Murrayfield Ice Arena to auction rare vinyl records from New Order and Joy Division

A vast collection of 16,000 vinyl records is going up for auction after being discovered inside one of Scotland’s oldest ice rinks.

For decades, the records remained locked away in an old DJ booth in Murrayfield ice rink, among them vinyl featuring artists such as The Cure, Depeche Mode, and New Order with hits from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

They used to be played out at popular disco nights.

Now, they’re being auctioned off alongside other unique items from the venues’ history.

Gillian Kerr, director of Murrayfield Ice Rink, said: “We discovered a whole bunch of the original vinyl that was played during the seventies, eighties and nineties discos.

“It was well-known as a place to come if you were a teenager, and yeah, there were a lot of good times had here – and there’s a huge amount of love, I think, for the building and for the music here.”

The team hopes the records will now raise funds for their significant investment plans to refurbish the rink.

With help from specialist auctioneers who hope to bring in between £20,000 and £30,000.

David Williamson from Thomson Roddick Callan Auctioneers has catalogued the thousands of vinyl records by hand and said there have been plenty of “gold dust” discoveries.

David said: “Nobody had gone in it for about 30 years, so it was like going back in time, walking through the door. They had 12-inch and 7-inch singles all over the place, and then they had another area where the gold stuff was.

The records had remained in an old DJ booth for nearly 40 years. David Williamson via David Williamson

The vinyl isn’t full records; each one will only have about four tracks on it, but David believes that their origins make them extra special.

Top names will be featured in the collection with the likes of The Cure, Eurythmics, Bon Jovi, Oasis, and Prince up for grabs, as well as Depeche Mode, Joy Division, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Softcell, Eurythmics, and Glasgow band Simple Minds.

There are also records by Madonna, Spandau Ballet, Queen, Tears for Fears, and Kate Bush, among hundreds of others.

The ice rink has hosted events such as ice racing, hockey, curling, dance championships, Fringe shows and films, which means that a wide array of music genres will be available, such as punk, heavy metal, new wave, dance, R&B, rap, and pop from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

“They’re all quite unique because a lot of them are DJ pressings,” added David. “Advanced copies of artists like The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, that’s what people are after.

“And then you’ve got all the genres there, everything from Heavy Metal right through to disco.”

The auction will take place online and in person at Murrayfield Ice Arena on Saturday, June 28 at 10.30am with the collection available for viewing here online.