Joe Theobald, aka DJ Captain Wormhole, chats to DJ Para about his extensive record collection

IT’S taken a few weeks to achieve but this week I’ve managed it, I’ve actually got round to doing that interview.

We’ve had a sit down with none other than DJ Para, aka Ross Burden, aka Swindon’s most conflicted record collector.

Ross has about nine thousand records and at this point in his life and he hates them. They take up too much room, too much time, they cost too much money and whilst he is actively culling the stacks, progress is achingly slow.

CW: How much is your record collection worth then?

Para: It’s insured for £70,000.

CW: How long have you been collecting and DJ’ing?

Para: I’ve been DJ’ing since I was 13 and since vinyl was the only option when I began I’m just stuck in my ways. These days I’m only interested in the rarest records and I want to get down to a couple of cubes (Ikea Kallax) of ridiculously rare, really good records, back to back listeners…

CW: Which records would you grab if the house was on fire, and where do you find new stuff?

Para: Mindbender (Stringtronics) and the first album by Portishead, but that answer can change on a daily basis. If I go in to a record store these days it’s rare that I’ll walk out with something but I do like Wanted Records in Bristol, I’ve known John (owner) for years and also Cosmos Records, a new-ish one in London. The best place to source stuff is via the dealers direct and by getting friendly with traders.

CW: What was your best buy?

Para: I got in touch with this guy over the internet who was selling a bunch of library records (these were produced for television/film background music in the 60s/70s and are highly sought after by collectors).

I arranged to go down and take a look at what he had and it was an actual dungeon full of LPs, he’d bought the whole lot direct from Universal Studios. We agreed on £5 per record and I spent about two grand. Made my money back off of 10 of them. Record collecting is totally ruthless.

CW: So you’ve said you want to get rid of most of your records, but what are you still looking for?

Para: OG Placebo (Marc Moulin, Belgian Funk). In terms of Holy Grail, the Feedback LP, hard bass, hard drums, hard guitar Italian rawness. It’s worth £2K.

Next week: Fabric