The “Spring Revival” will feature a plethora of audio products presented by local distributor Magic Zoo Audio, who says that he’ll be bringing in several brands and models of all of the following:

• amps
• pre-amps (tube and solid state)
• loudspeakers
• DACs
• turntables
• music servers
• USB headphone amps
• phono stages
• phono cartridges
• loudspeaker and interconnect cabling
• RCA plugs
• banana plugs
• record weights
• isolation cones
• diffusors and traps
• room treatments
• … and more

Also featured in the show will be a seminar dealing with the analogue to digital process presented by a long-time audiophile who formed the very first audiophile club in the Edmonton area back in the 1970s. We’re very pleased to have Brian Zwicker on board for this segment of the event!

It’ll be a sell-out so pre-registration is going to be prerequisite!

More details to follow as they put all the info together, but if you’re anywhere within decent driving distance of Edmonton it’s a “two-fer” weekend you should not miss!

Door prize and silent auction items are starting to roll in, with contributions from Magic Zoo Audio, Hammertone Audio (Allnic), Musical Paradise, Blackbyrd Myoozik and TimberTone Audio, as well as several private donations from Black Hat Desperaudio members and from the BHD associate chapter, The BAGs (Bitter Audio Gals)!
More as it happens!

For more information on this event, please contact Jac of Black Hat Desperaudios at revival@interbaun.com or by phone at 780.463.1088.

The Fall 2012 Edmonton Music Collectors Show is an official CJSR Fundrive 2012 event! CJSR, which is non-profit radio, runs Fundrive every year as the centerpiece of their fundraising initiatives. Fundrive consists of a series of events to benefit the continued operation of CJSR. Check out their website for a full listing of events, including plenty of tasty live music shows. They’ve also got some cool swag available, which can be yours with a donation pledge.

CJSR will be on-site at the Edmonton Music Collectors Show on September 30 as part of Fundrive 2012. Stop by their table to peruse a selection of vinyl for sale, with proceeds going to Fundrive, or donate a pledge to held keep non-profit radio in Edmonton strong. You can also donate online through their website.

The Edmonton Music Collectors Show is Northern Alberta’s premiere event for buying, selling, and trading: rare, vintage, and collectible vinyl; music-related memorabilia, CDs, DVDs, books, and apparel; sheet music and guitar tab; audio equipment; and all things music-inspired! This event brings together passionate music appreciators of all ages and tastes interested in the city’s best selection of collectible items across every imaginable genre of music. It will feature 41 of the region’s highest calibre vendors, including vinyl and specialty retailers from Edmonton and Calgary, and some of Western Canada’s most prolific private collectors, all together in one place. Previous shows have seen upwards of 500 attendees.

Confirmed local retail vendors include Listen Records, Freecloud Records, and Permanent Records. Too North Records (who also organizes the sister Calgary Music Collectors Show) and Grant Fidelity audio equipment, both out of Calgary, are also confirmed as vendors. This fall’s show will see 13 first-time vendors who have never exhibited at the show before, as well as many familiar faces from the previous two shows. In addition to the recognizable retailers, many private collectors looking to thin our their own collections will also be vending their wares. Although the primary focus of the show continues to be vinyl, attendees will see a nice variety of memorabilia, collectibles, turntables, audio equipment, and other music-related merchandise.

The fall Edmonton Music Collectors Show will also see a change in venue. Organizers have moved from the Sherbrooke Community Hall to the Central Lions Seniors Recreation Centre in an effort to provide a larger, more spacious exhibit hall with more parking in an accessible central location for a more comfortable experience.

Local filmmaker Derek Owen will be on site at the show as part of his latest project, a short documentary on the vinyl collecting community. He will be interviewing both vendors and collectors about their experiences and passion for vinyl. As well, sponsor CJSR 88.5 FM will be including the Edmonton Music Collectors Show as an official 2012 Fundrive event.

The Edmonton Music Collectors Show is the brainchild of George Gawlak and Dave Chorley, two of Edmonton’s leading independent record collectors and two of the most knowledgable minds in buying, selling, and trading music in the city. They have exhibited in the past at the Edmonton Pop Culture Fair, the Calgary Music Collectors Show, and Love & Records in Lethbridge. The Edmonton Music Collectors Show is a community-based and community-building event. It is organized and run by a team of local music enthusiasts with a passion for building a community of Edmontonians and Albertans interested in all aspects of music collecting and appreciation to buy, sell, trade, network, and build relationships. The show has a positive, high-energy atmosphere.

All members of the news and entertainment media are welcome to a free admission press pass for this event. Please submit press pass and interview/coverage inquiries to the contact details provided below. For further information about the Edmonton Music Collectors Show, check out the website at http://www.edmontonmusiccollectorsshow.com.

For further information, please contact:

Kasia Gawlak
Marketing, Promotions & PR Coordinator
kasia@edmontonmusiccollectorsshow.com
780.996.2795

Edmonton Music Collectors Show

http://www.edmontonmusiccollectorsshow.com

Derek will be conducting interviews before, during, and after the show with both vendors and attendees about their love of vinyl and vinyl collecting in general, how they got into it, and what they like about it. This is a great opportunity for anyone involved in our show and anyone who loves to collect vinyl to let the world know about our city’s passion for and commitment to the music collecting community.

We’re excited to participate in this project, and we look forward to seeing Derek’s film!

All your favourite Edmonton and Calgary retail vendors, like Permanent Records, Listen Records, Freecloud Records, Too North Records, and Grant Fidelity will be back once again. We’ll also have quite a few first-time vendors who are new to the show, including 70s Rock Photos, who will be selling a wide variety of original photographs from concerts in the 70s, 80s, and beyond.

As well, EMCS Fall 2012 is an official event on CJSR‘s Fundrive schedule. As our sponsor, CJSR will have a table at the show and will be selling some records, taking pledges, and possibly a few other special events in order to raise money for the coming year. Don’t forget to stop by and see them, make a pledge, and help support non-profit, volunteer-driven radio in Edmonton.

Ela, the restaurant inside the Lions Seniors Centre, will be open throughout the show to serve snacks and beverages to showgoers. We’re certain this will be our best show ever, and we look forward to seeing you all there again this fall!

We are excited to officially announce details for the upcoming Fall 2012 Edmonton Music Collectors Show on September 30, 2012 at the Central Lions Seniors Recreation Centre!

Yes, we are changing venues. The demand was there. We said after the first show that we might have to look at getting a bigger venue the next time around, as we definitely noticed how tight it was inside the Sherbrooke Community Hall at peak times. It could be hard to move around, and there was definitely a lot of shoulder to shoulder action happening on the floor. We’ve also had a lot of interested vendors on our waiting list for both previous shows now, and wanted to expand to accommodate more vendors. This will only broaden the selection of interesting vinyl, memorabilia, and collectibles for the community of collectors attending the show.

It took some time, but we were finally able to secure a larger venue in line with both our space requirements and our budget. The bright, modern, well-lit, and newly renovated Central Lions Seniors Recreation Centre is almost twice as big as the Sherbrooke Community Hall. As a result, we’ll be able to offer two sizes of vendor tables at two different price points, and add an additional 20 vendor slots. Hall capacity is much bigger at the new venue, which will definitely mean less crowding and a more comfortable show experience for everyone.

The new venue is in a more central location closer to downtown, just off of 111 Ave on 113 Street, not far from Kingsway Garden Mall. It is close to transit access and has plenty of on-site parking (unlike Sherbrooke). It also has an on-site restaurant called Ela, which will be open especially for the show serving drinks and snacks. Check out the Event Details page for more information.

Vendor registration for EMCS Fall 2012 is also now open! We’ve already received a lot of inquiries about vendor space for this show in advance, so we recommend booking as early as possible. Everything you need to know about registering as a vendor is on our Vendor Info page.

You can also follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook to keep up with all the latest. You can also RSVP to EMCS Fall 2012 on Facebook. See you on September 30!

Jack White suggests vinyl affords a more “reverential” experience than digital because listeners are less apt to fast-forward, skip, and click their way through an album. LPs, by contrast, are described by the noted musician as having “an inherent romance.”

Kasia Gawlak credits that visceral response — and the capacity for records to psychically link her to music’s history — for getting her heart pumping faster. Alongside her father, whose album collection tops 10,000, she helps organize the annual Edmonton Music Collectors Show as a way of sharing her passion with others.

“We see people over 60 who are re-experiencing their youth, and we also see teenagers who’ve gotten into this,” says Gawlak, 34. “It really spans the generations.”

But bewitched as she is by black magic, Gawlak keeps one foot firmly planted in the digital universe.

“It’s nice when artists (provide mp3s) with their releases because it allows you not only to collect the record but also to have access to the album at any time,” says Gawlak. “People of my generation want to be able to put all their music onto their smartphone.”

Music enthusiasts, clear some space in your collections and prepare yourselves for the city’s second annual Music Collectors Show, to be held at Sherbrooke Community Hall on April 22.

The show, organized by local music collectors George Gawlak and Dave Chorley, gives Edmonton’s top music retailers and independent vendors a chance to showcase sales items to collectors from across Alberta. The show also gives music fans exposure to a smorgasbord of vinyl, CDs, cassettes, books, posters, apparel and just about every other kind of music memorabilia you could possibly imagine.

Gawlak reignited the idea to throw an annual music collector’s show in Edmonton a dozen years after a similar event that used to be hosted in the city had ceased to exist.

[...]

“It got to the point where I think that most of us here in town, most of the collectors all kind of knew each other, and we’d been talking about putting this together again to sort of resurrect it. And then finally last year was the first time we did it,” Gawlak said.

[...]

Gawlak described the first show as a “roaring success,” giving credit to the flourishing resurgence of vinyl, a format that was believed to have grown obsolete as compact discs emerged in the 1990s, but began to see new life within the last few years.

“The last three years or so it’s been astronomical,” said Kris Burwash, owner of Listen Records. “Five years ago or so I was selling 90 per cent CDs and now it’s 90 per cent vinyl…I think part of it is there’s the tail end of kids that grew up with vinyl at home, but I think the biggest factor is more the digital stuff really made people able to consume a lot of music but as people are getting a little older and whatnot they’re realizing that listening to a hundred albums a month isn’t as exciting as just really getting to know a few albums.”

[...]

Like Gawlak, Burwash believes that there is something enticing about seeking out a tangible stock of tunes by your favourite bands and musicians, as opposed to logging on to torrent websites and downloading complete discographies to your hard drive. Burwash said that this is where the line is drawn between simply wanting to listen to music and collecting it.

“At this point, if you’re still buying music you’re collecting,” Burwash said, “and if you’re going to collect, vinyl’s definitely more collectible across the board. There are limited editions and coloured vinyl and all kinds of bells and whistles, and frankly, you don’t get that with CDs.”

[...]

Gawlak also said that much of the appeal comes from the actual process of putting a record on to play.

“Pulling that record out and holding it in your hands and putting it on the turntable — there’s sort of a certain process you go through and I think that adds to the listening pleasure.”

[...]

Gawlak and Burwash both noted that it’s been interesting to see the various age groups that vinyl has attracted over the past few years, saying that the format has basically bridged the gap between generations. Young people are looking to invest in turntables for the first time while their elders are digging their antiquated players out of basements, dusting them off and replacing worn out old needles with new ones.

“You see younger people getting into it, and older people even,” Burwash said. “I find a lot of guys coming in that sold off all their records in the ‘80s and ‘90s and now they’re getting back into it. Their kids got into vinyl and now they’re getting back into it and they’ll come in with their kids and they’re both buying the same records. Over the last 10 years it’s been interesting to watch my customer base actually getting a bit older.”

[...]

“[This year] we’ve got vendors coming in from BC, up from Calgary, from Saskatchewan so there should be an injection of new stuff, which will be great for all the music collectors,” Gawlak said.

[...]

Collectors and vendors from Edmonton and area might just be lucky enough to catch the show again this year, some time in the fall. Gawlak said that there are plans to make the event bi-annual, with regular spring and fall dates.

“We had one last April, but the demand has been such from both collectors and vendors that we’re definitely going to put on a show in the fall as well.”

“Right now, all of the 40 vendor tables [we have] were just about sold out around Christmas,” he said. “We have a waiting list of about another dozen people. We could have had perhaps 60 or 70 tables and we can only accommodate 40 at Sherbrooke. So I can see this being quite popular and we want to give everybody the opportunity to participate if they want to.”