Few people left the Dunsdon Legion on Tollgate Road empty handed on Sunday.
While most of those in attendance at the inaugural Brantford Record Show were old enough to have purchased new music releases on vinyl decades ago, the show attracted several young people, as well.
Emily Rushton, 17, of Brantford, and her 16-year-old friend, Cassidy Sinclair, of Paris, flipped through crates of vinyl LPs, looking to add to their collections.
“My dad used to be a big record junkie,” Rushton said. “He had a room filled but got rid of them all before he realized I would become obsessed with them. When I met Cassidy we both clicked and began to start collecting.”
Among Ruston’s purchases was The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour, the soundtrack from Jesus Christ Superstar and Pink Floyd – The Wall.
“I love the ’70s and ’60s,” she explained. “When you listen to music on vinyl it kind of puts you back in that era. We never got to experience that, so it’s like this nostalgic feeling. It’s super cool.”
Sinclair clutched Animals by Pink Floyd, which she said she found for a really good price.
“It’s so good listening to it straight through,” she said. “You get to experience the entire album.”
Fifteen-year-old Andrew Wilson of Brantford picked up Led Zeppelin 1 on vinyl, and a CD version of Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins.
“I wanted to look for records because I’m trying to start a collection,” he said. “I like having the physical copy, and owning it instead of having to go on your phone to listen to it.”
Among the show’s 13 vendors was Mick Gillings of Brantford, who stocked specialist Japanese and European imports of vinyl records, picture discs and a plethora of KISS merchandise.
“There is certainly a market here for the specialists,” he said. “They came with better sound quality with the Japanese pressings, and would include lyric sheets that you wouldn’t normally get with domestic pressings.”
An example of Gillings’ rare offerings included an original red vinyl 45-rpm of The Beatles single Hard Day’s Night, priced at $55.
“They are very hard to find,” he noted.
The show’s organizer, Paul Partington, said he expected attendance to reach 400 by the end of the day. The $2 admission fee was donated to the legion.
“We’ve done it before in Sarnia and Strathroy and had success in those communities,” he said. “I knew Brantford didn’t have a great avenue for used records, so I thought people in Brantford would be interested.”
Partington grew up in the 1990s buying CDs, but moved over to records in the last 15 years.
“I like the tangible aspect of them,” he said. ”When you buy digital copies online, you don’t get the artwork, and you don’t get to hold it.”
He said that, while a lot of people prefer the analog sound to digital recordings, he’s more of a collector than anything else.
“If I’m buying a $300 record as opposed to buying it online for $10 on digital, it’s got to have more to do than just sound quality for me.”
As a vendor, he sells vinyl LPs ranging from $5 to $1,000.
One of the most valuable records he was selling Sunday was an album by Warpig, a Woodstock, Ont., based band from the 1970s, with an asking price of $800.
“They didn’t sell a ton of records but their music was really good,” he noted. “Popularity and want, as opposed to how many are out there, drives the price up for something like that.”
With the success of Sunday’s event, Partington said he is confident he’ll put together another record show in Brantford this fall.