Home Grown: An Italian 10″ collector with an ear for reggae

Because every record collection has a story.

Home Grown is our series profiling you lot and your excellent record collections. Taking our cue from the brilliant submissions to the #VFRecordCollections thread on Instagram, we want to share a little of your hard-earned love for vinyl with the world.

Each week, we’ll be profiling a different collector from around the world and finding out what makes them tick. Want in? Send us a pic of your collection and a few words about your collection to [email protected].

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Name: Fabrizio Benetti

Location: Bologna, Italy

Size of collection (approx.):

I’ve collected about 1,200 records (70% are 12″) and I started when I was 20 when me and some friends started playing reggae records in clubs. I really fell in love with the sound of reggae on vinyl so I started to collect all my favourite songs on wax.

What part of your set-up are you most proud of?

I usually play my records with a Technics SL-1210 MK2 which I’m very proud of, because it’s an old and solid friend.

All collectors have personal “hunted treasures” but it’s always hard to make the choice (I could hardly think of a top 10!) Anyway some years ago, I was able to buy a copy of Mondo Cane by Mike Patton, a great voice performing some classic Italian love songs. At the time I didn’t even know that was a limited edition record…

I also have a special feeling for 10″ records and without a doubt ‘Rude Boy’ by Sammy Dread is one of those records that reminds me why I love vinyl so much every time I put it on the deck.

When you start to collect records, probably every piece of it has got a special meaning for you. I grew up watching my dad fixing old juke boxes, filling them with tons of 7″ so he basically introduced me to this format. I listened to the music (‘Apache’ by The Shadows is the first I can recall) coming out from these “special blazing boxes” and it sounded so magical to me…and it still does!