Pump up the (final) volume!

A few weeks ago, the music writer David Hepworth bemoaned the obsolescence of his impressive collection of rock reference books in the face of the omnipresent Internet. This reminded me of Christmases past when I would invariably receive at least one such book as a gift. And though I do indeed use the Internet to verify much of the chart-related content on my radio shows for Only80s and West Anglian Radio - not to mention my trivia and quiz contributions for Souled Down South - a friend's radio show; I do still make regular use of my trusted copy of the Guinness Book Of British Singles (which in my case had pop history coming to an abrupt end in 1994).

I immediately browsed online to see if I could find a later edition and discovered, to my horror, that the series was discontinued, with the 19th and final edition published in 2006 - ten whole years ago! Copies were available but these were in fair-to-middling condition at best.

So imagine my delight today when, as part of my usual charge around the charity shops when I'm holidaying in various locations around Britain, I not only found 12-inch copies of Jermaine Stewart's 'We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off' and Desireless' 'Voyage Voyage' (1986, UK No. 2 and 1988, UK No. 5, respectively ... I checked), I found a copy of the 19th edition - that sacred text - in sunny Scarborough! It cost me just seven pounds and has made my day.

So here's to history, here's to that bygone age of looking something up in a book as opposed to online!