Though never a DJ, Tom Moulton was instrumental in creating some of the essential tools and techniques of the craft, being responsible for the first remixes, as well as the accidental invention of the percussion breakdown and the 12-inch single. His name appears on hundreds of classic records.

When did you start collecting records?

Before you were born. The first record I asked my mother to buy me was ‘One O’clock Jump’ by Count Basie. I was five years old. That was 1945.

A 78?

Tony Smith is from the first wave of New York disco DJs, having grown up listening to block party DJs in the '60s and then discovering David Rodgriguez at the Limelight in 1971. He was the resident at Barefoot Boy, Xenon and, later, Funhouse. Tony still DJs and played at the 15th birthday celebrations for Lowlife alongside Danny Krivit. 

Let’s start at the beginning…

"Fuhggedaboudit." Charlie Grappone's Vinyl Mania was just another downtown record shop until the Paradise Garage opened a couple of blocks away. Then, with the weeekend a constant crush of customers asking for "that record Larry played", the Carmine Street store became the club's unofficial wax works. Open from 1978 until its sad closure in 2007, Vinyl Mania was where two generations of New York DJs honed their knowledge and built their collections.