When Beat asks Paul Allen, part owner of Record Paradise (his wife, Renae Maxwell is the other), to name a particularly memorable moment in the store’s six-and-a-half-year existence, he at first struggles to single any out because there are simply too many, but it doesn’t take long for them to begin pouring out: Jay Mascis purchasing books that, once he’d read, would give away to other bands at festivals; Josh Homme buying heaps of Australian vinyl after filming rage in-store, or Beat’s own Dan Watt being hogtied on stage during a live performance in their carpark. But to Allen, moving quite literally the entire store from St Kilda to their current address in Brunswick, to open just in time for Record Store Day in 2013 was an enormous feat.
“We’d been painting all night, two weeks before we really should’ve opened,” he recalls. “It’s not anything I’d recommend to people. It nearly killed us,” he adds, laughing. Record Paradise was an independent record store in St Kilda, which was originally established in 1955. After moving over 20,000 records with the help of friends and Record Paradise devotees, they were happy to have relocated to the northern suburbs.
For both Maxwell and Allen, their passions for music and vinyl run deep, and it’s what brought them together as a couple. “My husband and I met when we were 18, and we’re both huge fans of music, we’re probably indie music nerds,” laughs Maxwell. “He was a Smiths collector and I collected Go-Betweens and Depeche Mode… that was before we ever thought we’d own a record store.”
Record Paradise specialise in new release vinyls and re-issues, in addition to a huge archival collection – around 10,000 records – everything from jazz, nostalgia, Australian, to country, which Maxwell describes as the backbone to the shop.
Needless to say, Record Paradise has become a Melbourne institution, and despite visits from the aforementioned gods of the music industry, the rush of meeting an idol a feeling that’s still not lost on Maxwell. “Just a moment ago, I blushed, went all gaga and could hardly even speak because Nick Turner came into the store,” she says. “I own some of his artwork, I had interviewed him on radio before and I was at the Dirty Three gig at Meredith with that famous rainstorm, he feels like an old friend, so moments like that happen all the time and it’s strange being a music fan and not someone that’s from a band, just engaging with people like that in a different context, I go a bit funny,” she chuckles.
Allen, on the other hand, originally collected cassettes, and the first music he ever purchased was The Boomtown Rats 1979 album The Fine Art of Surfacing. But it was the purchase of David Bowie’s Hunky Dory (1971) in the early ‘80s that really kicked off his vinyl obsession. “It was such a pivotal moment,” he says. “I was taken away with it.”
In celebration of Record Store Day 2015, Record Paradise are putting on an amazing day, with live, in-store performances from Orb, Oh Mercy and Fraser A Gorman, in addition to 7” lucky dips and guest DJs.
Ultimately for Allen and Maxwell, owning and operating Record Paradise is truly a labour of love. “It’s a real pleasure to sell people music,” says Allen. “The people who come in here are here to buy music, not steal it. It’s a really nice feeling.”
