8.1.13

Vienna Calling:A Happy Hunter and Collector

 Reinhard Probst is a music fellow and record collector who lives and works in Vienna,Austria.We met a couple years ago during summer holidays and since then we are in touch in a regular basis  exchanging thoughts and information about our common passion:music.As i consider him a mastermind of the global psych scene of all eras, i asked him to be the first collector who would be presented here in a new circle for the blog and has to do with people that love and collect music and especially vinyl lovers.Rei, thanx a lot!

What do you collect and why?

 I´m collecting mostly psychedelic music from the 60`s till now.The reason for that kind of music are my first impressions whenI listened for the first time Jimi Hendrix when I was 10 years old, in autumn 1967 - I still do - but I think this was the basis for all coming afterwards. But I`ve listened  over the decades all styles of music (Jazz, Rock, Folk, Soul, Disco, Punk, Metall, etc.). But music with soundeffects, sitar or special instruments was from the beginning on my favorite style (for example: Beatles's Tomorrow Never Knows was much better for me than Eleanor Rigby or Yellow Submarine).My first records I bought from my pocket money were cheap soldout 7”es (Beatles Stones, Who, Doors) – I couldn`t  afford LPs in the 60´s.In the 60`s and early 70`s I got my wish LPs on birthday, easter, x-mas from my parents, uncles and aunts, grandpas and grandmas…
 And when my parents and me visited their parents in Germany I always came back with some vinyls – I remember when my grandpa went in a shopping center with me in early 1969 – I saw the new album Book of Taliesyn from Deep Purple – I was so happy when we went out – I got it!The  first LP I bought from my own money was Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Chile on Karussell-records in 1971. I still have it in my collection and on the innersleeve is written nr. 1……I had luck to have some years older friends.  They already had some of my  favorite records in their collection – so I recorded many vinyls on my tape-recorder…and bought  the vinyl  sometimes some years later.
Reinhard Probst

How big is your collection?

 I invite you to count them...It changes always - but in the moment I think about 4200-4500 CDs,2500 LPs, 400 singles, 500 tapes and maybe about 150 music DVDs and 200 music videos – my maximum on vinyl were about  4000 LPs  in the 2nd half of the 80`s – but I sold a lot of records to have more money for CDs – don`t  laugh about that – this is a very tragic episode in my life…

                                                                 What do you think itʼs worth? 



 Haha - no idea - besides the worth changes from year to year! And the value is not so important for me as the music itself.

How and where do you store it?

 All is in my small 60 squaremeters apartment which is full up to the ceiling...it`s a problem in the future for me...I often think about that – I would like to sell 300-400 CDs and about 150 useless vinyls  from the 80`s to get more space again - curiously most of these 80`s records are for the birds,  so I keep them at home and hope to get the money I´ve payed for eventually in the future. Only the industrial music from the 80`s reaches higher prices – but I already sold most of them too early.
Maybe I will sell a part of my huge comic collection,which is in the bedroom – so I would get more space for vinyl…






Whatʼs the rarest or most unusual item in your collection?

 There are many rare original records...
for example:
JIMI HENDRIX: Electric Jimi Hendrix on Track records,
THE DEEP: Psychedelic Moods on Parkway Records ,
TAROT by Walter Wegmüller on Kosmische Kouriere...
and and…
The most unusual vinyl is maybe ZACHHILL & MICKBARR Vol.2
(limited edition of 27 copies) which comes in 2 metal plates with
4 screws to open und it has a weight of 4,3 Kilogramm!



What elusive gem are you still looking for?

 CAN: (the original) Monster Movie on Scheisshouse records (which I sold in 1983  for 35(!) euro – what a pain to think about that) – in the meantime I think it`s about  2500 euro…I´m not sure If I can or will afford..

How do you track stuff down?

 In the 60`s & early 70`s I got all music magazines (Bravo, Pop, Popfoto, Musikexpress and Rennbahnexpress)  for free, because my mother was working as an accountant in a shop for magazines and she got all magazines which weren`t  sold during the week, but without the title page. But I got a lot of music informations….
From 1975 on I got selling lists (first from Austrian sellers, later from Germany, England, USA). Till the 90`s I studied nearly every evening the lists and ordered records, I couldn`t find in the shops in my hometown.In the early 80`s the record fairs started in Vienna – the best chances to get the stuff I was looking for. I also visited some record fairs in Germany and in London . I went one or two times a year to London for some days, where I found records I didn`t know of the existence. Since 1999 (my computertime started) I get a lot of newsletters from different shops from all over the world, I read magazines like Record Collector or Good Times, I talk with friends and collectors  and I follow every important information. Today with internet collecting is much more easier  than it was in the 70`s or 80`s. In these times it was often a test buying - now I very often can listen to an interesting record online and decide if I buy it or not.




Have you got a favourite record store?

 My favorite store in Vienna doesn`t  exist any longer….It was called “Why Not Records” – which was specialized for rare and unusual records – specially for 60`s & 70`s – I even worked there from 1979 to 1987 beside my job as socialworker – was a great time…My other favourite shop was called “Ton um Ton” – the last rarities shop in town. The owner Reinhardt Bugl and very good friend of mine died in 2004 on a heartattack….Since that I´m an online buyer.


How often do you listen to the stuff in your collection?

 Every day! Between minimum of 2 hours to maximum of 14 hours –I would need much more time to listen…but I need also time for my wife.Fortunately she likes more than 90% of my music… what a happy man I am!

Is there a visual side to collecting for you?


 

 Of course I bought records in the last decades which had a psychedelic cover – most of them were good – but sometimes I was wondering, because cover art and music didn`t  fit together – on the other side there exist expressionless covers with brilliant music inside…

How do you think youʼll eventually dispose of your collection?

NEVER!  I take my collection into the grave…hehe!


Whatʼs your all time favourite record,regardless of value or rarity?

JIMI HENDRIX: Are You Experienced? (Mono - Track records)

(As told to High Fidelity Stories)

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