Deceased
Robina Miller opened Swing City Music with her husband, in London, England, in the days following World War II. During the time of the record shortage in the UK, Swing City offered American music, beginning with service records known as V-Discs (Victory Discs). In order to make a few extra dollars...
Shep Shepherd co-wrote the now classic instrumental “Honky Tonk Part 2” while playing in the Bill Doggett band. The recording became a hit in the late 1950s and helped build a stronger audience for rock instrumentals, which remained popular throughout the mid 1960s. Shep began playing drums and...
Richard Webb’s grandfather opened a pawnshop in England and his father, Sydney, developed a small music division within the shop some 20 years later. the From the age of 12, Richard thought of nothing else but to be involved with the family business. Richard enjoyed the music business and was...
David Leed was born in 1937 in the United Kingdom and spent the war years and most of his childhood in Australia. His love of music started when he was a young boy learning to play the cornet in his local Salvation Army. After returning to London and finishing school David played the cornet in...
Jimmy Gibbs opened the very first crate containing a Hammond B-3 in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. Several years later, at the height of the Cold War, Jimmy brought the famous organ to Moscow, the first person to do so in history. He found that “music can speak every language and that no one ever...
Charles Watkins invented the Watkins Copicat, an echo unit introduced in 1958. Mr. Watkins was inspired by the Morino Marini Quartet who made famous the Comi Prima, which contained a special use of repeated phrasings. The Copicat revolutionized the world of music beginning in the United Kingdom,...
Peter Pulham had a distinct place in the history of the music products industry, in part because he helped preserve it! As publisher and editor of United Kingdom based Music Business magazine (together with Sandie Smith) in the 1980s and 1990s, Peter reported on the news of the day in the pages of...
Brian Justice had been a salesman in many industries in Europe and gained a well-respected name in the music industry for his import/export business between England and Germany, about a decade after World War II. While in the British service, Brian took part in the Berlin Airlift (1948-49) and...
George Hanson’s father was hired by M. Steinert and Sons, the piano dealer in Boston, in 1900. Forty years later George would help his father out after school and on weekends to earn some pocket money. In 1947 George was hired full time and became the longest running employee in the company’s...
Don Canedy was a beloved band director and professor at Southern Illinois University before being hired by the Roger’s Drum Company in 1961. Don played drums beginning at the age of 10 and was a perfect fit for the company’s Educational Director. Just prior to his job at Roger’s, which at the time...