Albums Pass Fans' Vinyl Exam

By STEVE KORNACKI The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 12, 2007

TAMPA - The bearded man wearing a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt and matching psychedelic bandana was definitely grooving while fingering the grooves of old vinyl.

Garry Marsh was like many of the more than 150 oldies music fans attending Saturday's Tampa Bay Record & CD Show at the Holiday Inn Express just north of Raymond James Stadium.

Marsh was reliving the days when he couldn't wait for the next Beatles album to come out. Long after the Beatles broke up, Marsh wrote a book about them with their chauffeur.

On Saturday, he talked about those times, noting that nostalgia is worth something only to people who can remember.

Walter Storch of Brandon, one of 15 show vendors, said, "I get excited seeing people talk about the music, and reliving this concert back in '72 or talking about how meaningful the music was back then."

They came searching for those old tunes that reminded them of younger days.

"This is serendipitous," Marsh, 53, said in his thick English accent. "It's a chance to find something you can't find elsewhere."

He was on vacation from Newcastle-under-Lyme, a market town in Staffordshire, England, with his wife and two children. He met his buddy from Hudson, Bill Eck, to go treasure hunting for records and mingle with their rock 'n' roll brethren.

Marsh said he wrote "Baby You Can Drive My Car!" in 1989 with the Beatles' chauffeur, the late Alf Bicknell. It has a foreword written by George Harrison.

He pulled out a card identifying himself as the United Kingdom correspondent for Beatles Unlimited Magazine in the Netherlands, which he described as "the last vestige of the Beatles Fan Club." He said he met Bicknell in North Wales while wearing a Beatles T-shirt that got him a greeting from Bicknell.

"The only tale Alf ever told on the boys was that they used to make him stand in front of their room smoking foul-smelling cigars," Marsh said. "You know why they had him do that? It was so nobody could smell what they were smoking inside."

He said he owns all 13 Beatles original albums and 22 singles released in England, then put together a Donovan music collection. Now he's working on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

"See that gent over there," he said, pointing to Lorne Daley. "We met and discovered we're both from England. This is the British invasion all over again."

Daley, a soul and funk fan on vacation from Basingstoke, opened a bulging book bag full of album purchases. "I've got records from James Brown to you name it," he said.

The show was organized by St. Petersburg's Richard Rounds, who said prices varied from 50 cents to $1,000. Rounds, who had more than 2,600 45s for sale, holds four shows annually. The next is Nov. 10 at the same site.

"My '85 Olds Cutlass was groaning from carrying all these records to the show," said dealer Ray Watkins of Spring Hill, who had 24 cardboard boxes of music. Elvis Presley, Beach Boys, Beatles, Fats Domino, Rick Nelson and Dion and the Belmonts 45s were displayed behind him.

Storch had albums from Frank Sinatra to Frank Zappa, and specialized in the classic rock of groups such as the Who and Pink Floyd.

"I love seeing the excitement on the face of a 20-year-old going through these albums and getting into this music," he said.

As if on cue, Jacob Schmidt, 19, a Duke University student from Odessa, walked up and asked Storch for the year a live Who album was recorded. He also had "Quadrophenia" by the Who and a Howlin' Wolf album under his arm.

"A year ago, I discovered the Who on the Internet," Schmidt said. "Now I want to get their albums.

"I love the feel of vinyl. It's nice to have something tangible, something to touch."

Reporter Steve Kornacki can be reached at (813) 731-8170 or skornacki@tampatrib.com.