Introduction: One of the most underrated vinyl shops in the UK and Europe in my opinion. Time to give DnR credit where it’s due. They sell strictly 100% vinyl ranging back over 20 years till the present day. Catering largely for the UKG audience, however they cover all related genres such as 90’s house, grime, funky, bassline and the odd jungle and drum-n-bass bits. Knowledge is king when you speak to Dan. The word connoisseur doesn’t do him and the shop justice. There aren’t many places like this left anywhere in the world that can cater for this type of audience. They have a vast amount of vinyl for both the old and new generations. It’s time for a brief chat, history lesson and an insight into his world.

Audio interview is below, accompanied by photographs and selected quotes. Enjoy.

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Interview Hightlights

20 seconds: One of main stores left in the UK that specialise in Garage, House-n-Garage, especially some of the US stuff and 95 onwards, all the way up until present day really. But we mainly specialise in stuff from 95 to 2001.

54 seconds: We’ve got a small shop here in Croydon. But our main business comes from Worldwide through our website, www.dnrvinyl.co.uk

1:11min: Our website was set up in 2002. So we’ve been doing it for a long time.

1:29min: Been pretty much buying and selling vinyl since 16, so I’m 33 now so it’s a long time.

2:00min: As long as people still carry on buying vinyl, then there’s probably no need for us to switch MP3 just yet. And it would sort of take away from the main reason as to why we set up in the first place, which was for people to get the vinyl, that was really obscure, rare and deleted vinyl that you can’t really get any more.

4:10min: I mean we’re still here! It’s not easy selling vinyl by any stretch of the imagination

4:25min: When we started out and we had our first store, there was a few of us here. Big Apple, Swag and another couple. Uptown was massive, Black Market was massive…….. but in Croydon, I think we’re pretty much the last ones standing. But like I say we’ve sort of…. we’re sort of known as more of a place where people come to get their vinyl, but don’t tell anyone else that we’re here, because they see us as one of the main resources to get these vinyl that you’re not necessarily gonna be able to pick up these anywhere else.

5:57min: Sometimes it’s heart over head when you’re running a business…. As long as you’re happy doing it and you can live… that’s always been one of our main principles behind what we do.

6:20min: For me it was always Big Apple. I can remember being at school and thinking I’ve gotta get out of here and just to get down to Apple to get those releases. Even to the stage where you’d ask your mum to go in there with pocket money to get your tune, because you knew some of them things would not be there. So Apple was where we used to hang out.

7:34min: Listening to EZ on Freek in the early days before he blew up.

8:14min: The garage sound in my opinion has always been under the main stream radar….. but it always has. You can hear elements of garage in all the production in some of newer genres that have come out.

10:10min: A lot of the garage stuff has stood the test of time. Especially along the lines of the Tuff Jam and the Groove Chronicles stuff. These bits I think are never gonna get old.

11:18min: I think there’s probably about 25,000 in the shop. It’s a bit of a monster in terms of keeping it organised, sometimes it is our best asset.

12:10min: People come in here and they don’t realise the extent of the collection we’ve got in here.

13:34min: There’s a couple of Tuff Jam bits and pieces I like to play. The first one is ‘Feel My Heart’ from Tuff Jam Vol.1

14:20min: Making Me Feel Urban Myths remind me of old skool Heartless sets.

14:33min: Night and Day EP- Damien C

14:50min: Epic by Groove Chronicles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKmek_mYXN0

16:20min: If you can master the art of mixing vinyl….. For me playing vinyl is definitely an art.

17:11min: Have the struggle of playing vinyl is making sure you’re in time.

18:50min: Even DJs like Z, when he did his boilerroom session, he still drawled for his vinyl as well. If Z still doing it then… must be doing something right then.

20:03min: I like what some of the newer labels are doing, like Butterz. Some of their 2step productions I think are great. People like Royal T & Flava D.

20:30min: We’ve collaborated with a few of the names over the years. People like like Todd, Todd Edwards, Underground Solutions, Carl Brown, Noodles, El-B, yeah we’ve done a lot.

21:26min: It’s hard to sell music on vinyl.

22:22min: Back to 95 is always the main sort of house and garage related rave…… Croydon had a few big nights that were put on at the Blue Orchid and that.

24:05 min: It’s a bit of a museum now, full of memories. It’s always good to see what people are doing.

25:26min: You see kids coming in fifteen, sixteen who’ve just got their first decks you know!… I’d like to think we’re quite a friendly face and that anyone that walks in we’re all help them out and give them a price.

26:09min: It’s a where a lot of people met and done deals even. A lot of networking was done in these shops. I think the internet has killed that off slightly.

26:50min: It’s always nice to have a bit of interaction with the customer.

28:25min: Hopefully we’ll have a full on garage resurgence and hopefully it’ll be on vinyl.

3. Living with Vinyl – Oliver Sudden
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1. Living with Vinyl – DJ Dougie