The Steel Guitar Forum

Micky Byrne, this one's for you really as I've seen you mention the Sho-Bud Shop on Denmark Street several times and keep meaning to ask about it.

It seems incredible now but at some point in the 70's there was a dedicated pedal steel guitar outlet on London's own 'Tin Pan Alley'. How long was it there for? Who ran it? Any photo's or memories?

I boughe a ZB that belong to Vic Collins from there.
as i remember there was not a lot of steels to pick from.

I purchased(by mail order)Jimmy Day's `All Those Years` album from Checkmate Records in Newbury. The Sho-Bud shop's address is on the album sleeve; 25 Denmark St, London. WC2 tel:01-240-1542.

John; Was Vic Collins the steel player for the Kursaal Flyers? I had their first album and remember the documentary of their British tour in the '70s.

Arch.

Yes Archie Vic played for Kursaal Flyers , they were a great band , Cozy the drummer in our band Barbary Coast was a big fan , he was over the moon when i bought the guitar. I did not play any better with it ..

Number 25 is now Music Ground (bought my Tele there about 16 years ago).
.

(The Kursaal Flyers doc was on recently, Vic could be heard complaining about his Fender amp distorting and how badly he needed a Peavey).

John, the idea that you could walk into a shop in Britain, have a choice of pedal steels, and walk out with a ZB no less, amazes me. I'm not sure you realise how lucky you were.

I remember this shop well since it was the first time I saw a bunch of pedal steels live and also bought an old National Style 0 roundneck there in 1977 I believe it was. Remember the conversation I had with one of the guys there who mentioned how Americans were a bit strange when it came to bathing since they preferred to wash in their own dirty water. Amazing what the mind chooses to remember. The same gent demonstrated some decent pedal steel playing. Wish I could think of his name. Could it have been Ron?

Hi Jonathan, the Sho-Bud shop started of under a different name which eludes me at present.The original shop was in Norbury South London. They used to advertise in the now defunct "Melody maker" as Mr "Rip offs" The shop was owned by John Edmed and another guy whose name also eludes me. Mr Ron Mawn was an employee there and was the main guy for setting up steels etc and very knowlegable he was too. He set up my Sho-Bud S-12 which at the time was an extended E9th. I got it from that shop in 1977.I traded in my S-10 ZB. The shop was crammed with Sho-Buds,ZB's and various other steels. In the latter days they were selling Bennett keyless steels built by Ronnie Bennett in Bebington Liverpool, and great steels they were/are too! Many top players like Maurice Anderson visited the shop when they were in Europe. Alas the shop has been sold on and it's such a shame that a dedicated shop no longer exist. Ron Mawn now lives in Devon, and last I heard John Edmed had suffered a stroke and lived out in Spain I believe. The Sho-Bud steel that was presented to him for his dealings with the company, a blond D10 with his initials in mother of pearl is now owned by Jimmy Martin in Essex.

Micky Byrne United Kingdom Carter and Sho-Bud Universal's www.mickybyrne.com

Jonathan, just a quick mention. If you wanted Ron Mawn's phone number,I have it. As I said earlier he's most knowledgable on steels and that 'BUD shop in particular, as most of the time he was the only guy in there. He once told me an African chief in the fancy regalia walked in, sat behind a steel, could not play a note, and said "I want the most expensive steel now" So needless to say he was offered a D10 Sho-Bud. He then produced a wad of notes from his pocket and walked off happily with his prize


Micky Byrne

As i remember John Edmed recorded a LP with Maurice Anderson, i think it was recorded somewhere in Kent, A few of the tracks were written by John. It was a bit of an odd LP..

Micky - it was me who took Reece Anderson to visit the Sho-Bud shop, and I put on three steel shows featuring Reece. One was in London, and that's where I introduced Reece to John Edmed. John unfortunately has suffered a stroke and now lives in France. Acting as an agent, I once sold 4 ShoBuds in one day from that shop. One of the people that I took to the shop was my pupil Sarah Jory with her mum and dad. They bought a Lloyd Green.

I would like Ron Mawn's phone number, as I lost his email address. The last time I spoke to him he was living in Hedge End, close to me.

The original partner of Mr Rip-off still owns the shop in Denmark Street, although I can't remember his name either. There was a real price war at one stage between John Edmed and Eric Snowball, each would gradually decrease their advertised prices to try to outdo each other.

Sometime in the 70`s when I was thinking of starting out on the pedal steel, I remember visiting London and taking the train somewhere, maybe an hour or so ,and visiting a shop called ZB guitars, UK.How long did that last?

Dewitt Scott came to the shop one day, and John Edmed invited me up to listen to Scotty play. Scotty ran through his whole repertoire - great fun. I still have the same Pro 111 Custom that I was given from the shop in 1975. John threw in a ShoBud volume pedal and other stuff. I thought it was my birthday.

Olli - the shop is still there in Upper Fant Road in Maidstone, although the owner - Eric Snowball - has not dealt in steel guitars for many years. Both Micky Byrne and I sold ZB's for Eric. Eric started selling ZB's around '71, and I was the second person to buy one. The first being the late Gordon Huntley.

Hi Ken, I'll be e'mailing you Ron Mawn's phone number. I was also at the "Travellors rest" pub in Kenton where you put on one of the shows with Reece Anderson. Jeff Hudson also from Texas was on Guitar. Bass and drums were from British band "Fatso" of which Roger Rettig was a member at that time. I'm still scratching my head on the name of the other owner of the Sho-Bud shop. I remember him once naively asking why steel bars didn't have grooves so the strings would fit Should have seen the look on John Edmed's face, John was quite a comic....needless to say the guy didn't have a clue, only the money to finance the shop. Ken, remember you were the person to head me in the direction of Sho-Buds, and as you know I still have the S-12 I got the day after I saw "Reece" at that pub I stand corrected on where John Edmed now lives, I do hope he's well. I remember fondly him showing how "Welephant walk" played by Weldon Myrick of "Area code 615" session band went

keep well....may see you in Mitcheldean Gloucestershire soon

Micky Byrne Carter and Sho-Bud universals United Kingdom www.mickybyrne.com

Thanks for sharing your memories chaps. I thought the internet might turn up a photo from the late 70's but all the closest I've been able to find is this snap of the grocers at number 27! (now Andy's Guitars). Perhaps Ron has a picture in a drawer somewhere.

I used to work behind the scenes at Turnkey (formerly Selmer) and became interested in the history of the local music shops and the people who worked there. Former Selmer employees included Paul Kossoff, Jerry Donahue and John McLaughlin (who sold Pete Townsend his first Fender amp). The whole area is rich with musical history of course. At the time of the Sho-Bud shop the Sex Pistols would have been living and rehearsing just down the street and Paul Weller would be getting himself noticed at the Giaconda Cafe where The Small Faces and David Bowie had hung out a few years earlier.

I reckon Hank's Acoustics (next door to number 25) would be the only place on Denmark Street you could still find a Pedal Steel. I've definitely seen an MSA Classic in there and I think they may stock Carter Starters. A far cry from a "shop crammed with Sho-Buds, ZB's" etc.

Hank's certainly did have the odd steel - I assume they were a dealer for the Carter Starter and Magnum as at one time they had several of each) - although I havn't seen any steel there for some months.

They have had the odd second hand Sierra, Carter and MSA. One particular Sierra I spotted at Musicground's shop in Leeds (Musicground were UK Sierra dealers) had distinguishing staining on one leg. Some time later it turned up in Musicground in Denmark Street and then later on at Hank's.

There is a new or revamped shop in Denmark Street almost on the corner with Charing Cross Road - I can't remember the name. A month or so back they had an Emmons PP d10 at some ridiculous price (IMHO). The next time I called in it had been reduced by £1000!


Mike

I remember the shop in Denmark Street from a trip to England, probably in 1976. I had my first pedal steel then, a Framus, and sitting behind a ShoBud there in the shop for the first time I instantly knew what a steel guitar was supposed to be like. It was a revelation. I told the guy there that I owned a Framus, and asked what he thought of it. He was silent for a moment, then said, shrugging his shoulders, "Well.... it's a Framus." Well said.

Hans

Hi Jonathan and Hans, first for you Jonathan, I wonder if you were at Selmers when I bought my Gibson J45 acoustic, it was priced in Guinea's I guess I'm much older than you. I also remember fondly sitting drinking coffee in the Giagonda cafe many times and seeing artiste such as Donavan and the Ivy league in there. Yes you are so right, that place was "the" place for musicians. I did some recordings in a studio in Denmark street called Regent sounds, it was right opposite the Sho-Bud shop, and I remember once when I was in the shop that the late Gordon Huntley hurried in from that studio, he had bust a 3rd string (E9th) on his ZB and didn't have any spares .....also not forgetting Macaris music shop around the corner which I believe was still there on my visit into town not too long ago. Now to you Hans. I'm wondering if you traded your Framus steel in that shop because I remember seeing one in there. The guy who Shrugged his sholders would have been Ron Mawn, if it was John he would have torn it apart, jokingly of course. Take care, keep picking

Micky Byrne United Kingdom www.mickybyrne.com

Hi again Hans, just saw you're from Switzerland. Wonder if you knew the "Hershen" music bar in Zurich? In the 80's many English bands myself included played there. I must say it was one of the best weeks of my playing career. The audience would applaud a player when they took their solo....don't see that in England. The plus was that the accomadation was upstairs, and at the end of the show we had a meal laid on and a limited supply of largers per band member. Good days

Micky Byrne United Kingdom

Micky, I'm afraid Selmer was long gone by the time I joined Turnkey. I used to work for Ivor Arbiter's son Johnny doing the shop graphics and ads. Ivor used to run Drum City and later Sound City and sold gear to the Beatles, Hendrix, Jeff Beck etc. (and gave the world the Fuzz Face amongst other innovations). It's always good to hear people's memories of the area because as far as I know it hasn't been that well documented.

Regent Sounds has an incredible history of it's own, not least recordings by the Beatles, Stones and the Kinks.

Macari's had two shops, one on Denmark Street, the other on Charing Cross Road but a few doors down from where they are now.

Hi Johathan, I used to manage a music shop in East London in the 90's and via that got to meet Ivor Arbiter. My band played at a posh Yacht club one night which he frequented, and he had as his guest the president of CBS and all the fender gear. Ivor came up to me and whispered "What's all this F*****G Peavey gear then?? I've got the president of CBS with me" anyway it was all in fun and he bought us all a round of drinks then. Hey glad to know I've recorded in such a famous studio. Thanks for that info You are so right that that particular part of London doesn't seem to have too much documentation on it. You have already read via this forum that "Tin Pan alley" as it's known has been visited by musicians world wide.

Micky Byrne United kingdom

Micky, I'm afraid I don't know the Hirschen hotel in Zürich, but from their homepage, the place is 300 years old, and must have quite a history. Unfortunately, the links to their webpages don't work (think about that, after 300 years on the web ). However, I knew and played at the "Nashville Sun" in Zurich, if that rings familiar. It's long gone now.

And regarding the Framus, I didn't have it with me at the time, but was able to sell it in Switzerland.

Hans

I bought my second psg there,it was a red Sho-Bud
Pro 1 model 3&4.I'm still missing it !

Just spotted this thread... So many link-ups...! I bought a Telecaster from the ShoBud shop, in either 1976 or 1977... which I later sold to Mike Lewis, who now makes Fine Resophonic guitars here in France. I also remember the Clifford Essex music shop, pretty much directly opposite where ShoBud was, though I can't remember if they were there at the same time. And was it Sound City, next to Clifford Essex? where I bought a Takamine 12-string, which I still have. And I bought my very first guitar from Macari's in Charing Cross Road, 1969 I think (I was a late starter) for about £8 - a no-name (that I recall) F-hole archtop. I do remember Selmers as being where all the expensive guitars were! And is Ivor Mairants shop still in Rathbone Place? I believe he had a few famous salesmen too...
(I'm not sure "Steel Players" is the right place for this thread, but I'm not sure where is... )
Nick

Micky - it was Jess Hudson who played with Reece Anderson, and the bass player was a young guy that Reece brought over with him. The drummer was Clem Cattini. In Southampton we used Larry Tolfree on drums, and Reece realy rated him. Larry was Redwood's drummer.

The Hotel Hirschen is no longer there. It was in Niederdorf Strasse - a red light area. We used to be entertained just by looking out of our hotel window every night. I kicked that venue off in Ed Nix's band with Rose Marie on vocals. The Swiss people went mad over Rose. I played there about 7 or 8 times. The manager of the hotel - Martin Schwitzer is now dead. He died a few years ago in a plane crash. Lovely guy. I loved (not in the biblical sense) his wife Maggie, and the rest of the staff there. Irma, Chicho and all. I met Hans Holtzer there and was fortunate enough to see his buddy who made the Schild steel guitar. Very nice. As well as playing steel guitar, Hans is a phenominal banjo player.

I first showed John Edmed how to play Welephant Walk. He was like a musical sponge. Show him something once and he nailed it. He had a bodyguard who was a huge bearded Scot called Unpleasant Arthur. At the London gig where Reece played, a drunk came into the venue and was making a nuisance of himself. John clicked his fingers and said "Unpleasant!" and pointed his finger at the drunk. He left the front door faster than a human cannonball.