Hamilton crowds on the hunt at vinyl fair
Valued vinyls went to market at the Hamilton Record Fair.
Vinyl hunter and gatherers turned out in their hundreds for the Hamilton Record Fair on June 9.
More than 20 vendors from around the North Island hauled 1000s of records, both second-hand and new, to market at the Creative Waikato-based event.
HRF founder Dujon Cullingford says he organised the event for three reasons: he’s passionate about his city, Hamilton, he’s into records and he’s a mindful husband.
“I wanted to sell some records and make my wife happy by creating some space,” he said.
The DJ, dancer and Hamilton City Council employee, has always been obsessed with music and began his “sizable” but “not ridiculous” collection only a few years ago. He is loyal to an era.
“I listen to heaps of ‘70s funk music and New Zealand’s 70s funk is even better. There’s not much of it but what there is, is really cool.”
His favourite home-grown ‘70s funk band is Collision. The group from Tokoroa rose to fame in Wellington and cut their only album in Sydney.
They opened for headliners Isaac Hayes, Tina Turner and Osibisa. Cullingford saysEarth, Wind and Fire’s horn section, The Phoenix Horns, once showed up at Collision gig, jumped on stage and “played the night away with them”.
The HRF organiser has Collision’s self-titled album and says: “It’s cool to hear that a couple of Māori boys from the bush cracked it on that international scale. That record for me is pretty important.”
Mark Thomas, a New Zealand record industry figure since 1993 and owner of New Plymouth’s Vinyl Countdown, was a vendor at HRF. “The sound of vinyl is superior to CDs, to streaming and downloading,” he said.
In the ’90s and 2000s he saw record sales decline but things have changed.
“In the last five years it’s increased a lot with young kids finding the joy in collecting something and if they were going to collect something it was going to be records they wanted, not CDs.”
Thomas has collected ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) and ELO co-founder Jeff Lynne albums since he was a teen and is always on the hunt for more.
“I think everyone’s got a specific artist or genre that they’re looking for even though they’ve got hundreds of them already. It’s almost like an obsessive, hoarder type thing.”
Thomas thinks the vinyl community is great. He hadn’t cashed-up yet but said, “it was certainly worth the trip, I’ll put it that way.”
Another vendor, Hamiltonian Phillip Longley, said: “I’m loving it here. The people are great and everyone’s happy.”
He scours op shops for sought-after titles. “I’ve made some money. I find records to be a great investment.”
Cullingford rated the fair’s success based on exchange.
“If they [vendors] make good sales, feel connected to the event and have good yarns with the locals it’s usually a win. And most of them did.”
The organiser’s highlights were seeing lots of people smiling and letting people know that Hamilton is a diverse place. “We’re trying to stretch the event spectrum to match that diversity,” Cullingford said.
Brad Miller and Bailee Simpson had a bag of about 20 albums at the Hamilton Record Fair.
“I’m a huge fan of records, of vinyl. I couldn’t miss it when I saw the signs all around town.” Brad said. “It’s a cool way to spend a Saturday, sifting through old records,” his girlfriend Bailee said.
Brad grew up rocking to his dad’s ACDC and Def Leppard while Bailee grooved to her grandparents’ Stevie Wonder and Temptations sounds. Brad has been jamming his Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon album lately and the 19-year-olds say, “we’re into a lot of old music, very old music.”
Brad grew up with CDs and cassettes and feels that records are more intimate.
“It’s the experience not just listening to the songs, you can get that anywhere, but you’ve got the whole process of getting the record out, sifting through the pile, hearing the needle go on, hearing it crackle when it starts, it’s just ahhh.”
Brad made two stand-out purchases, The Works of John Barry, composer of 11 James Bond films, “I am a huge Bond fan,” and he’d snuck one record in for Bailee.
She was surprised, “you bought Thriller?” He was sincere, “just for you.”
Dean Ballinger misses how he used to go into second-hand music shops and just potter around. At HRF he bought Tangerine Dream’s Le Parc album, a mid-‘80s German experimental record of the Krautrock genre.
As a Waikato University student he remembers when people were chucking their collections away. He’d go to the shops and get piles of records for a song. Now, he’s happy to make the odd purchase and kept his stash from years ago but states: “I’m not some vinyl purist.”
Ballinger likes records over digital versions because, he says, “it’s often about the sound quality and the culture of it.” He says the listening experience is more focused with the effort needed resulting in a deeper appreciation for the music.
Father Ian and son Aaron Hughes, originally from England, have lived in Cambridge for over seven years. They keep an eye out for fairs and at HRF Ian was just looking for old records. He says he hasn’t got a big collection but he’s got a “nice collection” and one favourite that gets played a lot is Dire Straits Live.
Aaron likes vinyls very much and the pair agree that the format’s sound is much cleaner. The 17-year-old was holding one album and waiting on his father’s yay-or-nay nod. At a price of $18, Dad said, “yeah probably.”
The teen plays guitar and keyboard and says his favourite album is George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. At age 14, Aaron was into modern pop like Katy Perry then moved to more progressive artists like Yes and Genesis.
He says it all began, in the car, listening to his Dad’s Debut Album by the Doors. “The very first little drum beat of ‘Break on through to the other side’. That’s what changed me,” Aaron said.
