The story of Toombul Music is a story about Brisbane, its people and the music they love.
From 1981 until its doors closed for the final time in 2008, Barry Bull owned and operated Toombul Music, the go-to record store in Brisbane for its wide selection of albums and instruments, and of course, in-store signings that saw performers such as Sir Cliff Richard, The Village People, John Denver and The Corrs grace the suburban shopping centre's main stage.
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Eight years on and Barry is on the verge of performing his first, and perhaps only, live show where he will ruminate on his 27-year tenure at Toombul, the performers he managed to attract and the thousands upon thousands of music-lovers who made the store their number one hang-out. “This is my first Brisbane show,” Barry says, “and it may be the only one, but I've decided to put this together because I've got very good film clip video memories of the celebrities we presented at Toombul. The thing that stood out for us at Toombul was that we were the first and really the most significant business in Australia to attach ourself to the celebrities.
“And we brought many artists and celebrities who were touring Australia and working hard to get charts for their new products, and actually put them on the centre stage at Toombul. I've got video memories of that, as well as the strategies of how we did it, so it's quite an interesting show. It's not just about music, but what I really do is wrap stories around the music.”
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Barry's show traces his life entrenched in both the local Brisbane music scene and the Australian music industry at-large. Prior to opening Toombul Music, he was Marketing Director for CBS Records (now Sony Music) in Australia, a position that helped him form the strategy he used to make Toombul Music the treasured icon remembered so fondly to this day. “There's not a day that goes by where somebody doesn't remind me of the things we did at Toombul and the reputation we gained in the business over a 30-year period,” he says.
“But Toombul's gone and I'm still here, and I thought this is a great opportunity to be able to relive those memories of all the musicians, customers and the people who were attracted to music through that almost 40-year period.
“That's virtually what my show is, talking about my life in music and then talking about how we built Toombul Music into an icon over a long period of time. But you know what? I was just doing a job, I didn't realise the end result would be that after the business was gone it would be so fondly remembered.
“I realise now that we did a good job because we touched people's lives, but when you're busy doing a job, how well you do that job comes back to you down the track, or when you get older and people remember the good work you did.”
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But for Barry, the tale of Toombul Music stretches far back in time to his formative teenage years when he bought his first guitar: an original 1962 Fender Jazzmaster designed and built by Leo Fender himself. (NB: Guitar geeks, that's your cue to start drooling.) “I'm working towards building this guitar up into a hero through the show, even though I'm talking about my life.
“The second part of the show is called 'Unexpected Hero' and at the end I reveal who my unexpected hero is and of course, my unexpected hero is that Fender guitar. The story really is about my unexpected hero because it gave me my career. Without that guitar, I wouldn't have a story to tell, without that guitar there'd be no CBS and without that guitar there'd be no Toombul; it's an interesting story I've never told before.
"So the show is a combination of stories, live music and video memories. Anybody who grew up with music in the '80s and beyond and were attached to our business, this show should interest them because this is the first time it's ever been done, where a music store recreates its memories and its magic.”
Barry Bull performs 'A Little Bull Goes A Long Way' at Kedron-Wavell Services Club 16 October (2pm).
