Preparing for the club night, Miss Red shows me her vinyl collection. Two enormous scarlet suitcases full of albums. It’s got me musing on the differences between the genders when it comes to music collections.
The comedienne Jo Caulfield has a routine about this. “Why do men do it? No one needs a record collection! All you need is Abba’s Greatest Hits, and THAT’S IT!”, she rants. I must admit there are times when I agree. Though if I have to listen to one Best Of forever, I’d plump for The Supremes.
The idea that women tend to only own one or two hits collections is entirely untrue in my experience, but then I’ve always associated with music fans in general. Miss Red is one of many women I know who not only has an impressively varied collection, but much of it is on vinyl. I stopped owning vinyl years ago.
The real difference comes with completism, I think. Getting silly about it. Writing letters to Mojo magazine. Caring too much. Tracking down complete works, buying box sets of rare out-takes and alternate versions.
Wanting to own everything, even things that were never meant to be owned. That’s more of a boy thing.
