Continuing our spotlight series called Favourite Finds, we ask some of our favourite DJs, collectors and selectors to tell us the story behind how they came across one of their most cherished records.

For the next instalment, we’ve asked respected DJ, BBC radio producer and life long record collector, Kath McDermott, to give us an insight into a special record from her collection.

As a resident DJ at the Hacienda, Homoelectric and Suffragette City, Kath has been immersed in the Mancunian music scene for over 35 years. For almost half of that time she was behind the counter at Vinyl Exchange, which was then the biggest second hand record shop outside of London.  She has also worked in radio for over 15 years and is the Music Producer at BBC 6Music. Taken together it’s easy to see why Kath has been such a figurehead for so many years.

"In the Discogs era this record wouldn’t be classed as rare or hard to find, however in the misty times before the digital age, we were all chasing vinyl through the dusty corners of second hand record shops like Vinyl Exchange, where I worked for many years. Several other top notch underground DJs worked there at the time including Balearic Mike, Russ Marland (Hacienda), Miles (Demdike Stare). Also amongst our ranks were James Holroyd and Rob Bright, both residents of then up-and-coming Manchester techno club Bugged Out. We were all constantly playing each other cool new music that was coming over and under the counter.

There is a special connection between record shop folk that share a love of a track or an album together over time and I felt that bond with Rob over an old cassette tape by Bobbie Gentry he had found in the bottom a box. I’d come across Bobbie before, on Ode To Billie Joe obviously and we used to see her duet album with Glenn Campbell in the shop frequently but to me this album was on another level.

As soon as Rob put the tape on I was transported to the Mississippi Delta in the Sixties and beyond. The music was a bewitching blend of bluegrass, camp orchestral pop and gospel tinged blue-eyed soul. When Bobbie flexes lyrically on Seasons Come, Seasons Go it’s incredibly evocative and hard to resist her sense of time passing and lost love. She also seemed to bring something completely unique with her unforgettable voice to the covers of more familiar standards like You Make Me So Very Happy and Son Of A Preacher Man (forgive me, Dusty). Her version of I Wouldn’t Be Surprised is an ultimate lovelorn tear jerker.

I loved sitting and processing records with Rob in the backroom whilst being transported to Chickasaw County with the tape that became our go-to spin, whilst high octane, heavy duty, box-fresh dance music belted out across the counter in the other room. Both pop kids at heart, we had grown beyond trying to be cool and obscure and had embraced the joy and melancholy that true quality pop provides. The tape was starting to get chewed up and I was desperate to get it on vinyl and a later reissued CD didn’t quench that thirst. Bobbie disappeared from public life in 1982 so there was an air of mystery around her and for me that album in particular.

I searched for it in every shop I went into for years, then one day my colleague winked at me and said “it’s your lucky day”, he had just bought a pile of Bobbie records including Touch ‘Em With Love. I was over the moon, an album like that deserves to be played on vinyl. Rob put me on to plenty of great records but this one has a special place in my heart. It has stayed with me through my life since and the album was even playing whilst in was in labour. Obviously there are two copies now, an extra one  ‘just in case’."

Big thanks to Kath for telling us this story for the series. Be sure to keep up-to-date with all of her goings on by giving her a follow on Instagram.