‘Crate diggers' in for treat at sale
Whether it is French field recordings, esoteric minimalist music or a 1959 concert at Dunedin's Town Hall, "crate diggers" are in for a treat at this year's Regent Theatre Music Sale.
CDs, vinyl records, cassettes, DVDs, music sheets and more will be up for grabs at little cost on Saturday for the theatre's third annual sale.
Sale co-ordinator Mark Burrows said about 1000 banana boxes worth of stock had been received so far.
The music sale began as an off-shoot of the Regent Theatre's 24 Hour Book Sale to raise funds for the theatre.
They were expecting a "real range" of customers on Saturday, Mr Burrows said.
"Old guys like me, there'll be a bunch of them, crate diggers, but there's students who will turn up and look for a bargain or just out of curiosity."
While the volume of donations was similar to last year, the quality this time around was better, he said.
One particular donation contained next-to-new vinyl records that were "so outside the 99.5% of people's listening experience".
This included a collection of electronic "non-music", which he believed were French field recordings of which only 350 copies were ever made.
Also received was "a bunch of really interesting esoteric unusual music" of a "minimalist vein".
"It'll be basically meaningless to the whole public, except for two people down at the music department in the University of Otago."
Music from New Zealand bands such as the JPS Experience and Sneaky Feelings were also among the mix, as well as a recording of selected items from the King Edward Technical College Jubilee Music Festival, performed at the Dunedin Town Hall in August 1959.
Vinyl records and CDs were good because they were physical mediums you could pick up and look at, Mr Burrows said.
They had "just got cool".
"So, I think it reflects a bit of that fringe edge of society. There's always people who are looking for cool stuff that the rest of the 95% don't know about.
"And then there's the other side of it, the audiophile community, who believe, for good reason, that vinyl sounds better."
The music sale runs from 10am to 6pm.
tim.scott@odt.co.nz
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