Spokane Staple: Bob Gallagher’s shaping Spokane’s music scene, one record at a time

Walking into 4000 Holes Record Store for the first time can be an overwhelming experience.

Rows and rows of carefully organized new and used CDs greet you from the middle of the store, and, along the wall, new and used vinyl, equally as organized, sit in record racks, crates on the floor and on-the-wall displays that reach all the way to the ceiling.

That’s not to mention the wall covered in Beatles memorabilia, plus items from bands like the Doors and a note to 4000 Holes from the late Layne Staley, behind the register.

It’s a lot to take in, and it’s been that way since the record store opened in 1989.

But for just as long, owner Bob Gallagher has been behind the counter, ready to help customers find exactly what they’re looking for, share his latest favorite band or talk about one of yours.

“Being a provider of music and a great supporter of the local music scene and local artists, that’s a big deal,” Groove Merchants owner David Thoren said of Gallagher’s impact on the city. “(A growing music scene) enhances diversity, it brings tourism, it’s great for the city overall and Bob’s been part of a huge part of that ever since I’ve been here.”

In a way, it’s almost like the decision to open 4000 Holes was made for Gallagher, long before he ever had keys to the store.

As long as he could remember, Gallagher knew music would be not just part of his life, but the primary focus.

“Music’s always been my problem,” he said.

It started when Gallagher was 6. His 12-year-old sister received a record player and the pair listened to Rick Nelson, the Everly Brothers and Fabian.

Gallagher said he fell in love with the first two and was apparently smart enough to know the latter wasn’t cool. He’s surrounded himself with as much music as he could ever since.

Like many music fans growing up in the ’60s, the Beatles were one of the first bands Gallagher got hooked on. He calls watching the band perform on TV in 1964 a turning point in his musical awakening.

“Put it this way, if I have to explain the Beatles, nevermind,” he said. “It just changed everything.”

A young Gallagher began poring over magazines, newspapers and liner notes to learn as much as he could about the Beatles and other musicians he loved, bands like the Sonics and the Wailers, Taj Mahal and other British invasion acts.

In the kitchen before school, he’d listen to Frank Sinatra, the Animals, Roger Miller and the Beatles on his family’s white AM clock radio.

“The ’60s was a great time for opening and awareness of all kinds of music,” he said.

Growing up in Spokane, Gallagher frequented local record stores like Strawberry Jam Records (the front counter in 4000 Holes came from that shop), DJ’s Sound City, Budget Records, one of his favorites, and the Crescent, his all-time favorite thanks to the imports and rarities other stores didn’t have.

“I bought my first Buffalo Springfield record there, and life’s never been the same,” he said.

The first record Gallagher ever bought though was a Billy J. Kramer record. He went to a local drugstore to buy a Beatles record and found that the Kramer record included three songs by the Beatles that the band itself had yet to release.

Though he’d seen bands perform at high school dances around town or “slab dances” held on the tennis courts at the Shadle Center, Gallagher said his first real concert was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the Peanut Butter Conspiracy at the auditorium at Gonzaga University when he was 14.

“Very psychedelic …” he said. “And it was awesome.”

Seeing Led Zeppelin was another highlight – “That was a big one for everybody,” Gallagher said – as was seeing the Guess Who at Tiffany’s Skate Inn, now Value Village.

“The thing was, especially for my generation, you only had three stations on TV that you weren’t going to watch because your parents were going to,” Gallagher said. “One phone line and no video games so you went out with some friends. You’d figure out what bands we want to see this weekend because there’s too many of them to go see all of them.”

As he got older, his love of music expanded to include playing music.

He picked up the guitar and bass, both of which he still plays, and was a member of many local bands, including a country-rock band called Calico that toured all around the Northwest during the mid-’70s.

Gallagher didn’t want to be on the road forever though, so he eventually went to work for his stepfather’s wholesale candy business where he managed the warehouse.

But it wasn’t long before Gallagher’s love of music reared its head, again thanks to the Beatles.

In 1977, a coffee table book full of pictures of the band, posters and pictures of collectibles brought Gallagher’s Beatlemania back in a big way.

He started collecting memorabilia but quickly found a warehouse manager’s salary wasn’t going to cut it if he wanted to expand his collection.

“I started wheeling and dealing a bit and found I was pretty good at it,” he said.

Known as “the Beatles guy,” Gallagher began buying, selling and trading at record shows, thrift stores and via mail order.

He eventually sold his part of the family business and reckons he went for a year-and-a-half without a “real” job, making a living through his knack for wheeling and dealing.

The Comic Book Shop owner Craig Barnett turned Gallagher on to an available space on West Shannon Avenue, and the then 37-year-old opened 4000 Holes, the name of which comes from a lyric in the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” in 1989.

“It was the most thrilling thing that ever happened for me because I had always wanted a record store,” Gallagher said. “I’d go into record stores with my friends, and they’d see the records and I saw church. It was much more than the individual things.”

The store quickly became popular, for a number of reasons.

For one, the need was there. Gallagher said local record stores experienced a decline in the ’80s, causing him and other music fans to drive to Seattle to get their records.

Gallagher also credits the store’s success to Seattle’s Sub Pop Records and the explosion of grunge.

“The ’90s was one of the most fun times,” Gallagher said. “I compare it, me personally, to the ’60s where there were so many new bands almost every week and you would just be blown away.”

A healthy local music scene, including bands that Gallagher managed and in-store performances he booked, also helped steer music fans to the store, with many local bands releasing cassettes and CDs.

After about four years, 4000 Holes outgrew its home on West Shannon Avenue, and Gallagher moved the shop to Monroe Street and Maxwell Avenue.

But after about 11 years there, he experienced the same problem: Too much music, not enough space.

“My problem is I spend too much,” Gallagher said after a customer presented him with an extensive list of vinyl and CDs he had for sale. “If there’s a problem my wife and I have, I keep buying records. But when people walk in and say ‘Do you want to buy these?’ It’s like ‘Yeah!’ ”

Thoren, with Groove Merchants, met Gallagher in the early ’90s when he traded in his cassettes for CDs.

When Thoren thought to open a record store of his own years later, he made sure to talk to Gallagher beforehand out of respect for the longtime shop owner.

Gallagher gave him his blessing and eventually gave the shop itself his seal of approval.

“Bob came in here. It was either opening day or it might have even been a couple days before we opened and that felt even more so a bigger part of a blessing,” Thoren said. “I turned to my girlfriend who was here helping me open up and told her ‘Now we’re a real record store. Now we’re legit. Bob’s been in.’ ”

After 15 years at his current location, Gallagher is once again looking to expand 4000 Holes.

He’d love to push back the wall behind the cash register and maybe create some space for a stage.

Things are on an upswing now, but the recession and the roller coaster ride both vinyl and CDs have experienced over the last several decades hit the store hard.

“When things got really bad, I thought ‘I’ll sell the business and get a job,’ ” Gallagher said. “But it wasn’t happening for anybody.”

He ended up selling a lot of his Beatles collection as well as a few guitars to keep the lights on.

Gallagher misses some of what he sold, especially the guitars, but he knows it was for the best.

“If we wouldn’t have sold that stuff, we wouldn’t be here right now so that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

In recent years, thanks to a more stable economy, events like Record Store Day increasing awareness of vinyl and what Gallagher calls a reaction to digital music where people now want the music they own to be tangible, 4000 Holes is on solid ground.

This August, the store will begin its 30th year in Spokane. Gallagher is thinking of celebrating the anniversary through the year by bringing bands into the shop for live performances.

He would’ve never thought the store would reach such a milestone, mainly because record stores tend to have short lifespans.

Gallagher has a friend who helps him in the store every now and then, but for six days a week over the last 30 years, 4000 Holes has been a one-man shop.

Well, one man plus Gallagher’s shop dog. His current canine assistant is a 9-year-old named Gibson.

“If you want to make it work, you’ve got to work,” Gallagher said.

Thirty years after opening 4000 Holes for the first time, Gallagher’s enthusiasm for music hasn’t waned, but he has started thinking about retirement and the potential of someone taking over the shop.

“I would love to think that the store lasted way beyond me …,” he said. “There’s just something about record stores. You walk in and it’s a different attitude. All of a sudden it becomes about peace and love and getting along and enjoying stuff.”

But even if someone were to take over 4000 Holes, Gallagher couldn’t let the store go completely, throwing out the idea of working part time. This arrangement would give him both time in the shop with his customers and more time to play in his bands Blue Canoe and Starlite Motel, the best of both worlds.

“That’s been my gift, being able to sell music and play music,” he said. “It’s a wonderful world.”