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By: David Sanderson | Posted: 3:00 AM CDT Saturday, Jul. 2, 2022
The inaugural Manitoba Music & Record Sale goes this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Caboto Centre, 1055 Wilkes Ave., and co-organizer Mike Huen has a word of advice for older vinyl nuts who, in the past, may have been hesitant to let their children handle their prized possessions: mama — or papa, as the case may be — let ’em play.
The inaugural Manitoba Music & Record Sale goes this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Caboto Centre, 1055 Wilkes Ave., and co-organizer Mike Huen has a word of advice for older vinyl nuts who, in the past, may have been hesitant to let their children handle their prized possessions: mama — or papa, as the case may be — let ’em play.
Huen, who is running the show in tandem with Vic Gaggini, co-host of The Vinyl Vault, a weekly radio show on 93.7 CJNU, says when it comes to treasures such as hockey cards, stamps and record albums, collectors should think of themselves as their cache’s caretaker, versus its gatekeeper. He offers the example of a father who owns a vintage automobile, who is constantly telling his kids if they want to sit in it, they have to put a blanket down first. And if they think they’re ever going to be eating ice cream or french fries in the backseat, they have another thing coming.
"What happens in a case like that is the kids end up resenting that car, and wanting nothing to do with it, even when it’s passed down to them, later in life," says Huen, who closed his decades-old antique shop Mike’s General Store in January. The same goes for vinyl records; if a son or daughter asks to listen to a parent’s pristine copy of Dark Side of the Moon or Hotel California, and is forever being told no, not on their life, they’re probably going to grow up wanting nothing to do with mom or dad’s "stupid albums," he says. But if the answer is "sure," and while they’re at it, they should give Led Zeppelin III and Rumours a spin, then they’re going to have great memories, and perhaps become a record collector, too.
Huen, 63, and Gaggini, 64, both got into music "big time" when they were teenagers. They didn’t know each other then, but agree it’s a safe bet they were combing through the bins of downtown record meccas such as Opus 69 and Autumn Stone at the same time, most Saturday afternoons.
For years, each rented a table at Rockin’ Richard’s Record & CD Sale, a twice-a-year event founded by (Rockin’) Richard Sturtz and his brother Alex. Richard Sturtz died of heart disease in April 2020, a month after that year’s spring show. Coupled with the pandemic, that sealed the fate, pretty much, of the well-attended conventions.
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Gaggini, whose area of expertise is Winnipeg bands from the 1960s, says it was in early March when he gave Huen a call to discuss an idea he’d been tossing around. What if the two of them put their heads together, and staged a record show of their own, somewhat patterned after the Rockin’ Richard affairs?
"Alex (Sturtz) always talked about doing one last show in his brother’s honour, but that never took place," Gaggini goes on. "So after Mike agreed to come aboard, we called (Alex) to let him know, and to sort of get his blessing. I guess you could say we’re picking up where Rockin’ Richard’s left off, with a few added twists."
In addition to recorded music covering every format including CDs, cassettes and eight-tracks, the 60-table event will boast an array of stereo equipment, from old-fashioned tower speakers to turntables to ghetto blasters. Huen will be bringing along a fair number of music-related collectibles — a Beatles lunch box, anyone? — and author John Einarson will be on hand to autograph copies of his latest book, Heart of Gold: A History of Winnipeg Music.
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And while Gaggini won’t be parting with anything from his personal collection — he wouldn’t dream of parting with a 45 by little-known, ’60s Winnipeg psychedelic band Expedition to Earth — he will have scores of "doubles, triples… quadruples" of locally recorded albums available. (If you visit Huen’s booth and are wondering why the records he’s making available aren’t in any particular order, it’s so browsers have to flip through the entirety, he says with a wink; they can’t just go to a box labelled "M," if they’re in the market for Madness, the Monkees or the Moody Blues.)
Brent Jackson, owner of Old Gold Vintage Vinyl at 187 Osborne St., says he is looking forward to the sale, as much to reconnect with fellow vendors for the first time in over two years as to head home with a few dollars in his pocket.
"I’m super excited to see everyone again. There was always this weird kind of family vibe with the old (record) shows, where you knew everybody for the most part, and people held records for one another. So yeah, always a good time," he says.
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Jackson, who established his store in the heart of Osborne Village in 2019, plans to bring along a bit of everything. There will be rarer titles, meant to "tingle the bones" of serious archivists, as well as a half-dozen bins of more affordable LPs for anybody new to the hobby, or simply looking to replace a worn-out copy of this or that.
"The crowd is always a mix, from old-timers with 40 or 50 years of collecting under their belt, to 13-year-olds who bought their first turntable last month," he says, talking loudly enough to be heard above a Standells album playing in the background. "I was one of the first ones who bailed out of the last show (in March 2020) because of COVID, but when (Huen and Gaggini) asked if I wanted to take part this time around, I was like, put me down, 100 per cent."
Gaggini refers to the Manitoba Music & Record Sale, which, true to its name, will feature vendors from other parts of the province, including Starbuck and Selkirk, as an "opening shot." He and Huen have already reserved a date in October for a follow-up sale, and their plan going forward is to emulate Rockin’ Richard’s, by staging two events a year, one in the fall and another in the spring.
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For his part, Huen, who vividly recalls the first album he ever bought, Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Gaggini’s was Black Sabbath’s self-titled, 1970 debut) still shakes his head over how, in a day and age when people typically walk around with 25,000 songs on their phone, record shows are seemingly more popular than ever.
"The only way I can explain it is that young people yearn for eras they missed out on, the same way I grew up thinking how great it would have been to be a teenager in the ’50s, when rock music was just starting out," he says.
"It just seems as if things people my age take for granted, like vinyl records, are now considered cool by younger generations. Last month, for example, my daughter went to the cottage with friends, and took along one of my old, Instamatic cameras. She was the star of the show, apparently. Nobody there could believe she could point a camera, click and three minutes later have a photo in her hand. Crazy, huh?"
Tickets to the Manitoba Music & Record Show are $5 each, and are available at the door.
david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca
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