Simon Walker grew up in Newcastle, cutting his teeth on the notorious Black Box shows during the FMD/Arms Reach era. He later moved to Melbourne, started up Washed Up Distro & then Washed Up Records, releasing records for Pro Team, Verse and Carpathian. He also played guitar in Lookin In for a few years and has been collecting since the late 90's and has a bit of everything from Lagwagon to Billy Bragg to Integrity.

Name: Simon Walker

Current Population:

7”s: 500+

10”s: 15

12”s: 300+

Test Pressings: 50 Lions First 7", Miles Away 7" "Bridge 9 Bonus", Hard Luck 7"

First Born:

First record i ever bought was either AFI/Heckle Split 7" Or FMD-Before Their Time 7"

Latest addition to the Family:

Latest editions to the collection have been Lagwagon LP Boxset, Offspring-Ixnay On the Hombre LP, Agnostic Front-Cause For Alarm LP

The Pride of the Fleet:

My favourite records are FMD-Before their Time 7" on Blue & recently my copy of RKL-Riches to Rags

The Hen’s Tooth:

Probably the Miles Away test press outta 16 and In My Eyes-The Difference Between /104

Not Cheap:

I really can't think of the most expensive, I have been pretty lucky and never really spent a massive amount on any one record. Most of my favourite bands are in my era, so I could get them on the cheap when they came out. Does that mean i'm old?

White Whale:

I still don't have a copy of Warzone - "Don't Forget The Struggle, Don't Forget The Streets" LP which I would love and I still need a couple of In My Eyes 7"s to complete the collection

Why Did I Trade That:

There is honestly nothing I regret trading or even selling. I am a bit of a hoarder so I keep most of my stuff and find it hard to let go of any record!

Bargain Buy:

I recently picked up a Madball-Ball Of Destruction OG 7" for very cheap in the USA  and a few years ago I picked up a lot of early punk 7's from an awesome store in Long Island, NY that is no longer around including early Pennywise/Good Riddance/No Use For A Name 7"s

Guilty pleasure or secret shame:

Haha not sure I have any. I do own both Adele albums on vinyl though.

What’s the absolute limit you would ever pay for a record?

Probably a couple of hundred if I really, really was into it.

Are record collectors all really pretentious arseholes?

Sometimes they are, but my dealings with record collectors over the last 15 years have been great. I really haven't had a bad experience with any trades or anything. There is nothing better than discussing recent pick ups or heading into your local record store to see what new stuff they have.