The Record Collection

Jon (aka Tony) Baines came round this evening for the long-planned but endlessly rescheduled Viewing Of The Record Collection. I'm guessing I have around 2,000 LPs and 2,000 CDs which has a certain 'presence' - certainly compared with the same number sitting invisibly on someone's hard-drive. To be honest, I've not added much in the last five or six years, and even sold some in Japan. But it follows us wherever we go, housed in an old but perfectly functional shelving system, and always centre-stage in the sitting room (thank you Liz), not hidden away in a back room, loft or garage - if we had such things. In a way, it's become a sort of artwork, a 'feature', much like the very large framed woodblock print  we have in the dining room. The difference is, this gets played. Even the vinyl. 
"So how is it ordered?" This question always surprises me. I mean it's a perfectly reasonable question, but there's only one answer. Alphabetically. I suppose it could be by decade or genre or label or country.... I have a friend who ordered his by colour. He had a long line of CDs, the spines of which went from blue to red with all hues in between... until he got rid of them all and 'went Spotify'.
Anyway, we played Can, The The, Jah Wobble and, at his insistence, some Pump, and talked of first records, best eras, and everyone from Aphex Twin to Ivor Cutler...  He's a good deal younger than me but knows his stuff. Nice to have someone pull out records that don't often get a listen.