Farewell to JV and P - our Auckland store owners

It is with a heavy heart….

Spoiler alert: This is not an article about someone ‘passing on’, and so you can carry on reading knowing that it’s not another piece of sad news to pile atop an already high pile!

If it wasn’t so early in the morning and that fact that I am sitting alone in our showroom in Takapuna, Auckland, I would be offering up a champagne toast to John Vivian (JV) and Patrice Donaldson (P) on a job well done! For the greater part of three and half decades, they served the audio-visual needs of thousands of unsuspecting customers who may not have even known they had such needs and others that became more that just customers, they became lifelong friends.

John was always the face of the operation but we all know that ‘P’ was the constant calming figure in the background, often literally in the background because ‘P’s’ office was in the back of the showroom.

John had been in the audio business practically all of his adult life and I don’t think even he would have predicted that there would come a time when he would ‘down tools’, stop inhaling those solder fumes from the many thousands of banana plugs he put on the end of speaker cables. He would have to stop recommending the next upgrade path that someone ought to consider. No longer have to take apart a Naim Uniti Serve and breathe new life into it with a replacement button battery and a reboot – you know who you are out there that have experienced that procedure performed in front of you while you waited. That was uniquely JV!

Many of you came back time and time again and each time you did, he would greet you by your first name and instantly remember what you had talked about on your previous visit. If you are old enough to remember the American comedy series ‘Cheers’, Shore Hi-Fi was a bit like that, without the beer, Woody and Coach but you get the gist, right? It was (and still is, LOL !) a place you could go just to have a chat and not be immediately pounced upon as a potential sale.

A brief history or origin story is that when JV and P returned from an ‘OE’ in the UK in 1986, JV worked with Dean Harnish and John Ellingham for several years, including with their Absolute Sounds store in Hurstmere Road, Takapuna. It was during this time that JV met an up ‘n coming audio distributor who was peddling a strange English brand called ‘Naim Audio’ that would later prove to play a huge part in JV’s career…

However, things don’t remain the same for very long in this line of business and so when the market shifted once again, Absolute Sounds was taken over by Alpine under the stewardship of Alan Gorr. It was during this change when JV was given a chance to prove himself when Glenn Orr put him in charge of the business.

The Alpine retail days only lasted a couple of years when Alpine decided that they wanted to move away from retail altogether. Glenn Orr presented the trio of JV, Jonathan Abernathy and Chris Murphy (then-Naim Distributor) a very favourable take-over offer and that is when The Shore Hi-Fi Company was born. The shop soon moved from Hurstmere Road to Byron Avenue and remained there for almost 20 years. Jonathan left the partnership to pursue other interests and so the Three man Band became a Double Act. JV being the retail face and Chris being the silent business partner.

The retail operation did very well and everything was going swimmingly until Matt Rogers, sales staff member, received a shock cancer diagnosis which tragically turned out to be terminal. Matt was a huge loss for the company and a very sad episode for all concerned.

Soon after the loss of Matt, the building that The Shore Hi-Fi Company leased was sold. The new owner was to begin a renovation plan forcing closure of the showroom for over a year, but as this was not practical, JV & P found a fantastic character villa on the corner of Lake Road and Esmonde Road and we have been there now since 2015.

Oh, some of you astute readers might be wondering how and when I came on to the scene and in to JV & P’s orbit. I joined at the time Matt had learned of his terminal illness and had left the company to spend his remaining time with his family. I was asked by Anthony (Ant) Muriel our CI guy if I would be interested in the sales position and he arranged an interview for me with JV – well, I think that went well as I’m still here!

Less about me, more about JV & P.  Just as we were settling down after the big move from Byron Avenue and re-introducing the company to our customers, the world came to a complete stop thanks to the Covid pandemic. If that wasn’t bad enough, JV learns that our main brand Naim Audio had decided to change distribution from its NZ Distributor of nearly 40 years to an Australian distribution company. This was a gut blow to us all. However, if there is one thing you need to know about JV, it is this, he has a ‘never give in’ attitude. After Covid, the retail store re-branded as ‘The Real Music Company Auckland’ to fall under the same umbrella as the Wellington and Christchurch stores, and we created an online store. JV took that in his stride and learned a whole new mode of working in retail and having an online presence.

Post-Covid brought another tragedy when we learned that our beloved Ant was soon to lose his battle with the big ‘C’. That was extremely hard on us all. We miss him a lot.

The show must go on and so it did until mid-2025 when JV and P decided that they were going to take a step back from the business that they both loved. They’ve handed over the reins to the Real Music Company ownership group and have drifted off in to the distance, hand in hand in to the sunset to live happily ever after. (Actually, they live 2 minutes away from the showroom and if we ever need JV’s help with anything, we point the Batman light into the clouds and he will ‘maybe’ give us a call back.

In all seriousness, JV and P, are the loveliest, most kind-hearted people you could ever know. As for the audio industry, JV has left some big shoes to fill. His integrity was admired and appreciated by all those he purchased equipment from and by all the other retailers in his same field. His Kiwi “number 8 wire attitude” was amazing to watch and I hope some of that has rubbed off on me as I shadowed him when he would take turntables apart - I’m not talking the usual Rega or Linn turntables, I’m talking about those with cogs and levers and springs that were probably headed for the great hi-fi pit in the sky but had sentimental value to the client and JV would do his very best to make them work for just a little longer.

And so, it is with a heavy heart that we all bid farewell to John and Patrice and wish them well in the next chapter of their lives – Thank you for your Service! (Sorry, I’ve been watching way too much American TV.)

by Palmer Bains
The Real Music Company - Auckland