A MUSIC fan who runs one of the biggest vintage vinyl record businesses in the South West has won permission to move his growing operation from a shop to a town industrial unit.

Steve Helsdown launched Forest Vinyl seven years ago in Cinderford, and it’s become so popular with old-style record fans he needed more space than his Holyhill Road premises could supply.

So the 63-year-old has moved his heaving collection of LPs and singles to a unit at the Forest Vale estate.

Steve told Forest Council planners he wanted to change the use of the unit for vinyl record wholesale, online and ancillary retail sales.

He sells online to collectors in some 80 countries, including China, the US, Australia, Japan and across Europe, and also supplies smaller record shops as well as record fans who travel from far and wide.

Steve said: “Our stock consists of over 30,000 vinyl records and due to its storage size, we need a large premises, which is unfortunately not available in the town centre.

“We have been in business since April 2014 and… are the largest supplier of vinyl records in the South West and bring customers from all over the UK to the area.”

Forest Vinyl’s website says: “From Rock to Punk to Pop and everything in between, we’re confident that we have the perfect album for all of our customers.”

Steve moved to the Forest as the regional manager for a national bingo business, and began compiling his collection by visiting car boot sales and second hand record fairs at a time people were disposing of their vinyl faster than 33rpm, thinking CDs would consign them to history.

His love of rock and pop was sparked by his dad - a regular at Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club in the 1960s - and Steve was also lucky enough to be at the famous Sex Pistols concert at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976, which helped inspire the formation of bands like Joy Division and The Buzzcocks.

But what turned his hobby into a business was when he had a heart attack in 2013, and rather than return to his job, he decided, encouraged by wife Annie, to indulge his passion and see if he could make a go of running a vintage vinyl business.

And it turned into a massive success, with some LPs he paid 10 pence for now hugely sought after and worth hundreds of pounds, with Steve selling the likes of a Marc Bolan single for £400 and a reggae single for £700.