A night in with alcohol & music

Despite many years of owning records I've never taken cleaning them too seriously. Sure, I'll remove surface dust and I do own a fairly basic brush for this but more often than not if I'm wearing a long-sleeve top then the chances are I'll just motion over the LP with my arm instead.

But a few charity shop purchases, ones that were too good to pass up despite the previous owner looking like they've tried the 1980s 'eat your dinner off a CD' challenge across other formats, have made it necessary for me to look at alternatives. Plus it's getting warmer and I'll be reverting to wearing t-shirts soon.

I considered dropping a few LPs into Sister Ray, who clean records at 50p per side, but I rarely venture into central London. I looked into machines such as the Disco-Antistat Record Cleaner; reviews were generally favourable but even the positive ones made reference to using home-made fluid rather than the one supplied, the active ingredient being isopropyl.

Further research suggested the machine may have not been necessary. As such I obtained a supply of isopropyl from Maplins (£14.99 for 1 litre) - it can be bought for less online - a small bottle of deionsed water (Robert Dyas, 99p for 500ml - many sites mention distilled water) and a pack of microfibre cloths, also from Robert Dyas at £3.49 for 4 (again, lint free cloths are mentioned elsewhere).

On opening the isopropyl it was clear that this was not the sort of alcohol that would make a drinkable cocktail. I poured a small amount into a bowl and diluted with the deionised water. I wasn't overly scientific about this but the common consensus is the mix should be around 20% isopropyl to 80% water. Ready to go, I pulled out the chosen test LP - 'Hi-Fidelity' by REO Speedwagon (yeah, I know, but come on, it's got 'Take It On The Run' on it). This was pretty mouldy on one side, which I had previously tried to rectify with a splash of tap water. It cleared most of the mould but was still noisy when played; this was most likely due to mineral deposits from the tap water, hence the need to use the distilled or deionised variety. A few wipes with the isopropyl solution and the remaining mould was quickly gone; the LP developed a definite shine. I dried off the excess solution with a second cloth and left it to dry. On playing it the worst of the background noise had gone.

Encouraged by this I decided to jump straight in with the filthiest LP I knew I had; Fleetwood Mac's self-titled debut. The previous owner - Tony Moore according to the annotation on the sleeve - clearly did not wear long-sleeved shirts (or if he did, he never washed them). It was precisely the sort of LP that record companies would have pointed at 30 years ago and said 'This is why CDs are a good idea'. I had tried to play it once and one side in particular was unlistenable. I made the mistake of not photographing the LP in its pre-cleaned state, though I can offer (right) a picture of what came off its grubbiest side. Now it's fair to say that an LP with that much dirt on it won't suddenly reveal itself to be in mint condition; indeed, the dirt was obscuring significant wear. But crucially it does now play pretty well and doesn't skip.

I ended up tackling half-a-dozen LPs with excellent results. For an outlay of less than £20 I reckon I have sufficient materials to clean upwards of 50 albums before I'll need any more deionised water; I may never need to buy isopropyl ever again. Some rubber gloves wouldn't go amiss though, particularly when cleaning a large batch.