Sugababes on 7″: Inside Pete Paphides’ phenomenal collection of rare modern pop 45’s

In the first of two films from his vast and fascinating record collection, broadcaster and music journalist Pete Paphides shows off his selection of modern ex-jukebox 45’s.

Who’d have thought Destiny’s Child’s ‘Survivor’ came out on a 7″ single? What about ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’? Sugababes ‘About You Now’? ‘Milkshake’ by Kelis? An untapped niche in the collectors’ market of timeless artefacts that seem to have slipped out of a parallel dimension where the CD was not king, the modern pop 7″ has a history more recent than you might think.

Having hosted a series on BBC 6 Music called Vinyl Revival in which he invited pre-eminent musicians (Wild Beasts to Tom Jones) to share stories from their record collections, Pete Paphides welcomed The Vinyl Factory into his own record lair to discuss his enduring love affair with the pop single and show off a few of his favourite mainstream oddities.

Former chief rock critic for The Times, Paphides has made a new documentary for BBC Radio 4 examining the Beeb’s audition process in the 50’s and 60’s. Taking in the likes of The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Elton John, Auditioning For Auntie airs on Monday 21st October at 4pm.

Look out for more from Pete’s collection in the coming weeks.