A MUSIC fan who has collected every number one single between 1952 and 1992 is putting his prized collection under the hammer for £30,000.

Tim Claydon’s love for music started when he was just three-years-old.

His first memory is going with his grandmother to Woolworths in Maldon High Street and buying She Loves You by The Beatles.

Since then Tim, 59, from Lexden, turned his love for music into a hobby and searched through record shops to find every number one single.

The former DJ and music columnist said: “When I was about 14 I started listening to my mum and dad’s collection.

“All of a sudden I realised I had about 20 or 30 number ones so I thought I would start collecting.

“I was born in Maldon so I used to go to the archaic record shop there and it was like going through a time warp.

“Being that age in the 60s was so exciting as music was just developing. Everything seemed so fresh and vibrant.

“There was no TV so I would listen to the radio all day and look out the window at the latest red Mini go by. It was a great time to watch music grow.”

At 18-years-old he was writing music columns and went on to write for a jazz-funk and soul magazine.

He said: “For me the most iconic number one is The Crickets and Buddy Holly - That’ll be the Day.

“Buddy Holly was really important to 20th century music and without him music might have been very different.”

He spent at least £15,000 putting the collection together but with a number of rare gems the value shot up.

He decided it was time to stop collecting after the charts started introducing CDs, tapes and now, downloads.

He said: “After the first 40 years the charts just weren’t the same. For me it was about the golden age of vinyl.

“When I was growing up you couldn’t wait to see who was number one.”

Auctioneers Sworders are to offer the ultimate jukebox collection as part of its inaugural pop culture sale.

Until the post-war era the popular music charts reflected the sale of both sheet music and shellac 78 rpm records. This changed in November 1952 when the music paper NME published the first singles chart made up of purely record sales.

The first ever number one was Here in My Heart by Al Martino.

Most of those early best sellers were by crooners such as Perry Como, Guy Mitchell and Frankie Laine.

In November 1955, Bill Haley and his Comets made number one with Rock around the Clock while July 1957 saw Elvis Presley hit the top spot with All Shook Up.

For Tim, who has a history of working with antiques, finding an original copy of every one of the 684 best sellers between 1952 and 1992 has been a 44-year odyssey.

The collection includes the first ever picture sleeve Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix, the first 12-inch single Boney M’s Rivers of Babylon, the first ever picture disc number one Are Friends Electric? by Tubeway Army, and the first coloured vinyl Message in a Bottle by The Police.

The last song in his collection is I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston.

The collection forms part of Sworders’ sale titled Into the Groove, 1950-1975.

It will be held o Sunday.

Tim said: “It’s a part of my life that needs to move on, I don’t want the collection just taken out of my house when I’m no longer around.

“I want someone to enjoy it as much as me and look after it.”

He still has his collection of 80s jazz-funk and soul which comes out at family barbecues with son Ben, 25, and wife Alison.

He said: “That collection is worth about £150,000.

“I must have about 800 albums and I’m just going to enjoy them.

“I have been a collector of stamps, matchboxes, postcards, and I sill have a collection of bottle openers.”