When we were kids, the unmistakable sounds of the ice cream truck triggered instant mirth and excitement in our young minds. You’d hear the sound off in the distance and immediately rush out to greet the ice cream man in the middle of the street.

Well, music fans in Sydney can now relive the excitement of seeing a truckload of joy rolling its way into their neighbourhood. As Broadsheet reports, enterprising record shop owner George Pizer has decided to avoid Sydney’s exorbitant rental prices by taking his shop on the road.

Before hitting the road, Pizer sold vintage records and clothes at Pigeon Ground Records & Clothing in Camperdown for eight years. Pizer oversaw the clothing operation, while business partner Tim Barber took care of the records side of the business.

Escalating rents eventually pushed Pizer out to Katoomba in 2013 where he struggled to find work. He established a lucrative operating driving into Sydney to put on occasional gallery shows, however he found the the four-hour round-trip commute to be “soul destroying”.

But Pizer’s business acumen led him to an unassuming Gumtree ad. “I saw an old truck for sale that a guy had used to take flowers to the Flemington Markets,” Pizer tells Broadsheet. “The penny just dropped – I thought it would make a fantastic mobile record shop.”

The operation required modifications be made to Pizer’s truck, including taking on parts from another truck to make it roadworthy. Next up was a paint job by Earlwood’s Zackly Write Signs. “He did such great signwriting, I felt I had to make the inside as good as the outside,” says Pizer.

“Before that, it was just going to be milk crates in the back of a truck.” It’s certainly more plush than that now. The interior of Rolling Records features wood panelling and a DJ booth, while a solar panel on the roof helps power a listening station and a small sound system.

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The project has become Pizer’s baby and he’s poured all of his spare income into Rolling Records. “For the first time in my life, inspiration hit and took over in a way I’d only ever read about, where people feel something and it drives them rather than them having to push it along,” he says.

Rolling Records had its debut at the Lady Luck rockabilly festival in Katoomba in January. “[It] just smashed it,” Pizer recounts. “It was really the best response I could have ever possibly dreamed for.” Sales have been consistently strong at subsequent festivals.

“At the ukelele festival I moved a lot of Hawaiian music. Then at the folk festival people wanted Australian folk records that had been overlooked at the rockabilly fest.” According to Pizer, a record shop on wheel actually has advantages over a conventional brick-and-mortar store.

“Doing different festivals you get people with different tastes, rather than being in a stationary shop with the same punters coming in and certain sections sitting untouched,” explains Pizer. To find out when Rolling Records will be parked next, check out the shop’s official Facebook page.

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