Search The Line of Best Fit
Search The Line of Best Fit

Record collection 35,000 items strong to go under the hammer

04 May 2015, 11:04 | Written by Laurence Day
(News)

The late music enthusiast Keith Sivyer's record collection is going to auction. The former mobile DJ and British Airways employee had amassed a collection 45,000 strong of every Top 40 entry from 1952 until February 2015, when he sadly passed away.

This collection includes 27,000 7" singles, 8000 12", and 10,000 CD singles, some still in their wrappers, sorted into alphabetical order in bespoke floor-to-ceiling shelves. Most were placed in white sleeves with the date and highest chart position written on.

According to The Telegraph, Sivyer would buy Music Week and pop down to his local Earfriend record store to purchase every new entry. After it closed, Woolworths, and then the Internet, became his port of call for the new discs.

Though the collection spans from 1952, Sivyer actually only began buying two years later, seeking out older releases to ensure the collection was complete.

His younger brother Gerald has decided to put the collection, housed in Sivyer's Twickenham home, up for auction.

The auctioneers (Ewbanks of Woking) are currently attempting to collate the collection and organise it for three separate lots, and although they've not finished sorting through, they expect it to be complete.

The auction house's Alastair McCrea said that: "The front room was wall to wall covered with shelves with the seven inch singles on, the only space that wasn't taken up was where the window was. It really was impressive to look at. These days most people have their entire record collections stored on a small digital device in the living room that can been accessed remotely. Apparently, Mr. Sivyer was not that up on technology and terms like 'downloads' and 'back-up' would have been completely foreign to him... it was a passion and an obsession for him. We believe the collection to be one of the most complete and possibly unique in private hands in the country. We can't guarantee for sure it is absolutely complete because it would take months to go through every one but we think it is."

The three lots are: 27,000 7" singles (£8000), 8000 12" (£1500) and 10,000 CDs and cassettes (£600). The auction will take place 21 May.

[via The Telegraph]

Share article
Email

Get the Best Fit take on the week in music direct to your inbox every Friday

Read next