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 Adam MacGregor of Tommy Gun Records in Hobart 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?
Adam MacGregor, the owner of Tommy Gun Records in Hobart.
How long has your store been around for?
At least 12 years in three different locations around town. It started pretty much as a glorified garage sale selling secondhand records, CDs, and DVDs at a time before records became popular again.
Thankfully the market for physical music formats improved and we were able to expand our new vinyl range and today we have over 3000 new titles plus second hand.
Are there any certain genres you cater to at your store?
Because we are in a small town I feel like we have to cater to everyone’s taste so our sections are pretty deep for most genres.
We have a lot of metal records and CDs both new and second hand (and t-shirts) plus punk, hip-hop, soundtracks, Jazz and Blues, reggae and popular A-Z pop and rock titles. The back room is exclusively second hand records and has a mix of everything.
What has been the most memorable moment in the store’s history?
We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of touring musicians stopping in and saying hi over the years like Gotye, Tim Rogers, The Hard-Ons, The Dirtbombs, etc.
We’ve also had fun hosting in-stores for some of Hobart’s best bands like The Native Cats and Heart Beach.
A few years ago I was lucky enough to go on a record buying trip to Austin, Texas with a good friend and bring back a stash of tasty secondhand records rarely seen locally.
How did your love of music first begin?
As children we had access to a lot of records via parents and uncles and the local library. I remember buying 7″ singles quite young from markets and from local record shops, particularly Aeroplane Records.
How did you get into the world of selling records?
I used to work in Sydney in an office job and found myself haunting local record stores like Egg Records in Newtown, and would go to a lot of garage sales and markets looking for second hand records and CDs.
When I came back to Hobart without a job I decided to give the shop a go and thankfully, it worked out.
Thinking time: What’s your all-time favourite record?
Tough one. I still love anything by The Buzzcocks especially Love Bites, and Eternally Yours by The Saints. Pink Flag by Wire would be in the top ten also.
Check out Wire’s ‘Ex Lion Tamer’:
Do you also dabble in the world of record collecting? Any ‘white whales’ you’re still trying to track down?
I’m not really a record collector as such. I’ve got plenty of records at home to keep me happy and buy plenty of new albums.
What have you got planned for Record Store Day this year?
Like most shops it’ll be the biggest day of the year for us. Opening at 9am, we will have the largest selection of Record Store Day releases in Tasmania, sourced from Australian and overseas suppliers.
There will be a store wide sale all day and special giveaways for the earlybirds.
Are there any releases you’re particularly excited for?
There’s some great stuff this year. I’d probably go for Ramones’ Live At The Palladium or the High On Fire’s Bat Salad 12″.
Check out the Ramones at New York’s Palladium in 1979:
Record Store Day 2019
Saturday, April 13th, 2019
Tommy Gun Records
127 Elizabeth St, Hobart, TAS
(Open from 9am)
