Vanishing Point Records, run by Corey Lavender, is a wow find for anyone into vinyl LPs, music memorabilia, or a damn good natter about anything and everything. From forgetting the names of dinosaurs to the funky influence that Miles Davis’ wife had on him, it’s all here.
Corey, this ex-accountant that ditched his job for a five-hundred mile trek across Europe to find himself, and found the answer to ‘what next?’ Imagine sat listening to a repeat needle-jump on a much-played LP that sings the same riff over and over, until you get off your bum, take the walk, and lift the needle to the next track.
This is what Corey did. And, his bravery clearly paid off. Six years on and his shop is still growing, a radio studio planned by making a doorway into another room, a room that will see a community act of shared music space. Okay. Let’s ask Corey some random questions.
1. How did you become a DJ on Radio Free Matlock?
“The second day I opened the doors, this guy comes in. Got chatting, as I often do. And he says ‘Have you ever done radio?’. And I went ‘No’. And he goes ‘I run this radio station. You should check us out’. A couple of months later, he left and this thing was just going to die a death, and me and a couple of others said ‘Shall we just take it on?’ Six years later it’s still going. And, when I first said I’d sign up for a show, I thought ‘Well, it’ll never happen’. And it did. The day before I went live in the evening, I’ve never been as nervous in my whole life.” Photo: Corey Lavender at Vanishing Point Records, Chesterfield
2. Favourite gig you’ve been to?
"It’s gonna have to be Dylan. Friday the 13th, 2001. Stirling Castle in Scotland. Because, purely by chance, me and my best mate met him that day. Because we’d gone the wrong way. Turned out the wrong place at the right time. We kinda went in through this side entrance. All of a sudden, my mate said ‘Who’s that idiot in the cowboy hat?’ And I turned round… and it was Bob. And I was thinking ‘What do we do?’ We went up to him, and no-one else was there, and we were shaking his hand. He didn’t say a word to us. But he gave us what we wanted as Bob Dylan fans. We were garbling all kinds of rubbish, and he was nodding his head, looking us in the eye. And the only thing he said, because my mate said ‘Will you sign us this?’ and he was going for a pen, and his bodyguard said ‘Mr Dylan, we’ve got to go’, and he just shuffled his collar up and said ‘Cat’s gotta go’ and he shuffled off. And we were just stood there like ‘Did that just happen?’. So yeh, Friday the 13th, best day ever.” Photo: Inside Vanishing Point Records, Chesterfield
3. If you had to pick three favourite albums, what would they be?
"Okay. DJ Shadow. Endtroducing. From 1996. It really wasn’t my style of music when it came out. I read about it in the NME. And I thought ‘I’m going to give that a go’. I fell in love with it, straight away. Still now, I probably listen to it once a month. I think it still sounds fresh for what it is, made entirely of samples. Bob Dylan’s 1997 album Time Out Of Mind. Which is the first one I bought in real time. Which is when I got into him and went back and discovered his back catalogue. Okay. One more. Don’t pick Dylan, don’t pick Dylan… I think it’s going to have to be Miles Davis. Bitches Brew. It gives me a lot of things. I love jazz funk and blaxploitation. I like early Miles, Kinda Blue, and it’s great, but that’s like sensible Miles. And then, round about the time he was with Betty Davis the soul singer, and you can see he starts dressing like her, and mixing in different circles. Like a rock star. It’s kinda ramshackle. It’s lively. It is what it sounds like, loads of people just going for it. It’s chilled as well. I like that wakka-wakka guitar sound. It just chills.” Photo: Corey with one of his favourite albums: DJ Shadow, Endtroducing
4. What’s your opinion on the town centre debate?
“I hate negativity of any sort. I don’t get on with it. If you’re going to moan about it, you do something about it. When you look as us compared to other towns, we’re doing better. And people don’t do that, they look at us to what it used to be. Yes, the market isn’t as bustling as what it used to be, but that’s all of our faults. We all think ‘Oh, I’ll buy that online’ or ‘I’m not doing my food shopping on the market anymore’. It’s not going to happen. I’m going to get it delivered or I’m going to the supermarket. People moan and say ‘Oh, the council should lessen the rent’ and stuff like that, and I don’t think that’s the problem. I think our shopping habits are different.” Photo: Through the shop window at Vanishing Point Records, Chesterfield