EDITOR’S NOTE: Hi! This article was originally published when Rocking Horse Records was facing closure in 2011. However, thanks to a huge sale and an 11th hour rent reprieve, Rocking Horse Records was able to stay open and remains thriving to this day. We love a happy ending! Since this piece was about a bunch of really nice stories of the store, we’ve decided to leave it up. Enjoy the mems.
Here’s the original piece:
The word ‘institution’ gets bandied around a little bit too generously these days: “the just-opened-last-week wine bar is a neighbourhood institution”, “Uncle Luke’s front porch is an Australian institution”. But one place that undeniably and justifiably belongs under that mantle is Brisbane’s Rocking Horse Records.
Ever since it opened in 1975 the store has been earning its stripes as an iconic music monument. Throughout its 36 years in operation Rocking Horse has made an incredible contribution to Brisbane’s independent music scene; whether that has been through supporting live gigs of local bands, being the first place to stock their EPs and demos, or providing musicians with part-time jobs working the floor so they could invest in a new kick drum without requiring a narc haircut.
Rocking Horse was also the place you could always get whatever it was that the other record stores couldn’t give you: 3 tickets to Pennywise, the very best band merch of all time, and the rarest of releases.
It’s a major loss to Brisbane and, really, to independent music retail in Australia that an institution like Rocking Horse Records is permanently closing its doors as of next week – a casualty of the massive surge in online sales and the national retail giants like JB Hifi – but it leaves behind a lot of fond memories and sweet, sweet nostalgia. Here’s a few of them…
RACHEL SURGEONER – Four Thousand – Editor
I remember when Rocking Horse was on Adelaide Street, I was 15 years old and I’d catch the train into the City 40-mins each way to spend the money I saved from my casual retail job on frivolities and browse for hours the CDs at Rocking Horse – painstakingly deciding which to buy. I think I mostly liked to flick through the CDs because it seemed like the cool thing to do and everyone who worked there looked really ‘cool’ too. One time, I was super embarrassed because I purchased a ticket to a gig from Rocking Horse, unaware you had to be 18+ to attend and then had to take it back and ask for a refund, I was really flattered they thought I was 18 in the first place, I must have looked cool with all the CD flicking.
MATT BRADY – The Outpost, Woodlands Bar, Nine Lives Gallery, I Used To Skate Once – Co-owner/Creator
This makes me really sad. In ’83, as a snotty punk/mod kid from Redcliffe, I spent nearly every cent I earned from Saturday casual job on records at Rocking Horse: Ups & Downs, Joy Division, The Cramps, The Jam, etc. Some of my great friends I meet at the Horse. One of my friends Mikey worked there in the 90’s, most the staff had nicknames, his was “Grant” as in student grant because he was studying. There was Ben, his nickname was “Biffa”, he once caught someone shoplifting, got them in a headlock and dragged the guy out of the shop! You don’t get service like that these days! After moving away in the late 90’s to live overseas, I quickly realised that Rocking Horse was one of the best music stores in the world. Right up there with Rough Trade and the like. It’s sad day for Australia to lose such an institution.
CC BIRT – The Zoo (live music institution) – Co-owner
The first time I saw Grant McLennan not on stage was him flipping thorough records at Rocking Horse. He is one of my fav Australian songwriters and became a good friend in the years after he moved back to Brisbane. I’ve met and hung with lots of musos, but that day I was a bit star struck. If a booking agent called about a band I had not heard of, I’d always call the guys at Rocking Horse to get the lowdown. If my memory serves me (and quite often it does not), I think that’s how Ben Harper ended up playing at the Zoo just as he broke big. Rocking Horse was a big part of the “real” music scene in Bris. They hired musos, they supported the scene. It was always about the music.
QUAN YEOMANS – Regurgitator – all-purpose band guy
I used to go there quite a bit when I was younger but I haven’t been there in a while because I don’t live in Brisbane anymore. It’s sad but I’m kind of not surprised. Record stores are closing all over the place because it’s increasingly difficult to pull those margins that need to be pulled to pay the rent.
NICK EARLS – Writer (of iconic Bris-lit Zig Zag Street) and one-time face of Brisbane
Rocking Horse was one of the first signs I had that even Brisbane could be cool. Later this century, when two generations of us are boring or amazing our grandchildren with stories about the long-gone past, if we start talking about records, tapes and CDs, it’s the place a lot of us will picture.
SARAH WERKMEISTER – Four Thousand – Associate Editor
As a disgruntled teen, I worked in a really bad record store where the boss would always make me forge The Traveling Wilbury’s signatures. I longed to work at Rocking Horse – they’d never take part in this fraud. I saw countless in-stores at the old site on Adelaide Street – Ben Gibbard played a particularly humble show there. The thing that always stuck in my mind was the Pooderfinger sticker, and the fact that Rockinghorse always got the record I wanted, no matter where it came from. Evil Dick, as he was affectionately known gave me the best advice anyone could give a disenfranchised youth – to stick with the things you love, and one day you’d be where you always wanted to be. I once heard a story of him chasing down youths who’d stolen the CD de-magnetiser and giving them a piece of his mind (and fist). The thing I liked most about Rocking Horse is that the staff were always helpful as long as you knew what you were talking about – which encourages people to gain knowledge independently of asking a record store guy (their’s is the best sort of pretension). Getting to know the people who worked there by living in the same street as one of them (Roly – who gave up his house and called it The Double Bull to host shows with bands like Straight Arrows, Hits, Feathers, Narwhals and countless more) bought valuable insight into their passion for music – soundproofed dens of rooms cluttered with old synths, drums kits, and every album you could ever want to own. My friends and I made up stories about (and secretly had a crush on) ‘the new guy who’s into Youth Crew’. To our meeting spot at ‘the old Rocking Horse’ – our meeting spot’s still there and we still call it that, from just a smile on the street, to ordering that rare Jawbreaker record, the best thing about Rocking Horse has always been, and always will be of the same ilk as Evil Dick’s advice – sticking with what they love and getting somewhere with it.
SUZ TUCKER – Pedestrian – Brisbane-raised sentimentalist
I got really into classic dub stuff and buying vinyl around the same time. The first record I ever bought from Rocking Horse was King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown by Augustus Pablo and King Tubby which you can’t really find anywhere. It’s still a great record. I remember the first CD I ever bought there, too: Tu-Plang by Regurgitator. I’ve got the same copy at home. As a poor student I would go inside and shuffle around for hours killing time between lectures or part-time jobs or whatever. It felt like a safe and welcoming place. A safe and welcoming place where tickets to ’90s punk bands were easily procured.
Before Rocking Horse shuts its doors for one last time its having a massive closing down sale of all stock. For all the details visit the website: www.rockinghorse.net.
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