TMN RETROSPECTIVE REPORT: Brashs Closes – 1998

TMN celebrates two decades in this ever-shifting music industry by taking a look back at the key moments – both triumphant and tumultuous – in the Australian music business.

1998
BRASHS CLOSES

First opening in the heady days of 1862 on Elizabeth St in Melbourne as an instrument retailer, it took more than a century for the chain to introduce recorded music to its line – stocking a modest selection of cassettes and vinyl records in the 1970. By the mid-‘80s, Brashs was enjoying a boom, opening Australia’s first megastore on Pitt St in Sydney. Unfortunately, in 1990 competitor HMV opened its flagship store in the Sydney CBD – the largest in the country – and had 28 stores on the East coast by 1998. This, and the 1992 introduction of Sanity stores to the marketplace, forced Brashs into voluntary administration by 1995. Singapore businessman Ong Beng Seng seemed a saving grace when he purchased the chain, but this was shortlived: by 1998 Brashs fell into receivership, with all 105 outlets soon closing. The store lives on in the form of impossible-to-remove stickers on cracked CD cases in dusty collections nationwide.

Our year on year reports are published courtesy of the Australian Music Industry Quarterly magazine. For your free copy click here