SPEAKER_02 0:14

Welcome to a very special edition of House Your Duo. Usually on this podcast, I sit down with one guest at a time to hear the story. But today we're breaking away. Steve's music has closed its doors, and for countless musicians in Montreal, that's the end of an era. It wasn't just a music store, it was a rite of passage. It was where dreams were born, paychecks disappeared, friendships were made, and more than a few of us consist ourselves that this next guitar was finally going to make us sound like heroes. So many of us think it was where we found ourselves. So I thought instead of one guest, why not gather a few old friends together and relive it all? Joining me today are Dwayne Dixon, Jeff Smallwood, Mattela Pop, Tom Simpson, Forest Andy Musicians, each with their own stories, memories, and connections to this legendary Montreal Institution. We're going to talk about the people behind the counter who became mentors and friends, the gear we couldn't afford but had to play anyway, the legendary wall of guitars, the moments that changed our musical lives of white spent so much to generations of musicians. Whether you spent every Saturday wandering those aisles, bought your very first instrument there, or simply remember it as the place where every musician eventually ended up, we hope this conversation brings back a few great memories. So grab a coffee, settle onto your favorite stool, and let's head back to Steve's music store one more time. Okay, well, we're here, folks, uh to uh memorialize the passing of Steve's music. Uh us guys got Jeff Smallwood here, Dwayne Dixon, Tom Simpson, and who knows who else is gonna drop in in a bit. Um It's kind of it's funny, it's just a business, but it's just been so much part of my life uh that it's just really weird that that it's g not gonna be there anymore. And so we're here to just share some stories and memories. Um I mentioned earlier my first time in Steve's was 1977. Uh I went in and bought my first acoustic, met Sheldon, and uh, you know, walking into Steve's as a little, you know, West Island kid, and first of all being downtown, and um that store was overwhelming. Do you guys remember when they expanded beyond the guitar shop, like when they started adding the subsequent stores?

SPEAKER_06 2:52

Yeah, they had the double, they had the original first door which had all the strings, and then they had the second door. That's where Bill had his repair shop in the front, so you couldn't come in that second door, but that's where they had all the strats and tellys on the one wall and the les pauls and the SGs on the other. Long before they had any Ibanez guitars in there or anything. So it was really Gibson's and Les Paul's, and the acoustics were in the front side near Bill. Uh that was I think they started expanding beyond that, if I'm not mistaken, in in 1980. I think that's when they got the what they called the PA room, and they moved all the acoustics into the next thing, and then they kept expanding. And as I remember Chateau Musical, uh, when they finally got their hands on that place, which was beside Steve's, uh, it was after the fire. There was a fire in the building. Uh, I know because one of my bands was rehearsing upstairs, and uh when the building didn't burn all the way down, but the facade fell off it. And Chateau Musical liquidated all their equipment, and then Steve's took over and rebuilt the facade of the building. And so I think it was in the um 81, maybe 80, 81, 82 when they started to really kind of spread out, and pretty soon they had the whole block, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

So yeah, pretty much, yeah. And uh I don't know when they opened the Ottawa and Toronto stores. I always had the impression that the Toronto Star was store was the first store, but it was the Montreal store in uh reading a bunch of different articles, 65.

SPEAKER_04 4:29

It was the year I was born.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Baby.

SPEAKER_04 4:34

Yeah, baby in a group, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Yeah, um, yeah, and and then uh the Steve, Steve, uh he passed away in when was that? It was around their 50th anniversary, if I remember correctly. But I'm not I'm not a hundred percent sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

And uh what year did they uh did they close the location on Saint Antoine? Because that happened and then they did a bunch of moves and then.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

Give or give or take. They were they were uh the the whole block was expropriated for the expansion of the I thought it was the expansion. Oh yeah, it was the expansion of the Palais de Congrès. Yeah, but they never did it.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

It's all boarded up still.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Oh and I have you guys ever gone into the St. Catherine store?

SPEAKER_06 5:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Oh yeah?

SPEAKER_06 5:37

Yeah, it's I have I really I I um there was a couple of holdovers from the older staff. Uh I I liked the St. Catherine store. Parking was usually an issue. And at the old Steve's, of course, if you spent 10 bucks, you got free parking, right? So, you know, but it was tricky because a set of strings was only four and a half dollars back then. So, you know, you had to buy you had to save up your gazette money to buy two sets of strings and picks to get free parking. But I I I liked it. Uh what I really liked about the old store, and I think what what what we lack today is you I consider myself really lucky to have shopped there for so long because at a certain point I didn't have to go in and buy anything anymore. I could just go and hang out and talk. And talk to musicians and talk to sales guys, and uh, if you caught Steve in the right mood, you could talk to him too. Uh, you know, and and I think that it that's sorely lacking today. There's no more hangout aspect to music stores. Um, and I'm a bit of a dinosaur like that. When I go to the Long and McQuay, not far from your place, Dave's Dave. I I I have come to uh to kind of know a couple of sales guys, but I'm a hangaround guy. I like to kind of hang around and talk, and I don't think they're used to it. I think they think I'm creepy.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

There's a couple of young guys at that long and join that I find are are very accommodating and very knowledgeable about the gear that's there. And they'll and what I love is they don't try to feed you anything if they're you they don't know an answer, they'll go, they go, they go seek it out.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

The big difference I found, like, so having shopped at Steve's almost exclusively, because there was no it was nowhere else. But uh uh I was um I went to a Longa McQueid in Ottawa. It was the first time I'd ever been in in a Longa McQuaid, and it was like it was a very different vibe. Anyway, somebody explained it to me that uh Steve's they work on commission, so they're on you like uh like wolves. Whereas Longa McQuaid, sure sit for an hour, play guitar, you know, talk with them and try this, try it it was just a much more relaxed atmosphere, but uh that's that was why thing about Long and McQuaid.

SPEAKER_06 8:05

The first Long and McQuaid I went to was in Toronto, and it was a good oh, it had to be 25 years ago. And when I went in, it it had been uh the first impression I got was it was industrial. This was uh yeah, a corporate, I'm sorry, that's a much better word. It was uh you walked in, it was neat, it was well organized, and it was corporate. And I I remember saying uh this is the future, and this is gonna be trouble for places like Steve's, even Ital Melody was the same kind of vibe as Steve's, a little less uh colloquial. I mean, Steve's was really uh it was just like this old uh place, like an old pirate ship without water.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

Well, the building, the building was part of the soul of that store too. The building that it was in. Yeah, it's like you said, you go into the Long McQuades, and because they're so corporate, every store looks like the other one. They're just all in different towns. But Steve's was uh was a unique place. The the the building was part of of the experience, the old crickety floors, and oh my god, if you've ever been in the warehouse upstairs, you know, it's like see that uh that's the lock from the the gates.

SPEAKER_06 9:21

That's one of the locks from one of the gates.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Oh wow, yeah. Oh yeah, and the other part, the experience of going to down to Steve's was making your way past the the patrons of the old brewery mission, which um I remember bringing my mom one year, God bless her soul. She she knew nothing about guitars or anything, but she wanted to get me something for my guitars. It was at the point where she was both my parents were finally accepting that this was an important part of my life. Anyway, she wanted to buy me a case for my strat. And uh, so I took her down to Steve's, and it was a bit of a culture shock for her. Yeah, uh I I think we parked on the street, but still, you know. I mean, the old brewery is they were harmless, they were they weren't belligerent. We never had trouble, but it was a bit of a culture shock coming from the West Island. We never saw stuff like that.

SPEAKER_06 10:16

So, um yeah, it was it was fun. I mean, in the end, I shopped at Steve's for 51 years. Wow, wow, that's how long I've been shopping at Steve's, and now of course they've closed their last doors. And it uh I remember so many staff members, and uh, I recall when I first started shopping there, there was a guy named Um Joe Mosta. It's a little short guy uh behind the counter in the original far right section. And I remember he said to me, and look, I was 13, 13, maybe almost 14 at the time, and I I we didn't have a car, I had to go down with my music teacher, you know. And I remember I couldn't decide what what picks to you, like I didn't know anything, right? And he says, Hey, listen, kid, and he wasn't a very tall guy, and he says, Listen to me, kid. If you're gonna buy, buy. If you're not gonna buy, buy, buy.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_06 11:15

And I grew, you know, with time, I I grew to to really love these guys. And I remember Sheldon's first day, Dave's first day as salesman. I mean, we were all so young, you know, and it got to the point where years and years later, um, these people were excited as my career developed. I'd walk in the door and they weren't interested so much in showing me gear anymore. They wanted to know what I was doing. I had a real relationship with them. And, you know, even you know, I there was a couple of guitars that I really wanted to own there, and I just they were too expensive or something. And I remember Donnie Banks. You guys remember Donnie? He's a great big round guy, he was the head buyer. Um and Donnie wasn't very tall. And I recall I was in the Les Paul Strat room just beside the strings, and I had my back turned and I was looking at telecasters, and when Donnie would take a guitar down, because he wasn't tall enough to grab the guitar like this and lift it out of the claw, he would tip it with his finger and catch it on the way down. And I remember he did it one day, and you could clearly hear the guitar hit the floor, like it it landed on the end pin and drove the end pin into the guitar, like it was damaged, the binding and everything. And Steve heard this. I don't know if he was upstairs in the office or he was already down on the main floor. He came in and he was just railing mad. And Donnie Banks is holding the guitar, and I turned around and I looked at it, and Steve kind of looked at me, and I'd I'd come to know him a little bit after all these years. And I said, uh I said, Jesus, what are you gonna do with that guitar? And Steve said, I don't know, is it reparable? You know, he's looking at it, Bill is looking at it and everything. And I said, Look, I'll tell you what, I'm sure you'd be able to sell it. I'd I'd make you an offer on it, you know, I'm but I'm sure somebody's gonna come along any minute and buy it. And Steve looks at me with these fury on his face. He said, How much? I said, I'll give you 500 bucks for it. And at the time, a les Paul was probably about 800, maybe 900 bucks, maybe even more, maybe nine and a half. And he he looks at me and he holds his hand out and he says, Ash K in my hand right now, don't come back with it. That's all he said. Ash K in my hands, don't bring it back. Out I went with the Les Paul. You know, they back then you could do that.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

They just yeah. Yeah, well, uh as you were mentioning about just the comfort level there, and you know, certainly I I I connected really a lot with with Sheldon because I I mean he knew I'm just a kid. I can't I'm not gonna buy ten thousand dollars worth of gear from him. But I think he he knew he's looking at this kid, he's gonna grow up, and if he you know, if he's a real player, he's gonna keep coming back and buying stuff here. So, and then Tom, I think you might have been there that day. Sheldon let us take the double neck down off the wall of fame at the back at the back there, and we were like, oh man, broke! I couldn't believe he let us because I mean I don't know how much that guitar was worth, but a lot more than I was, that's for certain.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

I just remember walking by the I think you mentioned the story that was further along, and in the window for eternity, there was a double neck, uh, like like Jimmy Page's design, but it was a Mansfield. And it was there forever.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

Oh, I remember.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

I remember walking by, and my friend Jim would say, eh, it's a piece of shit. You gotta try the real thing, you know, and so I'd always look at it there, and that day when we had to try it, it was kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Also sitting in the sun for the past 20 years as an ignorant for the guitar.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

Yes, it was it was reliced before relicing was cool.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

I'm gonna share a picture with you guys here for a second. Sure. Uh Me too, that's it. Oh, just do this. Share. Are you guys seeing this? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I did a bit of a deep dive this afternoon trying to scrounge up some photos of the old Steves and its slim pickings. Uh, but I found these. I can't remember this guy's name, but I do remember him.

SPEAKER_05 15:53

Renee was that Renee. I believe it's Renee. It is yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

He was one of the like towards the end, like the before they moved. But just like the floor. Look at the floor.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Well, that's I love it.

SPEAKER_06 16:08

I love it. That's the original expansion room. Originally they had the one room off to the left of the screen. That's where I first shopped at Steve's. This was the first room they expanded into where they had the strats and the tellies and the poles and everything.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:24

And at that time, I mean, look, they had everything in one room: electric guitars, amps, everything, bases.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Yeah, and no humidity at all. I don't think they understood the concept of keeping guitars humidified. Uh it only occurred to me in later years when I went into other stores, and especially for acoustics, they had an isolated room with a humidifier in it. And I just think of all these guitars in this picture. Uh it's kind of crazy. Like, uh, yeah, I'm surprised they just like the frets weren't sticking out the sides of the neck. But yeah, that was a great room. It was always pick a guitar up and sit on an amplifier, and uh maybe you could plug in and try your latest guitar solo.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

It was just great being able to try, you know, all the possibilities in one.

SPEAKER_06 17:22

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

That's it. Yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

I worked in the uh I worked in the rental department from 1992 to 1998.

SPEAKER_06 17:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:32

Square buttons. Yeah, that's that's right. I I bought one of the first generation uh uh PV Delta Blues and then uh stupidly uh sold it to Gij and Liquidation, and that's uh first time I I met Jeff, yeah, 30 something years ago. Said, hey, this is Jeff Smallwood, he's a real guitar player. Nice. But it was it was such a it was such a family. You're right, Jeff. It was a place to hang out, it was a place to talk. Uh and and even years after I worked there, you know, I would go uh even to the South Shore or to the West Island, and and I would never ask anybody for a special price, and and they didn't always like to give you know deals on things, but the the boys always took care of me. Uh, you know, like you were always once like once a uh a Steve's guy, always a Steve's guy, you know. Yeah. Part of the family, it was really amazing.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

From your first your first Steve's t-shirt. I was gonna say, does anybody still have a Steve's t-shirt?

SPEAKER_06 18:36

I do. I have one that I've never worn. And because once you wore them, you know, the logo would turn sideways and get all uh crooked.

SPEAKER_07 18:47

But it was the best, it was the best um slogan. If we don't have it, you don't need it. I mean, it was perfect, you know? And it was true at the time, it was true back then.

SPEAKER_06 18:56

Yeah, you would never know who was gonna walk through that door. Yeah, there was a lot of kids like us, and later on in my career, I guess I was one of the famous guys going in there, but you would be in there, and it would not be unheard of to have like Phil Collins walk in the door. Yep, you know, and you dreamed of being there when it would happen, you know.

SPEAKER_04 19:18

I met Billy Gibbons, I met Billy Gibbons, I met Alan Holdsworth, uh Miles, uh all just coming in shopping. Uh place.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Yeah, I mean, it really was. I I've heard lots of stories about the guys, uh, you know, uh Mike and Sheldon getting phone calls in the middle of the night from somebody in a gig somewhere who's desperately needed something, and they'd go and open the store for them and and help.

SPEAKER_06 19:45

You know what Sheldon did for me one time? I I had a session down on St. Paul, uh, which is not old St. Paul, which is not far from the old Steve's music store. And about two-thirds of the way downtown, uh, I lived out in I live out in St. Anne de Bellevue. And uh about two-thirds of the way downtown, I realized I had forgotten my acoustic guitar in the driveway. So, and this, you know, I I I didn't know what to do, so I went straight to Steve's and I figured, well, you know, I don't know what I figured. I just went in the door and I told Sheldon this, and Sheldon says to me, He says, He says, Well, what are you gonna do? I said, I don't know, Shelley. He says, Look, go pick one, put it in a case, bring it back, don't scratch it. You scratch it, you buy it. I said, Okay. He loaned me a $2,500 Martin right there, and like, no bill, no nothing. Just take it. And I came back at five o'clock, or I think it was a Friday, so I think I came back around seven, handed it back, and I said, Shelly, man, you saved the day. But that's yeah, that's how they operated. I mean, it was it's you were a part, like you said, once a Steves guy, always a Steves guy. It was a family, it really was a family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

Hey Marty.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Hey Marty!

SPEAKER_02 21:02

You're muted, by the way. Yeah. And I I I can't read lips, so yeah. If you click your microphone in the lower corner, it should turn on for you. Yeah, so uh we're gonna get a drummer's perspective on the uh the drum thing.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

Yeah, the drum shop was a special place too. Lenny, Lenny was uh was uh yeah, he was the real deal, man.

SPEAKER_06 21:30

And really well stocked. The drum shop was really well stocked.

SPEAKER_04 21:34

That's because he he told everybody hands off, I run this place, I know what I'm getting. He was the he was the guy who would say, We're buying this, we're buying that. Uh yeah, he he really ran that place. He knew what he was doing.

SPEAKER_06 21:45

He was kind of scary too, if you didn't know him. It's true, quite intimidating. Intimidating, scary, not like horror movie scary, like intimidating, you know.

SPEAKER_04 21:55

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He had this air of quiet.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Yeah. Yeah, which is the complete opposite of Sheldon, right? I mean, Sheldon's so he's got that charming ability to sort of befriend just about anybody, make you feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_06 22:12

Sheldon Sheldon was universally loved. I've never heard anybody say anything negative about him. Even at his funeral, I have not been able to shed a tear over his death because he made me feel so good all those years that every time I think of him, I smile. Like there's no no room for tears. You know, and he was so universally loved. And I can't say enough good about him.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Well, to Jeff, and to Dave's earlier point, you know, Dave made that point of uh, you know, he knew all these youngsters coming in and playing Stairway to Heaven again and again and again, or or smoke on the water. Smoke on the water, yeah, yeah, or whatever it was, whatever you could get your fingers around. Uh but you know, he knew he's just planting seeds, but not he never felt like that was what was going on. He's just genuinely, and it just continued. When he the seeds were planted, you came back, you did your business, and the relationship grew.

SPEAKER_06 23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

From there. You know, it was lovely. And the other thing I thought was super cool about Steve's, you guys were kind of shedding on it, is that the vibe when you walked into the old Steve's, it was genuinely like I mean, I can only put uh there was a candy shop I used to go to in New Brunswick when I was a little kid in the summer. It was called Aitons. And you go in, and it was all it was it had that vibe, worn-out floor, all this stuff, everything in like in its it felt like it was in its natural environment, you know. A person there that just made you feel warm, you know.

SPEAKER_06 23:51

It had a smell. Remember the the old Steve? It had a certain smell to it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

That was the mold.

SPEAKER_06 23:59

It is a kind of mold. It is.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

It was a good mold. It it didn't tell you, it made you stronger.

SPEAKER_06 24:08

It molded us, put it that way. Mold it up.

SPEAKER_04 24:15

But I I think one of the things that we're gonna miss most about Steve's too is because it really was, no matter how big it got, how many stores there were, it was a family business at the core. It was it was never trying to be uh Longham a Quaid, or it was never trying to be like the guitar center. It was still a family business. It was Bill Kerman being the the you know the buyer, and and Michael was there, and and you know, the whole family worked there. It was uh and and of course the extended family of all the other employees too. Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

Yeah. What was your first instrument that you bought at Steve's?

SPEAKER_06 24:50

Mine was that telecaster, right? Okay 75 telly, standard butterscotch. That's the one you just gave to your son. That's the one I just gave to my son, yeah. Outstanding. Dwayne, what about you?

SPEAKER_04 25:02

I I bought a lot of gadgets at Steve's. I was like a uh a pedal guy and well uh an amp, uh stuff like that. I got a lot of recording equipment afterwards from George when George opened up uh, I forget his what's it what's his family name? George. Um I don't remember, but I've got to be. Uh I bought you know my my monitors there, I bought my uh Fireface sound cards there, I bought a ton of recording equipment and stuff, but my dad was kind of a uh a guitar collector. So he would he if he had a telephone back in the 70s and 80s, if he had a telephone and and the gazette, uh he he'd find used guitars everywhere. So I just had a plethora of of you know 60s, 70s Gibson's uh fenders, and uh of course I didn't know what we had back then, right? Because it was like 1978 and and like you know uh 1950s guitar was only 20 years old.

SPEAKER_06 25:54

It was like another it was just a secondhand guitar, just a second guitar.

SPEAKER_04 25:58

And I think one of them we bought from from uh Miles Woodwin too. We bought one of his uh his his Les Pauls too. So so I didn't have to buy many guitars because my dad was just amazing at procuring these used guitars, which God, I wish I had half of them now, you know.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Yeah, really, yeah. But would you sell them?

SPEAKER_04 26:18

Oh no, not now. Not now. I mean that stuff that's an investment. If you if you have you have Gibsons and Fenders that are in decent condition and they're vintage, that's as good as gold on the open market, you know? Yeah, yeah. Somebody somewhere is gonna buy it.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Tom, what was I know your first instrument was at these?

SPEAKER_01 26:38

It was my I bought uh black telly. Black telly, and I do remember I I sold it to Mark Mark uh Mark Kennedy. He bought my black telly. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I sold it to him and uh I bought my Les Paul.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

Oh yeah, I thought your Les Paul was your was your first. And you grret you regret it ever since.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Well, I definitely would love to. Well, you know what? When I really started regretting it, when you loaned me your telly. That's when I really started regretting it. I really love the sound of telly. And I love playing it. I like it's just feels great with a nice, crisp, clear sound.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

It is. It's a fun guitar to play. Like I'm amazed at how many hard rock guitar players use tellies throughout their career. Like um recently getting into Tom Morello from uh uh Rage Against the Machine, and uh yeah, he star he started out back in the rage days with a telly. It's like yeah, you always like I don't know, in the 70s, if you wanted that sound, yeah, you needed a double coil or a humbuckers or whatever, like a telly or a strat just was relegated to the chinky chink sound. Yeah, but they're they're great guitars.

SPEAKER_04 28:04

The old tellies had this amazing piano tone. So for playing riffs, they were fantastic, and if you wanted to strum a nice jangly thing, they were fantastic. Uh yeah, yeah. Super versatile.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

I'm just curious what what what Marty's first guitar was.

SPEAKER_06 28:22

Marty was too smart to buy guitars, he stayed away from the meeting.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

What was the first thing you bought, Marty?

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Are you guys actually seeing me? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Yeah and we can hear you.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Because we can hear the react when I when I connected.

SPEAKER_06 28:38

Yeah, we did. We all did. We waved, we said hello, and you you had your mic off.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

I didn't see that. I didn't, I'm I'm I thought I was not even connected. Well, here let's hi Marty. Here's some you just you were muted, that's all.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

I'm just listening. Okay. Okay, so we're we're doing the round on when did you first go to Steve's?

SPEAKER_00 29:03

I actually was in uh 1982 for my birthday. I bought my first drum set. It was at Jack's next door. Okay. But I bought the symbols at Steve's, the hi-hats, the the crash and the right symbol. It was uh 1982, yeah, for my 17th birthday when I started playing playing drums. But I bought uh a bass at Steve's, I bought two basses at Steve's, and I bought a guitar at Steve's.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

Cool. Like before before your drums or after the drums?

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Oh, that's like uh in the in the 2000s.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

I started to play guitar and bass, and I bought a a Les Paul um what are they called? The ones with the hollow body? The ultra? Uh yeah, that's right. Like a like a Sunburst Ultra, a Les Paul, and a Fender Squire, like a bass jazz uh squire. Nice. Cool. Which uh the the the the the lespa ultra, my my guitar player bought it from uh from me and I sold the bass, and uh, but now I I have a fender jazz, but uh yeah, I bought um a lot of stuff at Steve's in.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Um I I have uh an old uh Marshall head, a 50 watt head. Not I bought it off of some kid in Valwa. Um not unsurprising, the serial number. There was no engraved serial number. It was on a piece of plexi on the back of the ant, which somebody had conveniently snapped off. So I've never been able to fully date it. But I bought it and there was something wrong with it. It just didn't sound right, and I brought it to a couple of places. Uh you remember you guys know Duke. I'm sure you know Duke. Duke Bron. And he for a while he had a guy named, I think his name was Richard living with him there, who was kind of like his electrical engineer and repair guy. And I gave it to him for many times, and it never came back right. And so I pfft years later, I wasn't even playing at the time, I just said, I'll I'll bring it to Steve's, see if they, you know. Anyway, the guy, the repair guy there, the amp repair guy, was a little uh Vietnamese guy. I only say that because they knew. Oh, I remember him. I remember him. And anyway, I gave it to him, and when I went to pick it up, and he was like, Do you know what you have here? And I'm like, Hopefully a fixed Marshall. And he said, No, no, this is a classic amp. I I honestly don't remember what he told me. He says, you know, Marshall just reissued this, but wait, anyway, in the end, and it was like I said, that I wouldn't have expected to be bringing some to Steve's to be fixed, but he told me, he said, somebody tried, because it's a two-channel, it was a bright and a normal channel on it. Somebody tried to rewire that to be a master pre something, but there was no pre-amp circuits anyway. It just hummed, it was terrible, and um he put it all back to origin, and geez, it's a great, great sounding amp, uh, for a 50-watt head. It's it just was too fucking loud to play on stage, it was just ridiculously loud. Um, and then I I got uh one of those power soaks, you know, the they have uh actually a driver in it and it soaks up some of the energy. Anyway, all I had to say is um yeah, that was one of the last times I went to Steve's was when I got that amp fixed there.

SPEAKER_06 32:30

So I bought my first amp at Steve's too. It was also a Marshall 50 watt JMP with one channel, so two inputs. And I could not, for the life of me, don't forget I was 14, right? With that telecaster. I could not, for the life of me, make that thing sound any good at all. And the only way to make it sound any good was to put it on 10. Yeah. And I, you know, when you're that young, you're just too dumb to make proper decisions. But the one decision I did make was that 10 was just a little too fucking loud. So I I still I still have that app. I I eventually had it modded. Uh, and I know that the Marshall purists are gonna say, you know, what an asshole you are, but the truth of the fact is I had it modded so that it did have a master volume, and it now was a uh it had a pre-amp stage and a master volume so that you could channel switch back and forth, and it had an effects loop on the back with a volume on it. It was done by Richard Onslow, and that amp became my main amp until the Delta Blues amp that I bought, and then I started using that a lot. But it was uh the same idea, fantastic old Marshall. It's uh it's a 1974 JMP, and it sat in the store for a year or so till I got my hands on it and couldn't make it sound good for several years, eventually, you know. But when you're a kid, you know. But there's I bought the amp, I think, from a guy named Mark Dunn who worked. Did you guys you remember Mark Dwayne?

SPEAKER_04 34:12

I don't remember Mark. No, I think he was before my time.

SPEAKER_06 34:15

Yeah, he was uh he'd be uh a little older than me, so I'm 65. He'd probably be about 67, maybe 68 now. And he uh tall guy, nice guy. He sold me the uh the Marshall and eventually sold me a bunch of stuff, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:31

Yeah, but Dwayne, I I remember you working there. Yeah, yeah, I worked there from '92 to '98. It was around the time, and and Albert Chambers was still working there before he started uh Basspin. Yeah, it was uh it was Albert and uh yeah, Lucien was there. And uh but but Marten, you're the only uh you're the only drummer in in the group. Uh talk to us about what it was like to to hang out in the drum shop and what Lenny was like, what the boys were like, because we were always in the guitar side, right? So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

Actually, I wanted I wanted to add also I I bought a 30-watt Marshall, a practice app when I bought the the Les Paul.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

So I also had a Marshall. I sold that to my my brother-in-law. Uh the the the yeah, the drum shop was was really incredible. Um the the one thing that I wanted to touch on was the what everybody is is complaining about the service and the attitude. And um I never went to Steve's to to make friends. I never went to Steve's to you know to whatever. I went there because of the prices, because of the selection. So to me, the attitude, it never bothered me. Um you know, I remember Brian and Stefan and uh Lauren and and yeah, for sure, Lenny was was the special one, but um I guess I guess it's uh to me my motivation was to go for for the deals and for the selection, not for the attitude. So I I never had a problem with with anybody at Steve's. Um but uh yeah, the drum shop was was pretty amazing. I mean, I I uh I ordered uh three custom-made drum sets from uh from Steve's and uh 1999, a 2005, and uh a 2022 uh DW. They're all custom made, uh all the colors, the sizes, and uh the guys were great. I mean, um when I when I bought my first drum set, uh 1999 DW, uh I I got into the store and and and I said, Well, I'm walking out of here with uh the the the ultimate drum, like my my dream drum set. So Lenny goes, Well, are you you know is is there really uh an you know I guess I you know what you want, but I said, Well, I'm not sure. I you know I want to think about it. So they set up every every company Tom that they had in the store, they set it in front of me, they set it up in front of me, so I played every imaginable drum company Tom to try them out. And it was anything from Gretsch to Ludwig to uh DW to Tama to Sonar, and uh you know, uh when I didn't like it, they would put up another one, and it must have been like like 15 toms. And I just sat there playing, and I I eventually went to the DW because it had uh the the finish that I that are that I really wanted. And um, you know, they they never they they never just sit down and we'll we'll do it. So they they were they were extremely extremely cooperative.

SPEAKER_06 37:40

I remember their sorry, go ahead. Go yeah, go, go, go. I remember their first when they first started doing layaway plans. This was a long time ago. Yeah, do you know that I lay I laid away a guitar there once and I never like they didn't do a credit check or anything, they just kind of they took my hundred bucks and then just you know you nickel and dime it off. I it's like I don't know how they how they functioned that way, but they did, you know, as they made it.

SPEAKER_00 38:09

Did you go to the uh the office upstairs?

SPEAKER_06 38:12

Yeah, yeah, you know that well on the first floor. It's not the way up one, but the first one where they had the porthole where they could look down on the string.

SPEAKER_07 38:26

Is that what you called it? The mezzanine.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Yeah, that's it. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah, I went up, I went up to the the one upstairs in the uh Val Granier, as they they called it. Yeah, because uh yeah, for stuff, but um, and I've ordered so much stuff from Steve's, like like custom made or some really special stuff. Um and and also they they would also often get like the um like the first ride that Piste made for for for Nicole McBrain, his his personal model. They got the first I bought the first one in North America. Wow. So they they got it in in the store, and Brian called me and he says, uh, you you gotta get down here. We got something, and I saw it, and I bought it. So there's a there was a few things that when they came out, Steve's bought them, and uh, and I was the first one in North America to actually buy those products because they they knew uh they knew what I wanted. So they they called and I would I would show up and and do so. They were really like on the edge of like uh like what was brand new and really, really uh like special. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

Yeah, because a business they were very focused on on where the market was going. Like we were saying about Sheldon, he was investing in the future of all these young customers coming in. This and the store, well, they were the cutting edge, they were where you would go to find all these things.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

I think there was a music store in Fairview, you know, yeah, no, it was not a good place to shop for Arshambo, wasn't it in Fairview?

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Wasn't there a what was it? Well, I think wasn't there one in Fairview a long time ago?

SPEAKER_06 40:09

An Arshambo. That's familiar. No, yeah, I don't think so. There was a music store that was at not I know there was like discus records and all that stuff, but somewhere at the Pascals in Dorval, you know what right near the Dorval Circle, there's that uh shopping center right on the right of Highway 20. There used to be a music store in there called Steve's Music, but it wasn't affiliated with Steve's downtown.

SPEAKER_03 40:38

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_06 40:39

And I remember uh we we on our way to the real Steve's, we stopped there first, and I was with my music teacher at the time, and I remember it's the first time I'd heard him swear saying, Fuck, this isn't Steve's.

SPEAKER_07 40:55

It had like eight guitars and all of them areas, you know, like a look. We thought, well, where's all the good guitars?

SPEAKER_00 41:02

You know, like yeah, but if you have pictures with your if you really wanted uh the to experience bad surface, you went to Jax. Oh yeah, of course, yeah, yeah. That was too easy. They were just rude.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

Those guys were bad, awful, awful. He only went in jacks on a dare.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Like, you know, like buy strings at Jack's.

SPEAKER_06 41:25

I did buy that uh 68 telly base. I did buy a jack's cool things.

SPEAKER_05 41:32

Whoop.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

Yeah, just uh oh wow. Make that there we go. There's there's Shelly. Hey, there he is. Yeah, oh wow. Nice. This is this, I guess this is later on because I can see they have Ivanazzes up here.

SPEAKER_06 41:50

Yep.

unknown 41:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 41:52

Well, of course it's later on. Shelley's got gray hair.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Yeah. I I I always kind of figured he was destined to take over the family business because I don't think the family guys were really terribly involved in in the store.

SPEAKER_06 42:10

I know that Steve's daughter, what was her name? Uh Heidi. Heidi. She bought out uh Steve's bought out a store on uh St. John's Boulevard called Music Circle. I remember them. Yeah, they bought them out. Music Circle moved from the small mall where they were in the middle of St. John's up to the top near Gwen.

unknown 42:30

Right.

SPEAKER_06 42:31

And that's Heidi Steve's bought them out, and Heidi ran that place for a while, but I don't think she had the same kind of savvy that Steve did.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

I worked there for 10 years. Yeah, I was gonna say you you taught there, didn't you?

SPEAKER_02 42:45

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

I slaved there for ten years. It was awful. Um, I'm sorry, but uh Heidi was uh very special.

SPEAKER_06 42:57

Well, that's very diplomatic. Hey, there he is. There he is. Thank you.

SPEAKER_07 43:02

Thank you. Nice.

SPEAKER_06 43:04

Oh, wow. Yeah. Look at the look at the stock. There's two tellies next to two less pauls, and then there's a strat right behind it. That's fantastic, man.

SPEAKER_05 43:14

Yeah, 69. Yeah, that's tough.

SPEAKER_06 43:16

Yep, there you go. That's it. I I paid 385 bucks for my first telly.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

Yeah.

unknown 43:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

And as soon as you were put up, as soon as you put up that picture, I yeah, I remember the smell.

unknown 43:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

I've got a funny earlier, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:34

Sorry. Funny story about the the building, because the building, we were saying just before you logged in, uh, Martin, that uh the building was was like a character in in the whole story. And in the back of the uh in the back of the rentals where we used to store the speakers, you know, we had all the all these speakers piled up on top of one another. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The wall was so old back there that we like I'd throw like a like a big jig. And it would kind of like rock back and hit the wall. There would be this wave of bricks because the bricks were not even connected. Like you literally take bricks out of the wall. I don't know how that thing never came down on us. It was absolutely terrifying back there.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

So the rental shop was always at the back of the store, right? Like it wasn't.

SPEAKER_04 44:22

No, it used to be right in between drum shop and horn section where they did the music uh, you know, the sheet music and horns. Yeah, yeah. And on the other side of us, uh uh, if you were facing Saint Antoine on the inside, the right hand side was the drum shop, the left hand side was the horn section. And we were there, and and that was like really small and long. So you didn't see where we stored everything because it was in a big back room that only employees could go into, and it was for good reason because it was very unsafe. Uh I was never let anybody go beyond that that that that back counter.

SPEAKER_06 44:58

I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed when the rentals were in the back near the parking lot. Yeah, yeah. That's where we could go and hang out and sit around and drink sodas and shoot the shit back there. That was fun. That's where I bought your amp.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

Yeah, I've only ever been in the uh the rental area, the bat from the back, from the parking lot. That's where we'd go in. When I started doing Ribfest, we uh we originally used Duke Sound System, and then we had to upgrade, and then Steve's provided us uh gear back then. Um it was yeah, it was kind of uh uh an odd back room, just people as you as you said, Dwayne, just shelves of gear up top.

SPEAKER_04 45:47

Well but back then there was not even shelves. Like I'm talking about the early 90s, right? There was just like speakers, one on top of the other stacks. So when you're putting one up and it's like over six feet in the air, like I'm I'm about six feet tall, and I and I I would put it over my head, and then I'd have to push it so it would actually sit on top, and then it would bounce off the wall, and the walls would wave.

SPEAKER_07 46:10

You know, when you think of the way we did stuff back then, it's a miracle any of us are still here.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

I remember some very unauthorized electrical hookups in some clubs, and one in particular, uh I did I wasn't doing it, but the guy who went to do it, like where you're putting the clamps, you're bypassing the circuit board and you're going straight to the rails on the back of the uh power box, and it arced out and set fire to his leather jacket. I was like, that could have gone so bad. Oh, yeah. But but yeah, it was all a time of uh learning and and like even you know the the gear we bought, I I certainly didn't know what I was buying, and um it was just you read guitar player magazine and you hear, oh, you gotta try this thing out. Like, okay, I'll go try it out.

SPEAKER_04 47:06

Um it was a massive learning experience for me because um uh on Saturday when the rental closed, we could just fill up our car with whatever we wanted, as long as we brought it back nine o'clock on Monday morning. Like, that's that's how I learned to do everything technically.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

Yeah. I I I remember one of the last times uh before I had that amp repair, I was looking to buy a digital reverb pedal. A boss digital reverb pedal. And I went down and I'm uh you know that that long glass case that in in the first section there. Yeah. And I looked in and this must have been early 2000s, somewhere around there. And uh uh a boss digital reverb was like $300 to $400. I'm like, fuck. I'm expecting an $80 pedal, maybe a hundred dollars because it's digital. And I was like, no, I can't, I can't afford that. Like it's like that's for one pedal, it's just ridiculous. And that's as a result, this led segue to another sort of opening in my perspective on how to acquire gear. Uh eBay. I went on eBay and I found uh I have two of them actually, boss GT8 multi-fX pedal. Some young lady was selling it out in BC for $500. And it had every boss effect pedal practically built into it with some caveats. But uh yeah, that was that was and that introduced me to the uh online market for instruments, you know, effects, anything really. And I kinda well something else. Well, uh this was a little that I'll get to that a little later about where I found that the companies were price fixing everywhere. Like you couldn't get you went to one store, it's the same price as as as at that store, and anyway, that that was a whole other thing. But um yeah, uh it it there was uh uh an abundance of secondhand gear out there on the market that you could buy, and now you had access to it because you had eBay, I think it was even this is before Kijiji, but eBay. And um Yeah, Steve's became I it slowly, you know, it's like a Toy Story movie. There was a a coming of age where I realized I don't have to go to Steve's, you know, and and online shopping. And then in later years, as I said, I uh I found that well, I I was buying that guitar, that acoustic, and um it's a Taylor, and it was the same price everywhere, and Steve's it was beyond the days of negotiating with them, like the the list price was the list price, and Steve's never quite kept up with the online selling thing. I think that was one thing I noticed that I'm not saying go to Amazon, but you know, there were other uh well I mean in the States guitar center, I mean they they dominate down there with just availability and access to their inventory. Um and and just one thing, like uh, you know, well, we were talking about guitar quality before, too, is uh so now everything I'm finding is is at the same price. Um and you you used to have to try the thing that you were gonna buy. Like you couldn't just buy it on spec, but you can these days, you can order a Fender Telecaster online, and yeah, it may need some setup and whatever, but 99 times out of ten, it's gonna be uh it's gonna be a fine guitar, and and you know, as we were talking about the the manufacturing process. Um and so the only way I like I was really like considering Steve's because I think by this time they had opened up the uh the one on Brunswick in Dollard there. And I went in and it very much had that corporate look, even though I never got down to the St. Catharine store. Yeah, I know what you mean, that corporate, like shiny lines and shells and you know, the way things were stocked and stuff. It wasn't it wasn't quite as organic as as the old days. Anyway, the point being is is um they could have done a a solid business online, they were still Steve's, they still had the name, they still had the brand, uh but they they never f seemed to fully embrace the um the online uh experience for people. Like, I want to buy this pedal, do you have it in stock? Well, they they didn't they couldn't tell you online if they had it in stock, and uh that's not true.

SPEAKER_04 52:04

I really think that was their downfall. I was just talking to a buddy of mine, and I really think that that was that's what it was. And the pandemic was like the nail in the coffin because everybody was buying online and they just they they were there, they just didn't catch up to that quick enough, I think. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:21

I mean, even till just before the announcement of of the closing of the store, I went on their website and it's like it's just so horribly organized and incomplete and areas like clearly that that's they weren't listing all the stock they had.

SPEAKER_04 52:35

Uh whereas Long and McQuaid was amazing at that. Red One Music as well. Red One Music has really dominated a lot of the uh you know uh PA systems and Psyche. PAs, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 52:46

But I think part of the issue too is that you know, we mentioned earlier that it was really a family business, and I I think these other entities were set up as corporations, you know, intern, you know, nationally at least. And the thing about Steves is let's not forget, for a long time there was just Montreal and Toronto, that was it. And then they opened Ottawa, so it was really still concentrated in this small area, so that if you went to Edmonton and you said, Have you ever heard of Steves? they might go, Well, I think that's in Montreal, right? Like they didn't have the presence that these other places have. And if you miss that boat, man, and you're trying to operate as a family business online. Well, unless you're selling honey or something, it's not gonna work, you know. It's yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 53:36

And the website too was not uh I agree with Dave uh what he was saying. Uh it was not fun to to get on the website and it was it was not interactive.

SPEAKER_06 53:45

I never went on Steve's website. I I you know, eat long after I I stopped buying gear, I just stop in to talk. I don't think I've ever seen their website.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

Yeah, yeah, that's it's not pretty, but um it yeah, I it it it was I could kind of see uh the writing on the wall there that they weren't keeping up with the Joneses basically, and and all that feel-good uh aspect of going in the store in the atmosphere. People weren't looking for that. Certainly the new millennials, they were looking for something quick, easy, clean, good price, and going in Steve's really meant shuffling through a lot of stuff that was in front of you. Just as you mentioned, just well, that picture I showed before of that room with just amplifiers stacked up and racks of guitars, and yeah, it was a little bit overwhelming for people.

SPEAKER_04 54:46

And a confined space, too. Like you had to kind of like you know, weave your way through the people and so afraid to knock a guitar.

SPEAKER_01 54:53

That was part of it. I I think that gave it a lot of grandness.

SPEAKER_04 54:58

I agree, I agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 54:59

You know, the the fact that the uh you know, those little there wasn't much room to move between the amps on the left and the right, and then you gotta find a spot to park your butt to shove a fort on that target just fall down, and you got the guy, you know, the whoever's service servicing you at the moment, whether it's Sheldon or one of the other rest of the gang, you know, you're you're playing and you you know, you're just trying to turn it up a little bit, you're trying to turn it up a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 55:29

Yeah, before you get the stink eye from somebody, right?

SPEAKER_01 55:32

Yes, the stink eye, exactly. It's that whole it's that whole magic of that. I I think of like Steve's is part of the whole initiation of the excitement of becoming a musician and learning the craft and the whole everything about it. That was just massive, and that was the only place to go to touch it. Any of it, any of it, you know, and it was magical.

SPEAKER_06 55:59

And and heaven forbid that you're sitting there trying a guitar and then a guy comes in and sits down and he just plays circles around you, and you all of a sudden your your guitar goes back on the wall, you're back out of the room.

SPEAKER_02 56:16

Well, that was a given for me. Although, which how many of which of you guys would rehearse a guitar part so that when you demoed a guitar in the shop, I have you this, oh, I just learned I've been playing this thing, you know. But that's it, that's all I can play.

SPEAKER_06 56:34

I can honestly say I never did that, and I never played Smoke on the Water or uh uh Stairway to Heaven.

SPEAKER_04 56:41

Stairway to Heaven, yeah. Ever. Never achieved. In the 2000s, it was Enter Sandman. Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_07 56:48

But by the 2000s, listen, by the 2000s, I was so freaking old already. That was too new for me, you know.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

Well, I'm uh I'm a huge fan of uh slapping bass, right? So I can, you know, I I can do some pretty pretty impressive stuff. So when I when I bought my my first bass, I went into the store and I started playing. And like, you know, and this couple of guys came up to he says, Man, we need a bass player for for our band. Would you be would you be interested? Said, guys, that's all I can play. I can't play anything else. Those three licks you're hearing, that's all I can play.

SPEAKER_07 57:32

There's the ultimate guy who practiced just to try the base.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

145, sorry. No, I can I can play Primus and I can play uh Stanley Clark stuff, but those though, yeah, those three licks, that's it. Oh man. Oh, we were so you know, we were so hoping, you know, it's now sorry.

SPEAKER_01 57:56

I remember my dad begging me to stop playing the Mission Possible theme on the piano.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 58:02

For God's sakes, Tommy.

SPEAKER_03 58:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 58:08

Yeah, I bought my first bass there too, I guess. I forgot about that. It was really more for my son, who is an up-and-coming musician at the time. And uh Fender was selling this kit. It was a uh Squire P bass and a little 25. Oh, it's up in, it's in the garage now, but uh little 25 watt Fender bass amp strap and a cord. And I think I paid $4.25 for it.

SPEAKER_06 58:34

They had them in they had them in a box, right? Yes, I remember that right in the middle of the store. Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that.

SPEAKER_05 58:44

I still play it.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

It's on the wall over there. Bass and I came in the same box. And it's like I said, it's not a bad, like if you know how to set up an instrument, uh, it's fine. And uh, I've had guests over playing bass, like Glenn. He tried it, he thought it was a fine bass. Uh, you know, just nothing special, but certainly for that price, yeah. Like, who can complain about about that? But I don't even know if you can get those deal, even Squires are now cost a goddamn fortune. It's uh well, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:19

Squire classic vibes are selling used practically for the same price, you can buy them new.

SPEAKER_05 59:24

Oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 59:26

Guitar though, classic vibes are good guitar.

SPEAKER_04 59:28

They're great.

SPEAKER_02 59:29

Yeah, so I wonder if Steve's is gonna have uh liquidation sales now.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

I I think I heard Aaron Rand talking to uh somebody from from Steve's about that today, and I think they've gone through a cycle, one cycle already, and then there's one final sale to go.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

Yeah, I'm not good at those things. I always show up late, and it's like, you know, open packages of strings and guitar cables that have missing one end and all that crap. But uh yeah, I think the I would imagine the insiders like Jeff get calls. Hey, come on down, we're gonna sell off all our Marshalls for 50 bucks.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:15

I did, I did get a call like that. I didn't uh I didn't go down. Um I I have a little bit of uh I I I I don't I don't want to feel like a vulture circling a carcass, you know, when it's coming down. I did stop in to say goodbye to some guys, but I you know if I didn't if I didn't need the gear six months ago, I don't need it now. You know what I mean? It's I'd I'd rather just go and say goodbye and and take one last look at the place, you know. Uh I know that when they closed the West Island, I used to go drive by there and hang out when Jill was the manager and then uh Jason became the manager there. And I just stop in to say hey, you know, and I'd I'd stand for 15 minutes and talk. And when they were closing, uh Keith Ford told me they were gonna close, so I popped in to say goodbye. It was sad, man. It was it was like a uh it looked like a some kind of uh you know, rubby's mouth, it was just missing teeth everywhere, guitars spread way out, and I thought, oh man, this is terrible. I don't want to see this, you know. It's like you're watching an era disappear.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's one there's one thing. Um uh last year uh they had a the Peisty Day at Steve's, and uh so it they were all like prototypes that Peisty sent to the store. And that the paisty day was on Saturday, and I got a call from Lenny says, Come on Friday, we'll set up all the rides for you before everybody else, you know. So when I got there, they had like like 20 of them, and I saw the one that I that I bought just about the hammering. I said, That's that's the one I'm gonna buy. So they set up a uh a couple of stands and we went through all the rides, all 40 of them, and we we left the last one that the one that I said, well that's so I I I played that one, I just hit it once and I and I and I bought it. So they they they they called me a day before to be ahead so that uh I would I would be able to buy the one that I really wanted, the one that was there, because they were all prototypes, and they they sold all of them, and it's it's probably the most it's most incredible ride I've ever heard in my life. But just to make sure that I had the one I wanted, they they uh they opened the store like a day before so I could try them out. Nice. Yeah, it's it's it's they they've done they've done a lot of stuff for me. Um as it was also there was um oh man, it was uh uh I was watching a documentary with my wife, and we like how how they make these these drums, they're made of almond, and she said, That's the most beautiful snare I've ever seen in my life. Maybe you should buy it. I don't hopefully married the right woman. Yeah, really.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:03

Those are words I've never heard.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:06

Well, I said, okay, so I called Steve's and Lenny said, Well, we have one in stock. It's the if you remember there was there was the DW day was the kit that was downstairs. It's like, oh my god, okay. So I went there, it was a ridiculous, I mean, it was a ten thousand dollar drum set. And and so I so so I go there and I said, Well, so Lenny said, We'll sell you this only the snare. If you want the snare, we'll sell it to you. You know, the whoever buys the kit which was sold incredible, like three weeks later, somebody bought it. They just it said they'll they'll uh you know either uh have this the snare done or whatever, but they sold me the snare separately from the from the drum set.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:46

When they put a Tam a swing star or something in there to fill the whole Westbury, a Westbury.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:55

So they they you know they they you know you're on dépareilly le drum du snare. They they took the snare off the drum set and sold it to me, just you know, for whatever uh because because Lenny was no Lenny was great, and uh and then when they when they received those uh they had these these ride symbols that were the uh the original masters from the 1950s, Lenny called me first. He says, dude, we have that in the store. What do you want? This is well three thousand dollars, I don't think so, but um I got the first call. I I would get first calls from a a lot of different different things, like collector's items or whatever. And um, so yeah, Lenny, Lenny was always really, really nice. Lauren also was uh it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:40

But um well, so you said earlier that you didn't go to Steve's for the camaraderie and the friendship. Well, it sure sounds like you had some camaraderie and friendships.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:49

But you had to you had to you had to approach them the right way.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:54

I think um and also I mean if you were if you were a uh a good customer since 1982, they would they would respect you, you know. But um I just I just think they they didn't have time for people coming in and say, well, I don't know, and it's kind of expensive, you know. It's the like people wanted to deal stuff. I don't think they they have the the patience for that, but um but you know it's uh it's it was it was great. It was a it was the the whole staff was was fantastic. And I mean I miss Stefan and Brian like like like there's no tomorrow. Those guys were absolutely incredible. Brian had the most dark, incredible sense of humor. He had everybody laughing.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:36

Who was his last name?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:37

Brian's Brian um yes, yeah. And Stefan Gordot was amazing. He was uh was a great friend of mine, but uh um I don't know. I just uh I like I said to me, I I never had a a problem with the uh the staff, the their you know attitude and not and I never I never saw that. And um but I never I never saw that either.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:59

I I know that. Some people experienced that. And I was just before you checked in, I was telling the guys that the only time I was ever confronted with anything remotely aggressive was that guy Joe Masta. I was telling the other guys that you probably never met him, but when I was 13, 14, I went in there and I was hemming and hawing about what pick to buy or some shit like that. And this guy, Joe Masta, he was an older guy, a little short guy, says to me, Listen, kid, if you're gonna buy, buy. You're not gonna buy, bye-bye. I remember that. I remember that. There you go. That's the only time I ever was confronted with that. Scared the shit out of me, buddy. I still went back.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:40

But once you became part of the family, you were part of the family for life. Yeah, that's right. You knew the guys, they knew you. Uh they they'd go to the ends of the earth for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:53

Was there a guy in the drum department named Rami?

SPEAKER_06 1:06:56

Yeah. Yeah, I remember him. He was playing for a few years. Yeah. He did. His name, his last name was uh Holmesy. Rami Holsey.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:08

That's it. And they used to have they used to have, there's a couple of them in the store that on every uh payday, every second Thursday, they would wear a suit and tie to work on payday.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:21

Yeah, I think I remember that.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:26

I have some more pictures of uh staff here. Let me uh bring that up. Like I said, it was really hard finding uh you know pictures of of Steve's. There's the drum store.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:41

Yeah. Yeah, that green, yeah, that green's tough in.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:45

Yeah, they painted that whole block of the stuff. There's my fucking bike.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:48

What's that?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:50

There's my fucking bike.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:56

Oh man. Yeah, the parking was special. Yeah. Parking at C's was uh to get there early.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:07

Here's a lot of my cool guys. Oh, there's Mike, yeah, Mike, Steve, Dave, Sheldon. Yeah. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:18

That's not a well-came there. Hey, look, there's Brian Greenway. Celind Dion. Oh, yeah, yeah. I never got my picture up there. I never got my picture up there.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:32

Oh, that's that's that's a shame.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:34

There's a lot of bands that I played in that do have their pictures up there, but for some reason, uh maybe I should maybe I wasn't that good of a friend, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:42

You know I think it was personal, Jeff. It was personal.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:45

Yeah, I'm starting to think they really didn't like me at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:52

Uh I think that's the last picture I have. Yeah, that's the last one.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:58

I I have to say, one of my fondest memories of Steve's music store was our Christmas party. Uh the all the guys and girls just um we we invaded the uh you know the the holiday inn in uh Chinatown, right across just on the other side of the yeah. And yeah, everybody was really well behaved until you know, until after the first uh, you know, the entrees, and then it was like smoking weed in the in the bathroom. Yeah, it was like in the 90s. It was crazy. I it was one of the one of the uh most fun parties I've ever been to in my life. It was just completely off the hook. And everybody was was so relaxed because well, we were all we're all work together, you know. It's it's like uh it's like when you you know, this like battlefield mentality, you know, close to the to your your comrades, you know, they're like brothers in arms.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:53

It was uh you remember the little booth you used to pay at underneath the mezzanine, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. There was when I first started shopping there. Well, a little uh probably by the time I was 18 or 19, so I was able to go down. Uh, I didn't have a car, so I would either take the bus or a buddy of mine would drive us down. There was a girl there who worked in the cash area. Um, I think her name was Stephanie. I was in love with this girl. Yeah, I remember I I asked her out on a date one time, and she was so intimidating. But I for this brief moment her face got really kind and soft. She turned me down, but the the kind of intimidating factor was gone.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:37

I felt terrible because I really wanted to go out with her, but I somehow I knew it was never gonna happen. But I I tried anyway, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:45

Power to you, you swung about Jeff.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:47

I did, I struck out, but I swung for the fence.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:50

Yeah. And she probably had 10 guys a day asking her out. I you know what? I that didn't dawn on me, but you're probably right.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:59

Yeah, and and better looking than I was, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:04

Oh boy, oh boy. Well, this is uh kind of kind of a weird thing that we're we're m memorializing a store, but uh obviously there's a lot of threads that run through it, like like we've been saying, it's uh uh it was a it was more a cultural experience than a shopping experience. It was going in.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:28

Absolutely, and and the thing is you the this thread, it's a perfect description because Dwayne and I uh we play on the same circuit, well, they cross section of a circuit that we play on often. And but Dwayne and I had never met, and we met a couple of weeks ago at a party at a friend's house, and that's when we discovered, wait a minute, our paths have crossed before at Steve's, and it was so you know, the thread is so thick that I bought a piece of gear that belonged to him. And and you can't imagine the kind of the overview of all these musicians that have passed through that door and the fibrous connection between so many of them. You know, it's uh I I shudder to think of if I go through all my kind of connections and gear and stories, how many maybe a thousand musicians I know from there, you know. That's that's a hard thing to find today. And I was mentioning earlier that young people today, I don't think we'll ever get a chance to experience that kind of shopping experience and that kind of uh cultural experience, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:36

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean it it it felt like that wall of of pictures of celebrities there kind of made you feel like I'm I'm in the right place. Like this is where they shop. This must be the place to shop.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:50

It reminds me, it reminds me of Ben's. You ever go to Ben's Smoke Meat on and they have their wall of fame, like like Steve's is is the Benz of Meatster. They're like they're like a 1970s muscle car, they're of a different era, you know. It's uh it's uh it was a different there's something about that vibe too.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:13

When you mentioned that, it kind of struck something with me. It's a uh a lot of um these certain types of establishments, like and particularly I've noticed in Chicago, my travels, and in New York, that have that vibe. This is uh it's it's got a bit of a Hollywood edge to it, entertainment edge to it. It's got all that stuff, and you feel it, you really feel it when you go in there, and then Ben's had that feeling. You know who's got that right place. Sorry, Jeff.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:40

Yeah, you know who's got that is Rudy's in New York. Exactly what I was thinking. Yeah, Rudy's has that same vibe, and it smells almost the same, too. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that 42nd Street used to be like that, but that's all gone now. All those stores, it's true, they're all gone, but Rudy's is still like that. Yeah, yeah. Old school kind of store.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:02

Yeah, you can go buy a hundred and fifty thousand dollar strat, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:06

I was in there, I was in there just before COVID hit, and we we were in New York City for two weeks. We were playing at the um out on uh Long Island, and I went into Rudy's. I I swore I was gonna just go for one hour, and I went for three hours every day for two weeks, and I got to play um so many of these incredible guitars. Uh um now that the name slips in the guitars from Mountain with the black Les Paul. What was his name? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:36

Um Ronnie Montrose, no Leslie West.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:43

I'm sitting there and and and the sales guy there says to me, He says, Hey uh Jeff, uh you want to try this Les Paul? And I'm like, you know, sure. Usually I I make a Les Paul sound bad, like it's not really my cup of tea. I pick this thing up and he said, That that I'm playing and it sounds pretty good. And I'm thinking, oh you know, maybe I can you know afford this. It was Leslie West's, it was $87,000. And I'm like, no, I don't think so, you know. It was, but I mean they had everything there, but it really the guitars were all stacked so close, just like Steve's, and it's funny that we should mention that, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:24

Have you guys ever seen uh witnessed any of that footage of uh Vince Gill's acoustic guitar collection in that gorgeous room he's got everything in?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:34

Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:35

Is it is drawers, cabinets, it's endless acute acoustic guitars, and I swear everyone is it it's everyone's tuned up and ready to go. Did you see that, Jeff? Did you see that? Yeah, it was like an interview. I can't remember what it was on, 60 Minutes or something when he was joining the Eagles, I think. And he took a little stroll through this little thing, and I thought, oh I mean money, yeah, Mac.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:06

And did you see the the wall, the one kind of shelf he had about seven or eight strats on there? Yes, I think the newest one was about a 63, so it was oh my god, yeah, yeah, beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:21

I I just I I you know, Dwayne, you got a lot of guitars. Jeff, you got a lot of guitars. Do you play them all?

SPEAKER_04 1:16:28

Uh Dwayne, do you? I play them all because I I'm not much of a collector, but every one of my guitars has a different voice. I won't buy two of the same guitars. Sure. That's that's you know, so it's there, they're I'm I'm all over the map, you know. Uh the only thing I have two of that are identical are my tack of mine acoustic guitars because I play so many solo uh uh acoustic gigs, and I just I fell in love with it. I got like you know 90s, uh early 90s uh pro model uh you know, attack, and I found another and I bought it for 500 bucks. They're giving these things away, you know. Uh so those are the only things that I have duplicates of, but everything else is a is a unique uh voice. So yeah, I do I make it a point to take them out on different gigs depending on what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:14

Yeah, yeah. Mine, I'm the same way. I had to make a hard and fast rule about 30 years ago that if the guitar doesn't pay for itself in three months, it's for sale. Right. Like I had to because at one point I was just, you know, guitars had become so inexpensive that I was buying them not by the dozen, but not far. And it got to a point where there's like 50, 60 of the things in every closet in the house, and my wife just said, okay, that's enough. It is. So I got I got rid of a bunch, and and now I'm not a collector. I'm like you, uh Dwayne. I don't I it's not that I don't like the concept of collecting, I love the concept of playing them. So mine get played, some of them a lot more than others. Uh but there's like I have this 69 uh ES345, it plays like a dream, looks amazing. It should mean something to me, but when I pick it up, it means nothing. So that, for instance, is for sale. But again, it's a guitar that I bought second hand for 350 bucks. So now it's like, you know, I could probably finance a small car with it, but regardless, the others get played. Like every guitar that I'm looking at, they've all been played in the last 20 days. So, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:42

Yeah, you don't want a a guitar sitting by itself. Well, they're like muscles.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:48

They're like muscles. If they're like muscles, if you sit on the couch for six months and don't move, see how see how things work out for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:57

And they're the same, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:58

Yeah. You gotta be played. Gotta be played. Uh, gentlemen, I am gonna um wrap up the uh the recording portion of this. Don't have to go anywhere. We can keep chatting if you like, but I wanna thank uh all of you for hanging in here and um talking about uh talking about our favorite music store and uh what it meant to us. Um missed it, missed uh the the an opportunity by that much. I I saw a guy post on uh Facebook this afternoon that he just wrote his own personal post on his page yesterday about Steve's closing. Anyway, he posted another one today said, Oh, CBC must have seen it, and they've called me up. I'm gonna do a live interview tonight. So maybe they're gonna call us and ask us to do. But uh this has honestly been a pleasure. And to uh anybody who's watching out there, thank you for for listening in. Um and um yeah, support live music and uh all the rest of that.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:05

Marty, Tom, Dwayne, Dave, thank you very much. It's really been a pleasure talking. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:10

Thank you for organizing. Likewise, Jeff, thank you. It's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:14

Guys, thank you so much for taking the time to be here and for sharing your stories, your laughs, and your memories. Every one of us has our own Steve's music story, but together, you've painted a picture of what made that place so incredibly special. Steve's Music wasn't just a music store, it was where musicians gathered. It was where we learned, where we dreamed, where we spent money we probably shouldn't have, and where lifelong friendships were formed. It was part clubhouse, part classroom, part candy store. For many of us, it became part of who we are as musicians. To everyone who worked there over the years, and to those who are no longer with us, especially our friend Sheldon Susan, thank you. We did far more than sell instruments to inspire people, encourage young musicians, and help shape the soundtrack of countless lives. And to everyone listening, we'd love to hear your Steve's stories. What was the first instrument you bought there? Who helped you? What memories come flooding back when you hear the name Steve's music? Share your stories in the comments at How's Your Stool Facebook page, because this history belongs to all of us. Dwayne, Jeff, Matet, and Tom, thanks again, gentlemen. This has been an absolute pleasure, and I couldn't imagine a better group of people to help celebrate a place that meant so much to so many. Thanks for listening to this special edition of How's Your Stool? I'm Dave Randall. Until next time, keep making music, keep sharing your stories, keep an eye on your stool.