Meet Hon, owner of the Vinyl Pimp record store in Hackney Wick, who last month stumbled upon a haul of 24,000 classic dance records in a garage in Essex.
Almost exclusively confined to the golden era between 1983 and 1993 where soul, disco, hip hop, house and techno coalesced, the collection represents potentially one of the most complete archives of the evolution of dance music. As Hon said at the time, “this is the jackpot”.
Now that the dust has settled, Vinyl Pimp have made it their business to share the collection with the world, whether they’re potential buyers or just curious to have a snoop around. Organising private viewings and now a full on party at London’s Oval Space to air his find, Hon seems somewhat mystified by the attention he’s received since buying up the haul (even BBC Radio 4’s corduroy Today programme dropped in). But then again, people do just love looking at loads and loads of records.
Check out the party here and check out The Vinyl Factory’s Record Sweep series, filmed at the Vinyl Pimp ‘wall of vinyl’ here.