Vinyl Countdown

'You hold in your hand a miracle.A book about a passion, and the hipsters, oddballs and old heads who share it, written by one of their number, albeit a ludicrously erudite one' - Danny Kelly A revival of interest in vinyl music has taken place in recent years - but for many of those from the 'baby boomer' generation, it never went away. Graham Sharpe's vinyl love affair began in the 1960s and since then he has amassed over 3000 LPs and spent countless hours visiting record shops worldwide along with record fairs, car boot sales, online and real life auctions. After leaving his job at William Hill, his retirement dream was to visit every surviving secondhand record shop across the world. Whilst Graham still has a little way to go on his travels, Vinyl Countdown follows his journey to over a hundred shops across the globe including the many characters he has encountered and the adventures he accrued along the way. From Amsterdam and Angus (Scotland), to Bedfordshire and Budapest and Tennessee and Wellington (NZ), always returning to his local record shop Second Scene in Bushey to report on progress. Vinyl Countdown seeks to reawaken the often dormant desire which first promoted the gathering of records, and to confirm the belief of those who still indulge in it, that they happily belong to, and should celebrate the undervalued, misunderstood significant group of music-obsessed vinylholics, who always want - need - to buy... just one more record. Vinyl Countdown is a mesmerising blend of memoir, travel, music and social history that will appeal to anyone who vividly recalls the first LP they bought and any music fan who derives pleasure from the capacity that records have for transporting you back in time.

Graham Sharpe is 70 years old, without any discernible medical qualifications, other than personal exposure to acne, cartilage & gallbladder removal, oh - and prostate cancer. A journalist by trade, he made a name - of sorts - for himself by spending almost half a century publicising bookmakers William Hill, winning awards along the way, and creating one himself - the world's most prestigious and richest sports-based literary prize, the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. For 60+ years a Luton Town and Wealdstone FC fan, 58 of those as a vinyl record collector, in which guise he wrote the well received Oldcastle title, Vinyl Countdown, Graham has been for 46 years married to long-suffering Sheila, been for 40 years a Dad of two, and for 5 years a grandfather. He hopes this is far from his last book...