The Past & Present World of Cosmo Music

 "Cosmo Guitars, a small business started by Tom Hebert, began in 1966 importing guitars from Italy and Japan. Tom was fresh out of the Air Force and itching to pursue a business venture in the area he was most interested in - music. Tom had been involved in bands while in the Air Force and his passion was the guitar.

Although importing guitars was promising, in 1968 Tom realized the added potential of his 

Sheppard Ave location in Downsview and opened the 1st Cosmo Music. Selling mostly the guitars and accessories he was importing, the store grew.

                          1976: Cosmo Music - Yonge & Centre Richmond Hill Store

In 1970 it was obvious that retail was what Tom enjoyed. He stopped importing guitars and continued full steam ahead opening a small music school and broadening the scope of musical instruments sold in his Downsview store.

This is where the story of Cosmo Music as we see it today began.

In 1971, Cosmo Music moved to Richmond Hill and took over the local Mundinger Music location. Richmond Hill was a much smaller town, but with the bigger store and Yonge Street locale, Tom was thinking into the future. The new store already had a large lesson studio (65% accordion students) and big potential for future growth.

Cosmo Music began dealing with Brass and Woodwind sales, rentals and repairs in 1975. The need for a band department became apparent with the population explosion and the lack of service oriented school band program providers. The Brass and Woodwind department quickly became an area of expertise for Cosmo Music as their rental fleet grew exponentially.

                                1985: Cosmo Music 9201 Yong Richmond Hill Store

In 1985 Cosmo Music moved once again to an even bigger location just a few blocks south on Yonge Street. Taking over a department store and building one of the largest music stores in Canada, gave Cosmo customers an increased instrument selection and even more value than before. It also gave way to construction of The Cosmo School of Music, the largest and most prestigious music school in the area.

Cosmo Music's Brass and Woodwind Department was growing so fast, the decision was made to relocate the department into it's own location. The Cosmo Music Brass & Woodwind Centre opened in 1990 and became Ontario's leading provider of brass and woodwind instruments and accessories.

The new building also housed Cosmo Music's Brass and Woodwind repair facilities, one of the largest in the country, and Cosmo's ever rowing rental fleet (now well over 11,000 instruments).

The dream of the entire Cosmo Team has always been to creat the world's most exciting and interactive music making environment. In the spring of 2008 this dream became a reality when Cosmo Music amalgamated both of it's locations into one giant store.

Cosmo Music - The Musical Instruemnent Superstore opened its doors on May 22, 2008 and has already been declared by many to be one of the biggest and best musical instrument retail stores in the world; providing sales, service, rentals and lessons for all types of musical instruments in a one-of-a-kind, world class facility."

Friday, March 8^th, 2013, I decided while on business for Allstage in Toronto, that I would take the opportunity to check out a Music Dealer store I had never ventured into before – Cosmo Music.

As Barb and I wheeled up to the store from the outside at 10 Via Renzo Drive, the size of the building was impressive. Seeing so much square footage that was dedicated to being a Music Store was intoxicating to me as a Musician and I couldn’t wait to get inside to scope things out.

Barb and I proceeded inside to be greeted with a wide open concept that was the Atrium – airy, and two floors of wide open space that was illuminated by the glass that made up the front of the building. To our left inside the Atrium was a little Deli that served light fare and beverages like Coffee. In the center of the Atrium there were a few large stands that sold different kinds of cool merchandise that was music related. From Coffee Cups to miniature guitars and many more items – all of which were quite reasonable and attracted the interest of several customers in the store.

To my right was the coolest idea that reminded me of New York, New York – the famous Casino in Las Vegas. The different Music Instrument departments were housed in specific areas of their own within the façade of each to look like individual buildings on a streetscape. There was Guitars, Keyboard Zone, Drummers, Virtuoso (Wind Instruments), Book & DVD Department’s – all designed to look like individual shops complete with doorways and windows.

Each department was manned by at least 2 Staff members who were the consummate salesmen. They were friendly, well informed of the products they were selling and allowed their customers to roam around until such point in time that one had a question that needed to be answered.

After asking for permission when I 1^st arrived, to speak to someone in management – I was greeted by a very lovely lady named Jennifer Maknyik who was the Director of Marketing for the store. I explained to her about Allstage and how I wanted to take pictures of the store and do an article on it for Allstage. Being very polite as I tended to ramble on somewhat, Jennifer gave me a complete rundown on the store and a brief insight to its history.

She led me through parts of the store like the in-house Service department with technicians who could fix any instrument brought into them as opposed to sending it out for repairs. As a musician, I found this feature very attractive and appealing. There was the Rental section which was quite large and addressed any item that a musician might want to rent for a gig. And upon further discussion Jennifer informed me that they had a large staff of Music Instructors that facilitated the education of some 2000 students.

Of course the Drummer in me led me to the Drummers section where an autographed Jason Bonham yellow Vistalite set sat in the window. Walking through the entrance to the interior, I found myself in a serious world of drum gear. Acoustic drum kits by reputable Manufacturer’s like Sonor, Pearl, DW, Ludwig, PDP and many more. Electronic kits, a wall of cymbals by different manufacturers, a room full of percussion, and another area dedicated to a multitude of BD pedals – it was Drummer Heaven.

Each department had easy access to the next via a front entrance or a rear corridor that connected them effortlessly for the consumer. Drums, Brass & Woodwind, Keyboards, Special Effects for Stage or DJ’s, A DJ section and ultimately leading to the massive Guitar section.

Along my travels there was a multitude of special features to the store from a Recording Studio environment to an isolation room filled with guitars and Marshall amps. In the Guitar section of the store, there were guitars everywhere – most notably on a wall that was two stories high with one side being electric and on the other side of a large staircase, a wall of acoustic’s that also were 2 stories high. Everything in every department was numerous in stock but not cluttered, and then there was the staff who were gracious, informative and very easy to deal with.

This was not your average Music Store, and from my perspective – they were doing it the right way in today’s economic times.

It truly is a one-stop-shop Music Superstore.

Allstage Band Birth

Ok Gang - this is my thoughts.

As mentioned earlier - I have a bunch of open dates from Bender not playing this summer between May - August....16 of them to be precise. Now of those 16, all I can say is that I am going to try and nail down gigs with bars within an hour of London - hopefully I can convince Bar owners to go out on a limb and break the time old standards as I spend ALOT of time thinking all things music, and I have a few ideas that hopefully I can pitch them. The "Allstage Band" is going to be three fold in purpose:

1) to kick start some interest around town in terms of getting the public engaged with Live music in a different forum/way than it has been. This is NOT a jam as such - this will be gigs that are paying gigs, where each member that is part of the "band" that night, supply's their gear and each set maybe a different drummer or singer or guitarist comes in and plays a tune or two - the material will be pretty much decided on so that all players can be "plug-n-play" - so there won't be any prog rock - just standards from a few eras.

The Allstage Band will be Allstage Members only – BUT – if you have your own Merch, I can probably work something out with someone I have in mind, who would mind your Merch and sell it along with theirs. Consequently you would get to plug your primary band while playing with another (sell t-shirts, posters, pens, kickers, etc).

I would look at feasibility of Video to You Tube on the Allstage Channel – again listing who you REALLY play with and website urls. I would market this as an Allstage vehicle – the selling point is that so many talented and experienced musicians would be a part of it, that Bar owners would know that the “band” are not a half-assed unit – this is totally professional and treated as such. If Music stores and Bars would get onboard to advertise – we could have an Allstage Banner with ads from each supporter be it Venue, Music Store that helps is out in some degree. Why would Bill at The Dawghouse want a Banner with George from the Eastside on it? Because Bill’s is up there as well and this is not a partisan project – this is an EVENT aimed at promoting “Live” music and getting people into ALL the bars to buy alcohol/food.

2) The other reason – simple – to promote Allstage on another level and get even more people engaged to not only the site, but to our local music community and maybe beyond. If caught on well enough and was a moderate to large success – maybe something else that I am thinking of on a much larger scale can come into play to benefit all the Allstage Members……that depends on how much all of us want to invest some effort and focus into this project.

Is this going to be easy to co-ordinate – No

Am I going to be able to fill all 16 gigs that are open with booked jobs – PROBABLY NOT?

Can we make a bit of money and have A LOT of fun with each other playing – YES

Will it rattle the way things are done in London and maybe initiate some “outside the

box” way of doing things so musicians and bars can prosper – POSSIBLY.

Will Bars be open to some new ideas on how to do things if it makes them money to some degree – I CERTAINLY HOPE SO.

Will things get better if we just play it safe and accept the status quo – NO.

Out east and Quebec have live music 6 nights a week, sometimes 7 – and it works – why? Because everyone got onboard, bucked the “this is how we always do it” train of thought and broke some barriers to change perception and how to do things.

Practices can be at my home pretty much any time of the week – I have practice kit for drummers – we can all supply our own individual backline for now at practice – Bender gear belongs to Ian, Keith and Evan and I would not use their property for obvious reasons of ownership & respect.

So there you have it. I suggest that we all meet at a bar that I will sort out on a Sunday soon and we can garner all input and ideas to make it happen. If you wish to not be a part of this, please just remove your name from the Allstage Band FB page – it won’t be everyone’s choice for sure.

Thanks for your time in reading this all.

Jim

allstage@rogers.com

Allstage Tour of St.Thomas - A Wealth of Talent

Last night, December 14th, 2012 - Allstage headed out to St.Thomas to check out the wealth of talent in the town. With four Venues to check out, Barb and I had a full night ahead.

First stop was Braxtons Tap & Grill at the far end of St.Thomas where John Milles was playing a solo acoustic act. Braxtons is a woody roadhouse that has really good food and very friendly and attentive staff. In the room as we walked in was the soothing sound of John playing acoustic tunes and singing to the crowd in front of him. John sang a host of great tunes that crossed the span from the Seventies to present day. His song selection was great, the perfect mix of legendary classics mixed with acoustic versions of today's tunes. On his break, John introduced himself to Barb and I - he was very friendly and his warm attitude made you feel like he had known you for a long time. The crowd certainly appreciated his talents as they sang and clapped along to his songs, seeing full well that John enjoyed playing the songs for himself, as much as he did for the crowd before him. If we didn't have more places to go we would've stayed for the entire night, it was that enjoyable.

Next on the St.Thomas Allstage Tour was Ollees where The Wrecks were playing with Shawn Buck, Rob Stokes, Flying Bob Taylor & Mike Moodie. Ollees is a neighborhood bar that draws in the local community from the adjacent residential blocks, and is situated in a commercial plaza. Complete with center pool table at the back of the bar, the band line up across the front of the venue giving full sight lines to both band and patrons. This was our 1st visit to Ollees for Barb and I so we weren't sure what to expect. Inside the place was packed, standing near the bar area was to be shoulder-to-shoulder. For Barb and I it was like a party with good friends as the crowd included Al & Katie Vaillancourt, Cathy Millar, the amazing Waitress skills of Ruth "Buzzy" McCormick, my old high school buddy Al Grech, Bill Penner, Doug Ryan, the amazing talents of Stanley Brown who jammed with the band, Len Doucette and his lovely Lady. The Wrecks were slamming out tunes 1st with Shawn, then allowing Stanley to come up and play - and the packed bar was loving the entire performance. This was my good friend Mike Moodies perpetual "Farewell Gig" with the band, but in all seriousness - if we lose Mr. Moodies talents in the sphere of Local drummers, it will be our loss for sure. The band had the demographics in the bar in their hands, young and middle aged were loving the band as they smoked thru a dozen or so songs in the set we saw.
As we again left a venue that had a local St. Thomas talent that was showcasing their skills, it occurred to me that those sitting at home on this mild Friday night were missing out on alot.

From there we went to the Midtown Tavern to see Jared Walpole & Chris Eveland who were doing their acoustic duo at the front of the bar. Jared can sing with the best of them, a young man who slammed out a rendition of "Simple Man" by Skynyrd, that bore the power and clarity of Ronnie Van Zant. And Chris who accompanied on acoustic guitar played with amazing conviction and excitement. The two of them are part of the local band, Rail City Kings, and they had the crowd who filled the bar in their hands. It made me wonder if the two of them were this good, how was the entire band when they got together. Needless to say I was very impressed.

Our last stop took us to Sunny's Bar where Arkham Dispatch was playing their debut at the bar. The band had a good crowd, and they were pumped to bring St. Thomas their style of music. The band is highly energetic onstage and provide plenty of visual acrobatics for the crowd to feed upon. From a drummers perspective, Shane Connon played like a demon onstage and his kit cut thru like a cannon all thru the set. Al Halliday and Jason Harrison led the band thru tune after tune, while their Bass player (sorry for not knowing his name here) was the most active musician I have seen onstage in a very long time. The band alternated between Covers and Originals with ease, and the uptempo tunes of both genre's had the dance floor packed.

The Final Word on our tour of St. Thomas Clubs - if you are into acoustic acts, be it solo or duo - there is venues and certainly the talent to fill the bill - it was unfortunate that Barb and I didn't have more time to hear the talented people that we did.
If you want bar-proven bands like The Wrecks, Stanley Brown Blues, Hogwild, Dave's Not Here or the many others that call St.Thomas home - there is an immense talent pool of St. Thomas musicians that are just the tip of the iceberg for London to get familiar with. Arkham debuting at Sunny's is another example of how talent moves back and forth between London & St. Thomas - but there is definitely a need for more St. Thomas bands getting a foot in the door here in London.

As for the Bar Owners in St.Thomas, they recognise that there is a hunger for "Live Music" out there, and they are due a pat on the back for doing what they can to facilitate that, for the musicians looking to play live. The bars are supplying top-notch talent for all of you to come out and see/hear - and it's home grown. Get out there and enjoy it, live music is making a revival - albeit slow and sure, but it IS coming alive after a couple of decades of being knocked down.
Be a part of the solution and enjoy the treasure that you have.
Jim

London Rocks Movember

       November 25^th, 2012 – the date that the London Music Community and public came together for a great day at “The House of George” – The East Side Bar & Grill.

The reason – the yearly rally of people to the cause of Movember – the ongoing battle against Prostate Cancer.

I wanted this event to showcase the immense talent in this city of some very special friends of mine – and it hinged not only on their busy music schedules being open, but the generosity of a good friend to lend us his Venue to hold the event this year.

Once George gave us his blessing to hold the event at this bar – I turned to my very good friends Sarah Smith, and Cindy & Rainer Wiechmann to donate their immense talent and time to co-hosting the event along with Ian Hebert & Keith Ford of Bender. Needing a Bassist for our Bender slot, I had a multitude of talented Bassist’s to choose from here in the city. Since Sarah was playing and Ken Ross was going to be present, it was a wonderful chance for me to hook up live with Ken for the 1^st time ever.

Next on the list was Media to cover the event – and the cream rose to the top on this one. FreeFM96, and Jkor from CHRW 94.9 climbed onboard to give the event great coverage.

We had the live aspect covered, now we needed to plan the “meat” of the event – the prizes. Off the top I turned to the Manufacturer’s that Endorse Bender – Schecter Guitar Research and Tee Custom Handmade Drums of Britain. Both companies came thru large for me – Schecter donated a Devil Spine guitar, Alan Tee donated a Spirit Snare Drum.

Local business kicked into the Benefit in a huge way – The PA Shop, Fitzrays Restaurant & Lounge, The Dawghouse Pub, Hair Fantasy, The Hilton, Idylwood Inn, Culligan Water (Claudia Foote), Gary Kendricks through his work, Shari Fulmer of the The Mitten Ball Benefit, and Lincoln McCardle & Cari Ramsey of Movember London.

Then the local bands/artists poured in with a host of generosity, in no specific order:

Hurtin Merv                              Arkham Dispatch                                  Nail

Helix                                        Doug Varty                                          Karl Slick

Backline Revival                       Tom Carriere                                        Beat Red Soul

Scott Brunelle                           Robbie Antone                         Crystal Curran

Zealots Desire                          Rant Maggie Rant                                 Avidas

Deanna Hoyles             3^rd Stratosphere            LSTAR Board of Directors

James Kirk (audio recording)                            Mike W. (Soundman for the Bands)

We had the Performers; we had the Media coverage, the Prizes from a host of companies and local music artists, Audio Recording by James Kirk, Sound/Lights covered by Mike W.

World Class Photography was supplied by Radical Images (Pat Crawford) & The Photoguys (Mark Girdauskas). Stellar help for the Prize tables, Raffle Tickets, 50/50 Draws was supplied by Barb Whitney, Kim Crawford, Laura Kennedy, Victoria & Kim Williston, Candice Lubick & Veronica Robinson.

The Staff at The East Side I knew would be amazing as they kept everyone flush with beverage – but there was two things missing before the public walked through the door.

As a result I drafted my good friend Merv Leyte to be the MC at the Event, and was honored to have the esteemed Dr. Joseph Chin attend the Event to draw the winning prizes.

Now the true test – response to the Event – and I wasn’t disappointed.

As the event rolled along, the word spread, and the amount of people that wanted to attend increased. The day of the event was amazing. People poured in to The East Side to donate their time, money and support for the event – and then the musicians began to pour in. There were a dozen all-star potential bands with the amount of skilled musicians in the crowd that attended the Benefit to show their support. It was overwhelming to say the least, how many of them answered the bell.

Rainer & Cindy Wiechmann brought their Acoustic Act “Best Buds” to the stage, and they were amazing to say the least. Their level of skill riveted the crowd as they tore through one song after another; Cindy’s amazing Vocals were in prime shape as she took stage center with Rainer’s stellar guitar work laying down the background. While their success in their main project NAIL is well known, this was a fantastic glimpse of just how deep their talent runs.

Next came Sarah Smith with Ken Ross and Bobby Reynolds. Sarah’s set was electrifying as she did an acoustic set with Bobby playing the Cajon and Ken on Bass. Then after a short break, they returned to the stage for an electric set – with Bobby playing The Beast and the band being joined by Brian Vollmer onstage. The crowd was very appreciative of the talent that was before them by both acts, they were the absolute perfect fit for the Benefit.

Then our band Bender took their turn onstage – and one of my most admired musicians that I had yet to play with was onstage with us as a special guest – Ken Ross. Ken had not rehearsed once with the band in preparation – and yet tore thru every song flawlessly as if he had been in the band for months. It was magical the way it all came together.

Before I knew it, the event was over.

The prizes had been all awarded, the stage had fallen silent of all the great music that had filled it for 4 hours, the crowd was slowly filing out of the bar that had made the entire day such a huge success – and the $1500.00 that was donated for the London Prostate Cancer Unit was the proof of a day well spent.

London Musicians had answered the bell to support a major event, the public had stood at their side to accomplish the same result – and a month of stress and planning had all come together due to the immense help of local small business, a few large ones and a ton of people who cared and offered me their help.

And most of all, friends. Friends who stepped up for me and came through in so many ways.

The Prostate Unit that day became the beneficiary, but as I spent the day hearing my friends and band-mates onstage, shook hands with all the musicians that I knew who took the time to attend, met new friends, saw my wife and friends doing all the grunt work of making the whole event run so smoothly, digested the array of gifts that so many artists had donated to the event – I couldn’t help but realize that it was I who was very fortunate.

And the thoughts of a London Rocks Movember 2 begin to jell J