Our team at Aussie Vinyl is small but our passion for the music from years gone by is extensive.

There is something about the analogue warmth of the sound on vinyl, where you engage with your favourite music and the ritual of lowering the needle onto the turntable and hearing the crackle as it lines up with the track.

Some of the most unforgettable music of all time is detailed in the pages of our record guide.

You can take a trip down memory lane and relive the music of the last 70 years.

A successful pop song will stick in your mind for days. Whether they were a one-hit wonder or they have become a national anthem, love ‘em or hate ‘em, we all remember them.

People have fallen in love with a single or album and people have played songs at a funeral. Travellers have driven or flown nationally or overseas with a CD or cassette, playing songs, or had sex with songs playing in the background, or had a special occasion with these songs.

You could also say music is the bookmark to our memory. Personally I can remember where I was, what I was doing, who I was with or even how old I was when I hear certain songs.

So if this is the first time you have been interested in vinyl records or interested in picking up a book of this nature, welcome and enjoy the experience.

To help us make the 2024 Record Guide even better we are looking for any content that you might like to contribute including Artists, Catalogue Numbers, Albums and even pictures authenticating the existence of the record.
CONTRIBUTE TO THE NEXT RECORD GUIDE HERE

Out of three nominated categories, the Aussie Vinyl Record Guide is the winner of the “Best Historical Research on General Recording Topics” category. We are very excited to be honored with this award.

The goal of the ARSC Awards program is to recognise and draw attention to the finest work now being published in the field of recorded sound research.

 

Charts began to appear in Australia in 1958 with 2UE in Sydney publishing a giveaway via record stores and Top 40 charts were later published in newspapers with the sole purpose of advertising for specific radio stations.

The charts are an important guide to a recording artist’s success and, in general, outlining the career of an artist.  Growing up in the early 70’s and 80’s, magazines such as Go-Set and the Top 40 charts were my only source of regular information on artists and their releases.

The Internet in the 90’s was providing some additional information, most of which was on American and British releases along with the majority of book publications.

Recently, interest in CD’s has declined and the interest in vinyl from the past continues to grow despite the increase download / portable technology.

As collectors of all ages track down all the records they want in a particular genre, they start to broaden their horizons.

As a collector, I still buy more vinyl, and the more I buy, the more I want, leaving the question?  ‘Does anybody know what was released by these artists?’ and ‘Was I missing releases from my favourite artists?’  Visiting record and book shops here in South Australia and interstate over many years, talking to many collectors and shop owners, it was clear publications on Australian music were minimal with some information incomplete or missing.

For my own benefit, I decided that if I knew of any record release I did not have in my collection, I would include it in my insurance spreadsheet as a separate entry so that when I went record shopping I would have a list of wants.

The list became a vital tool as I started to buy records that I already had in my collection, due to not being able to remember the thousands of records that I already have.

The list soon became hundreds of pages and the next question was, ‘If I have trouble finding releases, surely other collectors have the same problem?’  It would be nice to have a publication that gave me the information up-front, rather than spending countless hours searching through hundreds of internet sites and book shops wasting my time. Hence the birth of The Aussie Vinyl Collectors Guide.

Born in the early 1970’s, music has been a passion all my life, having started out with vinyl, and then cassette, then CD and then back to vinyl.  I always felt at home with the black plastic.

Watching countdown on a Sunday night through the 70’s and then the 80’s, I was always eager to see the latest clips and hear Molly’s “Do yourself a favour and buy this record”, as I felt his recommendations were in line with my taste in music.

Listening to artists such as Skyhooks, Little River Band, Master Apprentices and Sherbet growing up, I felt Australian music was as good as any music released from overseas artists.

I consider these songs, important artistic documents that have become the fabric of our culture, and also part of our national and international psyche.  Music in any genre is incredibly important in most people’s lives.