Mr V Music

Vic Flierl has lived every music-loving teenager’s dream – working in and operating a record store for some 25-plus years. He’s kept the crates stocked at Mr V Music on Semaphore Road since 2001, and was with Big Star for 15 years before that.

Such a fixture is he that most regulars know him simply as “Mr V” – even though he’s not actually the inspiration behind the name. Now he just goes with it. (“Mr Valentine” is a song by one of the umpteen bands Flierl played in over the years. His wife suggested it would be a good name for a record shop too.)

Mr V stocks mainly secondhand records and CDs across all genres and price-points, plus the odd bit of musical knickknackery (guitar picks, strings, drumsticks; “Stuff to get people out of trouble”). There’s a rack of $5 discs on the footpath to snare wayward window shoppers.

Each year, Mr V Music travels to WOMADelaide to run the music and signing tent, and each year Semaphore’s world-music selection grows a little broader.

The Semaphore Record Fair, held every April and September, is another of Mr V’s local projects.