Neil Priddey

Formerly the lead guitarist with Deepest Purple (2000-2005), we took the tribute thing a little too seriously (!) by regularly sacking our Roger Glover live on stage and hiring our new bassist Glenn Hughes a few minutes later...ok, it was actually the same guy wearing a different stage outfit and a wig! I'm still a fanatical Deep Purple fan, and the highlight of that 'fandom' (is that a word?) was meeting Gillan and Glover back in 2003. Both genuinely nice chaps and both genuinely flattered at our tribute to them.

With all of this going on, I've also been an avid record collector - thanks eBay for feeding my addiction! This was a resurrected hobby: I'd originally sold all my records to acquire some lovely new, shiny CD things...only to realise how disappointing the sound quality was on this new format. I persevered, and then moved on to downloading...and sold off the extensive CD collection...only to realise I'd lost that 'tangibility' and tactile/visual combination of record sleeves and latterly, CD inserts.

Then one day...a record collection appeared for sale on eBay...I clicked, I bid, I watched, I waited, I won! It was only around 100 LPs, but it was a new start, a fresh re-awakening of the original passion for the format - mmmm, vinyl...!

And so it began. Initially with researching and discovering original pressings of Black Sabbath LPs on the 'mythical' Vertigo Swirl label. And then Deep Purple on Harvest and of course, Purple Records. On to Zeppelin on 'red/plum' Atlantic and naturally, Swan Song. And on and on and on...

With collecting comes curiosities - particularly on so-called 'vanity' labels; those founded by artists themselves to give complete artistic and (often, but not always) financial control. Collect a label in its entirety and you'll unearth a mixed bag of lost treasures and utter rubbish! But completing that collection becomes an obsession, no matter what the artistic or creative merits of the subject.

And then came the wish to share. By collecting the label, one discovers variations of the same record, sometimes almost microscopic in its detail; a matrix change, a different printer credit, a publishing change. All of which eventually (by sheer detective work, logic and painstaking research) leads to a conclusive analysis of a first pressing versus a second, third or even fourth.

The first outlet to share (given the dearth of information that was available on the web - and what there was was often incomplete or even wrong) was a blog/website - search for Rare Record Collector and you'll find my site. But even this didn't completely satisfy...so, utilising my graphic design background, love of photography and type..I set about writing a book. It became a passion and labour of love and harked back to my earlier-mentioned desire of things tangible and tactile in a digital, download-obsessed world. In other words a book. A real book you could hold and turn the pages of, and even leave out on a coffee table to show off to your friends...stating "see all those records in that book?...I've got all of them...every single one!"

Of course, there has to be a downloadable, e-book type PDF book...which at least makes the visual content available very affordable, but, if like me, you love to hold a gatefold record sleeve in your hands, open it up, gaze at the artwork and feel the textured card upon which it was first printed, then you too will just have to buy the book, the properly printed, full colour kind. Enjoy. Keep collecting. Let me know if you find new versions of the records about which I've written.

regards

Neil Priddey