Joe Theobald, aka DJ Captain Wormhole, Looks at all things vinyl 

LAST week I declared my intentions - take on a new genre and reignite my vigour for the pursuit of music on vinyl.

With some assistance from friends and beer I narrowed it down to a single T-junction – punk to the left, Doo Wop to the right.

I’ve already got the foundations – a couple of Doo Wop 7ins and Joy Division’s studio albums and the main singles and some other bits (I’m packaging Post-Punk in) but in terms of knowledge I’ve got no real idea what to look for on the former – Doo Wop is a minefield, loads of dross and you’ve got to dig through all the tedious 7ins.

As a means of lighting the touch paper on this quest for reinvigoration I headed along to a record store in Witney called Rapture.

It’s been on my radar for a few years as the place is linked to Cowley Road’s Truck Store. It has CDs and DVDs on the ground floor with a large first floor vinyl room, mainly second hand with a fairly wide array of classic re-issues (guitar based stuff).

I was disappointed with the lack of new music on offer – they seem to push a lot of fresh releases at their Cowley Road store. Local and a brand-new LP would also suit the mission.

Flicking through the ample array of Soul and Disco would have kept the old Wormhole very happy but I wasn’t there for him, I was there for me, the new him. They have a bunch of 7ins (a good eight to 10 boxes at least) but like I said, I wouldn’t have known what to look for on the Doo Wop front and I couldn’t be bothered to really try. Thumbing through 7ins is the diggers equivalent of flicking beyond channel 31 on Freeview.

Aside from a few far too obvious entries (early UK Never Mind The B, London Calling) there wasn’t a great deal on the punk spectrum to get excited about either – Rapture is a bit more Bon Jovi than The Buzzcocks – so I retreated to my comfort zone and perused the pre-owned House.

Matthew Dear’s ‘still sounds fresh’ Stealing Moves 12in from 2002 ensured the trip to Oxfordshire wasn’t a complete write-off but I felt unfulfilled.

A final look at the wall of ‘new’ vinyl (still plenty of re’s here) that greets you atop the stairs and it appeared. The obvious answer. New Facts Emerge – The Falls latest release, a double 10in on Cherry Red Records.

I am now a collector of The Fall. I have 41 years of output to pursue. 31 studio albums. All Hail Mark E Smith.