it all
Dan Phelan had been waiting more than half an hour to get a look inside that silver record box. It was worth it. The crate was identified with a small cardboard sign that read "rare and collectible" in handwritten marker and contained, among other things, two rare pressings of The Beatles Sgt Pepper's, AC/DC's Powerage, and a limited edition LP from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard collectively valued at hundreds of dollars.
It was that hour of the day when the tireless organising and planning had come together, and there was nothing to do now except let it all happen - and maybe find a few minutes to rifle through the stacks for buried treasure.
Mr Phelan, the driving force behind the Hunter Record Fair - which returned for another run on Saturday, November 9 - has a nostalgic soft spot for a vinyl record. He likes the tactility of it, the art in the object of it all, and the surprise of coming across a rare find in a stack. Still, he's no purist about form. While there might be few things in the world that sound better than a quality LP played on a good turntable and bombastic speakers, music is music is music is music.
"I'm not a 'collector'," he said. "I'm just a music nut. If you have a good setup and you put a record on, it sounds absolutely amazing - much better than you would hear on a streaming thing. When a record sounds good, it sounds amazing. But I love music, so I'm happy to listen to streaming or whatever."
Mr Phelan was a DJ on the Sydney punk scene in the 1980s.
"My first show was probably in 1986 or '87," he said during the last Record Fair, held at Kotara High School on a rainy day in May. "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."
The weekend's more recent iteration was hosted by Broadmeadow brewery Thirsty Messiah on Lambton Road, where the collectors and musos, audiophiles and inductees were near shoulder-to-shoulder in the hunt for the hidden gem.
Chris South from New Lambton Heights brought his son, Archer, to find some old familiar titles as he worked to rebuild his vinyl collection after his family gifted him a new turntable for Father's Day.
He wasn't looking for anything specific, he said, "just looking for the albums I had when I was younger", with a hefty bag at his side as he handed cash to the trader for a copy of Metallica's Black Album. More than a dozen labels and retailers were represented at the event, travelling across the state to sell their wares.
"Anything from the '70s up to the 2000s," Mr South said. "I'm a '90s kid. I've got some Pearl Jam and Idols a little of everything.
Then, with a smile: "I didn't come here to get these albums in particular, but as soon as you see them, you think 'that's it. I need it'. There's not much like this where you can come and blow all your cash at once."
