Sudbury Living - Spring 2008 - 12

BY DAVID DUCHARME he Rolling Stones continued their assault on the American music charts with the release of the album, It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll. And artists such as David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Little Feat and Fleetwood Mac were adding to impressive musical portfolios with acclaimed releases. It was 1974. Tony Anselmo had always had a passion for music. And in the spring of 1974, he saw an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. At the time, a couple of his friends in Toronto were running a business, selling LPs out of a bus. He worked as their buyer for a few months. And when they moved their operation into a mall, Anselmo hopped on his chance…literally. “I asked them what they were doing with the bus,” Anselmo said. “And they said, ‘nothing’. I didn’t like Toronto much, so the next thing I knew, I was driving the bus, and the idea, back to Sudbury.” And with that, Records on Wheels was born. Anselmo started small, selling vinyl from the bus and slowly building a modest clientele. In November 1974, he moved into his ﬁrst brick and mortar location – on the second ﬂoor of a retail complex on Elm St. in downtown Sudbury. “It was called ‘The Mall’,” Anselmo joked. “I used to say you needed a search warrant to ﬁnd that place.” After more than three decades, he is one of Sudbury’s (and perhaps Canada’s) most enduring independent music retailers. The threat of becoming obsolete is very real for record stores everywhere. Sam the Record Man closed its Toronto ﬂagship store in May 2007. The Canadian record chain Music World went bankrupt while international record retailer HMV with 116 stores in Canada has had to lower CD prices and diversify stock to include DVDs and video games in order to remain competitive. It has never been easy for Anselmo. Business was hardly overwhelming when he opened his shop. But he stayed patient, holding ﬁrm to a simple philosophy. “Every time things looked bad, I would always think ‘there’s always tomorrow’,” Anselmo said. “Sometimes you have to tighten your belt and believe things will be better.” It’s a phrase he uttered a lot in those early days. “In 1978…and into 1979…we had a ninemonth strike and a seven-month shutdown at Inco. And we fought through that. It got to the T TONY Tony Anselmo drove a bus from Toronto in the spring of 1974 and launched Records on Wheels. PHOTO BY MARG SERGELYI

Sudbury Living - Spring 2008

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