What Was It Like to Use Vinyl 12" LP's Records as a DJ Back in the Day?

0:00 Why use a 12 inch single?

So, why vinyl? Why use a 12 inch single? Why bother to collect and have a bunch of 12 inch that are heavy, get dusty, crackle, pop and whiz and make the needle jump and god knows what. Well I'll tell you why and I will explain at the end of the video. But first of all, let's have a look at some original vinyl. Now this video really is for beginner DJs. Maybe a DJ who's never touched a piece of vinyl in their life, like forever. Or maybe you used to be a vinyl DJ and you just want to reminisce. Right, this here is known as a white label. I had this when I worked on a radio station in West Wales called Radio Ceredigion which was based in Aberystwyth. I brought this one out because, I don't know if you can see, there's white in the centre. That's why it's called a white label.

Now this is an absolute classic, God knows what it's worth, but this is an original 12-inch from Tupac and Notorious B.I.G., a track entitled Running. Stones Radio Edit, Stones RMX Full Length, Original Version, Side B, Stones Original Vibe Mix, Stones RMX Full TV Track. And that's from 1998, and that is a white label. So what is a white label first of all? The DJ Tutor will then send those out to the likes of myself when I worked in a radio station and other radio stations, maybe club DJs, to get the kind of vibe and feel. Now I would then have to fill in the form what I thought about it. What sort of reaction I got, whether it was good or bad, send that information back to the company. They looked at all of that information, sort of correlated whether it was good or bad, how many DJs liked it, disliked it, scale of 1 to 10, tick 10 if you thought it was wicked or 1 whether you thought it was just great for shooting with an air rifle. Not that one though. And of course then it would make them think, yeah do we want to release it and spend all that money?

2:26 First of all, it's everything

Making all the versions that would be for general release, or not for that matter. So that is really pretty much what a white label was for. Now here we go, here's a good one. Prince Graffiti Bridge. Now, what is it about an album? Why? Why that and not an mp3? Well, first of all, it's everything. It's the smell, it's the feel, it's tactile. And then also, look at the artwork. You do not get this with an MP3. You don't get anything to hold or touch. And then if we open up, look. They've gone to town here. Check it out. See? All right? All the information on there. All right. I mean, this guy, in my eyes, is a genius. An absolute genius. Did you know that he could play a lot of instruments? He wasn't just a singer.

Prince could play practically everything and on quite a few, I believe, of his tracks he played every single instrument. Now there aren't many artists today who can do that. Quite a few of them turn up to a studio, get given a bunch of lyrics, felt to shake their arse a little bit in a video and they get some crappy pop hit. Right, what is this? This is known as a picture disc. This, again, is a Prince picture disc. Now, you don't get this with an MP3. Check that out. Isn't that absolutely beautiful? This is a 7-inch clear picture disc. Prince and the newer Power Generation Sexy MF, which is short for, I'm about to say a swear word, Sexy Motherfucker. There you go. And I'm going to put that down there. Now then, old school. OK, this is one of my...

5:24 And the whole idea of

Ultimate, ultimate, favourite old school labels. Salsol. Now Salsol is a mix mash of two words, salsa and soul music. And it originated in the 70s believe it or not. And this one here is Bodyshine Instant Funk. Now this 12 inch is from 1979 which was only a few years after 12 inches started to come out. Also known as Maxis, 45s. And there it is. So that is an original 12 and it's by South Soul Records, 240 Madison Avenue, New York, New York. Wow, I mean, I can remember a group called Madison Avenue who used to track in 12, Don't Call Me Baby. I mean, you know. Alright, I'll put that back in there. Let me just show you something as well. Have you noticed that this 12 inch... It's not just shoved inside the cardboard cover, there's this white thing as well. Now that is the dust cover and the whole idea of that is to keep the dust off the 12 inch. Now working DJs very often what we do, we turn it around, just shove the record in as fast as we could and if we used that piece of vinyl for a long period of time, the cardboard cover would end up getting knackered and full to bits and then it was down to the good old bit of sellotape.

But a lot of us used to just turn this facing upwards, the dust cover, and then just put the record inside the dust cover which was inside, of course, the cardboard cover. But the reason for the dust cover was A, to keep the dust off and also record in like that and then what we do is we turn it around. Now that's the proper way of having your record. So guess what? Look at that. The record is completely covered. Thus, it's called... A dust cover. See? Right, now then, again, one of my all-time classic, classic, still going strong today, yeah it is, it is, is Relief Records. This one here, Paul Johnson, The Other Side of Me. These, I believe, were, they weren't like a limited edition, but they made possibly one pressing of a release and that was it.

7:42 It's got that P-Funk kind of soulful vibe

And again, these I used to try and get as many of the relief records as possible. I do have a whole bunch even from the late 80s as well. So Paul Johnson, this one here, Chaos. Do you remember that tune? Division of love. What an old school rave tune. You play that, right time, right place. To the right people, even now. And they will go absolutely bananas. Trust me on that. Now sometimes I would get a 12-inch EP and a 12-inch EP is similar to the promo, a 12-inch EP promo. A promo, 12-inch promo, is just a 12-inch single with a couple of tracks on. 12-inch EP, on the other hand, is a 12-inch promo, but it may have one or two cuts from an EP that they're hoping to release. And this is the unwrapped DJ sampler. And on here we've got Mrs Jackson, What's It Gonna Be, I Get Around, featuring Louise Van Taylor, which is a great tune.

It's got that P-Funk kind of soulful vibe. Very, very good. Now, this one here, not exactly something to sit up and jump around about, but it's sort of classic. A Now album. I'm sorry, but have you noticed? It's just got Now on it. That's it. This is the original first LP of the Now series. It's on vinyl. You can check it out. How about that then? We've got likes of Boy George, Mike Oldfield, Men at Work, Rocksteady Crew, UB40, Howard Jones, Tina Turner, Kajagoogoo, New Edition, Tracy Oldman, Will Powers, Genesis, Phil Collins, Genesis and Phil Collins? Hmm. Yeah. Duran Duran, UB40 again, Limahl, Heaven 17, Casey and the Sunshine Band, Malcolm McLaren, Double Dutch. Wow. How about that? Rick James, look at that. What an album. And on the back here, one of my favourite classic tracks is Mary Jane. Now, what did happen is... I'm pretty sure it's still happening now, is there are companies who will dig around for the best funk, soul, R&B, hip-hop, put them on compilations and that's what they did here. Pop Fusion, Magnum, original 1970s ghetto jazz and funk.

10:08 This is a classic label which is TK Disco

Classics. What an LP you could... I know you can get that one LP, believe still now, but also that's out on CD as well. One of my favourite albums, Do The Right Thing. It's got Fight the Power on it, there you go. Oh sorry, this isn't the album, I do apologise. This is just the 12-inch Public Enemy, Fight the Power, which again is a ridiculously fat 12-inch. When 12 Inches originated and started, there was a loser, Disco. And this is another classic, classic... I'll start again. Mine's gone blank. This is a classic label which is TK Disco. And this one here, Ooh Ooh I Like It by Milton Wright. 12-inch single finally appeared and this one here distributed by TK Productions Inc, 495 South East 10th Court, Hylia, Florida. So you know that's not only has it travelled a great distance but it's still in very good condition.

And it's just collectible. So, as a new DJ, you've got your MP3s, you download, you chuck it on and away you go. But you can't beat the feel, the vibe, the energy, the artwork, the warmth of sound from real 12-inch. So really, if you think about it now, as a new DJ... You go to your mate's house with your collection on something like that. What have you got to actually show them? Think about it, they can hear something but you've got nothing to show except a piece of plastic whereas years gone by we could go and we could play a set but we had something for the other people to look at as well. Now it may not sound much, but we're losing a little bit of soul as a DJ, if or as DJs, if we carry on concentrating on something like that. So if you are a new DJ and you've never even touched a piece of vinyl, I suggest you go out and start digging, crate digging as Brian S Red says. Have a look around, see what's out there. Even go as far...

As a buy is a cheap old battered turntable. You don't have to buy the best turntable, buy a turntable. Make sure you can plug it into your phono, not your RCA, or your line-in, your phono input on your mixer and play a part in some history. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.