Thirty five years is a long time to keep anything alive in the music business. A record store? That’s bordering on miraculous.
Doug Bear started Rare Records in Melbourne in 1991 as a mail-order business run from home, which quickly moved to a regular weekend market stall in Cheltenham. If an independent artist wanted Rare Records to stock their CD, Doug put it on the shelf. Some of those artists started hanging around the shop like it was a scene out of Clerks.
Members of Karnivool, Full Scale, Mammal, Rook, .hinge, Bushido and Sydonia became regular visitors. All of them would eventually play inside Rare Records. Then there were the slightly bigger visitors. Lamb Of God once brought 2200 people to an instore signing, the line stretching downstairs and around the block. They stayed for hours until every fan got what they needed. The Mars Volta wandered in one day and proceeded to spend thousands of dollars on vinyl. Another day, Doug‘s friend, legendary Tour Manager Steve Varga, arrived with the entire Osbourne family and every member of Ozzy Osbourne‘s band. There were appearances and signings from Stone Sour, Mr Bungle, Karnivool and countless others.
How do you celebrate 35 years of Rare Records and 25 years of its record label? You start by getting the family back together.
On Halloween, Rare Records will bring Mammal, Sydonia, .hinge, Bushido and Tyson & Forbes from Rook/The Khyber Belt together for one very special night celebrating not simply a record store or record label, but the people and music that grew around them.
After 35 years, countless records, thousands of independent releases, packed instores, international rock stars wandering through the doors, local bands playing between the racks and an entire generation of musicians and fans passing through its various incarnations, Rare Records is still here.
On Sale: Mon, Aug 24 @ 8.00am. Tickets HERE
