Behind the scenes: What’s it like to be an Oxfam shop volunteer?
The Don’t Stop The Music instrument amnesty wouldn’t be possible without the incredible support of Oxfam volunteers like ‘Music Man Jack’.
He tells us what it’s like to volunteer at Oxfam Emporium Manchester, bang in the heart of the city centre…
“Music Man Jack, that’s what they’ve called me in various places where I’ve worked. I’ve always been interested in music – I used to be a music librarian. Now I volunteer four or five afternoons a week at Oxfam in Manchester city centre, sorting and pricing up the music and films.
I’ve been here since about 2009 – and before then I was at Oxfam in Hertford, Bury and Wigan – I’ve done a few in my time!
It’s a city centre shop so we get a lot of stuff coming in – and we sometimes have special events too: a couple of years ago Hot Chip did a DJ set here as part of a tour of Oxfam shops. And one of the volunteers has a jazz band, so every now and again they play here to raise money.
Outside of the Don’t Stop The Music amnesty, we do get the odd instrument donated. There are a couple of guitars in the back right now, waiting to be priced up, and you get the occasional violin and flute. Small drums are quite popular too.
And we’ve got hundreds of CDs and vinyls – there’s not enough room for all of them to go out. We’ve even had a couple of rare vinyls. We had a Beatles one that was only issued as a jukebox single in America. We once sold a private pressing, not a commercial vinyl but one someone had just pressed, and that went for £350 – I think it was too cheap, because it went straight away! At the moment I’ve got a copy of the Beatles Number One vinyl signed by Paul McCartney, so that might be worth something – if it’s authentic.
I’ve worked out a rota of what I have to do – it takes about a week to get round everything, there’s a lot to do. I prefer working in the back, rather than being out front; there are usually other people in the back, so we can help one another out with pricing. And there’s a record player too to test out any vinyls that look a bit dodgy…
