Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.
The strangest thing about EMI’s former record factory in Hayes, west London, is not that it has been lying derelict for years, but that in a ramshackle outbuilding once occupied by the packing and shipping department, 11 of the 120 record presses that immortalised the music of groups such as The Beatles and Pink Floyd are again in full production, turning out singles and LPs.....
But if it were only old fuddy-duddies still buying LPs, records would soon be heading the same way as the phonograph cylinder. In fact, younger music fans are helping keep the format alive. After CDs came along, dance music DJs did their bit, staying loyal to the 12in single and influencing fans to buy them. More recently, it has suddenly become fashionable among pop artists to release singles on 7in vinyl as well as in digital formats, often in limited editions that are seen as collectors’ items. The joke is, many of these singles are bought by youngsters who do not even own a turntable, but increasingly the records come with a coupon entitling the owner to a download of the same music....
