JULIAN Brown can remember everything from the label colour to the grooves.

He was only five when he put his first record on. Belting out from his 1960s/70s radiogram was My Generation by The Who. It was on Brunswick label and Julian could even identify the changes in volume from the different groove patterns!

Forty two years later, and long after the fad of cassettes and CDs have made way for downloading tunes and listening to them on mobile devices, Julian is still a lover of vinyl and is now passing on his appreciation to fellow enthusiasts.

Advances in the way we listen to music led to a decline in record sales. Gradually music retailers began shutting up their record shops with many completely disappearing from the High Street and marking the end of an era for customers who can still recall the memorable experience of slipping their selected album out of its sleeve and absorbing every inch of the grooves and design before eagerly placing it on the turntable and savouring the songs of their favourite artists and bands.

For Julian, the resurgence in vinyl is helping him, along with other fans of vintage and retro music, to return to a familiar time - a time which holds fond memories and reminds us that they really don’t make things as they used to.

“I think things go in cycles. When CDs came out in the mid 80s everybody thought ‘this is it’ this would replace records - they don’t scratch, don’t get faulty. At the time we were told they sound better than records but people realised they were not all that good.”

Julian also believes those who appreciate music as it used to be don’t get the same experience when listening to downloaded tunes as they do when they put a record on.

For many, that is when the real reminiscing begins..

”People have gone back to vinyl because you are getting something; it is a lovely thing to have, to look after because they do scratch but they do sound great, it’s bigger than a CD and you can look at it and check out the details.

"It is very tactile than a CD and I think, generally, people are realising that they are a lovely thing to own as well.

“People buy records for different reasons.”

He says many are now opting to replace their CDs with records, but he says they also appreciate records aren’t perfect which, for Julian, is part of the appeal.

“The odd crackle and skip shows a bit of history. It shows it has been played in the past and been appreciated by somebody else and that is the beauty of it.”

Julian’s interest in vinyl was re-ignited when he and his brother began running music nights eight years ago.

“We bought some record desks specifically for this and it meant I had to buy some more records,” he explains.

He enjoys listening to jazz from the 1930s to the 1970s and some rock music and, after setting up the music nights Julian found he was soon replacing the record collection he, like many, had parted with when records fell out of favour.

“I started listening to things I didn’t necessarily listen to before and started to re-buy quite a lot of records I got rid of when CDs came out, so I have built up my record collection in the last ten years again and it is bigger now than it was!” says Julian.

Ten years after storing away his record player it was once again serving a purpose - and re-awakening the nostalgic pleasure many music fans experience when listening to familiar songs from their past.

“I got quite nostalgic about certain records we have got that I remember playing as a kid and I re bought them,” says Julian.

Two years ago he turned his pleasurable pastime into a profession when he began running Record and Retro fairs at the Caroline Social Club in Saltaire. The next event is on March 11.

“I think it is partly the nostalgia of it, but also some people want to just buy new vinyl because they are making vinyl again,” says Julian.

The fairs are already proving popular and have become an extension of the regular vintage fashion and homeware shows at the Victoria Hall, Victoria Road, Saltaire and The Great Seaside Vintage Fair which takes place in the Whitby Pavilion on July 22 and 23 and October 7 and 8 and vintage fairs held at City Hall, Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley and Lotherton Hall, in Leeds which are organised and run by his wife Caroline.

Caroline’s interest in vintage stems from visiting second hand shops in her childhood and later as a student. “As you become a student you go to second hand markets and that is how I started collecting vintage fashion.”

Sporting recycled styles enables Caroline, and the many more followers of vintage fashions, to adopt an individual look.

“It’s a bit of everything, obviously wanting to do your own thing and I knew quite a lot about vintage fashion already. I like watching all the period dramas such as House of Elliott,” explains Caroline, who also appreciates the craftsmanship.

She says it also evokes curiosity about the garment’s place and purpose in the past.

But Caroline doesn’t dress top to toe in vintage fashions - like her house, which isn’t over burdened with vintage artefacts - it has to be practical - but she does have a penchant for vintage coats.

“I am not someone who thinks their life has been frozen back in 1961. I am very much everything practical,” says Caroline, whose wardrobe boasts a leather jacket from the 1970s and a late 60s/70s duffle coat - among others!

“The thing with vintage is every era is different, every decade is totally different.”

But fashion isn’t her only passion. Caroline also loves vintage homeware and furniture.

Originally from Surrey, Caroline’s studies brought her to West Yorkshire. She graduated from Huddersfield University with an interior design degree.

Setting up The House of Rose and Brown in Saltaire, allowed her to combine her passion with a profession.

Eventually she shut up shop to concentrate on running vintage fairs. A decade after launching the business, Julian - who worked in healthcare - has joined his wife in the business and together they are helping people to preserve and appreciate the past.

While Julian loves his vinyl, Caroline’s other treasured possession aside to her coats is a child’s chair.

“I bought it when I was in Brighton 15 years ago - that is my favourite possession in the house. It is the wear and tear of it that makes it so lovely. The fact it has had a life.”