50 Years In The Music Business
by Michael Wooldridge of Keyboard Cavalcade.
This year we are having multiple celebrations with one of the UK’s best known dealers, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries of 65 years, 60 years, 50 years and 45 years all at one time! Musicland are one of the countries best known dealers, partly through their unswerving support and enthusiasm for our Cavalcadian family and regular attendance at all of our festivals. They have been a major Yamaha dealer for decades and created the TRX Keyboard Systems that so many now use in order to have the best of the facilities from the latest keyboards (Tyros/Genos etc) but to still play in organ style.
As I say, there are four celebrations here all in one, but we start with the fact that Musicland’s Managing Director, Brian Reeve, is this year celebrating his 65th birthday and, at the same time, 50 years in the music industry. At the same time, Musicland’s General Manager, popular keyboard entertainer, David Harrild, celebrates his 60th birthday and 45 years in business. I popped up to the Bromley store for a day to have a chat to them both about their lives filled with music and, of course, started off by talking to the boss, Brian. Back in 1974, aged 14, Brian was able to play three chords on a guitar. His mum sent him out to get a job, which he did, working as the Saturday boy for the Hodges and Johnson (H&J) Music Shop in Romford. At the time, H&J were a major force in the world of music with multiple branches.
Whilst not able to play keyboards - his dad started him on piano lessons at the age of 6 but after a year he refused to go to lessons! Being in the shop, Brian had rather a light bulb moment listening to the Hammond X5 being played. After he’d been there a year, a music legend came in to be store manager, the one and only Steve Lowdell, so loved by all of us at Cavalcade and so sadly missed following his passing after playing his final ever concert at Pakefield for us. One day, Steve told Brian that he was going for lunch and that by the time he returned, Brian needed to be able to demonstrate the Lowrey Teenie Genie (pictured below) or he would be out!
Fortunately for all of us, Brian took the challenge and when Steve returned, Brian was able to demonstrate the little organ. He says he didn’t do a very good job at all but it showed his commitment and he promised to learn. He was full time at H&J from the age of 16 and used to spend lots of time listening to the other players and copying what he’d heard. He bought a Yamaha B10R with a 147 Leslie and, at work, enjoyed a wonderful 3 years playing all day every day! When Steve Lowdell left H&J to become a demonstrator for Yamaha, Brian became store manager and completed a decade with H&J.
His next move was to Chingford to run a shop on his own, but he didn’t enjoy not having anyone working alongside him, but all turned out well, as in 1986 he was head-hunted to run a 3,000 sq foot music superstore called Music Shop Romford Ltd. This was a beautiful store, and, in fact, was where I first met Brian, as at the time I was his Yamaha Area Manager for Electone (organs). It was also where Brian and I met his business partner to be, Ray Spillman. After a couple of years, Brian decided his future lay in working for himself, so in June 1989 they bough H&J’s Colchester shop and, with the Yamaha franchise, they were very successful.
They gradually took on other H&J stores, Romford, Westcliff and Chatham and then, a very significant moment, in 1996 took over Roland Friday Keyboards in Bromley, which is where Brian met David Harrild and an inseparable team was formed, a team which they both agree was the best thing that could have happened for Musicland and also for each other. They describe their relationship as being like a wonderful business marriage!
Expansion continued with a shop in Canterbury, and also taking over another very successful store, the Sound of Music in Maidenhead but, after a time, they realised they were best not to spread themselves so thinly and slowly streamlined the business to the two stores they now have in Romford and Bromley, from which they now serve Kent, Essex and the whole M25 area, of course, far beyond it with TRX Systems and their specialised support and software for keyboards and digital pianos, and for Cavalcadians nationwide.
David is also celebrating, as this year sees his 60th birthday and 45 years in the business, which, in his case, has all been spent in the one place! David started organ lessons at the age of 9 at Sharon Music, which became Roland Friday Keyboards, and when he was just 12, Roland Friday gave him a Saturday job there, which he loved, being surrounded by so many Hammond organs. He left school at 16 to work there full time so, when the shop was taken over by Musicland, he remained there and this is the shop where he is still based. Roland Friday says that David made a very valuable contribution to the success of the business, with his unsurpassed knowledge of the products, his natural musical talent and his communication skills with people.
David says he has really enjoyed every moment and meeting so many wonderful people in his lifetime working in the same showroom! Between the two of them, David and Brian have an incredible amount of history and experience and we are so fortunate that they share it with us at our events. It is their joint skills that created the TRX Organ Systems that Musicland have become so well known for enabling us all to enjoy the very latest Yamaha keyboards but to play them like organs, with bass pedals and special speakers and stands, and David has created so much fabulous software for us all to enjoy. David has also been appointed as a Yamaha Brand Ambassador, spreading the word about the instruments and, of course, playing them superbly.
Before I left, I asked Brian if he had anything in mind that he’d like for his special, 65th birthday present and, really showing how much he loves his hobby of making music. Without hesitation, he took us over to show us the beautiful new Yamaha CLP-885 Clavinova in the shop and said he is hoping his wife, Carol, might treat him to one, so he can enjoy playing it at home. Our very sincere milestone Congratulations to both Brian and David.
