One of the most unique and comprehensive record collections in existence, said to contain every UK chart single ever made, is set to go under the hammer later this month. The collection was discovered by Surrey auctioneers crammed into the terraced house of its late owner.
As the Telegraph reports, the collection is the life’s work of Keith Sivyer, who would make the trip to Earfriend record shop in Twickenham every Thursday with the latest copy of Music Week and buy all the new release singles that had entered the charts that week.
Sivyer would then take the singles home and add them to his ever-expanding archive, which he’d personally alphabetised and kept inside purpose-built floor-to-ceiling shelves that covered the four walls of his lounge.
After his death in February at the age of 75, his younger brother, Gerald, was left with the daunting task of finding a new home for the collection. He’s now been forced to sell the archive as he simply doesn’t have space for the more than 10,000 CD singles and tens of thousands of vinyl records.
Sivyer’s collection comprises approximately 27,000 7-inch vinyl singles and 8,000 12-inch singles, as well as over 10,000 CD singles from the 1980s to present day. Sivyer had safely stored the covers for most of the singles and replaced them with white sleeves marked with the song’s release date and the chart position it achieved.
The auctioneers now tasked with selling the mammoth collection don’t believe there is a single single missing, though it would take months to go through every single one. “We believe the collection to be one of the most complete and possibly unique in private hands in the country,” said Alastair McCrea of Ewbanks Auctioneers.
“The front room was wall to wall covered with shelves with the seven inch singles on, the only space that wasn’t taken up was where the window was. It really was impressive to look at… Apparently, Mr Sivyer was not that up on technology and terms like ‘downloads’ and ‘back-up’ would have been completely foreign to him,” he added.
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Keith began his collection in 1954 and retrospectively bought all the singles that had entered the charts since they began two years prior. The archive eventually grew to contain every record, good, bad, or forgettable released in Britain for the next six decades.
As the Telegraph writes, the collection features everything from ABBA to ZZ Top, including all 39 Beatles singles and re-released singles, all 52 of the Rolling Stones’ chart hits, the 72 songs that Elvis released in the UK, and iconic number ones like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen.
Due to the sheer volume of the collection, auctioneers have divided it into three lots for the sale, with the 27,000 7-inch singles conservatively estimated to be worth £6,000, the 8,000 12-inch records at £1,500 and 10,000 CDs and cassettes at £600.
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“Most of the singles were bought in the week they were released from a record shop called Earfriend,” said Keith’s brother Gerald. “I had to reinforce the floor of the house at one point because of the weight of the boxes he kept some of the the records in.”
“He then took over the whole front room and started putting up these shelves. He used to drive my mother mad. When I went to visit I would notice the collection was just growing and growing. It was crammed in like sardines.”
“He did tell me before he died that one day it would all be mine and I asked him what on earth I would do with it,” he added. “I would have loved to have kept them and if I had a big house I would have but I live in the first floor flat and it is just not practical.”
