Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Flexo- the ultimate flexible record


I love record hunting - some of you will know that and feel the same. My Hit of the week collection is almost complete. These flexible records were released early 1930s to be an answer of the vulnerable 78rpm recordings of those days. The Durium card board records were durable and even today they play perfect, if you can get it flat. During the1920s other firms produced unbreakable records, mostly made from a kind of plastic or, Rhodoid, as Goodson claimed. I now do have several of these rare flexible Goodsons and other 1920s unbreakable records (like Filmophone and Phonycord). All these records are rare and mostly unplayable after 75 years, so you must be a bit weird to collect these warped records. To be honest, I don't buy 78rpm anymore at auction lists unless it crosses my way and I won't lose an opportunity. A more cheaper way is collecting the different labels of flexible records and post them on my website. So, ... I don't seem to be so foolish as it looks.





There is one label, the NEW FLEXO and the FLEXO (Isn't it strange that both labels - NEW FLEXO and FLEXO appear on the same record?) who are very very rare. There are few collectors who have such a rare Flexo in their collection. You'll never find this label in auction lists, so I was very suprised to get a mail from Malcolm Rockwell that two of these very rare records were to be sold on eBay. I hope to find such a record before I'm old and grey (bald?), so I can feel it in my hands or smell that typically chemical odour of early plastics. it brings back remembrances to the time when I was a kid in the 1950s I had a kind of plastic rain cape that smelled the same way when it has been in its bag for a long time during hot summer weeks.


About the record:

Side by side - 845 - Jack Riley's Orch ( THE NEW FLEXO)
Me and my Shadow - 848 - Jack Riley's Orch (FLEXO)
Recorded ca. 1931


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