My interest in collecting 7" records started at a very young age. My first purchases were Slade’s My Friend Stan and The Sweet’s Teenage Rampage – bought together in the autumn of 1973 as an eager nine-yearold schoolboy from a now long-forgotten ‘local’ record shop in Birmingham.
I can still remember the custom sleeves they came in. The Sweet one was in the RCA ‘clouds’ design custom bag and the Slade was in the classic red/black Polydor house sleeve. Every time I see those records it reminds me of that fateful day when I first caught the 7" collecting bug. Let’s face it, most record buyers bought 7" singles in those days and sales massively outstripped albums.