More ‘sweet,’ less bitter as Oshawa gives proper send-off to music scene’s biggest booster

The community came out this month to thank a true community builder in downtown Oshawa and say goodbye, though the object of all that affection insisted he’s not going anywhere.

Can a business be called ‘iconic’ if it has been in the same spot for just three years? Maybe not, but the crusty Irishman with the heart of gold who runs the place – or did until a week or so ago – certainly fits the description, 42 years since arriving in Canada to stake his claim as a writer, music historian, record store manager and old-fashioned denim-clad community builder.

It was Will McGuirk’s last day as manager of the Kops location on King Street in the heart of downtown Oshawa and he was feeling less bitter and more sweet about the whole experience.

“Mostly sweet because of this,” he said, sweeping his arms over the crowd of people, both inside the record store, who had come out to celebrate his last day on the job, with Kops Record shutting down the Oshawa location two days later. “These are the people who showed up, the people who said, ‘that’s what we need downtown.’”

The closing of the store in Oshawa was not a huge surprise to McGuirk. The two Kops stores in Toronto, including the flagship location on Queen Street East opened by Martin Koppel in 1976, were doing fine but Oshawa was bleeding money, having never recovered from the pandemic.

“It’s just economics,” said McGuirk, who knew this day was coming for a while.

The Oshawa store opened at the south end of downtown at Simcoe and John streets in 2015, with McGuirk joining three years later, and moved to its King Street site in the spring of 2023.

The location was perfect, with music venues all within shouting distance. The Biltmore Theatre and the Atria Bar were right across the street, the Regent Theatre was next door and the 6,000-seat Tribute Centre was a couple of blocks away.

The BOND|ST Event Centre – directly behind Kops on Bond Street, would open less than a year later.

But while the music scene in downtown Oshawa was thriving, the rest of the city’s inner core was being hollowed out and too many people were listening to scare stories about crime and the homeless and staying away.

Will McGuirk. Photo by Jay Naik

For a community builder like McGuirk, that’s the ‘bitter’ part of the end of Kops in Oshawa. Unfinished business, as it were.

“Too many people say no, it’s just one of those things,” he said. “But the people who say yes to coming downtown for a show, that’s who I do this for.”

“Mostly what I do is downtown.”

McGuirk had a career as a journalist and has become something of a music historian since arriving in Oshawa but he was managing a book store in Port Perry when the Koppel family reached out and asked him to run the record store.

“When I got hired I didn’t know much about records. I knew music, but I was hired to create a community hub. Things kinda grew from there.”

When it was on Simcoe Street Kops became a gathering spot for musicians, music lovers as well as vinyl fans, something that transferred easily to the new venue on King Street.

But the Simcoe location also had a stage upstairs to make it an incubator for a lot of up-and-coming bands, a tricky thing to duplicate in the smaller, former jewelry store space on King Street.

That never stopped McGuirk, who would have bands play in the front of the store to get some exposure and bring some cool vibes into the downtown. A couple of summers ago he even hosted a weekly showcase for emerging bands on Wednesday afternoons.

Musician Derek Lyon had his share of mini-gigs at the old location but was always hanging out at Kops on King Street, meeting friends new and old and soaking up knowledge on what was happening downtown from McGuirk.

“Will was more than just a face at a music shop. He was the radar for everything music in Durham, and ready to go to war for our scene,” Lyon told INsauga. “And Kops was always more than a store – it was a place to hang out and meet people. Will had hosted open jam sessions and I made many musician friends at Kops.”

“The community is going to miss you Will. Today we play music for you, but without you we wouldn’t have music to play. Thank you for being the voice that this town needs to hear, and please keep shouting.”

For Presley Overgoor, who works in radio promotion, coming down to Oshawa and Kops was part of her youth.

“The place smelled like old cardboard, dust, vinyl, time itself. Perfect,” she said of the Star Records store on Simcoe Street that later morphed into Kops. “I’d walk out with stacks of records bought with pocket change while my Mum or Dad sat outside watching the parking meter tick down, reminding me I had ten minutes left. Ten minutes was never enough.”

“One of the most important people I’ve met in my life is Will McGuirk. In college, a classmate and I were assigned to make a documentary about something we cared about. We ended up at Kops pitching Will an idea: a film about the people who come to record stores. Not the records, the people, the characters. What were they really looking for? Why did they keep coming back? Will didn’t just nod politely. He pushed back. Asked harder questions. Made us think about what we were actually trying to say. The documentary eventually became a portrait of Kops itself, and the strange little community that gathered there.”

“That’s what’s sad about places like this disappearing. Kops wasn’t a store. Stores sell things. Kops gave people a reason to linger. It was a clubhouse, a classroom, a refuge. You went in looking for an album and came out with a recommendation, an argument, a conversation, a new obsession.”

There were plenty more testimonials on social media in recent days as a community remembers both Kops Records and the man behind the counter who made the magic happen.

• “Bitter sweet day as I made my last purchase at my local Kops Records” – Chris Harding
• “Oshawa has something very special that not all towns this size have, and that is a record shop with a manager like Will McGuirk who genuinely cares about the local arts scene. Thank you Will and Kops Records for everything you do for our local music scene.” – Jason Tictactic Stabler
• “We get set to say good-bye … and thank Will McGuirk and gang for keeping the vinyl spinning.” – Steven Frank

The local music community recognized McGuirk’s efforts in pumping the tires of local musicians in Oshawa’s thriving music scene last year when he was honoured as the Music Industry Leader of the Year as part of the Dreams! Music Awards celebration.

Clad in his usual all-denim attire, the Oshawa music scene’s biggest booster was as authentic as ever when he was recognized for just doing what he has been doing for decades.

“Funny to imagine getting an award for simply repeating yourself for over 30 years,” he said in his acceptance speech. “All I have been saying is invest in your young creatives. On every platform, in the paper, online, on shows, on panels, at the Kops shop, just invest in your young people. Make every floor a stage and every wall a gallery. But I just repeat myself again and again because the great city of Oshawa and the surrounding municipalities still haven’t gotten the message.”

“So on this stage then I will say again – invest in your young creatives. Book them for your civic events. Show up for their shows.”

Oshawa IS the Music City in Durham Region and music is very much a part of this town, McGuirk added, citing the city’s music history from Jack London and the Sparrows (forerunners to chart-topping Steppenwolf) and Wednesday of the 1960s and 70s to today’s emerging superstars in Crown Lands, Daniel Caesar and Dizzy.

McGuirk, who is sticking around to find some new adventures in Oshawa, is both happy he was able to create a sense of community in a little vinyl record store and appreciative of all the love from his customers and friends.

“What I am most proud of is being able to create a place where people can say yes. All these people have been coming down here to this space,” he said. “But I feel what I set out to do, I was mostly able to accomplish.”

He thanked all the people who have said ‘yes’ to him and his ideas and to the Koppel family who said yes to a community hub as record shop “and for seven years of an amazing experience in what retail can be.”

“And to the quietly cool neighbourhood we have been building downtown – the venues, stores, restaurants, cafes, bars – thank you for the support and fun hangs. I wish more folks knew how rad you all are. See you on the flipside.”

“Hopefully more Canadians will start looking closer to their own homes for their own artists, musicians and heroes and providing them with opportunities. Enjoy the day and every other day in this beaut of a place.”

Other than continuing to show up for local musicians and all those who want to make downtown Oshawa a better place, Will McGuirk, who recently celebrated his 60^th birthday, has no immediate plans for his future.

“Can I do something else? Maybe. I have some ideas. I have some thoughts.”

For the first time in a long time, he has time to figure it out.

Photo by Mikki Simeunovich