Andy: I clearly recall standing on a stool & leaning into the record player area of the family radiogram & stacking up 45’s - it was substantial piece of furniture. Amongst them were Sweet Pea by Manfred Mann & Hold Tight by Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich which belonged to my parents.

We graduated to a Sanyo music centre with wall mounted speakers at the same time as my first ventures into buying prog rock. I had a couple of Queen albums - Sheer Heart Attack & A Night at the Opera but was intrigued by the band Yes that I kept reading about in Melody Maker. Having never heard any of the music, I speculatively bought Close to the Edge. I loved it. The following Christmas my parents bought me Yessongs. They kept it hidden in their bedroom before Christmas & I would sneak out each album in turn to play it wearing big white headphones. But they knew my little game & on Christmas Day asked me how I was so familiar with the music “oh its live recordings & I have the studio albums” I blagged as a confident 14 year old.

I joined a municipal record lending library when I was 16. They would check the condition of each album & record any scratches on circular white cards. It was a ritual for many years to cycle down to the library.

I treated myself to a Linn Axis turntable in 1988 along with a copy of 20 Years of Jethro Tull. The shop delivered & set it up for me. I really wanted a Linn Sondek LP12 but it was beyond my budget. I still have the Linn Axis  connected up & all ready for English Electric Part One !

David: I think it is probably best if I begin as all good vinyl albums begin, with that anticipatory crackle of the stylus making touch down. You know what I'm talking about don't you? The headphones are on and the gatefold is wide open. We also know that great albums were really portals that transported their willing listeners into a parallel realm. If only for a few minutes.

It all began for me with Ian Radford, who had an all encompassing passion for rock music. He would play music in the Radford family front room and there we sat listening, nodding our heads in time to the rhythmic pulse. We'd sway in time like mesmerized cats before the speakers. It is because of Ian exposing the young me to those albums, that I discovered the music that still resonates with me, even after all these years. Sound familiar?

As I moved into my teens, I would often catch a lift into Nottingham with my parents or go in on the bus with my friend Sam. Time would be spent leafing through the vinyl in the giveaway section. The giveaway section was where the affordable vinyl was to be found. The back catalogues of the great and the good were in those bins and all at a good price.

I still miss those small independent record shops and all those wonderful misspent hours browsing even now.

These days, it is mainly Compact Discs that take up the lions share of the space on my studio book cases but if you glance down below, the vinyl is still there. I still take it out for a spin from time to time and it still sounds great!

English Electric came out on the 3rd Sept 2012 and Jared Jackson [a friend of mine and vinyl junkie] asked if we [BBT] had considered releasing it on vinyl. At that point we had not but weirdly enough the option to do so presented itself shortly after. Be careful what you wish for Mr. Jackson.