If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, apart from how to do the Rubik’s Cube in less than two minutes whilst blindfolded and tied in a sack thrown into the sea off Mumbles Pier at low tide on a freezing cold Christmas morning, (I’ll you have the full story one week), it’s that it’s pointless stand in the path of progress.
And while I’m dishing out free advice, it’s also a bad idea to stand in the path of the ‘Flying Scotsman’ as it thunders along the track at 100 miles an hour on one of its special summer excursions.  Otherwise, you’ll be chuffed to bits.

But over time, things that were once rudely cast aside in the name of progress can return under the title ‘Retro’.  Take vinyl albums/LPs.
They, along with 7” singles and EPs (who remembers them?), were driven almost to the brink of extinction in the 1980s by the arrival of the Compact Disc with its much trumpeted* superior sound reproduction and durability.
*To be clear, the sound also applied to albums that didn’t feature any trumpets.
But as less new LPs went on sale and the record shops and supermarkets replaced them with CDs, hard-core music aficionados – who might be described as the aural equivalent of real ale enthusiasts – hung on to their precious record collections.  A wise decision as it turned out.
As CDs like “Brothers In Arms” by Dire Straits sold millions of copies, the enthusiasts kept faith with the ‘scratch and hiss’ as their gramophone needles made contact with vinyl record grooves – and they still believe the music sounds fuller and richer.
They continued to be loyal to vinyl and since the 1980s new acts, alongside releasing their music digitally, have also brought out vinyl and CD versions.
And many classic albums by the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Queen and, of course, The Beatles, have been re-packaged on vinyl, selling at prices far removed from the two or three pounds they cost first time around – when they were, of course, mass-produced.
2022 saw the largest volume of vinyl sales since 1990 – with 5.5. million units sold in the UK.
If vinyl isn’t ‘Retro’ enough for you, I now hear that the audio cassette is making a comeback!
Last year, 195,000 albums-on-cassette were sold – up 5.2% in a year according to the British Phonographic Society.
And on 10 occasions in 2022, cassette sales accounted for 10% of the chart sales of Number One albums.
I know you want to ask the same question as I do. Why?
Cassettes were alright at the time and great for playing in your car, but as they lacked the sturdiness of vinyl and CDs, the tapes often got twisted inside the cassette and the thin tape had a tendency to snap.
There must be millions of old audio cassettes buried in landfill sites all over the UK, because charity shops started to refuse to take them around the same time they stopped taking video cassettes. No one wanted them. Even at five for a quid.
I have a feeling that in the not-too-distant future, video cassettes could become ‘Retro’ too.  Anyone want to buy my old VHS player?