Generous music lover, Brian, donates his lifelong vinyl collection to St Ann’s

A valuable collection of 5,000 vinyl records charting the history of popular and classical music has been donated to St Ann’s.

Music lover Brian Malcolm has generously handed over the LPs to us from his lifelong personal library.

The records spanning a golden age of music from the Fifties to the Nineties are now on sale on our St Ann’s eBay site and at our charity shop at Great Underbank in Stockport town centre.

Brian, aged 81, delved into his archives to help us after we were featured on the BBC regional television programme North West Tonight.

An item about a Victorian notebook which had been donated to our St Ann’s book shop drew his attention, prompting him to donate a sizeable proportion of his collection which is kept at his home in mid-Derbyshire.

We’ve received mostly 12-inch LP vinyl records, plus seven-inch 45s, which for decades was how music was played.

Brian said: “I live 50 miles away from Manchester so didn’t know anything about St Ann’s until I saw its shop on television and was impressed by the attractive appearance.

“The records will appeal to a broad interest and are in very good condition. Most won’t have seen a stylus because it was impossible to play them all.

“After all, you don’t expect to read all the books in a library either! Hopefully, people will want to buy the records and support the hospice.

“CDs made a takeover bid in 1983 but the serious audio enthusiast, or collector of original performances, still kept their turntable and the market trend for vinyl is on a prominent upturn today.”

The donation includes:

* 3,000 Classicals from Light Orchestral, Opera, Symphonies, Savoy and Operetta (Gilbert and Sullivan etc).

* 1,000 Brass and Military bands, Colliery and Works bands, Church and Sacred/Choral, German etc oom-pah bands.

* 1,000 50s/60s pop, favourite orchestras from Palm Court to Mantovani, James Last, Kai Warner, Bert Kampfaert, Mexican and Tijuana, single male and female vocals, groups, ballroom, sequence, Old Tyme Dancing , films and shows.

Brian said: “I was given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the 1980s on a business visit to EMI Abbey Road on behalf of the RAF Amateur Radio Society.

“A warehouse full of records was due for demolition and its content of around 2.7 million records was to be sold. When the business manager mentioned a price, me and a friend raised a mortgage to buy them. The offer was too good to miss.”

Ryan Perkins, Sales Development Manager at St Ann’s, said: “We’re extremely grateful to Brian for his kind donation. We’re having the records valued and I’m sure people will find some old memories from the music.

“Some are quite specialist and there’s a lot of dance music which is still extremely popular, especially in Japan where there’s a big market.”

* To see the list of records go to stores.ebay.co.uk/St-Anns-Hospice-Trading-Company or visit the St Ann’s charity shop at Great Underbank, Stockport.