The Captain Meets His Dad - The History Of Andertons Music Co.

[Music] hey guys welcome to another episode on Anderson's TV and I have a very special guest today because I've decided that it's about time that we should invite the man that started it all to come on to the show so look it's mr. Peter Anderson my dad whoo yeah yeah absolutely admirable Admiral and yeah thank you very much for coming on oh nice it's great to see you again yes this is true so obviously what I'd like to try and talk about you you started the store with your dad my granddaddy in the early 60s OOP so we'll talk about that but let's talk before you're a drama the lowest alleged drama as was granddad and as his guide my yellow that's true so what come on tell us growing up then growing up in the sort of 50s and you know what sparked the interest in music well that's a good question what sparked my interest well I suppose I was born in 46 which was just after the war so we had rationing and wet stuff wheeler lived in a little flat in Battersea in on the ground floor a little garden so I have Clapham Common if anybody knows that area was my playground when I was really young so that's how things started but my dad did you know Harry was a keen drummer and had been in dance bands pretty much all the time I knew he was in the police as well we've come to that bit later tell ya tell me a story of how I long story oh yeah we got so my interesting music so that it was always around you know my dad he just loved you know he lived he lived for his dance band and going out but he was a he always had a Dicky bow you know like a blacks dinner suit so he that's how I always remember him getting ready to go out on some on his jobs on a Saturday night and of course it was very growing up it was a bit surreptitious because police are not supposed to have a second job warning right and he and I was around we listen to conversations you know where he'd be doing a Masonic Lodge day or something like that in the West End of London because most of his gigs were in the Westerner London Cathy Royal and Dorchester Hotel and all those sorts of things you know and he'd be terrified they'll be if they'll be son of his senior senior officers you know in the in the in the in the lodger something like that so I always remember that but he he almost had that great interest in music and he was very he was a big I was thinking about this last night you know and we were chatting after the Halloween thing but he had a bit he had a much more of an influence on my life tonight probably realize you know in terms of his artistic ability he's very great artist and was fantastically clever with his hands you know like you can make anything and in fact that's that sort of more generation if they could make they dad would always prefer to make it rather than buy it we used to get some great toys as kids I mean the grand that made me a castle like a I guess a modern-day equivalent would be like a lego type castle but he made the whole thing out of wood and yeah had little figures that and had that for years I just I don't think nowadays you just buy it wouldn't you from Amazon yeah he must have spent weeks but it was like it was the ingenuity that fascinated me because he did the same for me at some point when we moved so I would be about seven or eight something like that big big thought you know about three foot square and he'd he'd come up with a way of creating a drawbridge and a portcullis out of cotton riyals elastic bands and wax candles I always remember this so you pulled the drawbridge down like that and let it go and it used to go like this and the portcullis came down at the same time and you looked inside and it was all just done with elastic bands cotton reels and and the cotton reels on the wax candles you know and it wasn't until years later I thought he was it was it was very clever that and my Leslie my sister you know amazing dolls house you know or just in our little shed last contact later this is this is when we moved to Fulham so what happened so yeah he didn't have much much to do with music I suppose apart from it being around up to the age of about seven and then when I was seven we moved to Fulham into police accommodation so we moved to this place called Warren Grove which was if ever support now you can't write buy a house you know under about a few million there but in those days we just because we didn't own property you know my dad was by that time was in the CID he was he he used to study a lot at home and remember him doing his exams and he'd managed to that she got to Detective Sergeant and and he was but he was still keen on his drumming you know and that's something so I'd me about seven then when we moved there and wait so as I got a bit older as sort of I started getting interested in because he drums and drumming was a music was all around I started bashing on a practice pad you know about the age about 11 or 12 or something like that but I but at that time of course it was my dad was a jazz fan you know he can't leave sport up on jazz and I'm gonna count basie big band stuff Buddy Rich we went see buddy Richard caffee world live he was over the UK that was that was a great evening and so big band Count Basie Duke Ellington all that sort of stuff but you know I couldn't get I didn't get hooked on I didn't get inspired by that you know but what again I was just I was trying to reflect last night and what my earliest influences would have been somebody like Lonnie Donegan because Lonnie you know at that time I'll be talking about them of 56 we have six 57 1956 1957 Lonnie Donegan was a huge massive influence on loads of later rock musicians you know you're quite often hear some rock music guitarists my age now who say yeah you know their first first inspiration was seeing Lonnie Donegan alive you know sort of and he had a rather strange genre didn t have skillful skillful where was it was it was it was a rock country but you know temper so of course either you know we had us and it was skiffle band or husband and we had some guy with it we have the property just double bass you know down in the basement of the flats where we we used to live and somebody had a guitar and I had a washboard for a start for starters because you had a washboard in those days you know and then I had graduated to a pair of bongos on a stand you know so I thought that was pretty cool yeah so yesterday I got to about where I was then moved school I went on to secondary school at Putney mm-hmm and I'd be about it well 12 years old I suppose there was nice about 12 we've got more moistures in and out with a few guys at school that played you know Pete Pete Green being one of them so we were in the same class in the second and third year together so I should just say we're talking the Peter Green not just a Pete green but yes so this was that's first band not a bad guitar player and his brother but Pete and because I'm just talking to a guy that's doing a biography of Petri Christopher was like oh Cernan combine describe me he did one on Jeff Beck right so he's writing this symbol but but I remember Pete's brother as well Mickey green it was his older brother right he's probably an influence on him and he'd paid lived on Putney Hill just an amazing player even in those days you know so and I can't remember any of the other guys in the band but you know so there was quite a bit of activity but the influences on these it were very much listening to Radio Luxembourg you know or it was rainy Luxembourg and that's about what I can remember I think and I can't remember buying many records in those days because didn't have any money for a pretty pretty skin but I was always a bit I was always been entrepreneurial you know I started out getting a couple of paper round's I did a morning paper round I did a Sunday after Sunday paper round to earn some pin money and then started working on a stool in north market you know sort of like flogging selling what well it was a lack of general okay grocery store you know like cream crackers and I had to learn how to share you know shake the screeners turn six or something thirteen but it was good experience you know like you're sure the confidence and things like that and them because I think I was very insecure you know as a kid really but so that gave me really constant so I own a few Bob and things of that so um I used to listen to where they go to do it and they and those were the influences was that late mid to late fifties you know rock you know rock and roll and it was so big American saying my Buddy Holly Elvis yeah but there was quite a bit going on in the English on the English so as well you know I was like Marty Wilde ebony faith there was who was the other producer and who did Telstar this is my problem they said okay getting dementia sane in like but it'll come to me minutes but there was some fantastic producers around in those days yeah British producers that did did stuff and had in a stable of rock artists you know and there was the two iced coffee Berlin all this other stuff so I and but dad wasn't very keen and Harry wasn't that keen he was trying to push me into the jazz right jazz sort of stuff all the time and like I wanted to play straight age you know you've got to batten it because no no no no just you know like get the brushes you know you know teach it I'll teach how to do a roll you know like it because he did do fantastic the press roll harry didn't eased impress people with that in his show like a Scottish Military Tattoo drummer you know bad always remembers well so so there was a you know there was a bit of antipathy there and he didn't have a lot of patience to sort of life you just dis let me bracket you know rubbish music or something so I but I did eventually I practice and practice and practice you know with a rubber pad you know for a year or two and then I got I think I used to borrow his kit or I can't remember the first kit I got but I got a kit and the problem was it couldn't drive because I was any 15 I suppose for I started probably 14 15 so my dad had to run me you know like there's always the taxi drivers on so yet to run me up to the school with all the gear and then pick me up the game didn't this about mother half hour drive away from Fulham and then I just did a few things like that but then I got I got a gig in a pub might matter now I've got it this is the first ever gig is it well probably and I was doing stuff around that time but where's a great piano player at school and I struggled to remember his name he did become quite famous I saw him you know playing keyboards in relative bands later and I thought I recognize that guy anybody um and he was just a natural piano player and we ended up but that my dad had a lot of contacts you see in the music industry in the West End and because he because quite often he needed a debt you know like it was like there was always a debt situation going on debt deputizing it was a slang word yes for a deputy deputizing musician so they were always going on in a debt for this gig on either because he had lots of contacts in Denmark strings were you know and it got the Scala ciske piano and drums right in Cable Street I think it was his had a Commercial Road or Cable Street in the East End of London you know right yeah every area many I think about 13 14 million playing in a pub with this guy named fabulous piano player anyway so that's you know that says I started and I did I used to play three or four nights a week there and over the weekend so dad would run me there with the kit leave the kit there I'd go back on the tube you know yeah to Fulham and go backwards and forwards and then occasionally if that couldn't run me I had to get get back on the train on the shoe be like amazing move baby so this was a paid gig was it so you're owning I was earning cash yeah yeah in those days obviously musicians did manage to earn yeah I think we got to quit us I'm Elena but it was pay kick that was fun but interesting but then I got into I got into various I go into a couple of good rock bands nothing I don't think these guys were at school with me I don't know how I can't remember how the nippon but big tall guy Graham it was a great player and and we used to we used to get lots of gigs in and around Putney and Hannah Smith you know like half moon partly play there yeah you know 5850 late fifties often but lots of different you know races in and around South West London Miami anyway and I would practice and practice listening to staff you know and being influenced by the by the drummers of those days but there was and then the shadows come along 48:59 so Tony Mian was the first shadows drummer you know he was pretty good so of course there's a you know likes what we were all copying yeah we were copying the shadow staff covering that and all the influences coming over from America the tornado it was tornado and the tornadoes rather but loads of stuff of Eddie Cochran and that that lovely you know that sort of backbeat TARDIS staff and blue was a cell it wasn't some I didn't get into the Blues stuff until a little bit later and I think we're starting to get into the Chuck Berry's in the BB King's and that oh those early influences so where do we get to so then on I'm I'm making quite a good living yeah mixing between what is a good living but you know I'm still at school mmm school but I guess what I weigh stood my education I actually my biggest regret today really to date but I was I was a top boy in the first two years in my school you know like it's getting fantastic results and then I thought yeah buddy here you go like this don't need to do anymore this work I can just go in the art department where I used to spend most of my time and play music you know and then I cited bunking off that's where I got it all yeah so is the bunk off for weeks at a time and go down the snooker hall with Hadley aye sir you never even make it work and then we had to come up with excuses for why we've been absent for like three or four weeks you know because every day went by and you went better stay off a bit longer dealing so because dad didn't know you know he didn't know so you get terrified in oh I bet he went ballistic didn't I don't think you ever found and I told him in school so yeah so I so I wasted my education academic and I I finally came out of school I was the oldest member of the upper six I think I was about 17 and a half or agency you know I said let's go and they said Mr Houser got cold news Headmaster's office you knows it you can see you've managed to get old level art about six months ago but how come you're still here you know so I said well I used to get on really well with the art department of teacher and we were always doing projects for the school you know what so that so and so I'm playing and having a good time enjoying at this point are you thinking I'm going to be a professional drummer that's what my life career no I suppose need to I need to backtrack as well because at the same time about just that track here because the the the key the starter for the music shop and everything else really was when when I met Harry Weber yeah Harry we were so this is this is not obviously Harry and at times this is bad Brandon Meriweather manacled Harry Weber who was an absolute character who ran this music shop in King Street Hammersmith called King Street music stores I need some dead now so it's my dad so like you know this I can talk about this as been Charles kicked butt so 13 or 14 and Harry Harry we're but ran this you've got to imagine this is it's the same sort of ages grand it was just a character yet no very virtually no teeth and he had one brown stain tooth up here like Cana which he called his pickled onions stuff I mean used to wear a brown coat you know like like like Ronnie Barker in there like a trade in the mind of open real hours ya know the old sentence a war his brown coat and and he was just funny he was just so hilarious is a real character and this music shop was an oldie world II that's how he will do it was a fairly typical music shop from the forties and fifties you know we sold everything so violins viola they had a good business in violins and cellos brass instruments woodwind lots and lots of customers like guys it was a little specialist shop really him and his and his dear wife Teresa who was little - ladies book like yes she was terribly timid ever so timid and Harry used to have Dickie Hart so yeah she used to come out you know when I was this of more full-time if she'd come at me yet time for you're asleep you know come on and she'd gone getting me so if you have to go never lay down and then if people came into the shop you know she didn't know what the hell he think was you know it's just I can't believe looking back on it so how I came how I came to work there was he drop he didn't do drums and he was thinking about doing drugs because drums were just sort of becoming quite popular and this was the start I suppose of the be the beginning rumblings of the beat boom called the beat boom in those days when you know every kid on the block wanted a guitar or money to be a guitarist or a dremel Hanna once they realized they could pull you know see that we got me three three chords and a guitar like some things never change so so my dad at that time was station he'd been he had quite an interesting career in the CID because he was on the flying squad for quite a while working out and worked out a Western Central and this is I don't think we watch life on Mars of you yeah in the center's well if you can imagine it probably twice as bad as that this is that late fifties early sixties yeah like the fifties that's what it was like you know anyone ever talk about it so tell me flying squad for anyone oh that's the flying drugs flying squad is that was a branch of CID yeah running out from Scotland yeah I think I stole this but they were on the serious crime serious Crimea and yeah you know he would very rarely would he ever talk about it you know so but that's was who would have all the running with the sort of mobsters yeah I was dealing with the when the Krays were around so the corruption probably imagined was horrendous and yes and anyway so he did a spell there but he did tell me some funny stories are telling one you've probably never heard this before but he they used he used to laugh about it and the only times I could get him chatting about it you know was really that found it really funny and that what they would do they would raid somewhere that they got a tip-off that somebody had the load of porn because pulling books you know porn boxing those they were illegal right so so they would they would raid this place they nickel they've nickel the tape would pull books away you know and then they go around the corner and frog [Laughter] so and he was it was funny Harry was he was a real comedian you know very quick-witted bit like oh yeah I'm sure that's where you get it from why I hit by perhaps me I'm afraid the wit but he was and the West and being a West Ham fan vice me as well but my dad was a keen West End fan as you know please so obviously skipped a generation but so so dad ended up at Hammersmith Hammersmith police station he did a spell at Notting Hill I don't know if anything you know people again my age might remember their Notting Hill riots it was a horrendous you know no and he was based at Notting Hill during that time Notting Hill rights so you know she must have seen a lot of the side of life you know that sort of thing I mean right he was very he was quite a sensitive man I think in terms of being like an artist and musician and that sort of thing so I think he used to try and shut that side off and he would never talk about it at home but anyway he he used to know Harry Weber he got to he got to know Harry Weber in the King Street music starts in Hammersmith because Harry Weber used to like to dabble in a bit of been you've heard this story before I don't think I think I told this didn't I on yeah Harry could not either he'd got criminal record right you've done some time in Nick I don't know when but you've done some time in they say had a criminal record for receiving yeah but he couldn't keep his that he couldn't keep his hands off a bit bent merchandise profit margins are very high very very tightly and so it was in his interest to befriend my day yeah you know and so they got pally and you know if there was any if there was any imminent danger of a couple of walking in and I don't know trying to Nick Harry be on the phone to my dad Harry you go Harry cut so he'd sort of like I don't know things many things whatever they did I don't know might bug him a few symbols and things like that or give God a bit this Ken so Harry saying that he was looking for a new Saturday boy so there was a 70 boy he had that before me was there was a photograph of him in that old archive right with Harry but I said I might be interested to dig that out so the his name Arry but Harry and this other guy who I replaced so he replaced me one other too you know but there's a photograph of King Street Music stores would be interesting to have a quick look and he and he was funny because down the road was another guy a Jewish guy who ran another music shop we used to call this the shiny shop you know like he'd send people up big ears ourselves if you didn't if you didn't like like these young youngsters coming in and that sort of money in rock and roll guitar Zico got the shiny shop may give you know you used to call it the Sony shop I think of the governor's name there anyway so so I wasn't over arbiters no no no either way either was around them yeah come to that in a minute so about 13 I suppose as we've got 13 13 14 and so I get this job in Harry whoever's music shop you know and because I'm a drummer he wanted somebody you know that could talk drums to so their customers you know and we used to get a lot of bands in there and that sort of thing I mean a little bit later on over the next 2-3 years like there who were regular customers I mean I didn't they weren't they weren't big names and you know just break him you know yeah but they would come in there another guy I remember who was a fairly regular customer was Tommy Cooper yeah right tn Cooper is to come in and he was really serious you know but used to come in for kazoos and Jews huh jaws harps that are called you know they say every country so used to come in for his pieces that liked you wasn't this doom years later you think the number of people who you know see you know so I so I started there on it as a Saturday boy and I really loved it you know it was great so I'm doing drums and things I know and and then so I'm do I do Saturdays you know every day and then Harry says you know can you could you work during the school holidays you know think that sausage okay so I ended up going in pretty much every day during school holidays and sever this for a year or two something like that but I was interested as well in all the repair work so I started doing drum recovery that was one of the first things he did in we had a little in full and we had a you know these flats have a little garden outside in the back there were three flats I think so each flat had a little bit of a square of garden and my dad built a little shed in there right okay freezing cold it was in the winter but now it's a little shed and my dad showed me at first of all how to recover drums possess what you know he was really handy we used to go to Rockford fires to buy this stuff called neck relax goodness that was that was like the plastic rock I was like that would casting cover yeah but we couldn't get hold off this sort of like the glitter stuff you like was on there american drums like ludwig and that sort of thing so but we ended up finding this company that made this stuff called necro act for sort of spectacle frames right used to govern by role of this and anyway its various methods and practice cover e covering drums so used to offer a recovering surfing so as i started that and then hat harry i I was interested in there's just a lot repairs there so we've did repairs to brass and woodwind violins cellos main mainly saxophones flutes clarinets they always needed new pads Springs overhauling and we had a couple of guys that we used to put that work out too but I said you know I got Harry to show me I was really interesting so I couldn't I can do that you know I could put new pads in that clarinet and we spring it and mouthpieces and you know all sorts of bits and pieces like that so I said I'd do that so I pay you bit extra to do that such stuff so I'd take it home in the shed and and do repair work I taught myself guitar there that was when I you know that one and only piece I can play yeah the littles flamenco piece well a he's a classical with like that not camera what's called but a little classical piece and I have to some practice and practice this piece in the shop you know because it was very quiet there a lot of time you go now or two hours without seeing the customer yeah so I just sit behind the till you know play plays okay you know I got I got pretty good at that was all I could play it was enough anyway so and I tried to teach myself a scale at play a scale on the flute or clarinet or saxophone and just so I could test them test to see if they were working okay and and then I started the bit that I made the most money out of was bow rehearing right violin and cello bow rehearing Wow which is I know it's just you who knew it's just amazing but where'd you get the hair from well it's back then it was a Austin Barnes of Milan sponsored a little stint all didn't take in run up behind a horse and snow oh you buy it was bleached hair was bright black hair was black you know and and then I was doing that for a while and it's yeah I loved it it's such a skilled job you know putting you know like if you look at a violin bow there's all these little parts on it there's a frog and a ferrule screw and a little bit this and a bit of that and you have to make these little wooden blocks and chips and you've got to get the hair just right the length of it just right so that when you poke it all in the in the Frog at the end it's not like a you know like an artery bow there's just the right distance off of the of the wood so that the guy can play it and of course you've got a bit of adjustment on the thing you know and then then synthetic hair came out which was a boon because you could just burn that with a lighter you know and it would melt on the end so up with the real hair you have to use rosin resin so you'd see a bit of a little block of glue resin and all that so anyway so I had like a mini factory going in the shade back home I used to you know is to take these bundles of violin bows and cello bows back home and after school you know no wonder you know into schools all the time Joe yeah well as the Sundays and Sundays and Sundays and evenings I'd be rehearing bows and all that sort of stuff and I thought yeah I did some guitar it's hard repairs in a simple repairs and and violin repairs which I loved you know like resetting bridges it's not anything but you know people used to come in to have a bridge reset there's a sound post inside you never spent all these special tools like a sound post resetar no you have to go in through the air is a specialist tools yeah you have the guy through the F hole on set the sound post and you know and the pegs and things like that sort of putting new pigs on so yeah few years I'm playing still and and then towards you know I'm getting about 16 or 17 and Harry Weber mm-hmm during school holidays he used to send me he put me in a taxi and say and send me into the West End to do is buying to do something he's buying it so I used to go into the West End and I and that's where all the big wholesalers were like Selma's ain't sellin company arbiters they were in just in yeah so they were just off of Shaftesbury Avenue only and there was drum City up there and Rose Morris yeah Rose OS bands of Mines Rose Morris spent or booze Ian Hawks I think had a there they didn't have a factory there but he had some presence there in shops in Tomball Road didn't they yeah so they were all the big music shops there in Tottenham Court Road shops revenue so you know it's like a sweet shop Julie so and I used to dress Harry's windows as well I used to do the window dressing you know so I'd come up the West didn't ever look and see what drum city was doing that looks good you know I go back and try and do that in King Street music so four foot wide window so and so so real real forward so I got to know lots of the wholesalers and the rips you know like when I was in there during the summer holidays the reps would come I was trying a Martin Friedman from Arbutus yeah yeah well Martin was one of the very first guys I got to know and he was a really nice guy and Alan Mac's dead as you know it's a still I was checked out on the other days 80 something odd well he was Premier's premier drum company's yeah rep back in those days and so you know and I knew all these guys to detect it so I was never any talk of a music shop though so but I get to you know I get says look school-leaving age and I'm sort of like thinking house and I didn't didn't really see being a professional drummer as a career identical wasn't good enough you know I don't think I was right I didn't know I was I was good enough to I don't know just don't know but it wasn't something that appealed to me and I think dad always put me off you know you'd always say you know don't if you want to be a professional position be a harmonica player so you can put it in your pocket so not so gigoo go right ready lads you know thank you good night put it away you know because drummers it's a nightmare you know you got back it'll be there now before then at the end of the gig everybody else is sorry your your room you probably just said beeped off you know it's fine you're the last one they're still packing you know and all the best birds have gone as well because it gets our s NIC bags all the lead singer so you get left with the dog hanging around this was the 1960s so I I wonder why I thought I would do would be to go to our coid right so that's really I would like I wanted to do a dip diploma in art and design dip ad it's called but I looked right I didn't have enough qualifications I should have had some you know I needed some ona levels to do it and and Harry is saving what you're gonna do you know said I just don't know you know you don't know those days well so every sort of every day you look at the future just every day I think I'll survive I sort of I'll clean more cars I was something I was gonna mention to you but in places of music was when we were in Fulham one of the other things I used to do to earn money was clean cars on a Sunday morning so I do MIT paper round and then let's start cleaning all the neighbors cars you know for turn 6 or wash or five bulb in a lot of money actually gigs enough right so I could have fooled some cool clothes right so they were quite trendy my best my best buy ever or some handmade Winkle pickers black Winkle picker boots with Cuban heels with with a strap over and three pole buttons they actually did up they were handmade by an Italian boot maker in in Battersea Oran and I'll remember his name but all the all the mods you know this because I was a time of being a moderate school in the teens you know what I like I can afford a Lambretta but I the Lambretta jacket you know it's a sort of strut around with some peas you know pretend they're local and we Winkle piccard's you know but these weekly figures were ace you know but Harry Easter you know he used to go potty when I put those on so I used to have to hide him in my duffle bag and change in the toilet only end of the road so when I got on the bus I was tooled up you know big kill so I digress don't know so I know so next door to us in woollen Grove you lived a guy called Jimmy Grant right Amy Grant was the producer or the BBC program called Saturday Club right right so you know and that was that was the sort of Saturday Club was every you know all the kids used to notice I think it was all the light programs and then radio one or anything back in those days I think was just a cool on medium wire suppose it was like program but Jimmy did was the producer so and it was a program with all new releases on right so I used to do his car which was a little Renault dopher something remember white one and a nice it's a common P you know so I and it was a lovely guy I mean ice Soren was quite old but he was probably this [Music] but you said give me piles of 45s like mountains of you know all the records he'd been sent by the record companies and various people nineteen nine percent of which were crap because he used to keep all the good ones I supposed to play on the show I never got any heat was worth listening to you know worth keeping but but it's sort of like you could you could get your influences and what was going on in the music scene you know that sort of that from there so so sort of roll forward into I'm about to leave school I'm quite happy working for Harry we're back cos you know I've gone full time when in fact I think I did go full time there so I think I left school that's why I did I left school and went full-time at Harry Webber's for a period I can't remember how long but that's not like passed my driving test got my first little minivan you know that all secondhand minivan so I could get a drum kit around so it was cool and and then then then I think my dad decided that he was 49 years old then and he had to decide whether he was gonna sign on he was going to take early retirement or 25 years he could come out of 25 years and with a good pension index-linked pension and all he had to sign on for another ten I think it was a someday that so I think that was quite an influence he you know he said I don't enough I've had a gutful of the police you know and under law and it was him because I was working he was it with him said well I had a fancy why don't we have a music shop music I said you know you know you know the reps you know dad you can do repairs and they said you know and he he obviously knew everything about drums and dummy blesses bless his heart he he sort of worked it out cuz because my mum was very supportive as well you know at the time and I had two sisters so we were well Leslie would have been five years younger than me and Debbie was 10 or 11 years younger than me so he still had a lot responsibilities you know and the flat where we were was rented was police supplied accommodation and you had to you know I suppose they had a subsidized rent but we had no capital we had didn't any money so so he says you know had offense you're doing this I mean yeah okay yeah yeah I'll be all right for that so so so where were you know you know how are we gonna stop and so it was I I look back on this I think it's just amazing he managed to raise he managed to get a loan of 700 with 700 pounds which must have been a lot of money in those from a an insurance broker friend of his Freddie somebody or other we sold the FET once we decided we were going to do it we sold the family car which was a full console or something and bought a beat-up van from my auntie auntie Mildred let me just come over from South Africa recently and little seven Ford thing and we had to send we sold our record collections another heartbreak heartbreaking so and hard but we you know this so we think my minister scraped together I got obviously a discount from Harry Weber but I had a moister grave Rodgers kit I think this great first kit yeah I stood poised to pearl Rogers kit and some Zildjian cymbals and stuff and and then I graduated on to that some point of pink champagne Ludwig kicks which my son well you know guy had still has in Australia and wheels out regularly which you can see that drum kits still going you got three generations later it still sounds good so so Harry my dad he had to he he worked it out somehow that he could we could do it by raising this bit of money and I and I because I knew the reps and I approached the reps for the various companies and they were very generous you know they said yeah yeah we know you you know Donna died are P appreciated in a start-up will give you three or four hundred quiz with a credit office it's all done on credit so you could open up a credit account with them and spend a few hundred queries and get the stock and Harry Weber was fantastic as well you know he was even I said a hurry we're gonna start up on our own but you know we're not gonna need to competition with anything else and he said wonderful and he he gave us he just actually gave us loads of stock so pay me when you can you know I mean I I love that man he was just he was just a special guy he was my second dad reading away and so we then started but this is just before this we started so cool okay where we gonna we gonna yeah so that my dad's still in the police force at this time don't yet so he's still working I'm still working we're still drumming both of us you know need links three or four nights a week and and he had a good yeah good good work you know then but I think it was the clash as well for him he saw this as a opportunity to stop all the the problems of like he'd have a gig in the West End or something and the phone would go on a second I've told you this phone would go six or five or six o'clock Harry we've got a murder you know like you better get down this or certainly hat so then you had to drop everything find somebody to replace him get a deck drummer in because there was an unwritten law there still is I think in amongst you know gay musicians but and that sort of circuit you don't let anybody down you know if you take a you take a gig you turn up or you make sure that you put in somebody that's equally as good yes so we start looking around for premises I suppose in London you know so obviously because we live in it full and we air it I really start looking everywhere you know we go around like you know dad's like skiving off from the from the knick and you can get away for a couple of hours we we know we cannot find anywhere that we've remotely think we can afford that was the problem you know with how the hell are we gonna you know how could we starting off from scratch you just got no no idea so we we were getting a bit despondent I think by this time and because a lot of the family had connections in and around Guildford and God willing area they were the family were posted out during the war you know evacuated or things like that and my mum comes my mum came from a huge family of 11 11 11 11 surviving kids all together two brothers and no in sisters you know imagine for Christmases were an absolute nightmare he said gets us all you know but so we knew that area we were always going from London to Guildford and gardening and hazel me mm-hm so we're we're all the family lived pretty much are there and they were they were police as well they had a couple of uncles that were in that place in hazel may was uniform head of station their sense of good connections and my other uncle he rose to really senior level at Mount Browning Guildford Peter Jones but he died at the age of 42 the heart attack you know I just drop dead sometimes back then but he was you know he was a quite high up know what rank either too so we knew you know so we were familiar with that area and we always bash in backwards and forwards in a little old Ford whatever you never fought those old cars back and forth weekends you know like to go and see the family and things like so we know this here and I still to this day do not know why we but we found this little old derelict shop right in Stoke Fields it was called in those days this derelict shop which was a greengrocers and there's bloke that he had one arm apparently this green grocer what I counted this dog he hadn't one arm and with one arm he was building a bomb-proof shelter because that was in the days of other than some sort of cold war against these decided he was gonna sure up the cellar you know with like two foot of concrete so he got out way out that lot and died probably probably hard work it's a bit like that one-armed wallpaper hanger you know how this working moon in the in the country so this is a story right so we never met him so this but they know this place was on the market and but it was a derelict greengrocers you know there was there was mice nests and in a way that there were potatoes and their vegetables and and all this stuff and it was empty but it had a flat over the top and at the back so there was a shop at the front and at the back we had kitchen and a little bathroom on the top which was quite nice because we in fact I never said did when we were at Battersea up to the age of 7 we only had an outside loo and the tin bath on the wall you know and so moving to Fulham into the police flack was absolute luxury could be on an indoor bathroom and toilet you know I must admit gone I get into this and he goes he goes luxury luxury you know side tall it God we had pot in ground you know we have to go was so I mean you have to come up with something even more even almost a bit Monty Python this early luxury industry so anyway I used to have a lot of fun with it go back to those days so so we found this shop in and it had their kitchen the back and a little bathroom three bedrooms upstairs yeah cellar down below which is a semi built bomb shelter it was I how many square foot it was but it wasn't very many was it it's two shots not together we got this pictures of it yeah inside so dad said well this said you know and in those days Stoke Fields was a road to nowhere you had to come off you could only get into it from North Street and you went down Stoke fields and it banjo drowned on itself you know you can do your road there wasn't the your word for people that know the area that wasn't there you know you said there was a petrol station right next door to us and we had got some we've got some photos we have got some old black of my photos of what it was like in those days you know when we moved in and the the building we've subsequently moved to in Hayden place and what would you got renamed so there's this little place and Guildford is like a one-horse town the only other music shop was run Bulow's I think it was yeah right it was called run balloons which was like own general stores yeah Barnes and Avis it became corded or something like it was because I had general like curries yeah they did you know electrical staff and so that was the local competition I thought no competition there you know so because they weren't really a specialist music show you know they were and we are looking now 60 late 1963 okay so the Beatles of you know the Beatles are riding high this says this massive beat boom and every kid on the block wants to be a guitar player there's no there's no product about you know they were you know I was sick impact like you know you had some European manufacturers like Framus mmm-hmm frameless or some of the other ones you know like made-up weird little German and Swiss guitar makers and a bit of stuff there were obviously it's an offender around Vox was big by that time Marshall says you know it's a good bit of kit tricks on drums remember them no okay so they were they were really big at one time and then sawn off was that still going on my German but tricks I think got a few tricks almost German but they made this bit we had sort of drums which are like conical shapes you know you probably can google it and get some pictures of it things like that but and so we are so we're in this wonderful beat boom this 1963 and so we and that's a dancers what do you think about this soon because this I remember well I mean very much it cause it was 4,200 pounds and we could buy the freehold he bought the freehold yeah it was 4,000 turn I could have pretty sure there was the amount and and I thought it was an amazing risk for Harry to take you know alright when I think back yeah real gamble but he he worked out that you know with the little loan we had the amount of credit that I could get from the wholesalers the help from Harry al gig money yeah yeah name his police pension which was index-linked and it was a great police pension so he'd worked it out that we could survive even if we you know only turned over yeah and I think yeah I think that was and I think that was my dad's vision for it the dream he'd seen Harry Weber you know a nice lifestyle just popped pottering about in a music shop and selling a bit bit here and there and if you didn't like the custom you know if you didn't like the some hoity-toity woman that came in subdued so a go-between hang on a minute miss Anderson isn't like that anymore and we it's difficult cause like it's a real shame I haven't got a good photo in a vivid memory of some of this stuff because it was funny and we've built we built a trapdoor to get stuff in and out of this cellar we didn't have any stairs in those days so we decided to be able to trap the Luke and we used to we used to pull it up and open it and put a ladder down you know he used to be used as a storeroom you know some guy so there was no health and no health and safety you left and you think that you know caja we could have sued and all sorts of things but so so 63 so they said fantastic you know movement in music and and I when did the pirate ships start you know it was Radio Caroline you know the pirate radio station I thought that was all ready well they was this was all kicking off around this time you know so like it was just exploding and I said and and Great Britain you know everybody wanted a dose of the Union Jamie you know we were flying high it was we were so proud to be British you know like we were leading the world in fashion you know I can't be straight nothing you stick out to the West End and the fashion and the music scene and you know it was just amazing so so it timing wise you know I don't think you could couldn't do it today you know but the timing was so right for us and so we so what happen was my dad stayed on in the police force I I quit Harry Webber's with his blessing fortunately and started running back and forth up the a3 between Fulham and Guildford and started getting the shop you know on my own you know so who's the guy up there for a few days and dad would come and join me weekends you know so we'd gain he was it was amazing you know it's likely to go I know I think we've needed a new we need a stud wall there or something like alcohol you know I got and they disappear out in the garden you know he come in and I need that it sort of all builtin monkey in and it was just it was just amazing like that you know I sort of could do stuff so we used to sleep on a mattress you see on its old mattress upstairs in the one in one of the bedrooms with a little kettle going you know on the floor and so that's what that's how we got the shot ready so it was all done on absolutely shoestring you know there's real shoe stink we used we've made everything we made the sign we cut the letters out out of plywood you see that you see the thing we have got a picture painted I think he has to you know and we we handmade we just haven't made everything you know we did all the fittings ourselves and stuff and this pegboard was great in those days and a pegboard and bent nails you know [Music] and I ain't dead I can remember there's so much like this s is like that this is the first the first few weeks yeah in the shop you can see that they've got a nose for the instruments behind them mind you we was we spent quite a long time cleaning it up why did we have to clean this way it was a vegetable shop greengrocers yeah yeah the taters are on the stairs dad he had me cleaning the shop floor for to pound on a Saturday you yeah Oh was it made and you you were the store where I was the weekend aha remember what the first day's takings were ringing out and saying hello Daisy he was because Pete was having to do everything while Dad was finishing out his few months in the police so yeah he's so we opened on d-day ordered when Lucy likes a very special date for me the 6th of June 1964 we opened and and I and I was on my own with mum so I think obviously must have moved in there a week or two before so so dearest dear Sylvia my mum she was numb to everybody and I used to come out in the shock she was lovely lady wasn't she she was just had such a a charm about everybody loved her and she didn't know anything about the bear anything any gear but she she would have a go you know she's not off and she'd make people a cup of tea or you know license you will see if you had any breakfast you won't hit me like these you know local singing musicians would come in looking like you know wow this is a great music shop this one so um so we so we we got started and it just went berserk you know then my dad finally handed his notice in to finish in the September and what did he do he took leave he took his you know annual leave anything else and he then came down full-time he was working he was burning battle was between Guilford and and Hammersmith because I think that's where that was a last station he ended up her and juggling days off and stuff whatever they do and but then full-time September in 1964 and it was just unbelievable it was just you know we could not get enough kit right and you probably you probably can't imagine you might get a measure because it was a bit like that hair ties was it when we have reopened in 1991 with the air queues of people on a Saturday and this little shop we used to have people queuing right to get in the store and we had to have a guide just saying what one in went out you know cuz yeah I was just absolute mad and we but you couldn't get enough kit and when the rep I remember the rep from Busey tops coming down because their Ajax drums there's another drum right which were many bad Busey and Hulk something and he'd say oh we've only got red ones and blue ones right we'll have 25 kits of each color you know we literally that kind of that's all those sort of numbers you know like with 25 red ones 25 blue ones in a hope that you could get two or three you know I station right and there was there were harmony guitars they were a great sort of stuff but we were general music short bus all right so it was you know in amongst all that lot we're trying to deal with the remnants of the British Empire Guildford that other classical musicians you know sort of doing brass and woodwind and we didn't do pianos then or keep keyboards because they had really they weren't really around and so it was a bit difficult you know being a general music so you know but we've about how alkene was there any famous people in Guildford or it was that still very much was that a big difference you noticed moving out of London that sort of that you know the the big famous guys just we're all still in London later yeah later quite a few of them relocated to live in and around this area's you know you're like Genesis and wise I rely on him cousin Eric was born in Ripley it came from Ripley and people so they were quite a few yeah but mainly local yeah yeah mainly youngsters youngsters that was out you know it was that everybody wanted it honestly and the music scene was really good but Guildford was a very you know very parochial mmm country town then you know like they still talked a bit like that you'd add a slight accent but not as bad as down in the West Country where I knew but they used there was a I tell you what the cattle market the cows and sheep they used to wheel him in at the top of North Street we still had a live cattle market before Slifer of green as I hand in the abbot's are so they used to herd that herd the cows and the pigs in the sheep or bring them in it up to the macking like the top of not streak you know your honor on a weekend off when your request and the young and the nothing happened very quickly as I always remember that if you wanted anything done you know any utilities sorted it out gas or electricity or your phone fixed you know some bloke would come down with a pair of welly boots and a claw that you know go like that you know you're lucky if you got it done you know nicer you know because coming out of London yeah the pace was the pace was just half of what different nowadays easily has like a satellite or London and it guilt but back then it was very you know a very quiet country town it was lovely you know it was lovely in some respects some of the challenges so obviously the I guess most businesses that start up the challenge will be that there's not enough customers and that it's all everything's for hand to mouth but by the sounds of things your challenge was the opposite really just managing the demand getting the stock so getting the store and and and managing the dead you know well that's because people won't know that's an interesting dynamic then his name because you've got a you've got the the your dad brand ad who wanted to open the business as a way to take a bit of a take his foot off the gas a bit interesting like you're 50 yeah is where you're coming you're much more ambitious yeah and could see the opportunity so how did you how did that sort of manifest itself very in a very difficult relationship ensuing it ensued very very difficult you know but the center is very ambivalent yeah love love hate thing you know we'd stuffed all stand up rails about things look is he and he was very word very authoritarian you know why he wouldn't discuss anything it's gonna be like this you know and he was great with customers you know about him behind the scenes I used to get blamed for everything you know I felt I did anything I said you know if they think that Raleigh was my bloody fault you know and he pulled me out what I hated most was he bought me out in front of customers you know and make me feel like about this big in there which is so it was difficult we know there's difficult period so I I so we go forward Pro so significant peer for me was 66 I think the business is going great you know like we are we're we're we're covering the rent we're covering the rent the mortgage so we had a quite a big mortgage so that was one thing that also my dad had negotiated whether we had a bank loan and I don't know we had like weird bank manager back then you know now west bank manager you still going to see any girl fees nursing what new cell he told he told electrically told yeah you know dramas and things like those sorts of things he said you know you know I knew you know that was that was what I said there's turn to you about my my thing about authority figures you know but here was somebody who's in in authority and I couldn't get what I wanted you know I just lived the bloody bank loan I won't even overdraft you know and he was standing in my way but he was you know he'd like he had the power didn't he so I used to really you know find that very difficult to come up against anybody that you know had to battle my way around people like that but anyway so we get to yeah we're doing really well and I say the business is booming and and I think around that time 66 then I think that was the first time which is it interesting to think back we started to see the contingents of Japanese people coming over you know like groups of three or four Japs and they would tour it go around visit all the music shops in the country I'm still going back into London to buy from the wholesalers and things like that and analysts around the time we did our fur I did it my first deal you know big deal bought a hundred Fletcher Copic and human are they still going know Fletcher couple could but if Fletcher Fletcher copper and copper was a dame they were a wholesaler gentle music wholesaler and we got this I got daylight not I went up there but certainly and they had a batch of classical guitars really nice but the the tables a twisted very very very slightly you know so the action was a bit low and they were I think they were about hung or they were a hundred or more of them and I made him an offer for this row this hundred for a like container load of these guitars and I went back and went back and I said yeah dad you know a lot of planets to pick these I'm gonna pick these guitars out look every print we can sell them for about 25 quid or something and I'm not born for five or six quid I don't know what the figures were and he went ballistic you know so things like that you see you know so I got the credit they cannot we combine one credit when paying back was he selling don't worry I'm negotiated alone so so that was a bit of an insight into the things that you could do like seeing opportunities and I think that's a lot was a lot of where I wanted if I saw an opportunity I wanted to go for it yes so 16 1966 I suppose so by that time we're doing really well we're covering our overheads and both dad and I are drumming every night we I think one of the things that I do remember which is funny is we used to bulk the stock out we used to put our drum kits in the shop window yep during the day and then you know let me get to both take him out at night let's go out and do a gig and put them back in the morning doing like so we were the geeks in London still predominant I was still doing some gigs in London yeah so you clocking up the miles as well yeah but we the band I got into this banding Guildford right and we used to do all the nightclubs around the coast as well you know like little Hampton Worthing there was the Mexican Hat the top hat we said we'd travel quite a way we used to band was that oh I 2 or 3 bands I was in various bands and the other 2000 was the little three-piece cream-style band ahead and but the band that we did weren't pro with was the just 5 you know a seven-piece band was that Craig what a great name and then they just father we were seven piece but in those sizes coming out so 1966 around that time I think it was 60 or 667 I was getting me and dad were like you know like having a bit of a yeah problem and mum deal mum was trying to be peace maker you know between us and things like that and I didn't know it must have been I look back I was very I was an angry young man you know in those days are like that to prick am I still like that no no you're a while yeah people before but frustrated I suppose him if I said I really wanted to see an opportunities everywhere I wanted to do this and do that and dad dad I realized subsequently dad wasn't a businessman you know he he wasn't really interested in being the boss of her business he just wanted to you know play he wanted the freedom to be able to enjoy his music and run his dance ban because by this time he had the Harry Anderson organ trio organ trio yeah and for fees organs were just starting to come in and you know we used to get the old farmers coming in I wear them for a fee this please sorry absolutely no one girl for talks like this huge catchment area is a Cornwall this is 40 years ago 50 50 years ago something you know it's crazy it's a long time it is a long time ago so yes so so we heard the promises so the band we the band was doing more and more work and we were in with an agency in London called the Arthur house agency managed quite a few well-known X and we got offered a tour so this is I think this is before I busted my leg here at and so and also around this time aged about 19 or 20 I got into horse riding that was my big hobby you know I like I loved that as much as drumming you know so I you know I used to go riding every opportunity on Sundays and things like that and I was a late comer to it as you can imagine nights at ninety nurses I went with my sister Debbie first time this she's that come along with it yeah get off you never get me on one of those things you know so but anyway like you know the first time I got absolutely hooked and the riding country around outside Guildford you know around Blackheath that was just magnificent so anyway so I'll put that in because that will ears will go that will be quite pertinent to what happened a bit later on so the first thing was I get the opportunity that Ben gets an offer to go professional and we get an offer to be the backing band for American artists that were had a number one hit in this country or you know or were quite high up and they would come over onto a no sorry and we do a two-week to so you know like we do with the whole of the UK and back and playing the West End clubs and the Flamingo club was always a you know yeah in one band I was in we used to back Georgie flame Georgie Fame and the blue flames were playing in the Flamingo club which is in Wardour Street I think it was in those days and but was a very you know really famous black loads of black musicians in there and lots of you know the guys from all the black guys from Notting Hill and all around that way so it was a real buzzy place yeah and and they used to get lots of guest artists new used to go until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning you know I've been the club closed Julie famous blue flames and I used to go and watch drama called Phil Stevens who talked Ginger Baker okay drug addict oh bloody heroin addicts I amazed how I I did I escaped the drug thing you know yeah right or just you know never never touched me because I was too young whatever but um some not John Mayall know they another guy come to me Alexis Korner something ring a bell - they say google him you know he was one of the heroes alexis korner was with Long John Baldry and all this this was sort of a British you know underground music scene going on there's lots of these guys doing fabulous stuff Graham bond organisation was talked about they're going I met in Exmouth my hometown he was a huge fan of the Graham bond organisation we were talking about Geno Washington in the RAM jam band who we used to support round all the university gigs as well certainly so this band we were doing really well you know oh very fairly competent I suppose but women really when we used to do R&B so we loved you know like our influences were Wilson Pickett James Brown and that stuff I love playing that you know real heavy you know so James bring us style stuff and it was good for me because I got out of I stopped all the fiddly twiddly stuff you know I used to be going because my dad used to Train influenced me with Joe Morello you know from take from the Dave Brubeck Quartet you know because I've got photos of Dave so Joe Morello famous famous drama he was brilliant he we used to get these guys over and they used to do we don't accept the stoke hotel ya know so so my dad was always trying to influence me that way you know so and on my you know Milan love was heavy rock hard rock so I'm sort of you know never win anywhere I don't think so we get these we do these tours and I've got to say dead why I've got this offer you know and I and I'm sort of also thinking maybe maybe this is my life is gonna I'm gonna break from the business and because I you know I can't can't take working with there anymore and I'm gonna you're gonna make a career in music so so we've been doing more and more work on a part-time basis because all the guys in the band were all were all had jobs and then we had the you know the big decision that comes to every band sure yeah can we actually quit our jobs and and notices in and go pro for me so we did and we hard and I think we hired in a trumpet player who was a musician and we accepted these gigs said okay so we did these you know we did two tours so I was I disappeared you know off and Harry was was he was a bit upset about that I guess around the particular you know and he didn't you didn't know much about electric guitars he you know you know his drums but he didn't know much about anything anything else or didn't you know didn't want to really casbah that's the way so so so I came back off of those two and um and I had to make every I had to make a decision you know so you did the tours yeah did he did the tourist business or how roughly how long were you away for a month over month okay not like a year right no no no no don't tell me about a month and then there was a lot of a lot of other work you know like but I had to disappear from the shop going to doing recording studios work we did TV we did them we might have it my other sneaky photo coming on screen now have you on television at some point rather we have to do Ready Steady Go not before Ready Steady Go I'll show you [Music] it was something like Cathy McGowan I think it was was that was the host of it I already speak oh no that's not TV I thought that was you on TV now this is just a band look that's me what a dipstick I wasn't photogenic so so where's that from that I always thought that was you doing up no that's Ricky and the secrets Ricky in the secret and the guy there for anybody that's a fisherman sure they would know on the extreme left hand side his name's Chris ball and Chris ball is the most famous now carp fisherman in the world East and I met him at in The Gambia like seven many years later but that's 10 15 years ago I met inugami another guy deep-sea fishing he was telling me about his life I hadn't seen him for all those years you know hey Chris hey didn't and he tells me he sort of got into carp fishing I'm writing books about it in all that something he needs now it's seriously good with this guy he's the world's leading authority on wild carp fishing and the bass player apparently McDowell thinks he's going to sheep farming he's written a book about he holds the Guinness world record for largest sharing of a sheep it was really amazing what all the rest of the band went on to achieve [Music] anyway so our arch rivals were who are they the storms real shakers in Guildford area shakers and with filled good hands feel like Gooden tape which I mean okay which is a random thing as my phone buzzed a minute ago and I've just missed a call from Paul good entitlement fails son yeah which is like care what are the chances who I know from another guild Guildford it's like a hotbed well there was a stuff going on there you know I suppose as in most other towns and cities you know not as much as like some of the other stuff that's going on in Birmingham and Manchester and those other towns but anyway so that was a good so where did I get to say what they're doing so you've got back from the tour and we've got to you have a moment where you're either going what am i doing I said yeah where's my you know what I got to do in the road and I think I I was very I wanted to be a millionaire it was right I mean I was just convinced I would one day be million I don't know how how do you ever do that so but driving thing you got when you're 25 or whatever it is and how I got married by then I think married in 1969 a bit later I had to make this in a monumental emotional decision was I going to you know yeah stay in the business or was I gonna cut loose you know because and that was one of my emotional problems I'd never left home you know I said like most people get the opportunity to leave home and go yeah and I have enough haven't taste of it going off and enterings I never went to university or that so you know I thought felt like I was still in still tied to be mum's apron strings you know and she was a bit like a / - oh darling I said I'm not I'm 55 it was about later on come on son period what you want on a butter sandwich so yeah so emotionally very very traumatic really um you know I decided I made the decision at night so no I don't think I want to go pro because and I think probably because that would have you know I don't know I couldn't leave him you felt you do let him down you me yeah yeah yeah I suppose I saw him and I never thought back then but okay he could get somebody to replace me I'm sure he could you know like but we never thought like that somehow he knows so sorry go back and you know and you know we've continued to sort of laugh one day and threatened to kill each other the next that's that and then the next big move so businesses every well we we still can't get stock I took mentioned Japanese deny some Japanese stuff isn't around at this time with all these contingents were coming over you know with cameras and love you Nick on cameras photographing all the stuff interviewing us about what the trends were and things that we liked what we didn't like maybe do this and their little notebooks you know and what's weird that still happens now every year will get a from usually from Ibanez Hoshino - and they'll come round and again is it's it's bizarre because it's almost like it is very if it's super super polite very quiet very they're on take up too much of your time but you can see them all making notes about trying to predict what the trends are in guitar music and stuff but yeah well I mean that was the start of the you know the the invasion really I mean just and then within and I when I open out to take somebody else you know within 10 years in a single decade they they were dominant you know in so much stuff you know so 60 a 70 on that's when I went over there for the first time as a guest of Yamaha went just to look around all the factories Nippon Gehrke in 1978 just mind-blowing you know like passing by that tiny Yamaha flutes they take a little bit flute market and they were just so still the world's biggest Lyle's biggest and there and and what used amazed me was they Yamaha music and instrument division is a toy a subsidiary of Nippon gaki I was back then and they used to make a lot of tankers you nobody making engines and you know stuff and but they still the resources they poured into musical instruments from from get-go you know their own trees and raw materials and piano factory was just you know you just couldn't imagine this piano fit these grand pianos you know going down a slow-moving belt as far as the eye could see you know and all these always little Japanese girls you know doing a bit here and a bit there and look walking along and then walking back you know and it's just like Roland you know we're developing stuff back then so lots of electronics coming in yeah and then and then I so we got the opportunity of buying the shop or getting a lease on it I think first of all we took a lease that's right so this was to rent the shop opposite came on the market it was a bill decorators let's see how the wonderful canopy over the front no the nests was what three or four times the size three or four times yeah yeah we had about four to 2,000 square feet that was also Bay there was a top floor no bottom floor it was about a wheelchair wasn't a 91 90 degree angle it was a weird-shaped building later chokeberry and by that time I think we had also moved into doing electronic organs because the electronic all can mark it just like went like the beat market you know every you know everybody wanted to body and I hated in I hated that genre can act like that the home organist yeah home organist entertainment stuff and so so we were doing all ones and Bailey was quite a bit of electronic keywords rocked the Vox continental there was a good and Fender Rhodes pianos you know so it's great I wasn't that just it has the best sounding last year but the things they worry and I like to keep him keep him going where they with the tines yeah you know and the and the clavinet the Hohner clavinet was another one do you ever do the Wurlitzer one cuz I remember seeing it go I was in a band for the guy that had a word like a Fender Rhodes yeah Wurlitzer version just say yeah they did yeah but the clarinet was a great you know the Hohner clavinet was like a like a Clavinova you know right but it used to use metal time you know like a like a metal okay but a sticky pad that came down on it you know so the sticky pad these that they press the key and the sticky I used to work just the the pad was stuck to the time and as you pressed the key it lifted the tine and released it and it came back down and stuck on it and then released it you know so you've got this sort of weird sound yeah it's very popular because these are the first keyboards and things so so that sort of stuff was around which is quite interesting anyway so we so we get the opportunity of moving this opportunity right going over the road it's a big it's quite an expensive lease it's a lease in those days and this is 1968 I think wasn't it yes 68 that's a big shop so we can do you know we can do display lots more gear brass and woodwind and you know more amplification and everything else and I'm sort of gained but you know in those days I didn't have much of a I didn't I wasn't doing the books or the you know the finances or anything like that so I was just going well yeah come on you know we can do it and so that the responsibility obviously for doing you know for keeping tabs on their yappin money and doing the management accounting was was dance and I didn't really have much of a handle on this and appreciation until much later I realized how key three years later I realize our key this was to business you know still running a successful business owner and so we go we move on a lot of soccer Marilyn of course it's you know from its goes berserk again you know if you can think about that it's like we got more stock up more room so and we began to employ guys you know so we had you know I think around that time John Hulk join this Johnny and Hubbard guys there were so many good guys around say I'm doing this for the first time is Steve right Steve right I remember right know there's loads of good guys yeah so we had some fantastic staff some really good guys right and then but things are getting worse with me and dad you know and that's I think so soon as we started employing people that didn't really want to be you know the boss you know so he used to blame me for everything I again even more big-time and so he pushed me so he I make me go into all the negotiating you know with the bank manager with the bloody lawyers the accountants negotiate the lease you know do all that stuff we'll know you go and you can go and do all that and I said and if anything went wrong or like it was it was my fault yeah so that's difficult times how did you resolve that ultimately I decided well this is going comes forward quite away right because you're around back then so you started no I would you were me about 14 when you started as a 70 boy hmm so what are you late eighties you know 87 88 hasn't a long way for yeah I don't I don't ever remember lately working with gray I have they vague recollections of going in there and seeing him working in there but I'm in my mind I'm thinking I may be simply going through the smoke in the shop because we always everyone used to smoke we're like we used to say we were like the we were the team coaches you know sorry music smoke for sorry it was at a going on the county in an Elissa and whining forward a little bit we people won't remember this but in the 70s we we had this thing called a three-day week when the miners went on strike we had no power for four four days out of every seven you know so we owned a pass over yourself that you know like we couldn't demonstrate any local skiing so Darryl Darryl John Hulk yeah who many and it's in this customers from that time will will remember and who often used to think John was my dad because I think John would be seen in the store more than more than you were but John tells a story later yeah this is late but John tells a story when you first started selling stage lighting this is disco lighting on stage that's when we opened and opened across the road and that is that could you want to tell the story about how the fire brigade had to come out one night what cuz we got Weezer stones or something like I think it was a bit there used to do who used to do some crazy stuff over there you know so it was their way coming forward a few yeah can I fall into the 70s but I mean it was worth it because we used to this was the days of when Pink Floyd played Stoke Hotel you know the wooden bridge in Stoke with these with the psychedelic lighting this spell otoscope it was called as named ember that thing the liquid wheel right wheel projected people no I wasn't born there because it was that was that was the psychedelia thing yeah that was all these they were making these liquid wheels and we used to go up to a place in Chizik that manufactured them and we they used to denim to Led Zeppelin's you know whole lot of love and things like that you know and the amazing thing about these these blow you must these spider scopes all it was was air being pumped through colored oil inside a CD around CD shaped and disc with two pieces of glass mm-hmm and it had a colored oil inside and they used to pump oil through it pump air through somehow and it was just an illusion but it looked like the stuff was going in time with the music so they'd always be a bit of a thing going inside me it was just you know a couple of joints as well but as far as where it all started so so that was the flower power error and psychedelia and and of course and that was sweeping through that the music scene as well boom right I'm gonna reel back a little bit so so we're in the shop and there's doing really well and then I I have a accident on a horse one Sunday morning in 19th in January 1968 and I come off this this bloody great big white hunter we were airing and the the horse belonged to the boss of I see I I used to ride out from a yard a hunt yard in just outside Guildford and there were lots of hunt horses AC and so you know one of the things we were doing exercising but these things were oted up and then been out for a while so cold January morning and really freezing and I came off this thing really really badly I got thrown and got concussion and snapped my female right big ended up in the mud you know in freezing cold mud they couldn't find me you know so by the time the ambulance got to me on a Sunday morning this was as well gonna say anyway so Harry gets a phone call to say I'm in you know Surrey County or something like that you know on the Sunday morning they couldn't find a surgeon because he was off playing golf and all this stuff you know and because Harry was well-pleased you know [Music] and so so that was the start of another traumatic period you know where you know dad was a bit was pretty miffed but I was out of action you must have been out of action for six months or so now is out of action for six weeks yeah well six weeks on traction mm-hmm you know and again he was he was lumbered aneed with him and mum opened around the shop so don't think I probably appreciated that did we have any well we had some staff than his officer I think so it wasn't too bad and yeah I was hobbling around on crutches you know and but I hear I was a lot of psychological pressure on me to come back and get in this job you know so I was hobbling around on crutches you know like in the shop trying to serve and lift gear around and things like that and then subsequently I the bone never knitted in the leg sorry snapped again well the nail the cut of this metal pin pin in my leg called a Kunshan a nail and I snapped that you know we're engaged in you know you're Anita we were engaged so that was yeah so that was a really was it in a difficult period so I would say eventually I I wasn't fully weight-bearing for 14 months altogether Wow and and I had and that was a game was a real decision period in my life because I couldn't play drums mmm so yeah I thought so what am I gonna do because drumming was you know I really wanted so I felt to myself I gained it's like one of these things that you go hmm I think I'm gonna okay I'm gonna concentrate my business I'm gonna we're gonna take the business as far as you can pack up drumming and and again because I did I wasn't that great anyway so what I was - I was hard on myself you know I didn't if I couldn't be absolutely fantastic I thought it was better not to play at all so which is a an awful thing is my fear of failure so abstain from it if you yeah it's probably why I bunked off school so but I but I did play it I did play a little bit I went back and did a little bit but again didn't hook me but what that really hooked me was was business you know I enjoyed I enjoyed the cut enjoyed being an entrepreneur you know seeing opportunities and seeing how you could improve this or do better there and and we we secured some good franchises you know I was talking about 18h so we had some some really good product franchises which were taking off like had so I'm now in hunting so I finally got through that period of in 1969 got married right into the 70s so the 70s were a period which was which is pretty good and we and then I think around that time we had a lot of problems with clash I suppose really between the classical customers and the rock guys you know I mean who was going one of our lots of bands like camel came from this way didn't they and the this Stranglers right Stranglers right so this is what so they you know they were real punky you know there was that type of customer coming in rubbing shoulders with you know me see this schoolteacher who wants you know some some violent strictness you know what sort of things so yeah so we said no this is this is not working you know we need to oh that's right because we'd be you know these son go in the corner going winding it out and there's their classical customers saying all this noise you know you turn that don't burn as they used to say burn that's exactly how people from Guildford speaking by the way so there was a there was a and we and then do something about this so I'm and we were then doing this stage this is going through the 70s so you can imagine this is a sort of you know there's bits of pieces going on all the time we started to do pianos upright pianos but we had to carry out the bloody stairs you know like I swear I've you know I've cropped my back and boy I'm sort of sad but we used to carry organs and pianos up the stairs and I used to be the one on the bottom you know Oh daddy things we used to do we should sell it so anyway eventually you know after a year I persuaded that you need to invest in it in a hoist like a forklift truck so we have a forklift truck outside and punched a hole in the in the wall and used to take him in that way but so that you know all that was going on 70s we were doing really well what other stuff came in we we were one of the first was the very first synthesizers that were made in Putney there's there was some erratic time a he didn't yeah Ian PMS there was a relative of mogh yeah there were Mogan states but there was a guy had down in in the UK good land manufacture was manufacturing a suitcase synth mmm-hmm little suitcase in so you know we had the French us for this stuff and we were selling these things had ever fists and so that was interesting person this is when you know this is the first genre coming into music and they're taking off in all sorts of ways did I start playing and I think I might started doing a little bit of working out in the odd band but come on Jim it's all it's all a blur so in the 70s was for a lot of people yes I don't know why but I think it was yeah so in the new came along 97 is for tuning thank you so 72 so anything so the responsibility now dad you know you know so an and one other things that used to stress me out all the time with with running your own business and I actually remember I've never work for anybody other than part-time for Harry Weber which was an easy job but having never worked in a corporation or anything else I'm trying to when you're self-employed seven plug there's a terrible inner fear all the time that somebody's going to turn the tap off you know the business is gonna just dry out it's gonna stop you know and it's it's one of the drivers I think if you talk to a lot of you know geyser in that sort of thing and and you're constantly you know the business is sucking money all the time so you're constantly putting everything at risk so you know like the first house we bought was in nineteen in 1969 we got married the first house was hocked into the bank you know efforts to support the overdraft and that good old NatWest so that was you know that so let's the start of the sense that you're always on there you're on the coat hanger for something you know for something wrong so so where do we whine forward to now we go through the 70s when did you buy or did you how did you buy ground that out well just before that wasn't got my first earnest at least we opened this shop in North Street that was the first that was also so we opened this shop in North Street which and we moved all the classical stuff up there but that was expensive you know it was owned by Lloyds Bank it was brand-new it's where Seven Oaks is now I think it is right yeah well I took beliefs on that right and but I had a terrible time convincing Lloyds Bank that I was good enough to you know for the lease because in those days unless you were a blue chip company and you have fantastic set of accounts you know you couldn't get at least I didn't want to nobody okay well what do you do what do we do so electric guitars and that's what goes like so if you're dealing with a lawyer you know or something intermediate so again really anyway I don't know how but I managed to persuade them but we would be good for the rent and they should take a punt on us you know I still didn't have managed to convince them but and the bankers well so that's what we do so we moved all the classical stuff up internal street pianos and moved Harry up there so that was that that was a way of managing the relationship was it was to put you in one building in him and it if your own young empires - yeah we're a completely they were all rock and roll either something like as much noise as we wanted and no drums and how did he feel about that thing because I thought he liked the drums I mean yeah he did I don't know you know I don't know but he sort of went out there we had we had a guy where they go out there was a manager so dead mm I think he's just like the guy there he was a full-timer right and around that time I began to began to realize we have to get rid of my Massey move my auntie Houston her accountant my mom I still working in the business it's a very much a sort of you know very much a sort of typical family business but but you you realize I we it was when that was when I really needed and now I had two shops and I didn't know what the hell was going on you know I couldn't handle how much good about and then because we were sort of pressured in a way into opening reading so opened up in reading as well mainly because of the ATH franchise mm-hmm so they were threatening to give us cuz we had a big catchment area in those days you know lots of people came to us from surrounding counties and we and I was sort of forced pressured into opening in reading to maintain the agency for a change amplification which was and it was a mistake so we never really did very well out there we couldn't afford to get into the town and the only property available game was outside of town but I was rented so here I got now renting Hayden place and renting reading and renting North Street right and you know anyway I was determined I was gonna buy so I kept pestering the dear old lady who lived in Weybridge lovely lady to sell me Hayden place and I finally persuaded her to sell mid 1970s or something like that so that enabled me to get a freehold building to try and release some personal equity from the bank you know but I think in those days he needed a mortgage so that was hocked again you know the billion was hock but he began to get a flavor for you know for property and doing that sort of stuff in the background and and I and I saw reading as an opportunity as well because there was a flap over the top of that and it was rented out the moment but anyway so coming forward so late 1970s I think David I've had enough really it got too too difficult with the family and I was trying to bring in I was trying to bring in an accountant to do management accounting you know so a bookkeeper yeah so that we knew what the hell was happening you know I didn't know and and that I used to I was interested in in that time in business I was used to read lots of business books you know one minute manager and Michael Gerber was one of my gurus you know the guys who wrote the e-myth yes I think you forced me to read that yeah Michael Gerber was one of his mottos was you know learn to work on the business not in it yes you know any who is used to cite Ray Kroc the founder of McDonald's yes ray never fried a hamburger in his life you know never fried any french fries you know he he just worked on the business not in it for that was his anyway he was very successful Michael Gerber with a woman still living in this Amos thing so I did feel those courses and I used to you know used to love all this stuff and I finally and I came to the watershed was 1981 and unfortunately you know mom and I got divorced then I think that was in 1981 was net week sort of know Mary's wouldn't down the pain and at the same time I said to Harry and mum you gotta retire you know either I'm going yeah I'm gonna go and make my way somehow I don't know what would I don't know I would do but and the other problem was up until that time everything was in my dad's name business isn't that's name and I realize I didn't you know didn't I think I was made a partner but I only but not you know didn't have any equity in this is there anything else I so so Harry and say and I don't know how all he would have been then he would have been 50 60 in his 30 60 and we worked out we worked out a deal anyway so he was very gracious I think in saying yeah worked at a deal and to retire him and not and and pay him off you know I gradually buy him out like a pension but at the same time you know I just did not know this is you know other things that I remember now from again from running running their business was getting called into the bank manager's office I must've told you this story of my good old NAT whispering called me into the office and said Oh Pete couldn't come to see ya shortcoming Graham somebody honor his name one says I see your hat they said you I see your house is in the paper up for sale you know what's happening oh well I've got you know I'm getting divorced I've got divorce we got to sell the house he said so I'm very sorry to hear that and he said well here are the banks in joint names we have a we've got you know your overdraft which was at that time as a quarter a million pounds for stock cross-play shops mm-hmm a lot of money in those days and he said them yeah loaned loans and over dropped it because he said then he said I can't you don't because you're you know I can only look at half the equity in the house so do you think you can arrange to repay and their 50% lead overdrawn thank you Lord you know you want to kick me in the other so that all fell on top of me all at once you know like that and and the emotional problem of getting to the ball you know game for realizing my marriage was on the rocks and that was a lot of that was down to you know being stressed out all the time running the business and I wasn't I don't think I was a very good a good husband and her dad I don't know that but when you're running a business is difficult whenever you've managed to find that balance which one which is great but so it's interesting you know looking back on all this stuff so I managed to retire Harry in 1981 and I decided it had to be what I called my sack cloth and ashes period in it yeah so I flogged I had a Jag I remember XJS yeah I went denied went and the Sirocco came in place with a secondary old banger of a Volkswagen Scirocco Jersey had look I sold the house we had nice house and we've managed to make a lot of money on that because I bought that new in the 1970s when inflation was running at 15% and house prices were going like wow you know so but we had to get out of there so sold that moved into a flat and enough money for mum to buy a place and because you guys were private school and you know so you and I and looking to how to do all this so in my sector of a national spirit so I thought all right bugger this I've got to go to sell so I was closed North Street branch handed back the lease or did I sell the lease I can't remember I think I managed to sell the lease get out of that with no problems and around the same time I sold I managed to sell reading as a going concern to the pilot to British Airways pilot Arthur Hamer his name was it Macy's come back hae-bin I'll finish though that's the music store famous then that's what it became was it yeah yeah so Arthur who and he just wanted an investment yeah so 99.9 said sure that's not still there yeah but he says Pete another drama a famous drama and that he became a John who's managed managed a place for me but it was very difficult not having having a manager out there running reading and I was so relieved so I got so I it was a sacrifice in consolidation period so I was able to get rid of the Redding store rented rent the property access soon oh I see still kept the lease but at some point or other I was able to buy it it was owned by the coop so again I was you know bit more savvy in terms of the property aspect so I managed to buy the freehold there but the guy back in is my tenant got rid of north street I donno owned Hayden place and property values worth going up and if another just good so and having I saw I was now able to finance the business from without having to put my personal assets up for grabs you know cuz I've from that day onwards I vowed I would never ever hop myself into the bank or have myself and my wife you know like any joint family assets hot to the bank in case the tap turned off you know there is a place of the tap going like there you go oh my god we're gonna do and he got staff and all this sort of stuff you know so it's very stressful you know and I didn't realize just how stressful all this was until I sort of fell over in the year 2000 you know I went into a hospital for six months and I not six months in hospital but had to had to take it take a back seat but that's coming forward so so that was a great period so great period in what sense well Justin tinnitus I wasn't just the business was the shop it was just rock and roll and that I think was around the time we opened the disco thing across the road right so his late seventies early eighties and and I and John John was running the pretty much the whole thing and I got I started designing designing office furniture yeah that's it I often wondered people won't know this but yes you you I often my early memories of the store and certainly when I started working there you were quite distant from the music industry and you'd started this other business as you say designing office furniture which was successful as well but was that did you fall where'd you become disillusioned with music or not music itself but he who can that I often I vaguely recollect you sort of feeling like it just was too small you know it's very cottage industry used to say the music business in those days was a bit of a joke we used to the total turnover of the music business in the UK was a third of the business food industry of something that's right yeah it was that was the stat wasn't that Sainsbury's or the supermarket's would sell more chicken flavor cat food than the whole of the music industry added up so but was that would that frustrated you because you're you're sort of entrepreneurial desire to be a millionaire or everyone's used to went I don't think I can do this in the music industry or I think to some degree and I'd also seen their other stores going down the multi-store route you know who had fallen on their backs and gone bust there were quite a few Southeast entertainments comes to mind I don't know that one that's way back then but they were one of the first sort of chains to explode that nut lots of shops and there was several went to the dogs you know went into liquidation and Bekah that those two at that time and having had three shops myself and the problems of like running you know like running a second shop your problems double yeah and then they sort of quadruple you know like because you always get you know you got a remote shop and the bloke friends in the mayor I'm sorry I can't come in today because I'm sick you know and and the my and I used to I I was very very conscious of the customer you know like yeah providing the best customer service that we could because that was a was my other thing that I was interested in from the business point of view it was sales and marketing and but a customer experience you know same thing how do you serve the customer you know best but I think you came up with the you know the best mission statement for us was it was enabling enabling people to make a good buying decision you know so they feel happy with what they've bought you know rather than oh yes I was good because you you managed it poppy and I'd like epitomized what the mission center was I was able to put it in that context so easily and yeah so that so we've condensed down in 1981 and again it was great we have dinner so I was still involved I just my often I'd live office upstairs and I was and I was riding again so yeah because I got back on the horse and I bought my own horse you know so I had my own horse and I was going riding and I had this so I started this I think what it was I I personally I said I'm sorry I'm talking about myself all the time it's very narcissistic isn't it egocentric listen I apologize but I don't think you know it's just always trying to find out who I am you know what strike what drives me but I I was frustrated I think because you know I missed that opportunity of never going to college of art and design and being a being I had a you know real desire to sort of I didn't make makeup design things and this opportunity to to I could have done it in the music business I suppose but the opportunity never arose you know but this opportunity arose in in this computer forensics we just gone we bought our first computer back then you know I mean it was such a novelty for a visit from music shop to have a computer you know used to take us all we came to program the stock turnover you know it was absolutely dire you know dial-up modem but it's set me off on that road you know of devising developing systems stock control systems how how are we going to how can we you know know what's going on in the business and one of the mandates or the things that used to the echoed with me was if you're going to make a decision in a business you know 99% of the time it will be a financial have a financial bearing can I afford to buy this yeah I'm going to employ this person you know can we build this can I do this it always had a financial you know you needed some financial data and if that financial data was Ford your decision was as flawed yeah so so it was very keen on making sure that we got that had the best data what's happening today in the business not you know two years down the line like it was in those days when the ad your annual accounts yeah you did I definitely remember and being the bit that took me the longest to get my head round not get my head round but it's the cases you know if you're into music and you know playing the guitar and you love dealing with customers and it's so exciting the idea of producing management accounts is so utterly dull but you do realize you're absolutely right once you you just if there's too much there's too much money and too many transactions going on all the time to try and make every decision based on a gut feeling wins the right one you know and if you're absolutely right if the data's I suppose that the only thing worse than having no data is wrong data yeah because then then it's even worse you know you're but well I again I think I was you know I was used to do the old management course and all this stuff and now I used to read that they said you know you've got a you've got to get behind the businesslike only you know if you imagine it's like a horse and cart it's no good you running along in front of the horses leave no horses you've got to get in the driving seat and and drive the horse sieve you know so it's about delegation which yeah I was I was crap don't tell you know but I mean we should so so rich so if we the office furniture business is it is almost like it's another chapter and for people watching this probably a less interesting but well it was interesting because it gave me another stream of income yeah okay so I have this Annie and it gave me an outlet for my design and you know for my experience I I mean you know I won I went back then I won a couple of awards for design I became a member of the Design Council now cool and I won a silver award for the pack the cardboard box that we cobbled boxes well this cobbled engineering you know a silk of silver a war so I was quite pleased you know and we didn't Russell Morgan joined us then arabela that drummer friend yes but it got then we you know that business has started to go berserk you know like we we got into bed with a person partners in Germany and had manufacturing plant in Hannover and what stuff you know so you know my focus is very much in there and but it I got fed up you know we couldn't be game I could not make decisions I you know I said I could make decisions about music business and and but it wasn't going anywhere you know it was just it was trucking along it was doing okay and we didn't worry about I go down the multi-store route but we were sort of stuck on how to sum up scale it have a scale it up because we're at capacity where we were square footage so and that was around time again 1981 now I divorced second period so through there bps gates and then we get into the nine late nineteen eighties and you are just coming out of when are we there about 1989 1990 so but I you know I still like I still like being at the sharp end of the business no but I found I couldn't I couldn't run it from the front you know he couldn't be the front doing customers and all my hand also you know trying to run the business with me so I had to take a step back and and and physically you know move back from the business which was difficult you know is hard so but then I realize oh the bps gates business a computer furniture business because I had never got for this one I deal with the German guys and and you I've been working in the store for a few years with the brewery nurse at Lee boy but was a good sales you know you really have a you know a good feel fit and we're very you know but I didn't want to pressurize you this is this is this is interesting it's interesting for other people but might be for members of the family but I I never wanted you because of the relationship I've had with my dad I did not want a repeat of that yeah and I absolutely wanted you to come into the business of your own volition if you wanted to but ideally to bring another skill to it so you had your own skill set there you know like I definitely remember you not wanting me to join the business you know and again I think it was probably still that was perhaps what added to the sort of sent my sense that you were disillusioned with it all because I just think you've you just met you you just didn't see it as something that I'd be able to make the kind of career in as if I've gone and done something else but yes I don't know I had the bug for it bad you know really bad and it was all I wanted to do and I and I think from a timing point of view as well I was very lucky that you had the opportunity to move the business again into an even bigger premises which gave me the sort of platform yeah well they say later on too well in the you know in the history what was like the dynamics of the business there was that again this that momentous day when your your teacher phoned me up from Guilford College remember I do he said because I persuaded you to go back to you Lee yeah Holly together in college yeah mmm so I had persuaded you to go back to uni to college to get you only needed about three or four more points in order to go to university and I was trying to encourage you to go to university and get a degree in business management or some you know some skill you bring into the business accountancy or something like that then they imagine I know but I didn't want you to like I wanted you to I wanted you to have some experience of the outside world before coming into the family business cuz family businesses can be awfully austra phobic you know and and you know like like yeah well it's really difficult as you know you know with yeah different problems you have so yeah so that fateful day and the bloke from the college phoned up and said them mister and Jerry Lee's know he's doing it sitting examinee with you in the cosy said no he isn't here and hadn't been there for months which is ironic really isn't it yes but there we are I got the mother of all bala cans come on I thought I was really I could maybe over the phone but I thought I was really I think I thought was a really cool day let me know cuz I said come on let's go and have a beer and talk about this it's not how it happened at all I came into the shop and John John Hulk looked at me and he went what have you done and I'm like what he's like you need to go upstairs and see your dad how do you 18 something like that so I realize now that that's it I've been found out in the last six months of not going to college even though I'd told you I was to sit over and honestly the smoke was coming out of your ears when I walked into that office you made me write you a written apology goodbye yeah you made me write you a written apology and wonder they say I was hard but fair no and that was that that was the fateful day where you did you just went you know that his here's a broom and because that was up until that point I've just been um part-time you know that was general it just got I knew it was just what my is my memory is different than okay maybe maybe my heart memory is different then but I remember sort of sitting down with you and some point I very once about a lay our scene and saying what's what deep I know I did this and said what do you want what do you want to do what do you what do you want to make of your life you know where do you want to go because at that time you were just fiddling around the guitar weren't you you'd I've never been oh no but you were in a school band pretty good we used to do yeah he said come and see I put him where was it we may in fit like main food yeah great it was good it was a good little BAM I would never never ever did it look Ross on my mind look I might do that no definitely not no so so yeah and it was then when you said oh I just want to come in the business and it was like a like a big moment you know hello Christ I didn't haven't seen this I read just did not realize that your passion was you know was to be part of or come into business so I've been are bloody hell right okay that's it then so the first thing we need is here is if guy if Lee wants to really get behind this I've got to give him a vehicle to show what he can do so so I at that time the property market the end of the 1980s this was was was there was a there was on a crack big recession okay 1988 I think it was it was a massive recession a crash and the opportunity I saw this building oh yeah well pretty much yet the current store cast off cast or 80 came on was on the market the refrigeration wholesale awesome it had owned it and it came it was derelict it wasn't Maps it was IV been red brambles growing up through the floor and everything else so we saw this didn't we and we went and had a look at this and so I felt I okay this is this is it this is the opportunity of moving into some really big premises it's gonna need it's gonna need some some doing up but it was a game big gamble so I gambled all all my pennies I'm I hocked I hopped everything I had except the flat I still kept I think I just wouldn't have stuff to do the fact but all the business premises I had by that time I've managed to buy reading right i had the reading and i'd also managed to buy the flat over the top of it and from or it was a rented accommodation and it overnight it transformed from being worthless to actually thousand pencils sell it off freehold so in all these little aspects going on so it was like you know things were things were that God was shining on if you like you know the powers that be here were favoring me a bit more I'd been through the mill and are still going through the mill and you know emotionally but that was a nice solitude this is we're gonna do this yeah so there's a photograph of you there is outside on the day you got the keys I mean I got the keys and we're looking at this this very derelict place and thinking you know bravely how much can we spend we got to toss this up then you know so so we were still trading around in place let me said kept that promise I think I've company what else had happened whether I bought somewhere else or no we I mean that's I remember a disco shop the air like so we were working in the smaller music store it's just you know whilst you basically put a hundred percent into doing up that's right the new premises and I think even that was beset with problems and ended up being six to twelve months longer to open and invoices expense and yeah so even that got a bit touch-and-go didn't hear it crucified me financially but yeah I was there in there every day trying to solve problems you know of the foundations we every time you know something a floor away we found rot and this problem and that problem is sucking cash like mad but we had a good designer on board we had some great guys doing it and in the end I had to employ a project manager and stuff like that but it just sucked every penny dry but I remember I really really remember that the move from an old store where think potentially people could still smoke in the store if they couldn't it hadn't finished that long ago but there was still very much that idea that the staff would just eat their lunch on the counter you know it's very old-school and we moved to the the new store regime and it was literally it was like no it's like if you want to have it if you're lunch you go into the room at the bank there's no smoking there's no sense every staff member then had to wear a new t-shirt a t-shirt you know branded t-shirts what we actually created a staff yeah I was I was able to give the staff somewhere to have their tea at Afyon and I remember I absolutely remember a little bit of a backlash from the sort of hardcore old customers going I don't think I like this new yeah but that I think you even at that young age certainly you and I shared a similar vision that there was absolutely there was another customer that was used to going into quite a high-class retailer to buy anything else they went to buy if they wanted to buy some clothes or they wanted to buy some hi-fi or they want to buy a new TV you know they weren't going to like an old style at and I I just remember that a sort of a sense that perhaps some of the hardcore old customers from from the the old store were a bit negative about the new store you know but fortunately I had much larger number of customers when this is exactly how I want to shop for my musical equipment stuff and that first you know even the first year but certainly the first two or three years of being here the growth was and this is pre-internet pre mail-order play this was just in the store sales went like that and as you say break that was rented that was the time when Stuart had started with us as well and there was a sorry for the first you just reminded me April the 1st 1991 yeah but remember I only had I had one assistant back office assistant yeah that was break magine know somebody before her I think yeah anyway I was so I was just there was any me and one other person doing all the back office staff accounting stuff and 1981 and the economy went into double-dip recession right right so you know I think I would remember it being a double-dip recession so I couldn't get and I was I was stretched financially like you know all you know I couldn't get more finance the banks were like not interested you know interested and and I chucked everything into it but I'd bought the freehold I've managed to get the freehold in the property as always by the freehold if you can so and you after to within two years you and Stuart miss joy West I've got I've got it wrong about nineteen some bits do it yes sir we're doing at least 50% of the turnover between the two of you you know and John Hawkins was there one day as well so you know and so between the three of you probably you know I just went was Stewart it was it was just at the beginning so Johnny that his was news just at the beginning of the digital boom yeah so yeah so Stewart ran the side of the business that all the sort of the digital studio recording equipment kind of came into and and again who's that who's the other guy Andy Mack remember him yeah and another guy who ran our NEC division for a while Oh get Kevin positive in palsy yeah so there were some some really good guys yeah mazing guys that we found and they just joined us do you know what will anyways we'll never ever mention all the amazing people over what exactly as you say Oh Stewart is Saturday you know a part-time staff we used to get some great part-time staff and I'd love to know where they are today you know like I was one guy remember Barry C R so if Barry's looking you know send us an email tell us what you're doing because he became embarrassed that I joined the Royal Navy in things despite this double-dip recession yeah sales so it was really when we were doubling the turnover yes yeah pretty much pretty much and I again I was running it on a shoestring back off a shoe string in it and so that was ragging us out and then you know you're granted I was always reluctant to add more staff you see that was the trouble because you know I literally remember them I mean it's bizarre now that the amount of money nowadays that anderson's and I am able to authorized to just throw willy-nilly ideas to just you know particularly on the Digital side of things you know a little little bits of software do funny something anyway you throw 10,000 20,000 50,000 that something just sort of you know I wonder if that'll work like that and I just remember again back in those days you couldn't even get like five pounds without having to go through the the wringer with you about you know live justification but I guess because that's how strapped it was it was just and all the fittings as you say carried on being home made and was yeah we did we have some nice shot fit though back then yeah you still did it all yourself didn't really any off-the-shelf stuff what's they know that's true you designed all the guitar I designed all the guitar excellency and made those but yeah so that was a fun part for me I used to like that a bit as well but but so so relatively quickly it became apparent that it was it had been the right move and I said it wasn't just the scaling up of the size it was very much the presentation became much more in keeping with how you would well I expected other retailers realize that you know during those days our clothing shops and everything else there was a different ethos about you know the old be a barren face to rock and roll music shop was you know was really outdated outdated retail intimidating yeah tipping for some people but then you know like the guys that didn't spend a lot of money liked it you know because I could come in and practice for two or three hours you know their latest lick and then go thanks very you know thanks Pete and bugger off you know so if Sony so I wanted this clean I wanted clean stock as well you know like oh I just laughing really because I remember the musicians noticeboard every music store used have a musicians noticeboard and it would just be this bit of cork board somewhere in the store covered in old bits of paper drama wanted you know guitar play one like that and you you insisted that we have our own Anderson's post cards and you were only allowed to stick a note on the notice board if you wrote it within an Anderson's postcard and it had to be very much so it looks super super neat and custom on it loose it was such a pain in the ass - hey that was my OCD like literally every day a lot every few days - or I would be just like somebody tidy up the notice but please because if Dad sees that is not because it's like wonky postcards or someone's managed to stick I will went digital and I could finally go we don't need a musician's noticeboard anymore because now the internet exists and people can just find other it was like been the bane of my life for ten years do you remember the notice it Harry farewell so you know it's always Russell Morgan just had some good ones up but my dad put one like once did me which was drama wanted you know big letters drama wanted no kit no experience no transport but did keep yeah but so let's let's go to another momentous decision that you made in 1995 yes when well I mean the first five years were phenomenal you know in terms of getting you know the the growth and a cash flow and everything else and we were able to get on our feet so you know and then we did start employing more people - yes we were we must have had mmm we were certainly into double figures by then won't meet in terms of staff you know and we had a drum manager and ex2 it was the high tech manager and me as the guitar manager and so it must have been what ten what about what about what do you notice about the trends in the music business because during that time it was still very much people you know when I used to go to try and get finance for the business of people just you know I was when never had still didn't have a serious that was 1990 for me was the turning point where and where the music retail became something that professional and semi-professional musicians needed their place to go and buy their stuff from so it began to become a lifestyle Hobby choice so people would just go I fancy playing the guitar at the weekend or I fancy playing drums you know and I think also we that baby boomer generation so all those guys of your age who'd had a bit of a dabble in a Beatles beatnik kind of band in the sixties we're all coming out of the other side of having kids and that you know a bit more disposable income and they were all going what do I fancy doing there with my spare time and cash oh I'm gonna go and buy that guitar I couldn't afford when I was 16 so and that was a different customer you know that was a customer that wanted a high service level experience most professionals accountants exactly images and company to read so it was the timing the timing was very fortuitous in terms of you know and many more ladies girls yeah I mean that's did a massive disparity now I think I think we very much understood that the old music store and many other about competitors music stores were unbelievably intimidating places to go for anyone that didn't really know what they were going in for and if you're or if you were a woman at the time when I checked even more so again you know just another level of intimidation and I think we worked really really hard to make sure that that we tried to remove that sense of intimidation wherever we possibly could it was always really really difficult to to get it perfectly right because the business was then and even still now it's largely male-dominated in terms of its workforce but but I well I think we made massive strides into just making it a more inviting place relaxed place to be we did have where there was one there was one period where I really started to worry you know like when it was but we really were really running into financial difficulties because we'd said we'd stop taking the foot off the brakes as it were and we were running into financial difficulties in we had to make one or two people redundant as well you know I saw that period that was late 90s again I think they went out on late notice but for another recession time I think yeah I was thrown a bit too fast yeah and and and in 1995 yes it must have been after 1995 probably when my focus again was more on the ACM thing well it I mean this is sort of I think this is because I I do remember again early even back then Andersen's would still sell hundreds of beginner guitar and drum sets and things at Christmastime a.m. and that in fact if anything back then the Christmas peak felt more important than it than it is nowadays but huge numbers and by the following March you know you just knew that 90% of those people had packed in you know and I think even then you and I were talking about the that the problem that young kids you know kids in their teen teenager would get a guitar for Christmas they'd be listening to Oh a SACEUR whatever that you know Gruffudd Nirvana or whatever the cool thing was at the time and then they'd go can you get me some lessons please mum and dad and some 60 year old guy would you know with it sort of like a Bobby Charlton comb-over hairdo would get Greensleeves out of his you know classical book and that's what they would teach them and you just go is it really any wonder then that you know 95% of kids just going all don't really fancy doing this you know and but I remember both of us have I think even the I'm pretty sure I remember almost the exact words were if we could change the introduce some new way of more engaging way of learning even if it just broke even but it kept a few you know it reduced that attrition rate of people giving it would be worth doing when did you start that weekend worries program was that was not that was later off from the AC you you then well I sort of took that honors I sort of L I again nice there was a cat a cataclysmic moment I was at a music conference down in Bournemouth I was chatting away with somebody who was a flute teacher right that was all classically and she said what do you do I said I've got rock and roll music shop rock and roll that's not proper music is it you know that I remember her was this day no it's not proper music you know and I came back from it and they've got one of the guys who was one of the lecturers there his neighbor he was the director of music at Wells Cathedral school right but he was very progressive he saw the benefit of of modern music and how the you know the you UK plc the amount of money that was generated to the UK economy in the rock'n'roll business and copyrighted music and everything else you know yet back then there was no government funding for for it it all went to the classical conservatives yeah like the London School of Music in tomorrow so we were we were keep with it was music in education there was no money for kids you know there was no money in cooking schools and that's it for kids to get an education and it also the only qualification that they could get back in those days was the associated a baby RS so she the sword all of the Royal with schools of music some yes but ABRSM something that her up to grade eight yeah and the syllabus was Greensleeves you know on classical guitar and so there wasn't it wasn't a hell because there wasn't there wasn't anything to apart from I think with a Brit school it's rock rock school that's just started I think and that was a camera what the nationality of the guys that started that but though there was a sense that that you began to see this in this graded system that fitted in with with sort of our education requirements if you like a sense of grading well we did more contemporary yeah we I was I was really keen I thought wow this is great but I mean again another cataclysmic moment is was met Phil Brooks who was a local guitar teacher and we we hit it off you know and we had the same sort of vision you know but he was really he had this vision for the a way to teach kids anybody who wanted to learn rather than a one-to-one you know like I think up until that time yeah most of the music education was one-to-one he went to your drum teacher 20 guitar teacher and it was an economic wasn't efficient and so he he we tried going out we had a little program doing he were trying to go out into schools with a little rock workshop and everything else and that didn't work and it was Phil really said you know we've gotta have we we need some premises you know and I said well I've got some premises you know we've got hi any place which is still empty here the old store the old store so it's been on the market for five years because the property of you know bottom there completely so you know I'm putting two to turn together thinking okay hang on you know what's that costing me a year daba daba could we get going there so that's how the Academy of Contemporary Music started me so Phil and I went into partnership and blessedly came up with a you know the same amount of money as me and we put this into a pot and we started off you know it was enough to kick-start the ACM and oh all my focus then of course was a hundred percent on the Academy and to me music you know and and that that just went like a rock as I said because I in my head I remembered that this original line of going you know even if it just breaks even but sales of you making guitars it's worth doing it's a fast-forward not that much for at least six five or six years maybe later for us and it was like hang on a second it's making its making more money than Anderton's and you just go who saw that coming and a course ACM has been replicated around the world many times because people have realized now that Menino that type of music tuition is has a massive demand and can be very grave exciting emotion viable and that I mean the premise is when we got I got to I got offered the opportunity so we had the school game the old premises I then then we were it was so stressful for me Phil would go but we had to we had to say to the educational authorities we had to commit to so many pupils nearly 18 months to two years ahead alright so that you for funding yeah because they all got funny because we were working under Guilford College at those times we were caught wasn't as the outside collaborative provider I feel will camel always say pee you know he'll said a film I've committed us to another hundred eighty pupils for year after next you know then we're we're going to put fix perspective oh you are talking about year 130 full-time students wasn't it so just doing guitar the basically Phil taught yeah Bruce Dickinson young to within what six or seven years over a thousand full-time students and thousand full-time students going through and think about the the scale of an operation that has to teach that many people employ that many staff and all of the legislation around you know running at college yeah it was exciting I'd loved it you know because it was for me it was the way of like there's a challenge you know gotta find some more property got to negotiate this in and it was always you know like get in there and yeah and so I was I was lucky I feel still ran all the front end and you know and I was I was running the back of his stuff game really hands-on with a good accountant and stuff like that and we that that was that when that was when in noisy successful within four years and I think and then we were also getting all the courses what's it called like qualified they were all certified as you know with exams and everything else so so you we could say to people yes you know to mums and dads you know if your your Johnny's you know studies with us it's they can come out with a piece of paper you know that's really is recognized a recognised degree what we actually did go up to university degree we fast-tracked two-year degree but we were running a drum school guitar school bass school no music production and then that's when we got the spin-off with music education consultants going into schools true so we set up a division going into schools and colleges to help them teach music in education so trying to but the game that was hard work and so I invested a lot of energy into that for a while but that never really never very good thing we did was eat in college that was a great contract we actually for a few years we put but I think we've got the only was interesting there was a relatively short window where the established old guard of music teacher didn't know what to do to deliver a very amusing tuitions and so we created a division that would go in and consult and help them but what we didn't realize that was within four or five years new teachers were coming in who did know what to do this is didn't need us anymore sure and so I think we sort of it relatively quickly became just redundant that consultancy business but it was good while it lasted and I think from my point of view one of the things that helped manage our relationship oh and gave me perhaps the freedom that I kissed a you know we both have a very different approach or certainly probably maybe it's more similar now but back then it was a really different approach to how we wanted to do things a shared vision of what we wanted to achieve but we different approaches doing it and I think the fact that you were able or the fact that you were sort of drawn away from the music retail side of it to go and focus on ACM and that was commercially successful as well just meant that I didn't have the sense of you looking over my shoulder all the time going I wouldn't do it like that and I wouldn't do it like that and I wouldn't do it like that not because it was wrong just because and I don't know how I would have reacted I think you know I probably would have reacted much like you did with your dad going you know don't do it like that and don't do that don't you kick back wouldn't you so I think it was a it was a quite a happy time well I mean we used to talk about you know this might sound a bit practicising but I was grooming you to take over you know I wanted I wanted you to have the business skills as well which is right around the time when you went to Cranfield yeah and after Cranfield School of Management or something like that you know just to sort of like sharpen yeah make you so that if the opportunity came to scale the business up you know you weren't frightened about it you you know you could do and I was put a bit too still a bit too cautious back then having been through you know my history of ups and downs and that's nothing but so so a nice so so yeah here we go so Europe you're running a music business is so great you know it's really going well and I was able to slip hands off that concentrating on the ACM and then an ACM took off as well and then we get to the year 2000 when I I had a serious medical fell over medically and had to take well I had to just going to hospital and I was an operation and then I had to I wrote you a letter didn't I that's saying here you go guys now you've got to step up to the plate because yeah I am you know on our picture yeah so and that was that was a life-changing for me and you and probably feel as well because you know Phil had to surround the whole thing but game with lucky enough we put some good infrastructure we had some cool infrastructure in place so I still could see the management accounts coming in and I sort of you know so I had a little handle on it but I wasn't involved in the day-to-day business and you you really think so so from that point on was I I was able to step back from the business well I sort of and let you guys get on with it for a number of years then Phil and I it sort of off because we got into the you know bit later Phil and I began to have differences of opinion the way we wanted the business to go you know and I'd always come from a you know a business background I suppose where profit for me was the fuel for any and in any enterprise you know you can't run it by solicits making a profit because it's only the profit that that is the fuel for it and and but the academics have a different approach you know academically because there's normally unlimited funding Island so there's a big age gap between you and Phil and yeah I know when Phil talked to me I think he felt like there was part of it he wanted he felt like perhaps the first five or ten years of ACN need very much deferred to all your decisions just because of your seniority in agent I think he just wanted yeah just wanted to do his own thing there's maybe put some comp they know either puss in the cracking down about that but you know you've got a yes yes but he but sorry we were going to say yes and I and I said what okie buy me out yes I was I was happy at that stage to to relinquish progress chairman race en but I didn't have much to do with the day's a running of it and I wanted you know so anyway so I sold out and and came away with a little bit of her bit of pot and I was able to then reinvest that back into the store which meant we were completely free of any financing but bank yeah and all that sort of stuff which okay you know allowed you to really you know gave you a free hand to to do pretty much what you wanted and there we go that's that was the start of I mean you know and it's just been amazing you know what you've and you came in at the right time I wasn't I was a part of that computer the internet okay it was sort of like it was a bit too late for me I was a bit too old and so on so forth but erm so to see the opportunities there yeah that's the bit I think I'll forever be grateful for and you know despite all that the success we've had over the last 15 years or so I never I never and have never really had to experience that sort of gut-wrenching feeling of yeah I've never had to put my own house up for business is the money gonna stop tomorrow yeah well I think to a certain extent you know that that's in in retail you never really know what the following day is gonna be so there is always a synthesized don't I think I've got that's a part of the drive I think a night you know sometimes now I even call it you know feeding the beast you know you're also going you know it doesn't matter what you did today you got to do it again tomorrow and and you know and I know I I do understand very very quickly you know a three or four month exceptional trading period you very very quickly realized that you've geared up the operations just that just becomes the normal now like oh that we just got to do that the next three months and then of course it's a bit more so I but but I just and I can only say thank you you know for going through that that the difficult yeah at first you know I know this is a bit like this what do they call this mutual admiration society yes but but you my my old ethos if you like you know for how to treat a customer and how to present you know a store and being in retail you manage to be picked up on that which is which is great and gave me the confidence to let you to let you go and so I was able to step back from the business I was able to really step back and leave you know let you have your own head and take it where you wanted to and it was difficult for me you know cause like that was a hardest thing for me to do was to let go yeah so let go over the ACM completely and then to say right I've got to let go of this so that was you know main reason for when did it be moved down didn't move out the earth well the letting go thing oh I remember not being you know like not almost felt it was almost a sad it was sad in a way really because I think the only way that you really the only way that you were able to let go was to go full cold turkey go and like go I'm just I'm not even coming in anymore I cook them and we wouldn't I don't think okay so we're when was the last time that you even set foot in the store I mean you in the last 10 years you've been in what twice maybe yeah well if I claim me yes and I'd see the that's well that we if there were weeds growing out the front you know like on the front of the pavement you know or there was a need spot I know you're back in it straight away yeah but this was I think this and this was fundamentally our biggest you know you you are a perfectionist and everything you've done in your life has been done to such a high level and the fact that you couldn't the fact that you beat yourself up about not being good enough as a drummer and actually it was in your mind it was better to give up if you couldn't be that you know it's like and I cut and that was I think the bit where I was just like I don't know if I can work with you because I can't I don't see that I don't want to sweat the small stuff you know I want to go there's a sort of in it I always sort of think if the shared vision is here I want to get there as fast as possible and I'll get there and realize that there's a load of stuff that's messed up and needs to be fixed when we get there whereas you all go I want to get there too but I'm just gonna make sure that nothing is messed up while we go I'm going to think and plan and everything like that so ultimately get to the same place because that to the customer I still I think what you you know what you've got minister to is just still we're still I like to think we're honor which excuse me gradually we're still customer focused oh yeah you know what so we're so whatever that means you know and I think what I see no I used to I used to think what am I doing here in this business know I know what we're doing we we're providing a the best service that we can for musicians in all shapes and forms so people that want to make music how can we help you yeah you know so well always comes back to that really and I mean it comes back to the love oh yeah I think honestly and truthfully you know I love being surrounded by musical instruments I love the opportunity to play the guitar I love I love seeing what happens when people get together and make music I see it at every level from how therapeutic it is how enjoying how much enjoyment is house the social interaction is great how fulfilling it can be to write a nice piece of music all that can suck and I and everything I think driven by just going let's try to get as many people to have that experience and engage with us so all the thing about that the high levels of customer service it's not really done from a point of view of going oh but that was also what ICM was about you know what being hours of provide provided the tuition to encourage people to come in we used to run you know like Saturday workshops for the kids and things and then you the weekend warrior program elicit some it's also but it gets out I didn't I don't think I come from I don't I haven't sort of I don't feel like it's because there's a textbook that says if you want to be a successful retailer this is what you must do I just think it's as I said it's a passion and if you can deliver that the chances are more people will come and experience that the music but we were talking last night work week so when we got back from Halloweeny and seeing off the second bottle of red wine history hadn't done yeah it's because that was a mistake but we were talking there and we were talking about enthusiasm you know passion and I was one of the things that you reminded me of my time you know playing professionally in a band on stage thousands of screaming girls and that sort of thing and looking about the other guys in the band you know and experiencing that amazing buzz when the band comes together it's just it's rocking everyone's in the pocket you know and it's yeah just a sort of like it's a spiritual experience as well as an experience to experience it yeah you think services and I was saying you know how how has mankind has evolved men womankind mankind whatever evolved it is a pseudo religious experience when music and shared music comes good music comes together and if you're part of a group of people it's making that music I don't it's up there with the greatest feeling we know your speechin and when he got that award in America was I thought was on the button yeah because you know I suppose you think back in his enthusiasm for you know enthusiasm for music and the passion for it so and then the the the business is all is almost second but if it's successful it fuels yeah it fuels and that's where you're always being able to yeah bruh to to income the bigger because that's your area absolutely what has had a lasting rubbed off effect I mean took me a few years to process in my head and understand you know he's fundamentally all the enthusiasm in the world is wonderful but it doesn't pay the bills you know and particularly you've got a hundred-and-something staff now and you know commitments to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds a month on x y&z it's like well like dope when you come to me and go I think we need to redo our software how was it yeah well we put we spent a million pounds on our website in 2007 ongoing that unique that's the reality isn't it is that you know the business has to be profitable in order to deliver on all those Quebec trust huge trust in you guys you know like so which is that's wonderful for me because it means I can step right back in the business and I can just yeah and we enjoy life and there's something as well about that the legacy you've created has meant that you know staff you know from Stewart and Beverly that you know my two partners through to all lots of guys you know from Gavin who does our guitar repairs who's been with us for 30 odd years and the guys that manage our site and I mean this this we've got some amazing staff that share that vision and have stayed and all part of it I've got okay now that's before we come to the end here I've got a photograph for you tell me and there's this photo beyonspray now tell me as much as you can about where that was and what you know what's going on in this photograph who is that handsome devil oh god that's me like it's years that 60 he's gonna be pre 60 and eat because this is in eighteen to twenty Stokely yes that's the old stuff in the old store so this has got to be 1965 66 67 somewhere around that yeah and I think we well we just trying to get some shots it was s Busey and hooks all this stuff the fact that the air conditioning in the back right-hand corner there what's the what's the guitar that's a heart that's a Harley sovereign sovereign Shawn I think so yeah rocket but it's a harmony h75 harmony actually yeah okay and you got it for me I represent it to my team I might have managed to find somewhere from from 1964 is a little early birthday present thank you very much for coming in and doing the I don't know what you're gonna do with this and a certain time pocket-handkerchief can you imagine what I still wonder what the what probably maybe this is because we still had to deal with a sort of quite a mixed Cleon tell in those days so you know apart from the rock and rollers still had to deal with the mums and dads and all that subject you want that is a 1964 875 mini age 75 Wow it may i whether it's the actual one in the CISO to graph this mean I've got to now start learning to play the guitar I mean I can play an equal what it's your birthday coming up soon and we've got to that point in our life where we don't really buy each other birthday present was just saying I'm going I don't know what to buy anymore and I thought to myself you're coming on to a video I love that photograph we've got copies of this photograph up in the store and it kind of reminds me like you say I think this is maybe 65 something like that what else is it so there's all sorts of all the catalogs about there but I just thought I you know what can i buy leave a night and I I started searching taking me quite a while to find this guitar particularly to find one that hasn't been modified or anything like that and we're and so there you are kinda birthday thank you very well done I suppose on behalf of everyone who works at Anderson's now and has done and all the customers that shop with this thing very much for starting that one it was a good decision yeah oh you you sort of like you say isn't it amazing but how this you know this the business like it is now that started from that little funny little green versus shop back well back in 1964 or something like different it is amazing yeah pretty cool man but thank you very much so there we are thank you well done if you've sat all that part three next week that's the end that's the end yes thank you very much thanks guys for watching I hope you found that little trip down memory lane resting yeah but thank you very much chef for coming on I do all right yes again here's dad you

Channel: Andertons Music Co

Views: 393,164

Keywords: Andertons, Andertons Music, Andertons TV, The Captain, the captain meets, mr anderton, andertons music co, the captain meets his dad, history of andertons, guitars, acoustic guitar, music shop, danish pete, interview, electric guitar, guitar

Id: MjT1XD0tKW0

Length: 164min 6sec (9846 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 29 2020