Mum loved music. She sang in an operatic society, and later a choir. She went to musicals and to classical concerts. And she had records - 45s, 78s, and albums.

At some point while clearing out the family home fifteen years ago I decided to photograph some of them and transcribe her notebook of music. So I’ve had Claude put them together into grids.

A grid of LP covers from Mum's record collection, arranged chronologically, showing musicals, classical, easy listening and popular music from the 1960s to the 1980s

The LPs are the most plentiful. They’ve been ordered chronologically using, in order: any date label Mum had stuck to the cover, any matching entry with a date in her notebook, or the release date.

I have no idea whether I ever photographed the 45s, and I couldn’t locate them in my archive. I have her notebook entries but nothing else - it’s also possible she’d got rid of some over the years without updating it, perhaps when she started buying CDs.

A grid of 78rpm record sleeves, mostly branded with the names of Hull record shops rather than the artists - Gough and Davy, Hammond's of Hull, Sydney Scarborough

The 78s are interesting mainly for their covers - branded with the name of the shop that sold them rather than the artists. Some of those names I remember from my childhood.

These photos have been waiting fifteen years for me to do something with them. It feels good to have acknowledged Mum’s music in some way.