Interviews

We chat this month with one of the Dons of the vinyl/music realm, the great and good Sean P. For those that don’t know, Sean is a respected DJ, remastering king, record shop sensei and curator (often in collaboration with Joey Negro) of some of the most essential compilations of the past 25 years. Sean has dug deep into the histories of dance, jazz, soul, reggae, and funk, and has expanded the spectrum of knowledge and awareness of so much recorded music. Sean has had a significant influence on the development of many a DJ and producer, and we are happy to have him share some of his early formative record experiences.

Check out Sean’s discogs page.

- Dennis Kane

I am fortunate enough to have lived through a time when records were available almost everywhere. High streets, back streets, markets, supermarkets and major stores. Records and tapes were the only media that provided what you wanted to hear, when you wanted to hear it. Despite my unending capacity for trivia, I can't recall the first shop I visited that was devoted to selling strictly vinyl. At that point in my life specialty record shops seemed somewhat arcane, decorating their windows with sleeves I certainly didn’t see in Woolworth's or other general stores.

There was a soul & reggae shop just across the way from where I lived and occasionally, I'd look at the window display and wonder what these albums were like. A cover I distinctly remember was Just a Touch of Love by Slave, an album I was unfamiliar with, but one some of my school mates raved about.

My school was just around the corner from the Lambeth Walk and a few minutes away from the Decca Records building. The 'Walk” had two record shops, one of which, Harkin records, became my first regular haunt and it was there that I bought my first album Lowrell and 12" Rise by Herb Alpert, both of which I still own.

On market days there was also a stall which sold hit 45s which had dropped out of the charts for 50p each, so I bought many of my first 7”s there, Chic, Madness, The Specials.

The first swap happened on school grounds with a classmate named Russell. I got Theme from The Invaders/Firecracker by Yellow Magic Orchestra, though I have no memory of what I traded for it – this was around 1981. By the time I finished school, I was slim and gangly because I saved my lunch money to buy records. Four days savings got me a UK 12", 8 days for a US 12". The vinyl diet!

I was also going further afield to shops like Red in Brixton, and Moonfleet in Clapham. The specialist West End outlets like Bluebird, Groove, City Sounds and many others would follow in time. I have no idea when I last went to Harkin Records, but I recall going to the Lambeth Walk for the first time in years back in the '90s, the shop was gone, and the area had noticeably changed, but so had my record buying habits, which by this time had increased, considerably.

Some early finds:

• The Pioneers - Long Shot Kick de Bucket
• Light of the World - Time
• The Lowrell LP
• Herb Alpert - Rise