Dan Phelan cut his teeth as a DJ on the Sydney punk scene in the 1980s. He's been collecting vinyl most of his life, and even now, DJs only with records.
The Hard Ons - a cornerstone band of Mr Phelan's era known for their messy pop-punk blend of metal and psychedelia - was one of his favourite bands growing up, when you could head out on the town almost any day of the week and see a ripping set in a room of maybe 100 people.
Australian music historian Ian McFarlane once described the Hard Ons as "cheap and potent" but added that "never has so much been owed to so few chords".
"Ray, the bass player, is over there," Mr Phelan said, gesturing to the rake-skinny bloke with the mop of straight, silvery hair working hard to stack crates of records onto a trolley.
"My first show was probably in 1986 or '87," Mr Phelan said, "I went and saw the Hard Ons; they're one of my all-time favourite bands. I guess that's one of the things about records; you get to meet your idols."
"Is that what he said?" the bassist asked me later outside, with a wry smile, when I recited Mr Phelan's line. "Oh, he's just lying. He says that to everybody!"
The band released their 13th studio album in 2021 after reforming around 1997 with a reunion gig. The line-up has changed once or twice since then, and they're headed to Japan on Monday. When he's not on stage, Mr Ahn works for Sydney heavy-metal record shop Utopia.
At the weekend, he was one of a handful of retailers who brought their wares to Kotara High School on a rain-drenched Saturday for the annual Hunter Record Fair.
The city's other local record fair (the first being the Newcastle iteration) has been running for around a decade and regularly attracts around 500 people, Mr Phelan said. At the weekend, they were overwhelmed. More than 200 streamed through the doors of the school hall in the first half-an-hour of trading, and as the afternoon cooled off, there was still a steady trade of over 600 total visitors for the day.
Hanna Bridgeman and young Storm Steward were rifling through the stacks, looking to add the first few LPs to their fledgling collection. Storm was decked in a bedazzled purple unicorn beanie that caught your eye from every corner of the room. Ms Bridgeman had a pair of Pink Floyd titles in her hand: The Wall (a staple of any respectable collection) and a live recording of the Delicate Sound of Thunder.
"We've moved into a new house," Ms Bridgeman said. "We've got some speakers in the ceiling and a record player, and we're just starting to collect.
"We've noticed the difference in sound quality from streaming, and we're trying to find some favourite albums."
The fair day boasted a mix from the odd bargain on an old LP to rare finds worth thousands of dollars to offbeat titles that are hard to find elsewhere. Mr Phelan said CDs had their moment in the '90s, but records never really went away.
"Newcastle has a tradition of record collecting," he said, "I'm at the age now where I have always bought records and the genres of music that I love lean that way.
"I can listen to amazing music online, but I'll forget it. But if I've forked out my hard-earned money for a record, it resonates a lot more, and you play it a lot more; it sort of sticks with you."
As the afternoon wore down under a steady, lingering shower, Mr Ahn packed his remaining records into the van, bound for the city. He had left Sydney at 5am on Saturday morning.
"Newcastle has a lot of young people who are into music," he said. "The impression that I get is that per head in Newcastle, a lot of people like rock'n-roll. Newcastle has a big history of a live music scene; it's not just Silverchair, so we always do really well here. Always."
Mr Phelan is nostalgic about the bands of his formative years, but he's adamant that Newcastle's live music scene is just as strong as ever.
"You can still see some of the best bands on a Wednesday night for free at the Hamilton Station," he said, "I feel like the kids find their way; even if there were no pubs to play in, they would find a way to play. It might not be the same as we had in the '80s, but it will be something else."
