Calgary music store owner closes shop and puts vintage $100K drum collection up for sale

Transcript

Beat It Music was a mecca for drummers.

Before it closed earlier this month, the must-see Calgary shop was lined from wall to wall with drums, rare percussion instruments and all kinds of musical odds and ends.

Percussion instruments are owner Bob Everett's passion — especially drum kits. Over the last 11 years, he has amassed a one-of-a-kind collection. The shop functioned like a museum as much as it did a retail store.

But now that it's closed, Everett has to find a new home for his prized drum collection.

"I never did built it to get rid of it," Everett told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann. "It's just that the economy in Calgary has been slowly strangling my business for several years. I've done everything I possibly could."

Can't afford to donate 

Ideally, he said he would donate the collection to the National Music Centre. But Everett, whose story was first reported by the Calgary Herald, says he is not in a financial position to make that happen.

He estimates the collection is worth $100,000 and said he hopes to find a buyer who is willing to donate it.

"I felt I'm better off to take this collection I put together, try to put it in the right hands, than lose it all," Everett said. "This economy getting deeper and deeper has forced me into this move."

In a statement, Jesse Moffatt, the National Music Centre's director of collections and exhibitions, shared Everett's hopes for the collection. 

"My hope for this amazing drum collection is someone will purchase it, then donate it to the National Music Centre where it can be cared for and enjoyed by all," Moffatt said.

"The collection has a strong connection to technology, and to Calgary. It should be in a museum."  

Local history 

Everett says he built the collection piece by piece and tried to focus on acquiring kits that would help tell the story of how drums have evolved.

"The drum kit didn't really become an entity until about 1910," Everett said. "I've got a lot of those earlier kits that kind of represented the first attempt. From 1910 up to maybe the earlier '50s are where a lot of real interesting ones come from."

Some of the rarest pieces in the collection are those earlier models that feature a cruder and slower design from a time when, as Everett puts it, "your job was to keep time — you weren't expected to be a fancy solo player."

Other pieces in Everett's collection speak to Calgary's local history. He says he acquired one kit from a local musician who played soundtracks for silent films.

"When those first silent movies came out in the '20s, they had no music or audio so they would just tell his band to go ahead and play something that just kind of fits," Everett said.

"He kept that kit and continued to play it from the '20s right up until a few years back."

Everett also had kits that came from outside of the province. He said the store earned a reputation and people trusted him to take care of their instruments.

"When I made a promise to them that I would keep these kits and not just buy them to resell them, I think it meant something to them."

He's hoping he will be able to stay true to those ideals if the right buyer comes along.

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Everett plans to continue his business online and says he still plays his own drum kits daily.

"I find it the best stress release," he said.

"Things aren't going well, you sit down on the kit and wail for a while. You come away from that with a great break from reality. It's good for you to do it."

Written by John McGill. Produced by Richard Raycraft.