Excitement is spinning up for the return of the Nanaimo Record Show.
The event, which is making its return to the city’s annual event calendar, is on track to draw at least 30 vendors from Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. There will be thousands of vinyl records for hundreds of collectors to get their hands on fresh titles to add to their libraries.
Show founders Jack Tieleman and Dave Read say vinyl record popularity has gone through the roof, especially during the past two years of the pandemic.
“People are really interested in records,” Tieleman said. “There’s all-new collectors. Kids are collecting records and it’s a wide range of ages of people that are into records. I had one fellow come by and he’s like, ‘I need hair metal. That’s what my dad played when I was a kid.’ So, he’s looking for Poison and Mötley Crüe and records like that.”
Tieleman operates a small record shop home business, and Read has also watched online sales skyrocket since 2020. But people miss the experience of searching through records in a store, he said.
“The last couple years with COVID and whatnot and everybody staying home, people got really into buying online,” Read said. “Now, that’s great, of course, but now you’re paying shipping, so it’s not as easy to go out and buy the one record you want without paying another twenty-odd bucks. To see the records in your hands, to have the actual thing … there’s just something about that excitement.”
Tieleman said anticipating what one might find at a record show offers the same thrill collectors once experienced when they were young and vinyl analog recordings and the album cover art they were packaged in were the pinnacle of the audio recording world.
“It’s the anticipation of going into a shop or a record fair and [wondering], ‘What’s going to be here? What am I going to find?’ and that’s the same thrill you had when you were a kid,” Tieleman said. “You’d be going into the Co-op store in Tofino, like I was … Dave grew up in Toronto going to Sam the Record Man … 50 years later, you still have the same thrill and that’s one of the joys of record collecting.”
This year’s show promises something for everyone with a craving for fresh vinyl, ranging from hard-to-find pressings and imports to bargains and “gently loved deals,” according to a show press release, plus vintage rock posters. There might even be some CDs and cassettes.
Buyers will also want to keep an eye out for first-time sellers expected to be at this year’s show.
“Everybody descends on them immediately,” Read said. “It’s like, ‘I’ve never seen that guy before,’ and they run to him as soon as the door opens.”
“Yeah, it’s like a chip bowl at a party,” Tieleman said.
Tieleman is also filling a table with records for $5 each for bargain hunters.
The Navy League of Canada Nanaimo branch sea cadets, who have run the show concession in previous years, are also returning to sell food and refreshments.
The show happens at Bowen Park auditorium, 500 Bowen Rd., Saturday, April 16, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. To learn more, visit the show website at http://nanaimorecordshow.com or search for the Nanaimo Record Show on Facebook.
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