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Through the window: An insider’s look at my vinyl record collection

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My musician friends and colleagues

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Through the window: An insider’s look at my vinyl record collection

When the bottom fell out of the record crate in the early nineties, I couldn’t bear to part with my records or my turntable. As it turns out, I’m very happy that I kept them. I played them over the years, interspersed with the glittery new CDs that I’d accumulated. In 2011, my love for vinyl resurged and I started to grow my collection from the original (about 70 records). I focussed on vintage vinyl, but I also on occasion bought modern (i.e., post-2000, often 180+ gram) vinyl records. 

Two shelves hold vinyl records. Stereo equipment including a turntable sit on top of the shelves. Tall speakers are placed one on each side of the shelves. A Yamaha acoustic guitar stands beside the left speaker. Images of the Hubble Deep Field and Hubble Ultra Deep Field are mounted on the wall above the stereo.
Vinyl records, stereo, guitar and Hubble images in my living room.
I use records and labels to divide my collection by artist and composer.

I now have just over 1,800 LPs in my medium-sized record collection. I’ve been lucky enough to receive boxes of records from friends and family who no longer wanted theirs, and I’ve received quite a few as gifts. The rest I’ve purchased myself, in part using gift cards happily received on my birthdays, Father’s Day and Christmas. I’ve shopped in record stores in Ontario (including Ottawa, Perth, Toronto and Thunder Bay), Manitoba (Winnipeg), Nova Scotia (Halifax) and in Virginia (Fairfax). I also have a few dozen records that I’ve purchased around the globe, including Rush’s “Clockwork Angels” and Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown that I bought in Paris, France, and three classical albums I bought in Germany. 

Vinyl records, stereo and portrait of the Milky Way Galaxy (by Jon Lomberg) in my office.
Records used to divide my classical collection by artist and composer.

I’ve spent many hours browsing local record stores and talking with their great staff, especially The Record Centre (@therecordcentre) on Wellington Street, Legend Records Kanata (@legendrecordskanata), Legend Records Ottawa (https://www.legendrecords.ca) and their previous locations on Wellington Street, Winona Avenue and in the Lincoln Fields mall), Compact Music (@compact.music) on Bank Street between Second and Third Avenues, Vertigo Records (@vertigoottawa) and The Turning Point (@turningpointottawa). In September 2019, I lined up for and bought about 40 albums (mostly classical) at the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library sale, and in December 2021, once again I lined up for and purchased over 50 albums and box sets, mostly classical and mostly opera, at another Friends of the Ottawa Public Library sale. I’ve also found a few gems at Value Village (for example, “Lightfoot!”, his debut album). 
For this “Through the window: An insider’s look at my vinyl record collection series”, I am posting photos and descriptive text/narrative on specific topics, groups, composers and performers on the records in my collection. 

My music- and record-related posts are on Instagram with user name @underthestylus and embedded below for convenience.

My Instagram posts

My concerts

I’ve been keeping track of the concerts I’ve attended, and while not complete, this list has a majority of them.

The Boomtown Rats (1980)

Sunday, March 23rd, 1980

Seneca College Gymnasium (festival seating), Toronto

The Who (1982) Farewell Tour #1

Saturday October 9th, 1982

Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Stadium, Toronto

The Beach Boys (1982)      

September 3rd, 1982

CNE Stadium, Toronto

Roger Waters (1987) Radio K.A.O.S. tour

November 9th, 1987

Ottawa Civic Centre, Ottawa

Rush (1988) Hold Your Fire tour

March 7th, 1988

Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto

The Rolling Stones (1989) Steel Wheels tour

September 3rd or 4th, 1989 

CNE Stadium, Toronto

Rush (1991) Roll The Bones tour

October 25th, 1991

Copps Coliseum, Hamilton

Alanis Morisette (1999) (the Crash Test Dummies opened the show)

May 14th, 1999

Corel Centre, Ottawa

Blue Rodeo (2003)

Sunday July 13th, 2003

BluesFest (The Festival Plaza at Ottawa City Hall), Ottawa

The Rolling Stones (2005) A Bigger Bang tour

August 28th, 2005

Lansdowne Park (Frank Clair Stadium), Ottawa

Elton John (2006)

November 10th, 2006

Scotiabank Place, Ottawa

Bachman & Turner (2008)

May 8th, 2011

NAC (Prairie Scene arts festival), Ottawa

Colin James (with Liam Titcomb opening) (2012)

October 15, 2012

NAC (Southam Hall), Ottawa

Elton John (2014)

February 13th, 2014

Scotiabank Place, Ottawa

Bryan Adams (2015) Reckless 30th Anniversary Tour

February 20th, 2015

Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa

Def Leppard (2015) 

Monday May 4th, 2015

TD Place Arena, Ottawa

Colin James (2016)

April 2nd, 2016

NAC (Southam Hall), Ottawa

Meatloaf (2016) Live In Concert tour

June 6th, 2016

TD Place Arena, Ottawa

Billy Idol and Steve Stevens (2016)

July 2nd, 2016

Bluesfest (City Stage, Lebreton Flats), Ottawa

Jim Bryson (2017) Petr Cancura (as part of the NAC’s ‘Crossroads’ Jazz Series)

Friday, April 21, 2017

NAC (Azrieli Studio), Ottawa

Roger Waters (2017) Us & Them tour

October 6th, 2017

Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa

Trooper and April Wine (2017)

November 25th, 2017

TD Place Arena, Ottawa

Blue Rodeo (2018) with The Sadies

Saturday February 18th, 2018

NAC (Southam Hall), Ottawa

Sue Foley (2018) The Ice Queen

February 22nd, 2018

NAC (Azrieli Studio), Ottawa

Randy Bachman (2018)

March 3rd, 2018

NAC, Ottawa

NQ Arbuckle and The Rifle (opening act)  (2018)

September 29th, 2018

Ontario Festival of Small Halls, Lyndhurst (St. Luke’s Church Hall)

Gordon Lightfoot (2018)

November 18, 2018

NAC (Southam Hall), Ottawa

James Keelaghan (2019)

January 26th, 2019

Ontario Festival of Small Halls, Almonte Town Hall

Revolution: The Beatles Symphonic Experience

March 1, 2019

NAC, Ottawa

Betty and the Bobs (with Katherine Wheatley, Wendell Ferguson, Suzie Vinnick and others) (2019)

Saturday March 23rd, 2019

Ontario Festival of Small Halls, Almonte Town Hall

Corey Hart (with Julie Masse) and Glass Tiger (2019)

June 17th, 2019

Canadian Tire Centre

Royal Wood (2019) 

December 27th, 2019

Le Mouton Noir (The Blacksheep Inn), Wakefield

Kim Mitchell, The Legends Series featuring (2022)

April 21, 2022

Bronson Place, Ottawa

Joel Plaskett Emergency and with TUNS opening (2022)

Saturday May 14th, 2022 

National Arts Centre, Babs Asper Theatre, Ottawa

The Eagles (2022) Hotel California Tour with Deacon Fry

September 16th, 2022

Touring lineup: Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit and Vince Gill

Canadian Tire Centre

The Offspring Let The Bad Times Roll (2022) with Simple Plan

Friday November 11, 2022

Canadian Tire Centre

My musician friends and colleagues

Through the window: An insider’s look at my vinyl record collection

My Instagram posts

My concerts