Jet Black Cat Music is closing after 14 years – but this isn’t the end of Shan Logan’s music dream

It’s the end of a beautiful era.

After 14 years wedged on the corner of Vulture and Thomas streets, West End indie record store Jet Black Cat Music is closing its doors.

In a post announcing the decision last month, owner Shannon Logan celebrated the store as “the most wonderful and lengthy chapter of my life so far”; a “magical portal” for the music community. Many would agree.

“The biggest loves of my life have walked through those doors and the most memorable and fun times have been had within those walls,” Logan wrote.

Since opening in 2010, owner Shannon Logan has curated Jet Black Cat Music’s record collection. “It’s very much an extension of me,” she says. Credit: Markus Ravik

Like any independent store that becomes etched into a city’s cultural fabric, it’s hard to imagine Brisbane without Jet Black Cat Music.

But letting go of one dream is how the store came to be, and Logan is sure this is not goodbye – “every ending is a beginning...”

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“Let’s move inside. Otherwise, I have a feeling people will walk past and want to say hey every few minutes.”

Inside or outside, Logan’s premonition comes true, but given the store is next door to West End Coffee House, it’s to be expected.

Jet Black Cat Music owner Shannon Logan out the front of her indie record store on Vulture and Thomas Street in West End. The mural was painted by George Levi for Record Store Day in 2019. Credit: Shannon Logan

“When I opened the store, I worked here every day,” Logan says.

That faded as she became more involved in promoting music and touring. “It was a really hard transition because, even though all the staff who have worked in the shop over the years are amazing, people got so used to it being me.

“It probably took a good three to four years for people to get used to [me not being there every day] ... it did have a financial effect. If I was an egotistical person, I’d be so flattered,” she laughs.

Logan is, by her own admission, a shy and private person. But despite her reserved nature, ‘Shan’ and Jet Black Cat became a single entity that drew people in.

“I’ve always wanted the store to be a little bubble that someone can go into ... and have some really healthy escapism.

“I’ve always curated everything in the store, it’s very much an extension of me ... it’s stuff that I love, and other people seem to love it too.”

Logan’s life before opening Jet Black Cat was very different. She grew up an hour south of Cairns in Innisfail, in far north Queensland, and moved to Brisbane with her family when she was a teenager to play tennis professionally.

At 16, she quit school and went on tour full-time, but then became sick with chronic fatigue. She had essentially pushed her body too far by touring.

“When you’re raised as a young athlete, there’s that rule of like, no pain, no gain.

“Not much was known about chronic fatigue at the time and I ended up in a wheelchair for a few years ... I couldn’t use my arms and legs for years. I was sleeping like 20 hours a day.

“I went from being the fittest, most athletic, prime time of my life, to being fully bed-bound.”

Shannon Logan was on track to become a professional tennis player before an accident brought her ambitions to an end aged 22. Credit: Shannon Logan

Aged 22, Logan returned to the court. It was a gruelling comeback, but her talent wasn’t lacking. “At that time, I was getting paid $100 cash in hand to serve kick serves to Ashleigh Barty out in Durack,” Logan laughs.

“Because I’m left-handed and I’ve got a really crazy kick serve, it messes people up ... [Barty] was probably about 13 at the time.”

Her ambitions were short-lived. On Christmas Eve, while riding down Vulture Street on her bike, she was hit by a car on the corner where Jet Black Cat now stands.

“When I got hit, I landed on my neck and left shoulder ... it was like the universe saying you’re not meant to [play tennis],” she says.

“It felt like a dramatic break-up. All that time, thinking you were going to be a tennis player, the journey to recovery. It’s like a death.”

Crowds spill out onto Vulture Street during an instore performance by Angie McMahon in 2019. Credit: Shannon Logan

It was music that gave Logan a new direction. “Music has always been the most consistently good thing in my life, regardless of what’s happening … when I got really sick, it became this safe space, this world I could go into.

“I used to have a stall at West End Markets selling baked goods and CDs. One day, I was at the markets carrying around a Joni Mitchell record. I was just starting to get back out into the world after being sick.

“[The record] was such a catalyst for so many people walking by and saying something. It was such a beautiful conversation starter.”

After the accident, Logan decided to try and get a job in a record shop.

“But there were barely any in Brisbane because JB Hi-Fi had started coming in and price-gouging.”

She added records to her stall rotation instead, selling them there for five years. “I realised I wanted to do it all the time, so I decided to look around for somewhere to have a bricks and mortar store.

“It was pre-internet, it was the era of street press ... It was such an exciting time, and it felt like there was something so personal and tactile about [discovering music].”

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Fifty people can fit inside Jet Black Cat Music during an in-store performance.

“We clear out the store of the tables and big pieces and set the band up in the corner and then we count in 50 people.”

Courtney Barnett played one of the first in-store gigs, “probably 10 years ago”. When she performed for the third time, she was so popular Logan had to run a ballot. “We just had to pull names out of a hat.”

Sampa The Great performing at Bunyapa Park in West End, on the opposite corner to Jet Black Cat Music. Credit: Shannon Logan

Since then, Jet Black Cat Music has hosted Aldous Harding, Julia Jacklin, Angie McMahon, Sharon Van Etten, M Ward, Big Scary, Floodlights, Toro Y Moi, Marlon Williams and Charli XCX, plus many more.

One of the most memorable performances was across the road in Bunyapa Park in 2019 for Sampa The Great.

“It was wild. The police helicopter came over, it was just crazy.”

In March 2020, Logan put on the inaugural Nine Lives Festival at the Tivoli, bringing Aldous Harding, Angie McMahon, Julia Jacklin, Allah-Las, Kevin Morby, Kikagaku Moyo and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever in as headliners.

Nine days later, Covid hit.

She remembers Nine Lives as a beautiful moment in time. “I feel like everyone got how special that day was. Maybe that day needed to happen before the world shut down.”

In the same way the market inspired the storefront, hosting in-stores and putting on festivals has sparked the next evolution of Jet Black Cat Music.

The store’s last day of trade will be December 28. Jet Black Cat Music will continue to operate its online stores, with Logan promising more exciting tours and events in the future. Credit: Markus Ravik

“I have a real passion for regional touring and taking music to people in places that really need it and really want it.

“I think we hang on to things being a particular way and a lot of us don’t deal well with change. But change is often really indicative of growth and curiosity and to find out what’s next.

“If you consider that we started as a market, I’ve been doing this for 19 years. It wouldn’t feel like such a loss if it hadn’t contributed so much, which is beautiful, really.”

“I feel so proud and grateful to West End and the Brisbane community for growing what we have out of that space for the last 14 years. People make places great and that’s why Jet Black Cat Music means so much to so many people, and will continue to into the future.”