Phil Macdonald from the "Halifax Record Fair"!

Next up we have Phil Macdonald who, among other things, is the co-organizer of the Halifax Record Fair!

I had 3 tables selling at the first Halifax record fair and highly recommend this event! You will be leaving with a load of vinyl and have a great time talking to all of the other vinyl freaks!

I'm actually hoping to make it to this event in a few weeks time! Anybody else from Fredericton interested? Perhaps I can fill my car!

Here we go!

Introduce yourself!

Phil Macdonald

Rockwell Records

Halifax Record Fair Co-organizer

[email protected]

www.halifaxrecordfair.ca

Maritime Vinyl (MV) - What do you collect? Vinyl; CD’s; Cassettes; 8 tracks; bootlegs; music memorabilia; magazine; etc..

Phil MacDonald (PM) - I’ve collected cassettes, CD’s, and vinyl.

MV - Do you prefer one audio format more than others? (example: vinyl more than cd’s)

PM - I’m certainly a vinyl junkie. I’ve had two turntables and a mixer since the early 90s.

MV - What is your favourite genre of music? Some of your favourite artists?

PM - My roots of vinyl collecting began with Hip-Hop. The late 80s and early 90s were, I believe, the finest years of raw creativity in rap. The last decade I’ve focused on collecting the break beat LPs that were the foundation of the early rap sound.

Kool DJ Herc started mixing and looping break beats in the mid 70s with two turntables and a two channel guitar amp. This extending of the drum breaks gave the party goers plenty of time to dance to the funkiest part of the record.  This style of DJing created break boys, or b-boys, rappers, and a soundtrack to the street art, graffiti.  Vinyl was the vital key to the creation of Hip-Hop.

MV - How big is your collection?

PM - I have accumulated about 4000 LPs.

MV - Do you concentrate your collection on one or more artists in particular?

PM - Right now, I’m focused on certain LPs that have a breaks I want. Once I find it, I want a second copy of the same pressing. When I acquire the second copy I move on to complete another pair.

MV - What is the first album you remember purchasing? Do you still have it?

PM - I remember more of my older sister’s LPs. In the eighties she had L.L. Cool J/Radio all the way to Motley Crue/Too Fast For Love.  I don’t have the actual copies she owned, but, I did collect these two titles over the years.

MV - What is your favourite item in your collection?

PM - An item in my collection that is important to me is The Headhunters/Survival of the Fittest. It has some drums on a track called God Made Me Funky that Grandmaster Flash used in the famous kitchen scene in the movie Wildstyle. It took me some time just to figure out what records he was using. Then it took time to find two matching copies.

MV - Do you still actively collect or was this something you concentrated on in the past?

PM - In the past year I’ve collected more than I ever have. Co-organizing the Halifax Record Fairs has open doors to huge collections. Kevin Beal and I have created a venue for thousands of LPs to get re-circulated to collectors. Many of our vendors at the fairs have never sold, they had only collected. Our next fair on June 2^nd has quite a few vendors returning with replenished tables as well as vendors that are selling for the first time at the HRF.

I also find myself collecting the Canadian made Electrohome, Saturn and Apollo series, turntables. I have a small family of these retro “dome-like” record players from the 70s.

 

MV - What is your preferred way of adding to your collection? Shopping online? Flea Markets? Independent music stores? Etc… Any favourite store or websites?

PM - My favorite independent store is Black Buffalo Records, in Halifax. The owner knows what I collect and watches for LPs that I’m hunting for.

The biggest additions to my collection have come from the past Halifax Record Fairs. I normally acquire a large stack from the Moncton Record Expos. I hope to see some familiar faces in Moncton on May 26^th and then again in Halifax on June 2^nd.

MV - How do you store your collection? Shelves? Boxes? Your attic?

PM - I just built some custom vinyl shelving during my last renovations.  I wanted to maximize the space I had. I am currently building more shelves. It seems that I’ve acquired more LPs than I had storage for...imagine that?

 

MV - Does your significant other support your collection? Did you have to convince him/her?

PM - My wife does support my collecting.  She actually bought my first Electrohome record player as a birthday gift. 

MV - What is on your “wish list” at the moment?

PM - Right now there are too many to list and some LPs I don’t even know I want them until I spot them for the first time.