It’s that time of year, folks; Record Store Day. The time when music fans and vinyl-lovers descend upon their local music store for their annual day of exclusive releases.
Having first kicked off back in 2008, Record Store Day has fast become something of an international holiday on the music-lover’s calendar.
With plenty of special releases hitting the shelves, vinyl fans and collectors come together to hit up independent stores around the world in hopes of finding this year’s most sought-after record.
Of course, we’ve already seen the annual list of special releases coming out on April 13th, so the question remains; what are Aussie retailers doing this year?
With Record Store Day just around the corner, we’ve spoken to record store owners all across the country, and in this edition, we’re chatting to Warwick Brown of Greville Records in Melbourne to find out more about the store, and what’s on offer this year.
Check out this year’s Record Store Day ambassadors:
Getting to know you: Who are you? What’s your store?
My name’s Warwick Brown, and this is Greville Records.
How long has your store been around for?
Greville Records has been going for 40 years this year.
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Are there any certain genres you cater to at your store?
No, not really. We sort of have the attitude that if someone likes a record, then it’s a good record, so we try not to get too precious about stuff.
We just kind of like to accept the fact that whatever someone likes, it’s good, support who you are.
We’re pretty hopeless with techno, that’s about it. I think also we kind of like to just support whatever it is that people like without getting precious about it. Everyone’s kind of different, and whatever you like, it’s good.
Whether it’s disco 12-inches or hardcore punk rock, there’s no right or wrong. Someone likes it, that’s good. That’s all that matters.
What has been the most memorable moment in the store’s history?
It’s just been one long, good memory, I’d like to think. But the Alex Chilton [Big Star] in-store performance was really nice. He came in, signed records for everybody, and hung around with us after that.
We’ve certainly had a lot of big famous names come through, which has been really sort of pretty cool. But then again, you know, your average guys are just as nice. Uh, we did find a snake in here once [laughs]. It’s gone now.
But probably the most sort of memorable occasions were when in the early ’90s where independent music went from being a small thing, and you could only buy from small record shops, like indie shops.
There was a period of time where if you wanted to hear like Nirvana or Nick Cave, really your only option was to come to shops like this; pre-JB-HiFi, and stuff.
And then this thing happened where it went mainstream, and small bands went from playing in pubs to being signed to major labels, and actually began to become really well-known. So names like You Am I, Nick Cave, and Spiderbait, they all of a sudden became big-selling artists. Tex Perkins, and The Cruel Sea, for example. That was amazing.
So what happened to us, is that we have a car park out the back, and the You Am I guys are friends of ours, well they signed a deal and all of a sudden became a big deal, and they did some gigs in our car park.
That was when they were really huge, when Hourly, Daily was coming out, and that was really phenomenal for us.
I think a lot of people really remember that as being like “wow, these guys have become huge.” Those car park gigs, followed by parties in the shop afterwards were really lovely and exciting times, and I think that a lot of people really remember that with fondness and what fun time that was.
Check out Tim Rogers covering David Bowie at Greville Records:
How did your love of music first begin?
Well, I think you’re just lucky and born with some sort of gene inside of yourself, which you don’t know just why it happens, but it just happens.
For me, we lived up in New Guinea for a few years when I was really young, around six, and there was no TV up there, we were on a university campus and there was a lot of expatriate Melbourne people there, probably to escape the Vietnam War.
But there was a couple of guys running record shops, so it just became your entertainment, the form of entertainment since there was no TV, was records.
And a lot of the kids who lived up there, their families bought records, and a couple of records shops there were fantastic, and I don’t know, I just fell in love with music really young. I mean, no one knows why you fall in love with what you do. So it certainly became an obsession for me.
How did you get into the world of selling records?
Well the way it always works out with just about anybody that ends up selling is that you just hang around the shops and buy enough records.
It’s the sort of business where it’s more like who you know rather than what you know, so I think that everyone who’s ever worked in most of the record shops I know in Melbourne is just because they know people. So for me, it was just that I stumbled in to it.
I was friends with the guys there in the day, and they said, “Can you fill in, can you do some part time work?” And I just ended up, no grand plan or design, just stumbled in to one day owning it.
Thinking time: What’s your all-time favourite record?
I don’t really have one. There are a group of artists I do love. But then, there are a handful of artists that I think take things to higher place, to where this is more than just great rock and roll, this is like extraordinary, change your life sort of stuff. Certainly change your mood to a higher place.
Scott Walker’s one of them. Those Brian Eno records from the late ’70s, most of David Bowie’s stuff, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, Hunky Dory, Blackstar, etc. Just the life and attitude, and whole career of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Neil Young – I love all of those people.
I couldn’t have an all-time favourite record, I’ve probably got an all time favourite ten artists: Nick Drake, Scott Walker, Brian Eno, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, it’s all that sort of stuff.
Check out David Bowie’s ‘Quicksand’:
Do you also dabble in the world of record collecting? Any ‘white whales’ you’re still trying to track down?
Oh yeah. I think I’ve found most of the records I really want. There’s always something, if you’re open minded about music, then you’re always going to find something more you want.
You end up getting into entire genres you thought you never would. Somewhere down the track, you just want to hear everything, whether it’s Louis Armstrong or MF Doom. You just want to check out stuff – you might not end up like it all but, you might hit that one where you think, “wow”.
But most of the records I wanted, the real key important ones, I’ve found. Most of the hard stuff kind of pre-dates the ease of today, to where you sort of had to hunt for them. Like, if you wanted to hear Scott Walker, you actually had to hunt for them. Like The Velvet Underground, Big Star.
I remember me and my friends used to have to hunt for Big Star records. We hadn’t ever seen one, let alone heard one, and when someone found one, we all went around to their house, and said things like “Oh my god you’ve got this record. This is my one shot, my one chance to hear an album like Trout Mask Replica.”
Now, of course, you can download and have it in seconds. It was really special back then. The art of anticipation is a wonderful thing. And it was great to anticipate album debuting, but now when they come out, you’ve kind of already heard half of the tracks, and I don’t like to go down that road. I don’t want to download anything. It ruins people’s appreciations of it all.
I mean, all of us guys here felt like we knew of every big band regardless. There wasn’t anything we discovered later we felt we really missed out on. We found them all through fanzines, word of mouth, hanging at each other’s houses, and at record shops. It was a really great way to find out about things.
Like, some things you had to listen to a few times to get to appreciate it. You might not like it the first eight or nine times, but by that tenth time, you get it. You kind of had to earn and work your way to the music, and now you can just flick through it on Spotify and miss it, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing.
Check out Greville Records’ plans for Record Store Day:
What have you got planned for Record Store Day this year?
Everyday is a special day, and everyday is Record Store Day at Greville Records. Uh, we’re going to be on our best behaviour.
We’ve got about half a dozen bands, we’ve got council permits, so we’ll have bands playing out the front.
We’ll have Cookin’ On 3 Burners, Woodland Hunters (which is some guys out of Sand Pebbles), George & Fenn Wilson, Jack Howard will be putting on a band of his students, Marguerite Alley, and VU1 which is The Velvet Underground Tribute. And loads of Record Store Day records.
Are there any releases you’re particularly excited for?
The Bob Dylan original Blood On The Tracks demos, that will genuinely be incredible, and there was a great Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young one, 4 Way Street.
I find most years it’s more about buying what’s already there. If I could do it my way, I’d tell everyone to go and buy a local independent record. That’s how I’d love it.
I’d love people to support records labels Bedroom Suck, Rice Is Nice, Milk! Records. They’re all really great labels that don’t get enough support.
Check out the NYC version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Tangled Up In Blue’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNdp7AhBDzU
Record Store Day 2019
Saturday, April 13th, 2019
Cookin’ On 3 Burners
Marguerite Alley
Pollyman (George & Fenn Wilson)
Dexter (Wesley Chill-Out Jazz Ensemble Run by Jack Howard)
Woodland Hunters (ex-Sand Pebbles)
Vu1 (The Velvet Underground Tribute)
Greville Records
152 Greville St, Prahran, VIC
(Open from 10am)
