Five Star Music: Ringwood music shop facing closure after 51 years

A music shop in Melbourne’s outer east which has sold gear and fixed instruments for some of Australia’s biggest rock stars could be forced to close.

An independent music shop in Melbourne’s outer east which has traded for more than half a century will close next month, unless a white knight steps in.

Five Star Music, whose customers include musicians from The Living End and Jimmy Barnes’ live band has been running a closing down sale in recent weeks.

The store’s owner, based in Western Australia, is in negotiations for a 11th-hour sale of the business to a new owner who would refurbish and restock the store over 12 months.

If a deal can’t be reached, Five Star Music will close in early April, leaving 10 staff members out of a job, and ending a long and musical chapter of Ringwood’s history.

The store, located on Maroondah Highway near the new Sebel hotel and opposite Ringwood’s nightclub precinct, has been as a music shop since 1971, and traded as Five Star Music for the past 16 years.

It was known for having famous yearly sales where music lovers would camp out overnight for massive bargains on instruments.

Operations manager Joe Yammouni said the impact of Covid-19 and the impact of online retailing had brought the business to its knees.

“When people want a certain item, they may not get it straight away because of the way the world is with freight and shipping … everything’s running slow at the moment,’’ he said.

“Some people get it, some people don’t, they want their milk today.

“With that it’s really hard to sustain profitability … I can’t live on selling strings and plectrums.”

Mr Yammouni said the grim outlook for Five Star Music came as other independent music shops in the area had also been closing around them.

“It’ll be the first time in 51 years there hasn’t been a music shop in Ringwood,” he said.

“I wish there was an easier way to put it, but that’s the reality of it all, we’re just another statistic of many businesses that are about to close down due to Covid.”

Mr Yammouni said musicians associated with some of Australia’s biggest acts had long associations with the store.

John Farnham collaborator Phil Buckle and The Baby Animals’ Dave Leslie previously worked at the store, while The Living End’s Chris Cheney and Jimmy Barnes’ guitarist Danny Spencer get their axes serviced there.

“It’s an institution … it’s got a good reputation and good staff. and that’s what I think separates us from a lot of other stores,” Mr Yammouni said.

Assistant manager Mike Joseph who’s worked at the store for six years said it would be sad to see the doors close, as Five Star had “a very loyal customer base”.

“It’s a sign of the times at the moment with Covid, people have been scared to come in, and we depend a lot on foot traffic,” he said.

Mr Yammouni said the store’s future was likely to be determined in the coming days.