Given the tumultuous year 2012 has been for music retailer Billy Hydes the following news comes as a bit of early Christmas present to musicians who have relied on the retail store to provide them with what they need in order to play for the last 50 years.
Garry Hyde (son of Billy Hyde) is re opening a music store on the original Billy Hyde Music site in Flemington, which was where the retail empire built by his father Billy Hyde had it's beginnings.
Billy Hyde Music was opened fifty years ago in 1962, at 100 Mt Alexander Rd Flemington, and has since played host to a number of international music legends including Peter Erskine, Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones), Liberty DeVito (Billy Joel), Don Henley (The Eagles), Carlos Santana, Graham Lear (Santana), Mickey Curry (Hall & Oats) and more recently, Dave Grohl & Taylor Hawkins, (Foo Fighters) and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chilli Peppers).
No stranger to the business of music, Garry Hyde ran the original Flemington store and opened a number of Billy Hyde Music stores around the country. He was also the founder of the largest musical instrument distribution company in Australia, Musiclink.
Garry sold the chain of Billy Hyde Music stores to pursue other business ventures in 2007, prior to the merger with Allans Music. After the lights went out the recent demise of the Allans Music + Billy Hyde chain, Garry will be reopening the famous Flemington store from Thursday December 13, as GH Music. Happily a few ex-staff will return to run the business. The familiar faces of Les Brazil as Store Manager, Pete McDonald as Drum Manager, Alex Stojevski as Guitar Manager and Bernie ‘the mo’ Hojski as Tech & Keys Manager will be on hand to help out musicians. In the words of Store Manager Les Brazil, "We are all incredibly happy to have the opportunity to help musicians of all ages again at this iconic location, once again...striving to be 'AUSTRALIA'S FAVOURITE MUSIC STORE."
