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MY SPACE

Kevin Shaw

“It’s the only thing in Wainui that hasn’t been graffitied,” Kevin Shaw says of the elegant mural of All

Blacks Tana Umaga and Piri Weepu, next to Creative Meats Butchery. Right across the road is another sacrosanct space, Wonderland Records, which is packed with good vinyl (and CDs).

When Shaw was made redundant from his job as a graphic artist in 1994, he decided to make his passion his work, and set up shop. The expansion of Queensgate Mall gutted Lower Hutt’s High St, so he happily moved Wonderland Records to Wainuiomata, with its “manageable rent”, four years ago. “Music is a spiritual thing,” he says. “That’s why I stay with it. It can take you to a higher level. This space is a church of sorts.”

Young people, the 58-year-old says with a smile, are discovering their parents’ music. Music that made him love music – The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Cream. “They’re trying vinyl and finding it sounds much better. They’re getting into it because they love the sound, not because it’s trendy.”

Among the pilgrims to Wonderland are German prog-rock eccentrics, Upper Hutt metalheads, and Japanese CD pop-single fans. There are locals after elegiac songs for funerals they can’t find anywhere else, and Brit obsessives looking for unique vinyl cover art that only came out in New Zealand. Covers like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are another reason why people collect vinyl. “The art’s so artistic and amazing. People buy [the album] just for that.”

Passionate fans have convinced Shaw of the merits of music he used to dislike – the genius of Frank Zappa’s guitar riffs. And for the rare music he can’t get anything from, there’s the tactile pleasure of holding the record, inhaling the smell of vinyl, and enjoying debating its merits. aleXander BisleY

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