Australian Music Industry
John Payton and his brother Paul were always surrounded by music. Their father, John Payton Sr., ran the family business that he moved to Australia and expanded into music wholesaling. John Sr. was also a founding member of the Australian Music Association in 1977 and helped create the music trade...
Kevin Hague is the Managing Director and founder of Australasian Music Supplies. He started his wholesale business in 1978 and grew it to become one of the biggest in the country. Australasian Music Supplies, known as AMS, all started when Kevin began importing the Zachary Organ from New Zealand...
Carole Johnston is the Managing Director of CMC Music, a wholesale company she formed with her father, Pat Bonham. Pat was a pioneer in the music industry and a founding member of the Australian Music Association in 1977. When Carole and her dad formed CMC in 1991, they set out to focus on quality...
Frank Corniola was born in Italy and moved to Australia when he was seven years old and he began playing drums professionally as a teenager. Like many gigging musicians, Frank took a day job at a music store when he was not out touring. That first job, at Sutton's Music in Melbourne providing drum...
Wendy Hutchings, along with her sister, Amanda, and daughter, Jody Whyte, are the owners of Hutchings Piano. The store was established by her father back in 1955 when he started selling pianos to his students. He took Wendy along to visit factories in China in the early 1970s, where he made...
Kim Ryrie was just a few years out of high school when he called his friend Peter Vogel to discuss a new idea. Peter and Kim worked on several electronic related projects together in school and during the phone call Kim explained an idea he had for developing a computer based musical instrument...
Norm Lurie played the guitar as a teenager and was a big fan of Bob Dylan. After working in the book publishing business in Melbourne for eight years, Norm was given the opportunity to work at Music Sales. The company was stationed in England and run by Bob Wise, who hired Norm as the Managing...
Margaret O'Loughlin was inducted into the Australian Music Association's Honor Roll in 2017 for her dedication to the music industry. After her husband, Peter, had taken ill and passed away in 1982, Margaret attended the NAMM Show to inform the head of Fender that she could take over her husband’s...
Glenn Dodson played bass for a band he started with his schoolmates called Purple Haze. The band was high class, right down to their purple shirts! It was a fun experience that provided an entry into the music industry when Glenn took a “real job” at CBS Musical Instruments to supplement his...
David O'Loughlin joined his mother in the wholesale company his father had formed to import Fender guitars into Australia. He grew up in the business and recalls with a smile his college years when he and his sister would put together guitar packs in the family's car park. He also recalls attending...