A matter of record

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/10/2020 (2150 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every October since 2000, Rockin’ Richard’s Record & CD Sale has been held on the first Sunday of the month.

The rollicking affair, which typically draws audiophiles from coast to coast and from as far south as Minneapolis, was cancelled this fall owing to COVID-19. Sadly, even if it had been held, Rockin’ Richard Sturtz, the twice-yearly event’s namesake and co-organizer, wouldn’t be there joyously debating whether Revolver or Rubber Soul is the better Beatles album.

Sturtz died April 16 at age 74 from complications following heart surgery, four weeks after Rockin’ Richard’s annual spring event at the Victoria Inn.

Sturtz’s brother-in-law Alex Reid is the other half of the duo that, for the last 20 years, was responsible for putting on the second-largest sale of its kind in Canada. Sturtz was admitted to St. Boniface Hospital in late January with a leaky aortic valve, Reid says, seated in the living room of the spacious St. Andrews home the two of them shared since the death of Sturtz’s wife, Gloria (Reid’s sister) in July 2018. Ten days after being released from the hospital, the grandfather of two began to suffer a series of setbacks, Reid says.

“I literally lost count of the number of times I had to take him to the emergency room in Selkirk in February and March. On Good Friday, we were back there again after he began having difficulty breathing.”

A few days later, an attending physician contacted Reid and Sturtz’s daughter Tambi to alert them it wasn’t a question of whether Sturtz was going to recover, but rather how long he had left. Reid visited his brother-in-law early the next morning, by which time he had been moved to the palliative-care unit. A nurse assured him he could sit with Sturtz as long as he liked, she just wasn’t sure he was able to hear anything he had to say. Reid spent the next hour holding his brother-in-law’s hand, telling him it was all right if he wanted to “let go and see Gloria again.”

Also, because anybody who’d ever spent five minutes with Sturtz knows what a huge Elvis Presley fan he was, Reid added, “And Richard, you know what? I bet when you’re up there you’re finally going to get a chance to meet Elvis, too.”

“We lost him at about 8 p.m. that night,” Reid says, petting Lola, a cat his brother-in-law and sister named after a smash single by the Kinks.

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Sturtz grew up on Radford Street, a block away from Lord Nelson School, where he attended grades 1 through 6. His family eventually moved to St. James and, after graduating from Silver Heights Collegiate, he enrolled at the University of Manitoba with the aim of becoming a school teacher. In 1971, a year before he successfully completed the U of M’s master of education program, he and Gloria got married.

“My sister had two young children from a previous relationship when they met. It wasn’t long before they were Richard’s kids, too, no ifs, ands or buts about it,” Reid says, noting the couple’s son Gerald died accidentally at age 10.

During a 28-year career, Sturtz taught Grades 5 and 6 at a several schools, including John M. King on Agnes Street, George V on Grey Street and River Elm on Riverton Avenue. As much as he loved standing in front of a classroom, he enjoyed watching sports equally so. A diehard Blue Bombers, Jets, New York Yankees and Montreal Canadiens fan, he coached every school team imaginable, his brother-in-law boasts, to the point his fellow instructors rarely, if ever, volunteered their time, telling each other, “Don’t worry, Sturtz’ll do it.”

A proud moment occurred in 2000 during his retirement ceremony at Larters at St. Andrews Golf and Country Club. A woman whose daughter Sturtz once taught asked to say a few words. She told the story of what a difficult time her daughter had at school early on, and how Sturtz always devoted extra time to her, ensuring she fully understood her lessons. She turned to Sturtz and announced her daughter was about to graduate medical school, an accomplishment she believes would never have occurred if it hadn’t been for that evening’s guest of honour.

In the late 1970s Sturtz developed a hobby, collecting ornate beer steins. Every summer he and Gloria would hit the road to hunt for steins at antique shops and flea markets throughout Canada and the American Midwest.

Ahead of one trip, a buddy of his who collected vinyl records asked if, during their travels, he could keep an eye open for certain titles. Sturtz was a lifelong music lover, that’s true, but at the time he wasn’t exactly what you’d call a record collector. That all changed when he began looking out for his pal and, as he stated in a 2006 interview, “started getting turned on to the variations and intricacies of cover art.” (During that same sit-down, Sturtz, a major Guess Who fan, showed off an Elvis album issued in a South American country, where the King of Rock’n’ Roll’s skin tone had been doctored to make him look more Hispanic.)

The inaugural Winnipeg Music Collectors Show was staged at the Norwood Hotel in the fall of 1988. Sturtz and Reid quickly became familiar faces at the event, both as vendors and customers. When Mark Corner, the show’s founder, announced in 1999 that he was moving to Calgary, the brothers-in-law decided to pick up the musical mantle. But first they needed a fresh tag. In July 2000, about three months before the approaching show’s scheduled date, Sturtz was leafing through an American music magazine when he spotted an ad for a record show in the States dubbed Big Al’s Music Emporium. That sounds catchy, he thought. The next day he christened himself Rockin’ Richard in an effort to give their posters more pizzazz. It worked. What had been a sale consisting of 20 vendors’ tables and 150 attendees, grew and kept growing. Last October, more than 1,000 people showed up to hunt through about 80 vendors’ offerings.

Rod Kozak has rented a table at Rockin’ Richard’s Record and CD Sale from the get-go, which is how he came to know Sturtz. A business relationship gradually developed into a true friendship, he says.

“We’d call each other at least once a month to brag about what records we’d found at this garage sale or that. What was supposed to be a three-minute chat almost always turned into an hour or two,” he says with a chuckle.

Kozak says what Sturtz looked forward to most about the events wasn’t the monetary aspect. It was the opportunity to “talk shop” with music lovers of all ages. “One of his greatest attributes was turning people on to records who weren’t record collectors in the first place,” he explains. “He would stand there with a favourite album, caressing it as if it was a child, almost, while detailing the history of the band, who played what instrument, what country it was pressed in.… He had an excellent knowledge of music and, being a former school teacher, was able to convey that in what could only be described as a loving manner.”

Jeff Neill, lead guitarist for Streetheart, also met Sturtz through the music show. Along with members of Harlequin and Orphan/the Pumps, Neill and his Streetheart cohorts appeared at a half-dozen sales through the years, signing autographs and chatting with fans.

“To me, not only was Richard a real character, he was one of the original rock ‘n’ roll guys who maintained his passion for music his entire life,” Neill says. “I had the chance to do some radio and TV spots with him and Alex promoting the show and he was always fun to chat with. He was enthusiastic, a real music aficionado plus a great supporter of the local scene. It was really sad to lose him but I speak for the whole band when I say we were very grateful to have gotten to know him.”

Reid and Sturtz’s daughter received hundreds of cards, messages and texts after word of his death began to spread in April. Many have asked about the event’s future. While holding a sale this weekend was definitely out of the question, Reid says it is his intention to present at least one more sale at some point, to honour his brother-in-law’s memory.

About that; as people have continued to reach out, offering sympathy to Reid and his family, many have said the same thing: that they’ve toasted Rockin’ Richard the best way they could think of, by kicking back in their favourite listening space, enjoying an album he turned them on to at one of the sales.

A vinyl farewell, if you will.

 

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca