The annual Vancouver Record and CD Swap Meet was held recently at the Croatian Cultural Centre on Commercial Drive. This annual event has gone on for decades, and even though the experts are talking about the demise of vinyl, this annual turnout proves them wrong. As a matter of fact vinyl is stronger now than at anytime since they stopped pressing records on the material. Some current acts always put out small numbers of vinyl recordings in concert with their new releases. Yes, downloading is a huge success but many of us like to hold a product in our hands. Some of us even enjoy reading the liner notes to see who wrote certain songs. I feel there will still be a place for vinyl in the future.

Left to right: Larry Hennessey, Chad Allan, Marty Kramer, Jamie Anstey (Linda C. photo)

The Swap Meet is put on by the owners and managers of Neptoon Records and this year’s special guest was Chad Allan. Chad was the original lead singer with Chad Allan and the Expressions. The group then became The Guess Who and Burton Cummings replaced Chad.

Over the years Chad had lost his gold record for a million sales of Shakin’ All Over. So Regenerator Records (a division of Larry and Willy Entertainment) created a new one and presented it to Chad on stage. He was thrilled. Chad has a new compilation CD on the market and it is worthwhile for any rock and roll collection. You can find it at Neptoon on Main Street in Vancouver.