Kosmic Sound

Hakkımda:

The original Kosmic started in Bentley, back in the good old days of the Seventies. The area has long had a sentimental attachment for many of us. Lot's of us bought our first gear there, and there are many great memories from what was a great time in rock music in an age when pubs rocked hard, big PA's, big production and big bands was the norm.

Kim Musa remembers...

"Oh god, I used to be a customer in those days, before I worked there, then I started as a sevice and repairs person before eventually moving into sales and management."

Jamie P tries to remember...

"When I first went there it was next to a laundrette if I remeber rightly. A tiny store, with junk everywhere and a bunch of long haired hippies running the place, which made such a difference to the stuffed shirt brigade at most other stores (except for Mike Bush at Musgroves of course) and John Goldsmith was the coolest person in rock, at least we thought so at the time!!"

In those great days it seemed a meeting place for the local players, with guru's like Billy Atkinson and Kevin Price ruling the roost, and later the legendary Lino and Cam, Graham Greene, Dom Zurzolo, and the multi-talented Greg Garbellini all spending time behind the counters. You could often grab a coffee whilst talking with Peter Dean, John Meyer, Jon Ryder, Ric Whittle, Paul Fenton, Steve Garde, and many other great musos of the day.

When the Osborne Park store first opened, it marked a new era for Kosmic, with a more professional retail environment, but many of us still preferred the relaxed, more rock and roll feel of the Bentley store, and were very disappointed to see it close down, at a more different economic climate that was the late Eighties/early Nineties. Now we had to travel the Freeway to shop!

I personally started working at the Osborne Park store around this time, with some amazing people indeed, like Gary Dunn (now a sales rep for CMI - ESP etc), well known for hauling a customer over the counter before asking him outside for a fight, only to make up and sell the customer some gear (!!!), Sam Bertolini (now a sales rep for Roland and Jands), notorious for sniffing a bargain was Sam 'Savadamuny' Berto, and he hasn't changed!

Other great people at the time included Mark Donohoe of The Frames, Roy 'Grizzly' Adams, Rob 'Scooter''Park, and many others. At this time, I left frustrated at travelling the Freeway, starting Guitar World with Rob Formentin. Great though it was at the time, nothing was quite like Kosmic, and I always hoped for a big South of The River Kosmic store down the track.

Returning to Ossie Park during the Roy Adams/Gary Millias era (what a fantastic bloke was Gaz!), we saw the emergence of the new Kosmic, with the first BUTT sales, and then the crazy Superhero Super Sale, that really kicked in the new Kosmic style, that is until the dreaded fire...

The fire changed everything for all of us, and I still remember the shock of driving to work and seeing the fire engines. My first thought was of charred Les Pauls, but luckily for us, when we got inside they were only smoke damaged, as was most gear, with a few keyboards rather melted, and a bunch of waterlogged amps.

Amazingly, we survived in the old Bunnings sweat shop, eventually building the current store, so hugely opened by Steve Vai! We learned so much over this period, and we feel lucky to have the chance to really build the stores we always wanted, and with John's bombastic creative direction we end up with the long desired (by John) plane, the Marshall wall, Stonehenge, the Mesa wall, Acoustic Corral, Vault and more.

The next step was for John to return to his roots, a much asked for happening that required the right timing and the right place! The first time I saw the 1296 building over a year ago I immediately felt it was the perfect Kosmic store, and dragged JG down there to check it out. John agreed, and we set out to re-create a store that mixed the Osborne Park feel, but retained that old Bentley friendliness, which we believed required the right mix of staff to create more than just shop fittings! ..