Dixon Recycled Records ProfileIn an era in which music feels entirely commodified, or turned into an intangible object with no intrinsic value to many, it's immensely heartening to know there are folks out there still fighting the good fight.
While record stores continue to draw in large crowds (thanks in part to a continually rising trend of physical media making a comeback) and fresh brick-and-mortar outlets which offer new releases do continue to open their doors, the humble secondhand record store has been forgotten by many.
If you're in Melbourne, however, there's no way you could have forgotten about it.
That's likely because of Dixon Recycled Records, a secondhand outlet which this month celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Music-lovers all around the state (the country, and dare we say the world) will likely have items in their collection which bear the famous Dixon's price tag.
Whether it's a CD, a vinyl record, a cassette, DVD, Blu-Ray, VHS, magazine, book, or something else entirely, any piece of media that has passed over the counter of a Dixon's store has told a story, inspired a memory, or sparked a conversation.
Five decades since the doors of that first store swung open, Dixon Recycled Records almost feels like a staple of the Victorian music scene. Back when it first started, however, it was simply the result of its founder and namesake, David Dixon, following his passions.
"I have always been a record collector since I could first put an arm on a record," Dixon recalls. "Back in the early days, we had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and I used to just listen to the radio as people did with cassettes and record stuff on the reel-to-reel.
"At the time, you had to do that, because there was nowhere else to get new music, unless you were buying new records and for God's sake they were expensive. We didn't have Spotify or anything like that, so I started collecting second-hand records around markets and things like that."
Dixon Recycled Records' Blackburn store (Credit: Supplied)
Having first entered his father's milk business, his uncle had offered sage advice by urging the future entrepreneur to "make your hobby your business". Given his passions were boats, planes, and records, he knew it had to be one of these fields.
However, another friend of his father's – a "money man" who was well off due to work in the world of finance – also offered the advice that buying and selling was the way to go.
Therefore, buying and selling records seemed the logical choice
As Dixon recalls, his brothers owned hotels, including the likes of Melbourne's Windsor Castle. With a bunch of 45s in his hands due to his habits as a collector, he asked his brothers if he could put a jukebox in the bar to appeal to the "older clientele" and their rock and roll sensibilities.
At the time, Dixon was in his early 20s, it was the '70s, and he himself was involved in the recording industry, cutting his own records along the way. While the jukeboxes kicked off, Dixon was also working a day job in the world of television – something he used to his advantage
"I was working at Channel Nine at this stage, in videotape, and I started advertising for records for the jukeboxes," he recalls. "Then I got all these 45s, LPs, and things like that, and I decided, 'I think I've got enough stuff to open a shop.'"
Open a shop he did. The first store opened in Blackburn, where he lived at the time, and was staffed by family and friends while he worked his job at Channel Nine.
At first it was named Dixon Used Records, then Dixon Record Exchange, before taking on the now-familiar name of Dixon Recycled Records.
Somewhat confusingly, the store’s logo calls them ‘Dixons Recycled’ and customers often simply call the store/s ‘Dixon’s’ – though this seems rather inconsequential given that its namesake admits it could've easily been called anything else.
"Pretty soon, I was taking in enough money to give up my day job," Dixon recalls. "Then I went full time. Being in the media, I knew about advertising, so I began advertising for more stock on late night television.
"The stock started pouring into the shop, and then it just grew from there."
In those early days, however, Dixon admits he didn't have "any great expectations" at all. However, he seemed to notice something was going right when Hugh Fowler – owner of the dearly-missed Batman Records – came into the store one night.
"I thought, 'I must be making a dent in their business,'" Dixon remembers.
Given that a store out in Blackburn was full on Friday and Saturday nights, it became clear that he was outgrowing that initial location.
The original Blackburn store opened in 1976, and a few moves occurred over the years. The most recent of these moves took place in 2010, and since then, the flagship store has been located at 100 Railway Rd.
However, the popularity of the Dixon's model would eventually result in expansion.
On one hand, this was due to the fact that as CDs found themselves coming onto the market, music-lovers were offloading their vinyl collections in favour of these shiny new discs.
"The '80s was the best time for getting stock," Dixon remembers. "And I always looked at it like, if I don't get stock, I'll never sell it. The '80s were the best time because of this.
"So I just cruised through the '90s, but I put everything through the books, I hated paying tax, and I knew that I was making a profit. So what I did was, I thought instead of just giving the tax department all my money, I'm going to open up new stores.
"I'd get all the stock, and I'd open up a new store, and that'd cost quite a lot of money to open other stores," he remembers. "But it kept me going as far as not having to pay too much tax."
At its peak, the Dixon's brand featured five stores, including those in the suburbs of Fitzroy, Prahran, Camberwell, and Dandenong.
The Prahran store would close its doors in 2011 as it amalgamated its stock with the Camberwell location, and when Dandenong closed in 2012, it was just another year before Camberwell followed suit.
Meanwhile, the long-standing Fitzroy location would move from Brunswick Street in 2021 to the nearby locale of Northcote’s High Street.
"I was starting to employ people, so we were paying tax through all that sort of thing and expanding," he remembers. "And I thought one day I'll be able to just sit back and say, 'Well, I've got enough stores, five stores, and I'll retire.'
"But it didn't work out that way because GST stuffed up the secondhand record business. It virtually took 10% off the top, so that's when we started down-sizing. I had to sack staff and all that sort of thing, so now we're down to two."
Partial internal views of Dixon Recycled Records' Blackburn store (above) and Northcote store (below). (Credit: Supplied)
While the closure of the first stores began to take place just a few years after the global financial crisis, and 11 years after GST was introduced to Australia, Dixon points to rising costs and a lack of profits as the reason for the down-sizing.
"Rent started to really climb, and we weren't making a lot of profit," he admits. "It's a very labour-intensive business. "I suppose we pay a third of the cost of the record, so if you put one out for $9, you're paying $3. That's basically how it averaged out.
"Then another third was wages, and then the other third was running costs; electricity, plastics, rents, and a million other things."
Despite this, Dixon managed to make it all work. He also created his own software for the secondhand retail market, given that the likes of QuickBooks and other software "did not do anything for the secondhand market".
However, while the day-to-day minutiae of running a business might give rise to the airing of a few grievances here and there, Dixon notes that there were also plenty of positive memories as well.
One of those is arguably the biggest collection that the store had ever acquired – a collection so large it even made the local newspapers. However, it could have easily gone south.
"We hired quite a large van, I went to this house, and every room was stacked from floor to ceiling with records," he recalls. "But they weren't laying on their edge, they were flat."
For the uninitiated, proper storage of records involves keeping them upright, with collectors often storing them with spines showing as one would curate a library. If stacked on top of each other, the cumulative weight of those above each piece can cause irreversible damage to those below.
"We thought, 'Oh God, they're going to be bloody rooted,'" he remembers. "But we worked out a deal, it was a deceased estate, and we distributed it to the five stores.
"And it turned out that they were in mint condition. Because the thing is, people that had so many records, they couldn't play them all."
He also remembers another deceased estate which was a "house full of records" and the previous owner hadn't even owned a turntable. "There were some pretty amazing vinyl collections out there," Dixon remembers.
On that note, Dixon can't specify any particular surprise finds, or 'holy grails' that may have come through the stores over the years, but he does recall hoping that the infamous 'Butcher sleeve' (the original, highly valuable pressing of The Beatles' Yesterday And Today) would find its way into the shop.
"That never happened," he admits glumly. "But occasionally you get records that you can get a couple of thousand bucks for."
The Beatles are actually responsible for one of the other most memorable moments in the history of Dixon Recycled Records.
Back when the Blackburn store was located at 64 Railway Road in the early '90s, Dixon – along with his brother Peter and longtime staffers Doug and Chris – co-founded a Beatles cover band.
Fittingly-dubbed The Repeatles, and featuring then-security lead Phil Johnson on lead vocals, the group practiced and performed in the store.
David was on guitar, Peter took on bass, Chris was on lead guitar, and while all of the string players also offered vocals, a recent Facebook post about the event remembers that while Doug was on drums, one of his talents was "definitely not vocals".
"We didn't ever try to look like The Beatles, but we certainly tried to sound like them," Dixon remembers. "And we did a bloody good job actually; it was great fun.
"It lasted through the '90s and then we disbanded and just followed our own other musical things."
Dixon still plays music, having also taken up double bass, though it doesn't seem as though there will be any reunions of The Repeatles as the store celebrates its 50th anniversary.
On Saturday, October 10th, Dixon Recycled Records will throw open the doors to its Blackburn and Northcote stores, offering a special 20% off store-wide sale as customers dig through five decades worth of new and second-hand music.
In the lead-up, the team have been digging through the archive to share old photos of the store and its staff, but they've also been asking customers to share in the love.
Launching their #Dixons50years campaign, customers, friends, or even casual collectors or music are being asked to share their own stories and memories of the store.
For this writer, Dixon's was the one constant as I made trips over from Adelaide to Melbourne, with all of the stores being perused until the music-collection was well-stocked, and airline baggage handlers were struck down by the unexpected increase in weight they had to handle on the return flight.
These days, this writer lives in Melbourne, and can point towards their favourite find being a long-sought after cassette copy of The Lucksmiths' 1993 debut. Entire artist collections have been made possible by Dixon's, and more of the store's red and white price tags adorn the shelves than childhood photos.
That last point isn't an isolated incident, however.
"When I was in Melbourne last, I went into a big market store," Dixon remembers. "I saw all these records and I thought, 'Oh, I'll go look through them.'
"I picked one up, I thought, 'Oh, I want this one,' then I got it home and I noticed it's got my bloody sticker on the back."
This writer’s copy of The Lucksmiths’ ‘First Tape’, complete with Dixon’s sticker.
These days, Dixon himself is semi-retired, and as he speaks to The Music, it's while he overlooks an "amazing view" of Flinders Island.
He has his own memories of the countless hours spent in the stores, and while he admits he couldn't be at all of them all of the time, he points toward his staff as the "most amazing part" of the journey.
"The times we've had together and the trust we've had in each other," he pinpoints. "I don't look at myself as the big boss man, you know? We've all got our part to play, we're all equal, and it's become like a family.
"Julie, she's at Blackburn and is the manager of the whole lot. You just trust them better than family."
As a peek behind the curtain, this author actually applied for a job at the now-relocated Fitzroy location of Dixon's many years ago – ultimately getting down to the final two applicants.
Though Dixon himself refers to the question in the interview that likely proved to be my downfall as "a bit sneaky", we share a laugh about the fact it hasn't resulted in any bitterness, or stopped my frequent patronising of their stores.
In fact, we agree my failing the application likely proved to be a blessing in disguise, whether it be for reasons of pursuing music journalism instead or simply saving my finances from depletion due to easy access to stock.
However, the downside was – of course – being unable to join the same family that Dixon gushes over.
"My staff are bloody fantastic," he continues. "Chris and Doug have been with me forever.
"The difference between this business and say, a building business or something else. They have an apprentice in there, the apprentice learns the trade, and then he goes off and works for himself.
"But this is totally different," he adds. "It's a vocation, all the staff are just totally tied to it."
Much like Dixon himself when he founded the store, the staff have followed hobbies and passions into a lifelong vocation. "It's their love, and that's why they're in it," he adds. "And if they don't love the business, then they disappear."
After 50 years of operations, Dixon Recycled Records has managed to carve out a special place in the heart of Melbourne's music scene.
Many customers who patronised the store five decades ago are still returning regularly, and new generations of music-lovers have also become familiar faces as the years have gone by.
Dixon admits he might have made some mistakes in some aspects of his life over the years ("multiple marriages and all that sort of crap," he laughs), but when it comes to the enduring success of the store, he points out that he's always managed to do the right thing.
"If I had advice for my younger self, I would say, 'Dude, you did the right thing,'" he admits. "I followed my uncle's suggestion of making your hobby the business, I followed the financial guy saying to buy and sell. They made the suggestions for me, I followed them, and it's been great.
"On a personal front, I've fucked up everywhere, but business-wise, no," he continues. "We still rent, but I don't even think that we should have bought our own storefronts. I spoke to someone about this and they said, 'Look, you're in the record business, you're not in the real estate business.'
"So I concentrated on that, and I think I've done the right thing."
Dixon Recycled Records celebrates its 50th anniversary with a special 20% store-wide discount at its Blackburn and Northcote stores in Melbourne on Saturday, October 10th.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
