The sale of 5.9 million units this year is the highest amount of vinyl records sold in a single year in the UK since 1990. This past week, with the aid of Christmas sales, set yet another record with 250,000 records being sold in the UK, the highest amount for any week since the start of the 21st century.

The immense popularity of vinyl sales this year can positively be attributed to a number of artists, not least American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, who has a staggering three albums in the top 10 biggest-selling records this year. Swift, unsurprisingly then perhaps, also claimed the honour of being the artist behind the year’s best-selling album. Her LP 1989 (Taylor’s Version), a re-recording of Swift’s fifth album, 1989, originally released in 2014, sold 78,767 units. The other Swift albums that made the top 10 list include the other album she re-recorded this year, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), and her latest original studio LP Midnights.

The Rolling Stones album Hackney Diamonds, released in October this year, came second in the top 10 list and is followed closely by Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. Other albums to feature in the list include Blur’s latest LP The Ballad of Darren, Fleetwood Mac classic Rumours, Pink Floyd’s iconic The Dark Side of the Moon, and Lewis Capaldi’s Broken by Desire to be Heavenly Sent.

Commenting on the recent surge in popularity of vinyl records, BPI chief executive Dr Jo Twist OBE said, “Led by vinyl, the resurgence of physical product underlines the resilience of the UK music market at a time when streaming consumption continues to hit record levels.

She continued, “Whilst LP sales have now been on an upward path for the past 16 years, it is encouraging to see a stabilisation in demand for CD, as well as new generations of music fans falling in love with the cassette. It is giving people more choice than ever in how they enjoy their favourite music.”

The resurgence in popularity of the vinyl record is a trend not likely to slow down anytime soon, despite streaming services dominating the airwaves. The pleasure of physically owning an LP and adding it to a colourful and diverse collection are among the reasons for buying records, as American anti-folk singer-songwriter Jeffrey Lewis eloquently illustrates in his 2019 single ‘LPs‘. Watch the music video below:

Close To Home will be released on August 19^th via Capitol Records, and following on from Aitch’s own words to NME in a past interview, where he stated that his first album would “100,000 percent be a proper Manchester album”, the upcoming project has been described as “a love letter to the city that shaped him”.

Speaking with NME, Aitch even stated that he wanted to try to get Liam Gallagher on his next album, saying that he wanted to ask the Oasis songwriter: “why are you not on my album yet?”. When asked by NME if Gallagher would consider working with Aitch, he responded with: “He seems like a nice lad, but I don’t wanna be on anyone’s album.” Even if we’re not going to hear an Aitch x Liam Gallagher collab anytime soon, it has been stated that Close To Home will “reveal a well of hidden depths to surprise, delight and charm”, so we may well be seeing a number of very exciting collaborations.

The first single “1989” samples “Fool’s Gold” by The Stone Roses, and will drop tomorrow alongside a video directed by Kelvin Jones, shot in Aitch’s aforementioned home city of Manchester. The video will go live at 12:00pm (BST), and you can tune in to the premiere at the link below.

Aitch’s prolificacy as an artist has been on full display this year, as he has released three standalone singles, including “Baby” with Ashanti, which was released in March, and two collaborative efforts; “War” with Brighton rapper ArrDee and “Just Coz” with Giggs. “Just Coz”, the most recent of these singles, can be listened to below, alongside its accompanying music video.

Aitch’s beginnings can be traced back to 2015, when a video of him freestyle rapping garnered him some local popularity and received several thousand views on YouTube. His very first single “Back To Basics” was released in 2017, which was followed by the E.P. On Your Marks later that year. The rapper’s breakthrough came in 2018 when he released “Straight Rhymez”, a track that turned the nation’s eyes towards the young rising star.

Aitch has since released two E.Ps since On Your Marks; 2019’s AitcH20, and Polaris in 2020, which saw a collaboration with AJ Tracey and Tay Keith on closing track “Rain”.

The photos depict the band head banging and dancing while playing to an adoring crowd, who seemed equally as a frantic as the now-iconic band. Some photos even depict the members of the group stagediving into the middle of the audience, as was common in many punk gigs that took place at the time. The collection have quickly found viral fame, and been shared by music lovers globally.

Davis told the Manchester Evening News that he discovered the negatives of the photos mid-lockdown, having previously never developed them. “For years I was convinced that someone had nicked the negatives. But about two months ago I was going through my kids’ stuff and found it among the old primary school photos. I looked at it and thought ‘Oh my God, I thought I’d lost them,” he explained to the publication.

He also described his memories of the gigs, stating he was not familiar with the band when attending. “I didn’t know much about Nirvana at the time. I’d heard a couple of songs off Bleach, but I was a big fan of Sonic Youth, Mudhoney and Dinosaur Jnr, so I knew it was going to be good,” Davis stated. “I laugh about it now, but afterwards one of Nirvana’s team asked me if I’d like to interview the band and I turned them down because I was knackered.”