Now Playing: Sheila on vinyl

A long time ago,before there was the iPod,iTunes and the Blu-ray,there was gramophone. In a slew of long-playing (LP) records that came out,you chanced upon the manic genius of Pink Floyd,and winked at the mischief of Kahin pe nigahein by Shamshad Begum. If you have missed that ritual — flipping through the stack to look for a particular LP,admiring its artwork,slipping the cover off,feeling the record tremble under your fingertips,placing it on the gramophone and later the turntable — you can relive it,for the LP is back. And this time it is not about old classics,even the latest films are on the LP list. Gone are the days of haggling with touts in chor bazaars. Now,the raunchy lyrics of Shiela ki Jawani will play on the gramophones and turntables that once played Pyar kiya to darna kya from a Mughal-e-Azam LP. At the music section in Crosswords,near Pune Railway Station,LP records sit pretty,stacked neatly on racks. Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma’s album,titled Santoor ,priced at Rs 399 is a big sell. And not far away at Planet M,near MG Road,LP record sales have promised good business,for old records like Kabhi Kabhi and even classical ones like EMI’s Bhajan Sagar by Pandit Jasraj. “We thought of doing this about five months ago. LPs are a rage abroad but we were not sure if the Indian audience will buy these again,since they cost way more than a CD. But the customer feedback convinced us. Anything of any scale is already being put out into the market,” says Adarsh Gupta,business head,Sa Re Ga Ma,which has come out with LPs for recent films such as Jhootha Hi Sahi ,Mohabbatein and Hum Aapke Hai Kaun ,apart from the classics,Silsila and Pakeezah. T-Series is out with the Tees Maar Khan LP. So,it seems we have to wait only a few months before the punch-packed DK Bose will play on the turntable. As for the target audience,Arjun Sankalia,director,International Repertoire and Special Products,Sony Music,says,“It is largely the music aficionados and collectors.” Sony music has brought out LPs of films that include Lagaan,Rang De Basanti and Jodha Akbar ,apart from AC/DC’s Highway to Hell ,an album by Kings of Leon and more. Gupta says,“The demographics are changing. Most of our customers are in the metros,but people from smaller cities are also beginning to buy LPs.” Sa Re Ga Ma is also selling turntables on its website. The Lenco turntables,a German brand,are being sold at Rs 8,000 onwards. For a lot of music connoisseurs this means haggling at local markets and the joy of anticipating whether a LP will play or not ease up. Prem Das,a resident of Khadki,visits Juna Bazaar often in search of these records. “I have a few records but I am excited that these companies are now providing us with new and old records. Just goes on to show how popular they are.” The credit for bringing the LPs to India goes to EMI. The company brought out 78 rpms of Pink Floyd,The Eagles,The Beatles and Led Zeppelin and stacked them in the music stores. Anand Srinivasan,label manager,EMI,says that vinyl records have a future in India. “Lately,the West proved to be a good market. Now,people in Hyderabad and Bengaluru are buying LPs.” The company had shut down its only LP manufacturing unit in Kolkata in 1988. But it is not just the market,there is also the nostalgia factor. Apart from Pink Floyd and Co — the ones associated with the golden age of LPs — there will also be vinyls from the iTunes generation that include Norah Jones and Arctic Monkeys. “The quality in the analog format is better than the digitised version of a CD. For now,we have selective customers as LPs are expensive. But the market is opening up,” says Sunil Mishra,owner of the Mercury Audio Video in Khan Market. Delhi-based DJ Jazzy Joe,who owns http://www.record.com ,has taken up the difficult task of sourcing the records from reluctant private collectors. His collection also includes dialogues from the classics. “I sell originals. The young generation needs to understand what LPs are and what its beautiful music is all about,” says Joe. Another good thing about the LPs is that they come with merchandise — posters,stickers and cards,all of course with a price tag. The LPs are priced between Rs 495 and Rs 5,000. So gone are the days when the old laquer discs were sold away to the raddiwala . Vinyl is here to stay and we are all set to tune in.