CHELSEA, VIENNA. SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2015
I am a big fan of flea markets. It is great to walk from stand to stand and to browse around the stuff that is offered for sale. The icing on the cake, of course, is if you have the chance to visit a flea market that is dedicated to vinyls and CDs. Exactly such an event took place at the time-honored Viennese music venue, Chelsea, on Sunday, May 3. Located beneath the subway tracks (yes, one underground line in Vienna goes overground) Chelsea has been providing unforgettable gigs and legendary outings for almost 20 years by now.
I arrived there about an hour after the official opening time, which was probably good, because I was told that there were a lot of people gathering at Chelsea. Where people are usually dancing and bands are playing, the vendors had built up small stands and put out boxes filled with LPs and singles. The genres that could be found there ranged widely. All kind of musical styles could be discovered, should it be Indie, blues, jazz, singer songwriter, folk, country, dance, electro, punk, metal or Latin. Each stand had its little portable record player with them and people could ask to briefly listen to a record that they were interested in. The place was pretty crowded and even if I sometimes had to queue in order to rummage through a box of vinyls, it was a pleasant time to see other music enthusiasts looking for some rarities or hidden treasures as well.
It was a very chilled and laid back Sunday afternoon atmosphere, with the Premier League and Austrian Bundesliga being broadcasted in the front rooms of the club. Some people came to watch soccer and enjoy a few drinks, others showed up solely for the records and some folks combined both.
I ended up buying four LPs, from whose I have to point out one. Mance Lipscomb – “Texas Songster Vol 2”. I had never heard of him, but I was completely attracted by the cover and the text on the backside. It is an absolutely fantastic recording, on which Mance Lipscomb is singing and interpreting traditional blues and Boogie Woogie songs from the 1910s and 1920s – a time when blues was still blues. A time when blues was inextricably linked with the African-American lives in the deep south of the America.
Records like this make such events so special. You always discover something you would have never come across. The next vinyl flea market is taking place at the Bunkerei at Augarten in Vienna on May 24. I am stoked that the vinyl is not dying; on the contrary it has been experiencing a revival over the past years and is probably more popular than ever. I sincerely hope that it will continue like this.
Purchased vinyls:
Mance Lipscomb – Texas Songster Volume 2
J.J. Cale – Okie
The Mojomatics – Songs For Faraway Lovers
Medication – This Town
Chelsea
I arrived there about an hour after the official opening time, which was probably good, because I was told that there were a lot of people gathering at Chelsea. Where people are usually dancing and bands are playing, the vendors had built up small stands and put out boxes filled with LPs and singles. The genres that could be found there ranged widely. All kind of musical styles could be discovered, should it be Indie, blues, jazz, singer songwriter, folk, country, dance, electro, punk, metal or Latin. Each stand had its little portable record player with them and people could ask to briefly listen to a record that they were interested in. The place was pretty crowded and even if I sometimes had to queue in order to rummage through a box of vinyls, it was a pleasant time to see other music enthusiasts looking for some rarities or hidden treasures as well.
It was a very chilled and laid back Sunday afternoon atmosphere, with the Premier League and Austrian Bundesliga being broadcasted in the front rooms of the club. Some people came to watch soccer and enjoy a few drinks, others showed up solely for the records and some folks combined both.
I ended up buying four LPs, from whose I have to point out one. Mance Lipscomb – “Texas Songster Vol 2”. I had never heard of him, but I was completely attracted by the cover and the text on the backside. It is an absolutely fantastic recording, on which Mance Lipscomb is singing and interpreting traditional blues and Boogie Woogie songs from the 1910s and 1920s – a time when blues was still blues. A time when blues was inextricably linked with the African-American lives in the deep south of the America.
Records like this make such events so special. You always discover something you would have never come across. The next vinyl flea market is taking place at the Bunkerei at Augarten in Vienna on May 24. I am stoked that the vinyl is not dying; on the contrary it has been experiencing a revival over the past years and is probably more popular than ever. I sincerely hope that it will continue like this.
Purchased vinyls:
Mance Lipscomb – Texas Songster Volume 2
J.J. Cale – Okie
The Mojomatics – Songs For Faraway Lovers
Medication – This Town
Chelsea