Five Star Music Ringwood: New owner Rob Forbes’ vision for decades-old store

A passionate fan with plenty of business nous has ensured the music lives on at one of Ringwood’s oldest businesses. See the exciting plans he has for its future.

Carpark concerts, a jamming room and the return of famous sales are all part of Rob Forbes’ vision to revitalise a 51-year-old Ringwood music shop.

Five Star Music was set to shut for good last month after more than 50 years operating as a independent music store on Maroondah Highways.

Mr Forbes, a Kangaroo Ground resident, used to play in bands across Melbourne and had retired from directing a manufacturing business for 26 years, which he sold to paint giants Dulux.

He heard of the store’s impending demise and reached out to its former owner, based in Perth, who had been running a closing down sale for several weeks.

They negotiated a deal and Mr Forbes took over at the start of May, working alongside longtime staff members including Mike Joseph and Caity Watson.

“I have bought stuff from here before … it’s got a vibe, there’s no doubt about it,” Mr Forbes said.

“When I heard the history behind it and that it was going, I thought, hang on a minute, we’ll have a look at this and see if its viable.

“I knew a big music man who I used to play on stage with, I gave him a call, and he said ‘Five Star is up for grabs, go and get it’, and the rest is history.”

Mr Forbes has big plans to take the store back to its glory days once renovations are completed over the coming months.

They include setting up a new ‘jamming room’ with guitars and amps for customers to try out, the return of instrument lessons, and, live gigs in the carpark next to the shop on Wantirna Rd.

“We’re coming out of the pandemic and the timing was really perfect to come in,” he said.

“It (the store) had been run down and milked to the death, and I thought we can do a lot of work here and bring it up.

“We’ve got some new signs going up, we’ll do some renovation work, tidy it up with some carpets and painting, restock the joint up and get some top end stuff in.”

Mr Forbes said he wanted to make sure the store kept its reputation as the go-to spot for some of Australia’s best musicians, with The Living End’s Chris Cheney, a regular customer, dropping in again last week.

He also promised some of store’s old sales, in which customers would sometimes camp out overnight for dirt cheap deals on instruments and gear, would return at some stage.

“We want to turn it back to a real music shop, this area is known as a musos area,” Mr Forbes said.

“The shop is synonymous to the area, it has been for 51 years, so why kill it, keep it going and make it better … it’s too good to let go.”