Who Are Roan Records?

Roan Records began life in 1980 by a young man who wanted to open a record store, and after forty years of un-careful planning and not even thinking about it, in chunks of several years over this time, it has now appeared out of the mist and has settled in a corner of Teddington.

Throughout these forty years, the young man in question grew a year older every year and his love for music grew exponentially and weaved its course through a multitude of genres. A plethora of vinyl was crossing the threshold of his abode, each one, a unique piece of art; every word of every sleeve consumed in great wonder. The ritual of placing the disc on the turntable and gently placing a needle down in order to extract the riches hidden within the grooves. Four songs and twenty minutes later, repeating the ritual while turning the record over.

Then in 1982 … Disaster! The young man walked into a record store with a new section labelled CD’s … There were only six titles, including Dire Straits ‘Brothers in Arms’ (everyone’s first CD purchase). From this moment Vinyl begun a downward trend in popularity eventually clinging to life with a few specialist releases. Turntables were being relinquished and the music industry cashed in on the popular sport of replacing all of your vinyl titles on to the CD format. We are all familiar with the anecdotal tales of those people who contemplate the rueful decision to ‘chuck out’ their old vinyl collections.