Let's Get Physical, Splendour In The Grass-Style

Ahead of setting up a pop-up music store at next week’s Splendour In The Grass music festival in Byron Bay, Steve Bell – co-owner of burgeoning Brisbane record store Sonic Sherpa – looks at just why people would want to buy albums in the middle of a Splendour bender.

Physical music is back with a vengeance. The world’s vinyl pressing plants are operating at full capacity, with delays often stretching to months for bands and labels wanting to get new (or back catalogue) tunes pressed onto wax. Turntables were one of the highest selling consumer products across the board last Christmas (online Amazon sold more turntables than any other home audio product, while in the UK retailer HMV reported sales of one turntable per minute over the festive period). Every day new people are embarking on their own vinyl adventure, while the format’s boon in popularity has for the most part also been a godsend for those vinyl fanatics who never went away. Pretty much all new releases are favouring wax over compact discs where possible these days, although there’s plenty of residual love for CDs still as well (even the humble tape is making a comeback at the grassroots level).

Excitingly a flow-on benefit of this revolution is that people are also rediscovering the thrill of record shopping again (which we discussed at length prior to Record Store Day earlier this year), which is why the next logical step from opening a bricks and mortar record store has been to start pop-up shops at many of the festivals which these days so liberally dot the musical landscape. Instead of waiting for music lovers to come to the shop (which we still actively encourage), we exercise the mantra “if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain”. In other words, instead of waiting for the music lovers to come to us, let’s take the music to where the music lovers congregate, and nowhere do music lovers congregate in bigger numbers than at music festivals.

"The next logical step from opening a bricks and mortar record store has been to start pop-up shops at many of the festivals which these days so liberally dot the musical landscape."

Of course at a cursory glance there seems to be many inherent barriers in place to stop a music festival from being the perfect retail environment, many of which involve the stupefaction levels of the average punter at such bashes (and trust us, we have plenty of first-hand experience in this regard, decades worth even). But none of this is insurmountable. If you’re too messed up or just can’t be bothered lugging vinyl around we’ll hold your purchases for you until the end of the day (or even the end of the festival) for nothing, and for a nominal postage fee we’ll even send your music anywhere in Australia or the world so it’ll eventually follow you home. This also assuages any fears about losing said purchases during your adventure, or having the vinyl melt in a hot tent or car.

And there are countless benefits possible from the set-up as well, not the least being that the artists who drew everyone together by making the great music and being on the bill in the first place are by nature in attendance as well, and in many cases more than happy to drop over to the music store before or after their set to meet their fans, have a chat, pose for photos and sign the physical music product that you just bought at the music store. In this day and age where experience and exclusivity are sacrosanct a signed copy of a hot new album goes straight to the pool room, presumably after being flaunted on social media for a while to tacitly annoy your friends and acquaintances. Obviously we curate a range of music for the pop-up that extends far beyond merely the bands playing the event (although that would be pretty great in and of itself), and for bigger events like Splendour we bring crates of new releases and second hand vinyl to give the full record shop experience, tailored to meet the vibe and style of the particular event. Obviously how keen a given artist is to get involved depends on many factors such as their standing in the industry – behemoth bands need not bother really – and also where they are in the album cycle (ie bands with new albums are usually more likely to join in), but for most part the artists are happy to get amongst the action with their fans just because they’re their fans.

Our signing schedule at Splendour In The Grass next weekend looks a little bit like this (and as we’re eternally obliged to say all times and acts are subject to change, shit does happen sometimes):

FRIDAY

1.30pm Alex Lahey

2.15pm The Wild Feathers

2.45pm Violent Soho (pre-show)

4.05pm Nicole Millar

4.30pm DMA'S

5.15pm Robert Forster

6pm Band Of Horses (pre-show)

7pm Emma Louise (pre-order LP get bonus poster to get signed)

SATURDAY

2.30pm Harts

3.15pm Hermitude

3.40pm Urthboy

4pm Ball Park Music (pre-order CD/LP get signed slick & polaroid w/ band)

4.45pm Boo Seeka

5.15pm Spring King

5.45pm Kim Churchill

SUNDAY

2.45pm The Jungle Giants

3.15pm Melbourne Ska Orchestra

4.15pm Little May

4.45pm City Calm Down

5.30pm Marlon Williams

6pm Boy & Bear

8.00pm Jake Bugg

So while it’s certainly not imperative we reckon the presence of a music shop and the opportunity to meet some of your heroes up close and personal certainly has the potential to add value to any music festival experience. Plus if you discover a fave new act over the weekend how cool will it be to listen to their CDs in the car on the way home or on the turntable as soon as you make it back? If you’re at Splendour over the weekend or spy us at one of the many festivals we operate the pop-up at down the track, come say g’day and have a look around, perhaps find a permanent memento of a great weekend. We aren’t the first to run a music store at festivals and surely won’t be the last, but we’ll be there doing our utmost to assist you in having the greatest time possible on your music adventure.

Remember, no matter how loose you get and how wild your shenanigans, at the end of the day it’s always all about the music…

Steve Bell has been to every Splendour since day one, runs one of Queensland's best record stores (Sonic Sherpa) and Sonic Sherpa have a pop-up store at Splendour so make sure you check it out.