Skunking Mixing Pleasure With Business Since 1972 my music shop has been the hub of a wide and loose social, musical and economic network. The music, the business and the lifestyle were so intertwined that a bit of exploratory strumming soon became a full-on session and people hired amps and bought guitars to a background of jamming and horseplay. There’s a photo of me standing over a tuba. The tuba is standing in a bath full of soapy water. Drunken shenanigans? Well – there was plenty of that but this time there was a serious purpose. I wouldn’t abuse a musical instrument; I was just using the best method to clean the tuba. But I was also aware of how bizarre it was and I had fun doing it. This image, though taken in recent years, captures the ethos of our musical life. There were plenty of ways to mix business with pleasure. A young punk band used to hire equipment from the shop. They were not that organized and took on a girl to manage them who had an unusual way of negotiating the deal.
