“What happened was simply this. After I left you yesterday evening, Harry, I dressed, had some dinner at that little Italian restaurant in Rupert Street you introduced me to, and went down at eight o’clock to the theatre…”
Oscar Wilde — The Picture of Dorian Gray
At the time of writing 24 Rupert Street is an empty shop, but like every building in Soho it has been many things in its time. In the case of this building, that time begins in 1728 when the terrace of which it is a part was built on the northern edge of the Earl of St Albans’ farm estate. Oscar Wilde not only gives the street a brief mention in Dorian Gray, but he is known to have frequented its male brothels. The extent to which this building played any part in Rupert Street’s history of decadent bohemianism will probably never be known. But we do know it played a brief but crucial role in Soho’s musical history.
Ivan Arbiter was sixteen when he set up his own musical instrument repair business. It was just after the Second World War, and the tiny Kingly Street basement he found tucked behind Regent Street was ideal. Basements in that part of Soho were not only small and affordable, but they were also ideal for testing brass instruments without disturbing the neighbours. His father played sax in big bands which had sparked his interest as a boy — less in playing, and more in the mechanics of the instrument. In 1943, he was taken on as apprentice saxophone repairer at a small workshop in Soho Street. Surrounded by the theatres and music halls of central London, there was a steady demand for instrument repairs. This increased in post-war London, giving him the impetus to strike out on his own.
His repair business made steady progress. This enabled him to expand into buying and selling brass and woodwind instruments from an outlet on Shaftesbury Avenue in 1957. The skiffle boom provided new opportunities, especially for guitars and drums. Drums led the way, with Arbiter establishing his Drum City showroom at 114 Shaftesbury Avenue in 1961. His Sound City guitar and amp shop on Rupert Street followed a year later.
In October 1962, Brian Jones walked in off the street to buy a guitar for the group he’d just formed — The Rollin’ Stones. Sound City was one of the first stores to cater for this burgeoning market, with many others following. In the sixties and seventies Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road, along with Denmark Street, were full of music stores. Each offered its own distinctive range of instruments and equipment. And each had its own distinctive character created by their founders and staff. Together they shared a collective passion for music, and the people who created it. Every store had its own backstory and its own very particular contribution to our musical culture.
Ivan Arbiter was working at Rupert Street when his assistant over at Drum City phoned him. Two men had walked in wanting a new drum kit, but not wanting to pay for it. Arbiter hurried up the road to see what was going on.
Brian Epstein had turned up with Ringo Starr whose heart was set on the new Ludwig kit displayed in the window. It was early 1963, and the group had just secured their first number one hit, so a deal was not unreasonable. But Ivan wouldn’t be giving the kit away for nothing.
As Ludwig’s sole agent in London this could be useful publicity, unless The Beatles turned out to be one-hit wonders. So he took a gamble. Arbiter agreed to take Ringo’s old kit in exchange, on condition that the Ludwig name would be prominent on the bass drum. Epstein agreed — as long as the group’s name featured as well.
Arbiter quickly sketched out the group’s name in on a scrap of paper. He drew it in block capitals with a larger ‘B’ and an extended ‘T’. He offered to have this logo painted on the drum by local signwriter Eddie Stokes. But it would cost extra. A five pound note was handed over. And that was how the most recognisable logo in popular music history was created.
A few weeks later, George Harrison visited Sound City to buy a Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar. Within a few days, both the new Ludwig kit and Gretsch guitar were carried into Abbey Road studios for their first recording session. The song they recorded was She Loves You. From its urgent opening drum fill to the deliberately played guitar arpeggios, the song not only defined Beatlemania, but it became the top selling single of the 1960s.
Sound City rapidly outgrew its Rupert Street premises, and in 1964 moved closer to Drum City occupying a prominent corner site at 124 Shaftesbury Avenue. With a repair department and a range of instruments, equipment and accessories that included their own fuzzbox - the Fuzz Face - Sound City provided the sound for the golden age of the electric guitar.
Just days after first arriving in London in 1966, Jimi Hendrix walked out of Sound City with his new Fuzz Face and began his reinvention of what a guitar should sound like. A few months later Eric Clapton bought a used Stratocaster guitar at the store which he used most notably on his 1970 hit Layla. Musicians and roadies provided regular business for Sound City’s repair department, and the ideal location attracted an endless stream of professional, amateur and aspiring musicians.
In 1975, a liquidity crisis led to the closure of Arbiter’s two shops. As he explains: “Whilst I was very ambitious, had some foresight and loved the business, I was probably quite weak in terms of balance sheets and control in running a business.” He went on to develop new business ventures, and became a pioneer in supplying karaoke machines in the 1980s. But his key contribution was defining what a music store should be: “I think really we created the guitar shop image, which sounds silly, but I think we were the first, even before anybody in the States, to get into a guitar shop complex… we’re no longer a small, back-street piano business. We thought, "Let's present ourselves nicely, let's try and design the establishments around our customers."
In the wake of Sound City, other stores such as Selmers, around the corner on Charing Cross Road, built on this model of the guitar shop. If Selmer’s customers were impressive - Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Steve Howe - so too were their staff, which at various times included Paul Kossoff and John McLaughlin.
24 Rupert Street was where the template for the music store was created. Far more than retail outlets, these stores became a vital part of Soho’s music culture. They were hubs for music making and consuming communities, where musicians would meet, gigs could be publicised, playing opportunities shared and deals struck. They were centres of craft knowledge and innovation: where instruments could be repaired and where innovations such as Fuzz Face were born. They were where the passion and skill of making music could be passed on: where aspiring players could be advised by experts on the instrument that was right for them.
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Song
She Loves You — The Beatles
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Sources
Tony Bacon (March 2018) Selmer: The London Music Shop Where Clapton, Page, Beck, and More Bought Their Guitars, Reverb https://reverb.com/uk/news/selmer-the-london-music-shop-where-clapton-page-beck-and-more-bought-their-guitars
Tony Bacon (December 2020) Sound City: The London Music Shop Where the Fuzz Face Was Born, Reverb https://reverb.com/uk/news/sound-city-the-london-music-shop-where-the-fuzz-face-was-born
The Independent (24 September 2005) Obituaries: Ivor Arbiter - Captain of the music industry and designer of the Beatles' 'drop-T' logo https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ivor-arbiter-314771.html
International Musician & Recording World (March 1975) The Ivor Arbiter Story http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/the-ivor-arbiter-story/4955
Cool - I have reposted to my Substack Blog page.
Cheers.
Ray