Stadium Arcadium by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, four LP box set including booklets released on Warner Bros 2006, value £60

I AM often asked, "when did record collecting begin?" It is difficult to be precise but I would say, sometime in the seventies. Most of the attention focused on 1950s rock 'n' roll and 1960s beat music when artists like Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, and The Beatles began to attract specialist attention. But in the eighties, probably because of the release of compact discs, collecting old vinyl records began to really take off in a big way. These days there aren't any music styles that are not collectable. Folk, jazz, blues, techno, hip hop, heavy metal, punk, psychedelic, progressive rock, soul, reggae, disco, mainstream rock and pop, even film soundtracks, including easy listening, each genre has a collection of in-demand rarities.

This box collection released as a limited edition commemorates 23 years of the Red Hot Chili Peppers music. Formed in 1983 when the original members were classmates in Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, California, they went on to achieve several hit singles, including album sales totalling 80 million. They describe their music as a mixture of funk, punk, psychedelic featuring songs about love, women, pregnancies, marriages and relationship struggles, musically influenced by the various relationships the band members were having at the time of the album's conception.

This collection is the ninth studio album by the band. The cover is a 3D image shadow box containing a 28 page booklet, a velvet bag with marbles in it, matchbox notepads, one by each band member, a DVD of the band and other assorted paraphernalia too many to mention. It gained the band seven Grammy nominations in 2007; they won five of them, Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song (Dani California), Best Performance for a Group, Best Producer (Rick Rubin) and Best Boxed Limited Edition Package. Stadium Arcadium topped the Billboard charts in the USA selling 442,000 in its first week of release, making it the first number one album in the band's career. Thirty-five years after their formation they are still a top touring band.

Their 2004 album Live In Hyde Park was recorded during their performances at Hyde Park in London, which attracted 258,000 fans with ticket revenue of $17,100,000 dollars for three nights. They remain one of the best loved American bands to visit the UK.