A record store in Footscray has acquired a vinyl collection from Pentridge Prison—around 2,000 records that have been in storage for the past 26 years.
When the Victorian Government sold Pentridge privately in 1999, the collection ended up with the family who purchased the site. They held onto it in storage until recently, when they reached out to the store.
The records tell a fascinating story of prison life. Pentridge operated a unique music system where an inmate was appointed as DJ for a prison-only radio network, broadcasting to others who listened on headphones connected in their cells. The DJ was even given their own cell, with the adjoining one used to house the turntables and collection. Notably, the Russell Street bomber served as DJ for many years.
Some albums bear marks of censorship—Highway 61 Revisited has “Desolation Row” deliberately scratched out—and many covers were replaced with plain sleeves and handwritten catalogue notes. "Heaps of cheap stuff but there are gems throughout. We will be blasting through this over the coming days", says the record shop owner.
We hope to view the full collection soon and carefully document it for the Pentridge Prison online Museum, before it is taken apart as individual LPs are sold. This way, the story of the collection will be preserved even as the records themselves are dispersed.
Pentridge Voices shared a story on Rodriguez and his concert at Pentridge:
