I consider myself extremely fortunate to be born into the music business. While there are many more lucrative businesses one could be born into, there is something about seeing the joy on a child’s face when his or her parent buys them their first musical instrument or the camaraderie in the musical fraternity when they drop by the store which makes them more like friends than customers.
My family has been in the music sales and repairs business for the past 87 years, having completed that number on November 19, 2015. My grandfather, Mr Pedro Fernandes, opened the music store in Panjim all the way back in 1928 to help out his fellow musicians in procuring and repairing musical instruments. He followed that up with another store in Margao in the year 1945. My father joined the business about 50-odd years ago and helped grow the business with the solid backing and support of my mother.
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My early memories of the store involve me sitting on the counter in our Panjim store located on what was then the main road of Panjim with the bus stand a stone’s throw away. I remember meeting a lot of fascinating people with lots of stories to tell and they were almost always happy stories. Over the years, thanks to the music store and the connections it brought, I learnt music and trained under some of the biggest names in Goan music and was always called Pedro everywhere I went in these musical circles. It was almost like fate was calling out my future. While I did try my hand at engineering at the Government Polytechnic, a curious twist of fate caused me to end up working at my music store. The Indian economy had just opened up to imports and electronic music instruments were all the rage. While my parents weren’t that tech savvy, I was an electronics junkie and took to this like a fish to water.
From having the legendary Jim Marshall of Marshall amplification walk through my shop doors, meeting Mathias Jabs of the Scorpions at a trade fair to getting to sit in on a jam with George Harrison of the Beatles, I have the family music business to thank for a lot of joys, small and big.
Being a musician myself and interacting with other musicians on a daily basis is a pleasure. This year, we decided to get together with some of them and celebrate this fact. So on Sunday, November 22, with the help of ‘The original bandstand’ at Garcia da Orta Panjim and a few of our friends, we’ve put together an evening of music and interaction for all. With live performances by ‘The 3 Gees’, a trio consisting of Errol Andrade, Siddarth Cota and Omar Loiola Pereira, and also the band Purple Rain, while Carlos Talking Drums, the official cheer drummer of FC Goa and Bangalore Challengers, will host a Drum Circle for everyone to participate in. Bring along your djembes, drums, tambourines, etc and join in the circle. A limited amount of instruments will also be provided at the venue. We will also be setting up a selfie station with musical instruments and wacky accessories for that rockstar picture.
So here’s hoping to see you there at the Panjim garden for a celebratory Party in the Park.
