GARY LEWIS ‘Record community’ (HAS, May 16) describes a record shop experience which is also my experience. I have to point out this is why I continued to visit the record shop in Southampton (amongst others); I was part of the circle there from when I lived with my parents.

In my 20s I lived in Hampshire, South Wales, Essex, and County Durham. I moved from Essex to County Durham in late 1992 for work, and six months later I visited a record fair in Gateshead Stadium.

One of the stallholders was the proprietor of a record shop in Ipswich I used to visit when I lived in Essex.

We greeted each other with the words “what are you doing here?”

It would be difficult to keep me away from places of record merchandising; even in the interlude in 2011 after I had chemotherapy for cancer and before I had surgery, I possibly unwisely visited record fairs in Middlesbrough and Carlisle.

When I visited Merthyr Tydfil in 1996, I also visited Pontypridd and Cardiff. The proprietor of a record shop in Pontypridd was the only person I saw who I knew.

A visitor from Iceland from when I lived in Essex got me into Icelandic music, which is definitely an acquired taste.

I play this music to scare people off from visiting me during the lockdown. One of these Icelandic bands is called Múm; how ironic is that?

I bought some Welsh language records which I don’t understand at all at a record fair in Glasgow; I don’t do contemporary.

Glasgow is a great city, and part of the day out is visiting these places. Friends from Essex and Great Lumley have had short breaks in Glasgow. In both cases I informed them of the fish and chip shop which sells deep fried Mars bars, although I have not tried one myself.

Jeremy Whiting, Great Lumley.