Paul Fairweather
Director
Paul has been collecting vinyl and memorabilia since he was a teenager and in 2010, decided to give up his career as an ACA Chartered Accountant, to turn his passion into his job. With his knowledge and enthusiasm combined with his down to earth, personable approach, Paul has developed the business to rapidly become a well known name worldwide for the sale of memorabilia and vinyl. Over that period, his enthusiasm has never waivered. In a role where every day is different and one never knows what is going to come through the door, he still gets excited when a big collection comes in and can be found sifting through boxes well into the night to discover the rarities. Paul is often on the road to appraise collections from all over the UK and Europe (or occasionally on an aeroplane to the USA). He manages the team of experts who work on the sorting, cataloging and photography of lots and is the chief auctioneer on auction days.
Outside of work, he loves the great outdoors and can regularly be found cycling, running, hiking, climbing or abseiling amongst the mountains of Snowdonia.
Karen Fairweather
Director
Karen heads up client services and manages all of the office and administration team, putting all wrongs to right and ensuring that the whole operation runs as a well oiled machine, from back office systems, pre-auction, auction day and post-auction processes, website development/management and business development. With responsibility for marketing, Karen works hard to ensure that we gain maximum exposure in order to maximise prices for sellers. Take a look at our press page to see some of the national and international press coverage obtained...
Outside of work, Karen dreams of having the time to enjoy hobbies, which include walking, cycling, playing tennis, snowboarding and travelling.
Dan Hampson
Auction Manager
Our auction manager Dan brings a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm to the team. He has worked in music for most of his career, from concert promoting to venue management and music journalism. He’s a keen cyclist and intrepid traveller outside of the auction room. Dan is quickly developing his specialism in the memorabilia side of the business to include appraisals, cataloguing and photography. On auction day, he can be found on the rostrum, operating the online bidding system or managing the team of porters behind the scenes.
Adnan Beswick
Head of Vinyl
Adnan has been part of the Omega crew since the beginning of 2015, and has been roaming the corridors ever since! Music is his entire life, and after training as a classical guitarist he has been lucky enough to live and breathe his hobby. A connoisseur of vinyl, Adnan heads up the team who sort through and catalogue the tens of thousand records which are consigned every year. On auction day, you may also see him up on the rostrum, operating online bidding or carting around Really Useful Boxes loaded with goodies. If you’re exceptionally lucky, he can also be found spinning a few of his own records in Manchester's Northern Quarter.
Pat Duckworth
Auction Administrator & Photographer
Administration specialist Pat Duckworth is one of our longest serving employees. Pat is the friendly voice on the end of our phone and first on the scene post auctions to handle payments and shipping enquiries. Alongside her admin role, Pat’s the chief photographer of our vinyl sales - making sure even the dustiest of matrix numbers are snapped in perfect clarity. Outside of work, Pat enjoys socialising with friends, and will take any opportunity to get on the dancefloor.
Luke Sperry
Auction Assistant & Photographer
Luke impressed from the off, starting the process of improving our photography department during his trial day. Living locally, he has even less of an excuse than Adnan for arriving late in the mornings. He works with Dan in the memorabilia department and assists (as we all do) across the business. Outside of work he’s a keen musician and producer having studied at Leeds Uni and known within the office for his ability to carry a tune! Sadly a follower of LFC – though no one is perfect.
Lewis Olsen
Vinyl Cataloguer & Auction Assistant
Musical mastermind Lewis may technically be our newest recruit but he’s already feeling like an old hand here, ably assisting Adnan in the vinyl department and showing plenty of aptitude for cataloguing, pricing, sorting and selling records. He’s a cheery voice on the phones and under Adnan’s tutelage is beginning to take on some of the onsite appraisal work.
Outside of the office he’s busy making and performing excellent dance-able psych-pop-balearic beats under his Psychederek alias and you can catch him at plenty of festivals and bars over the summer months. Check them out here > https://psychederek.bandcamp.com/
Jonathan 'Goff' Wild
Auction Assistant
Jonathan ‘Goff’ Wild has been with Omega since the very early days. His serene presence and hugely impressive knowledge of the whole gamut of musical genres has guided us through consignments of hundreds of thousands of records; picking, sifting and sorting consignemnts in into the well thought out and sellable lots that end up leaving our door post-auction. Goff’s the man that you’ll see working as hard behind the scenes on auction day, heading up the picking team to ensure that everyone ends up with their lots as soon as possible after each sale. He’s a ubiquitous presence around the Manchester music scene, DJing regularly from his enviable personal collection and is well known to collectors and buyers of records, memorabilia, antiques and collectibles all over the North West. Famously unable to resist mid-century Italian glassware!
Gareth Kenyon
Vinyl Cataloguer
Old/new hand Gareth is a long standing Omega associate and is more commonly found behind the counter at the excellent SK1 Record shop in Stockport. He’s here a few days to assist Adnan with the vinyl cataloguing though he’s known to reluctantly get involved with post auction day processes of picking and packing sold items. A keen mountain biker – Omega recently cheered Gaz on in his first competition where he finished a respectable ‘not last’ place, despite a heavy fall in his practice run.
Carole Fairweather
Auction Administrator
Carole has been with Omega since day one and whilst she has now largely retired, we are still incredibly lucky that she comes to work on auction days and the days following. She is the happy, smiley face on reception on auction days, and works with Pat to take payments and organise shipping after sales. Outside of work, when not looking after grandchildren, she likes to spend time with friends and family and is the definitely the artistic one in the family, making the most incredible hand made cards, which some of our long time customers have been delighted to receive.
Archie
By far the cutest member of our team. Questionable work ethic and toilet training. Yet to prove himself adept at cataloguing or grading rare records. Sleeps more than Adnan.
