Graham Sharpe is a lucky man. He’s weaved his life around two great passions, aside from his family and Luton Town. Graham was bookmaker William Hill’s Media Relations Director, where he was renowned for creating unusual new betting markets. He is also the custodian of a mighty (and still growing) collection of rare and unusual vinyl.
Graham has written numerous books on racing and gambling; the wonderfully eccentric Dorothy Paget (well worth seeking out); Prostrate Cancer: The Misunderstood Male Killer (required reading for all gentlemen of a certain age), and recently, his great love of records. Vinyl Countdown follows his journey to over a hundred record shops around the world. Graham’s new book, ON THE RECORDs, Notes From The Vinyl Revival is an enlighted, often warm and funny dive into the record industry to discover the continuing allure of these black disks.
Interview By Andrew Threlfall
The Man Behind the Odds
In the world of sports betting, one name stands above all others: Graham Sharpe. Graham joined William Hill in the early seventies as what was then known as a ‘Boardman’. He wrote up the odds on the shop’s whiteboard as races were broadcast over the tannoy system. Quickly rising through the ranks, he became a settler, then assistant manager and eventually managing his own shop in Harrow, Middlesex.
A short while later, he answered a job advertisement placed in the racing newspaper, The Sporting Life, to work in the William Hill Press Office. Having previously trained as a journalist, he was offered the job, albeit only once the managing director interviewing him realised he already worked for the company!
Graham stayed in that department for the next 40 years, developing the role and eventually becoming the company’s primary spokesperson, their Media Relations Director. He retired from the role about five years ago “with over 40 years’ mostly enjoyable service under my belt.”
What’s Playing?
AT: You have many more records than most people have on their Spotify playlist. Probably more than your local HMV! Do you listen to and collect all types of music?
GS: The large majority of my collection is rock music, with the psych stuff easily the most important and valuable to me. I also own a mixed selection of other styles – particularly reggae and ska, which I love. I have no jazz whatsoever – it is a complete blind spot or ear-blocked style of music for me. I just don’t understand or get it.
Home Is Where The Record Player Is
AT: Have you had many negotiations with your family about your expanding vinyl library taking over parts of the house?
GS: This is a regular topic of conversation in the Sharpe household, as I also own a small library’s-worth of books, mainly about horse racing and betting, two other subjects in which I am particularly interested – but it is true that the records and cds do dominate at least five of the rooms in the house. In my opinion, it does so in a manner which definitely enhances the look of said rooms, whereas my wife appears to think that they merely attract ever-increasing amounts of dust and risk endangering the stability of the shelves on which they live. There is a permanent, uneasy truce in place, although occasionally armed conflict breaks out, as she demands the downsizing of said collections, which I am constantly doing if also introducing newly acquired items.
AT: Do you have any of your prized purchases displayed on the wall at your home?
GS: I did become obsessed with, and bought when it came out, the fantastic Tomorrow single of 1967, ‘My White Bicycle’. Not that long ago, I also acquired a print of the artwork used to promote the record when it came out. I have the record and artwork framed together and looking splendid.
AT: What’s your favourite record sleeve?
GS: It can change, but as I write this, it would be either of the two different covers I own for the ‘Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush’ rite of passage sixties’ film starring the ill-fated actor Barry Evans, and featuring the lovely singer/actress, Adrienne Posta. Much of the music was written by Messrs Capaldi, Mason, Winwood and Wood, aka the marvellous Traffic.
Meeting The Music
AT: Have you ever actually been inside a shop and the next thing you know you’re talking to someone who worked on the record you’re thinking of buying?
GS: No, but I did often spend record shopping time with my old pal Screaming Lord Sutch, who only ever bought copies of his own records!
AT: Do you sometimes track down the songwriter or performer to write something special on the sleeves?
GS: I’m not really that much into autographs – however, I did meet many artists when I was writing freelance music interviews, and was pleased to have my photograph taken with the great Justin Hayward in his front room! Perhaps my most memorable encounter with a rock star was when I was able to secure an audience for my wife and I with her all-time favourite rock musician, Paul Rodgers, who was almost as friendly as drummer, Simon Kirke. We have a great framed photo of ourselves together with the Bad Company classic lineup.
Travelling Around
AT: What is your vinyl capital of Britain?
GS: My favourite UK vinyl city is probably Brighton – which is no great surprise – and neither would Liverpool be. An unexpected delight, which very few are probably aware of, would be St Heleier, the capital of Jersey. St Heleier contains not only Damian MacCormack’s brilliantly psychedelia-heavy ‘Music Scene’ shop, packed with bargain-priced cds and more conventional rock albums. But also, the ultra-modern, bang up-to-date, Seedee Jons, along with the always chatty Rob West’s ‘R&L’ Music and Memorabilia treasure trove of pre-owned vintage vinyl and discount cds – this is a genuine hat-trick of terrific record-selling outlets.
AT: I was recently in Berlin and I can’t recall a more vinyl-happy city. Have you been?
GS: My last visit to Berlin was as part of a group visiting the city to attend a big race meeting. I was hoping to take the opportunity to do some record shopping, and was very grateful when one of the ladies also on the trip with us came over to me with a tourist map, on which was marked with an ‘X’ the location of a record shop – ‘We’re taking Sheila (my wfe) on a Rhine Boat trip’ Julie told me, handing over a marked map and adding: ‘I’ve found a record shop for you to visit.’ Expressing my gratitude, I set off immediately. It took me a full hour and a half to arrive at the destination, where I spotted a shop window packed with records – as well as a note, reading, as my somewhat rusty O Level German allowed me to translate: ‘Closed for refurbishment – reopening in two months.’
Putting It All On Black
AT: What would be the best purchase you ever made in terms of how much it cost and how much it is now worth? I’m guessing before the days of Google.
GS: Back in the day when I worked as a reporter on my local paper, I quickly managed to wangle the tole of record column writer and record reviewer. This resulted in my acquiring many very obscure, late sixties/early 70s LPs, which were sent to me by record companies eager for publicity about their new releases. Some of these I sold off immediately to the local secondhand record shop around the corner from the home of David Sutch. I did hold on to records, which I enjoyed when reviewing, whether they went on to become hits or not.
I have only ever spent what I could afford at the time and definitely have not bought as any kind of investment.
Some of those I kept eventually became very valuable – Writing On The Wall, and Arcadium, anyone? Only to be sold off when cash became scarce – an act then immediately regretted as the value of these records just continued to soar to four figures. Others, though, I was savvy enough to keep and refused to sell on – such as The Ghost’s, ‘When You’re Dead’ and Pretty Thing’s, ‘S F Sorrow’.
My favourite musical period was – and remains- definitely the late sixties/early seventies. I also bought a lot of stuff back then, which is now difficult and costly to find. I doubt I will ever be tempted to sell them. Of course, though, my wife’s second and third calls after the undertaker, when I peg it, will be to the local vinyl record dealers.
ON THE RECORDs, the new book by Graham Sharpe is available here
Graham and I go back a long way. My very first job was as general sports editor of The Racing And Football Outlook, still a national newspaper in print to this day! Graham, who was already ‘Mr William Hill’ in those days, would take me out once a week and get me quite tipsy over lunch. Over Guinness we’d chat sport but also music. And record collections. AT
Main image by Ozgu Ozden
Others courtesy Graham Sharpe
Andy Mackay talks Sax, God & Rock’n Roll here
