British monthly music magazine, first published in March 1980. The history of the magazine actually starts in the 1960’s, when publisher Sean O’Mahomy launched The Beatles Book, a publication containing a ‘small ads’ section in which collectors could buy, sell or trade Beatles records. When the collecting of records became increasingly popular in the 1970’s, The Beatles Book came with a record collecting supplement in September 1979. The response was positive enough for O’Mahony to launch Record Collector as a separate entity in March 1980.
Initially a glossy A5 sized publication, features in the magazine consisted of both prose pieces on the history of the artist, and detailed discographies of their UK releases. These discographies would provide all the information needed for collectors to pore over, and which enabled them to differentiate between different pressings of supposedly identical releases – catalogue numbers, release dates and distinguishing features of the records and sleeves themselves. In particular, they would also include a valuation of each record, so that dealers and collectors had a springboard to work from.
During the 1980’s the magazine went from A5 to A4 size. It was distributed to many other countries, making the listings section a big asset for collectors, both in the UK and abroad. The advent of internet, and after that, the rise of Ebay and Discogs made many sellers turn to those sites, instead of listing their records in the magazine. However, it is still a very useful source for information on valuable records. The Rare Record Price Guide, published by the magazine in book form between 1987 and 2010 was a reference for collectors and dealers, focusing on music released from the 1950s onwards, including various artists compilations and soundtracks. For the majority of the listings, the records have to have been made commercially available in the UK.
Since 2003, Record Collector is published in full colour. It contains features, interviews, reviews and – although taking up less pages than before – a small ads section.
Kim Wilde has appeared in the magazine numerous times. This is a listing of the articles and reviews devoted to her:
- Kim Wilde (November 1987)
- Wilde variations (December 1987)
- Kim Wilde (September 1993)
- Information Station: Top 10 promo chart (December 2001)
- Review – The very best of Kim Wilde (December 2001)
- Rare! (March 2002)
- Wilde Thing (February 2005)
- Review – Here come the aliens (April 2018)
- Review – Kim Wilde / Select / Catch as catch can (February 2020)
- Picture this (Christmas 2021)