Collecting music memorabilia
Writing Prompt: What’s in your music memorabilia collection??
I recently had a brief discussion with a friend about bits and pieces we collect throughout our lives. Some people collect stamps, coins, first edition books, vinyl records, seashells, baseball cards, cheese knives, or woodworking tools.
And of course, some people just collect (or accumulate?) rubbish, junk, bad debts and worse habits!
Members of my extended family collect things such as elephants (just the small-ish carved types!), giraffes (ditto!), tea pots, and pill boxes (200 plus and counting). I’ve been known to collect a few things in the past as well. The photo below shows a sample of my collection of electrical insulators. I collected most of these in remote parts of the country where old telegraph and power lines had fallen into disrepair. It’s a small collection of about 50, of all shapes, sizes and colours, and they decorate the tops of my home office bookshelves.
Music memorabilia
Our conversation moved on to music memorabilia. We each have modest collections in the grand scheme of collections, but those bits and pieces we do have represent significant times or events in our lives, carry a lot of personal meaning, and are considered priceless.
I figured that there are probably many music fans out there that collect music related items such as set lists, gig posters, ticket stubs, guitar picks, and broken instruments. I thought I would present and discuss a few of my treasured music memorabilia objects, and call upon fellow music fans to share theirs by way of a writing challenge. So please, tell us what you collect, and share your treasured pieces of music memorabilia with us!
Right, time to show you all a few bits and pieces from my collection.
I’ll kick off with a guitar pick I grabbed off the floor at the end of the Joe Satriani show I went to in Melbourne back in 1990. I looked at it and thought ‘oh yeah, it’s got his name on it, no big deal’, however, I turned it over and the other other side features the surfing alien from the album cover! Now that’s cool!
This next one hangs on my home office wall. I was a big fan of the band Spy v. Spy, a three piece rock band from Sydney. I saw them play live a lot in the mid to late 1980s, essentially whenever they were in Melbourne. I met the guys a few times, and they’d always say hello at each show. At one particular show, Cliff found an old drum head in a hired road case, he quickly drew the cartoon spy on it for me, the others signed it and they handed it over. It came with a pair of Cliff’s busted up sticks (check out that tree trunk stick he used with his right hand!!). To say I was pretty pleased with this gift would be an understatement!
Next, I present another drumstick. This one is a doozy. This stick was used by Nick Mason during a Pink Floyd show I went to in 1988.
My friend Erik and I saw Pink Floyd play twice in Melbourne, during the Momentary Lapse Of Reason tour. The band played a seven show run at the Rod Laver Arena, which holds about 15,000 people (the arena is the centre court for the tennis Australian Open).
At the conclusion of the show, as the crowd filed out of the arena, I led Erik down the front to have a look at the stage setup. We were there just eyeballing the gear, the lights, and everything that made the show great. Some crew members were already tidying up, but not packing up, because the shows were still going. I politely grabbed the attention of a crew member and asked if there were any broken sticks we could salvage as souvenirs. He went up to Nick’s kit, grabbed two sticks, came down to the barrier and handed them to me. I thanked him profusely! I looked at Erik and he couldn’t believe it. He was a huge PF fan. I handed him a stick. He nearly died. “Right,” I said, “we’ll never make it out alive if we just carry these in our hands — stick it up your jeans leg and down into your sock!”. We bailed out of the arena as quick as we could, walked (as fast as one could with a stick in one’s sock) to the nearby train station and rode the train home. A treasured item for each of us and a fun story!
My final selection for this story is my concert ticket stub collection from the 1980s. I tried to keep them all, but I know there are a few missing. There were some incredible shows in this lot.
- The Police and U2 in 1984 were just stunning for this 15-year-old.
- The last tour from Split Enz was a lot of fun but kind of sad.
- Springsteen played 31 songs over about three hours and never looked like he would run out of energy (or material).
- I enjoyed Dire Straits, but geez they’re boring old men.
- Multiple shows from Oils, Hunnas and Spys, my favourite Aussie bands of the 1980s.
- The big shows, Metallica, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, were just mind blowing.
Before I sign off, I wanted to share with you all a couple of photos of an amazing collection. The Basement is a brilliant live music venue in Canberra, and is one of my favourite places. With a room that holds 700 people, The Basement plays host to live music of all varieties multiple nights a week. It provides a place for local bands to play, and hosts sell-out shows for many of Australia’s bigger bands. The Basement has featured international acts such as Brian Jonestown Massacre, Earthless, The Wailers, DragonForce, 1000 Mods, Jeff Martin, Kadavar, Philip H. Anselmo & the Illegals, Prong, Luka Bloom, Shonen Knife, and many others.
The Basement’s ceiling and walls are adorned with autographed guitars and basses, donated by bands that have played there. The collection is up to 140 guitars and counting. It looks quite extraordinary, as you sit or stand underneath the guitars, looking up to read the names. It’s not something I’ve seen or heard of before. As the collection grows the instruments are essentially now occupying any available wall hanging space. [Ok, so it’s not like the Hard Rock Hotels/Cafes, that have 86,000 items in their collection, but it’s still pretty awesome!]
Thanks for reading this far. While you’re here, you might enjoy these pieces:
