Lawson’s Record Centre

It’s just like High Fidelity.
Exactly, I mean its as if it was a conscious thing to replicate Cusack’s shop.
True there is no Jack Black type but everything else is eerily similar.
And why is there always someone browsing the ‘F’ section when you want to browse the ‘F’ section?
Unfortunately they didn’t have Fat Belly Jones and I’ll have to keep looking.

I used to be obsessed with bad horror films. Didn’t want a bar of the good ones. No, it was the low grade, bloody, nudity ridden, gore fests I was into.
That was a long time ago. I look back at my years as a teenager eager to see these things and cringe. Now I can’t stand gore and excess blood in a film puts me off.
But if there was one positive outcome from that whole experience it was that, in my search for low budget horror films, I had to venture away from the main stream shops; I had to search for somewhere that stocked such atrocities. I would have to go, second hand!
I found a place called Lawson’s Records, (by accident), I had been recommended to go to Egg Records on Pitt Street (Now gone.) and I had accidentally stumbled into the nearby Lawson’s. A brightly coloured yellow shop.
Stocked full of DVDs you would only ever dream of finding on VHS, old films from the 60’s, films that you were surprised even got a release; a shameless excuse to have a demon ghost thing crash a slumber party with his pneumatic drill that was shaped like a guitar. This place had, and still has, everything!
Cd’s, DVDs and now Blu-Ray’s too, the place is full of them. Unusual titles, imported films, low prices and more come in everyday.
I went there recently to buy a copy of Fincher’s ‘Se7en’… $ 5! I got to the counter with my find, the man serves me, not amazing customer service, which I love! He’s there to sell DVDs not befriend me and he fulfills this duty to a T. The other guy, a younger guy stands shrink-​wrapping the new arrivals, it’s as though the constant flow of DVDs and Cd’s never stops. It’s like a river, it’s beautiful.

The closest analogue this city has to High Fidelity, the record store from the movie of the same name, is probably Lawson’s Record Centre. Over the last few years, the big chain Sanity, HMV and Virgin stores have dropped off the map. Smaller stores like Birdland Records on Pitt Street have vanished and the tiny chains like HUM and Fish have a marginal presence in the CBD, leaving JB Hifi and Red Eye contending for two very different ends of the market. Lawson’s finds itself on the fringes, a place given best to flipping through the racks and seeing what comes of it.
I have a lot of friends with vast CD collections and large stereos which make a clattering noise every 40 minutes or so as a disc is changed. For some, the impetus to continue a record collection is important and Lawson’s thrives on the impulse of scanning a record bin, only to find something and think «Dang, I’ve always wanted to hear The Bells by Lou Reed!!!». The store has a strong collection of both CDs and vinyl albums and singles. For tapeheads, there is a smattering of cassettes here and there. Lawson’s also stocks a range of DVDs, with a particular focus on cult classics. As an aficionado of blaxploitation and grindhouse movies, the selection always provides ample inspiration for my next viewing.
The shop fittings are pretty sparse but there’s a quaint charm to it and the mural of records on the back wall is a cute touch. Even if you’ve made the leap to the iTunes way of thinking, there’s always fun to be had in tactile browsing. Not to mention that these secondhand CDs are cheaper than downloads and you can make MP3s out of them. And you get a fun shiny circle to play with later.