A is for Aneka

Many people set themselves daredevil tasks to complete before they reach *that* significant birthday. But my recent surprise at finding classic 7" singles in a charity shop for just 20p each meant that I am revisiting a former hobby of collecting and playing records. More specifically, I intend to collect every 1980s UK No.1 hit on 7" vinyl before I hit 40.

If you're expecting a chronological 'vinyl countdown' with a rating of each song, then you'll find this on Tom Ewing's interesting blog Popular. But in each case, enough people bought a copy of a song for it to top the charts. And once you start to collect them, you can bang on about 'Shaddap You Face' by Joe Dolce Music Theatre keeping 'Vienna' by Ultravox off the top spot in 1981 as much as you like. This means nothing to me. You can't rewrite history. I'm more interested in the resurgence of vinyl as a format, how collectable 7"s may or may not be now, as well as other trivia during my quest to tick off the chart-toppers. As a result, the aspects I cover will be as random as the order in which I acquire the 190 singles that got to No.1 in the 1980s – from 'Brass In Pocket' by The Pretenders through to 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' by Band Aid II.

So let me begin with 'Japanese Boy' by Aneka. Finding several copies of this single at a flea market here in Switzerland yesterday showed me once again that it's impossible to predict the availability of certain singles. It's easy to believe that just because a song is now widely pilloried in the UK and was also a one-hit wonder for the artist there, it would make her a rare pop pariah elsewhere. Conversely, from here in German-speaking Switzerland, I think I'll spend a very long time looking for a copy of '99 Red Balloons' by Nena in English rather than the original '99 Luftballons' in German!

But putting transnational differences aside, with the help of my better half in the UK, I've sourced most singles fairly easily and cheaply. I now only need around 60 to complete my collection. Of course, as I rifle through masses of vinyl in shops, stalls and online (admittedly, buying online is cheating); I find 70s classics that I also cannot leave behind. I'll write about those another day. In the meantime, if anyone's got a copy of The Special AKA Live! (EP) by The Specials they'd be willing to part with at a reasonable price, please let me know!