In Conversation with Colin: Ed Daw

Far from being yesterday’s fading, forgotten format, vinyl records have survived and flourished as the music medium of choice for not only baby-boomers, but all ages.

Previously relegated to the dustbin of media history, the vinyl LP has undergone a revival over the past decade and once again has become the best-selling format for recorded music available today. Vinyl isn’t just a medium; it’s a statement. For audiophiles, the sound quality is unparalleled – warmer, richer, more authentic than digital.

Collecting and playing vinyl is also a way to express identity, a ritualistic act that says something about who we are and what we value.

Every record a collector acquires comes with a story of its own. This is the story of one such collector who turned his lifelong passion into a business.

Cardiff Record Exchange is a vinyl-only bricks and mortar record shop situated on the outskirts of Cardiff, housing thousands of professionally cleaned and collectable second hand pre-loved LPs and 45 RPM singles together with less expensive albums and singles from 50p upwards. The stock available to music lovers takes in most genres not just classic rock, but range from heavy metal to classical music and everything in between.

The owner and proprietor Ed started buying and selling records around fifteen years ago at car boot sales and record fairs, at the time he was working at Wallich Clifford, Wales’ leading homelessness and rough sleeping charity and then worked for the NHS mental health services for a further eight years, during this period he was selling mainly Classical records mostly online.

Ed would advertise in Record Collector magazine and rent a van then travel up and down the country, even as far afield as Grimsby to buy a Classical record collection. “Most of the market for selling Classical

records was over in China,” Ed says, standing behind the counter on a rainy day just before the shop opens for business. “Collectors were prepared to pay thousands of pounds for single records.”

The record buying and selling soon started to take up most of Ed’s time and he decided to stop working for the NHS and start his own business dealing in collectible records on a full time basis. During the pandemic Ed made the bold decision to open his own shop in Whitchurch Road, Cardiff. The shop opened in 2020.

With an online presence including instagram, facebook and Bluesky – the shop’s records are now mostly sourced from collections that are predominantly brought to the store from their original owners. “The joy of it is that I don’t have to drive up to Grimsby to buy a record collection, people will come and bring their collections to me.”

But the work doesn’t stop there, “All records over £10 are cleaned on a specialist vacuum machine,” explains Ed. “Then placed in anti-static inner sleeves and properly graded and I’m fastidious about the quality and condition of records that I put out.”

Customers come from all over the country to visit the shop. “Cardiff is apparently a really big holiday destination that you don’t really think about when you live here,” says Ed. “I’ve had people from Columbia come in the shop and spend a couple of thousand pounds, and people from America and Australia and from all over the world really.”

After eight hours in the shop and listening to music all day Ed relaxes at home listening to Tom Waits and Neil Young, “I also love punk music and obscure strange stuff and the great thing about having a shop is I can listen to all sorts of things that I wouldn’t ordinarily expose myself to”.

Whether listening alone at home or sharing with customers and friends, vinyl creates community and connection. It’s about the stories behind the music, the memories of buying that first album, and the joy of discovering old favourites. In an age where everything is digital and fleeting, vinyl offers a lasting, sensory-rich experience that connects us to the past and to each other. It’s not just about the music though: it’s about the experience – the feel, the look, and even the smell of vinyl records. Take a trip to Cardiff Record Exchange and join the crate digging renaissance. 

WORDS: COLIN PALMER