A MALDON record dealer will speak about his passion for vinyl on national radio this weekend as part of Record Store Day.

On Saturday, shops and vinyl dealers will be celebrating one of the earliest ways to listen to recorded music, and some have dedicated their lives to collecting and selling records.

Alan Williams, 58, of Saltcote Maltings in Maldon, is among those record-lovers, having started buying and selling vinyl 35 years ago.

On Saturday afternoon, he will appear on BBC 6Music’s Liz Kershaw Show.

Alan became hooked after Don’s Discs record shop closed in Maldon in 1984.

He said: “I had just left my job at the time and I went into the store to have a look around, which I did a lot. Don said he was closing down and asked me if I wanted to buy the contents of the shop.

“I knew I could not afford to buy the whole place so he told me it was going off to auction the next week.

“So I went to Chelmsford Auction House and bought everything I could get my hands on. My dad was furious with me when I came back with it all – he didn’t know what I planned to do with it.”

Alan, then 23, spent a total of £200 on all the records he went home with – every penny of his savings at the time.

The next day he divided up the records by genre and took them to Chelmsford Market, where he bought and sold vinyl for 16 years.

The business – Alan Williams’ Rare Records – has seen stores open in Colchester and Covent Garden – and he has travelled across Europe to share his love for vinyl with customers.

He said: “Streaming services now are nothing like as special as it is to have a record.

“They sound better, warmer and more analogue, and they really are a very social way of listening to music.”

But Alan has continued to move with the development of technology so his business continues to be successful.

In 1997, he established a website so he could sell online and he has made sure he is aware of the new ways people listen to music.

But he is thankful for the resurgence that has happened to vinyl in the past five years.

Alan said: “Without vinyl making the comeback it has, I would not have found it easy to make a living.”