Love and a 45

SEVEN-INCH

BY Cam LindsayPublished Jun 22, 2007

In the Toronto club circuit, Davy Love is known for his staying power. The founder/promoter of Blow Up, a British-obsessed indie club night, Love closed the doors on an impressive ten-year stint in 2005. His love for music never faded though, and just recently he’s launched a new venture, one even closer to his heart called Magnificent Sevens — a strictly vinyl record label.

Designed to give unknown bands some exposure, the choice in format was an obvious one for Love. "I’ve been noticing that every label has been struggling to sell CDs these days,” he says. "I’ve been collecting vinyl forever, I’ve got about 20,000 records, like seven-inch singles. Plus it makes it harder to copy and it’s a tangible format that you can hold in your hands.”

Based in Toronto, Love recognises that Canada isn’t his target market. "In Canada, [45s aren’t] huge at all; we hardly sell any records here. But in England, Sweden and Germany it’s pretty big. In England last year 15 percent of music sales was in 45s — you can check that fact,” he divulges confidently.

As an avid collector Love felt the need for his own distinct trademark: purple, orange and white with the number seven gracing slabs of wax. "Being a collector of records for so long, I missed seeing how they did things in the ’60s, where a label would have an identifiable look,” he explains. "That’s kind of missing from music today. All the singles will look like that.”

Beginning with seven-inches by local bands like the Mark Inside, Action Makes, Lipstick Machine and Easy Targets, he says the label is thinking practically. "We are going to put albums out at some point, and we’re looking into doing the USB drives instead of CDs, because not everyone has turntables. But we would always do vinyl, which is the main focus.”

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