People who have a large collection of vinyls didn’t need to replenish it during the pandemic, because this was a time when they could revisit what they already had in their collection. Earlier you would travel for four-five hours a day sometimes and work for even longer, so there was hardly a window to spend on your collection. It’s thus kind of paradoxical, where you can’t acquire new music as much as you could before, but you’re spending more time listening to LPs on the whole. The Revolver Club [in Mahim] has an online store. But there’s this sheer joy of browsing through records at a physical store that has gone out of the window with steaming devices coming in. Look at what happened to Rhythm House. We would also go to places like Zenzi that would have vinyl listening sessions on Sunday afternoons, where one party room would be cordoned off and people would take turns every week to play records from their collection. But Zenzi, too, shut down.

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Delhi connection
Atul Ashar, 54, founder of an advertising agency

I am a student of music and learnt from Ustad Amanat Husain Khan Saab of the Agra gharana. The genre of music that I am most passionate about is ghazals and I have sourced records from different places like Mumbai, Delhi, Amsterdam and London. There are also some online players; there is one source in Delhi, Mr Zafar. He runs a store called Shah Music Centre in Meena Bazaar and has a collection of over one lakh LPs. I also ask my friends abroad to source vinyls I want, in case they can find them. Earlier, I used to buy many records from Rhythm House before it shut down, and I must say that Mr Mehmood Curmally [of Rhythm House] initiated me into the world of vinyl music. But unfortunately, today’s generation doesn’t seem to care as much because it requires a lot of passion and upkeep, while they just want Spotify.

Note the numbers

According to the website vinylrestart.com, people who were teenagers in the 1980s and ’90s account for 45 per cent of the vinyl-buying market.  Also, music platform billboard.com’s survey showed that in America, The Beatles, Pink Floyd and David Bowie are among the bands that are the biggest drivers of vinyl sales.

Tull in the house

Jethro Tull fans were treated to a fabulous surprise in 1994 when Ian Anderson, frontman of the Brit cult-rock outfit, showed up at the now-shuttered Rhythm House in Kala Ghoda to sign audio cassettes for them. The band was due to perform at Rang Bhavan, a one-time popular concert venue in  what was then Bombay.