Melbourne’s vinyl obsessives in a spin over Record Store Day

A sleek group of 20-somethings carrying stacks of vinyl along Brunswick Street normally wouldn’t spin heads in Fitzroy, but the sheer numbers on Saturday might just have been a record.

Usually held on the third Saturday in April, Record Store Day is an opportunity for vinyl lovers to descend on their local store and hopefully bag a hidden gem.

Ethan Hill, aka DJ Manchild, at new record store and cocktail bar Old Plates.Credit: Joe Armao

Long-time Melbourne DJ Ethan Hill, also known as DJ Manchild from the PBS Radio show The Breakdown, celebrated the event at his newly opened bar, Old Plates.

DJs at the venue spun eclectic vinyl all day from a vast collection. Some selections were fresh out of a shipment of rare records direct from West Africa, which weighed in at about 230 kilograms.

“The African diaspora has really grown in Melbourne in the last 10 to 20 years,” Hill told The Sunday Age.

“It’s good to be able to explore kind of different sounds that actually exist in Melbourne, but people might not know or might not have heard yet.

“People tell me one of their favourite things about me DJing is that they can never [use music app] Shazam on the songs, which they love and hate.”

One of the rare records Hill had imported from West Africa. Credit: Joe Armao

Sought-after pressings of beloved records, as well as new releases, are sold in limited numbers for Record Store Day. This year’s offerings included releases from Ocean Alley, Underground Lovers and Peking Duk.

While record “listening bars” have been popular in countries such as Japan for years, the trend is now hitting its stride in Melbourne. Haunts such as Waxflower, Hope Street Radio and Music Room – which is inside trendy CBD bar Her – are prioritising patrons’ auditory experience.

Hill said part of the impetus behind his new venture was to create a bar “where the sound sounds good”, but punters could also browse the hundreds of records just waiting to be spun.

“The thing with records especially is the fact that it’s a thing you can hold and look at, and it kind of means something to you ... that’s why I love it,” he said.

Aaron Stephanus – better known as MC One Sixth – said there was something magical about having the chance to listen to long-lost records the way they were intended to be heard.

“Having the chance to come and find records that make you go, ‘oh wow, this is that song I heard years ago’ and hearing them in their original format is awesome,” he said.

“Being able to bring my children here, it feels like coming to a friend’s place where I’m able to introduce them to some musical culture.”

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