to the collection?
I do and I’ve been chipping away at it for quite a while now, probably a few years or so, and now there are only a few left on it. The live release by Oasis “Familiar To Millions” is high on the list as that’s the only Oasis release I am yet to get. I was looking for “The Sun Is Often Out” by Longpigs was on there but it’s just been reissued. I’d still like to own an original of that though. The other big record on the want list is “Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness” by The Smashing Pumpkins which I do have a reissue of but again I’d love the original. I’d also love a copy of the soundtrack to “Red Dead Redemption” video game as the soundtrack is brilliant but hard to track down. It’s great that a lot of hard to get albums, particularly from the ‘90s and ‘00s, are starting to get the much needed reissues so modern day collectors can finally own them on vinyl but it’s nice to have an original copy of a record from that period.
How about a record you picked up for a cheap price or a bargain?
When I first started to buy up all my CD’s on vinyl I was looking for a lot of records by Elliot Smith and I picked up “Figure 8” from a seller on eBay and I only paid around £20 for it and looking at the prices of them now, they sell for upwards of £120 on Discogs usually so that was a good find I think.
Finally then, what do you think will happen to your collection in later life?
I keep telling my wife it’s an investment and I think we might end up getting rid of it in the end and that money could go towards my wife and I retirement fund but you don’t know how much the collection will be worth in say twenty years time. I’m pretty sure it wont be inherited by anyone as we don’t have any kids so I think it will end up being sold at some point in later life. I’m not sure at what age but that’s probably going to be the plan.
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