Premier Pianos Fremantle

Currently being refurbished

Although it feels like this place has been vacant for such a long time, it's refreshing to see no maggots have trashed it. Nor graffiti marring the walls of history, flaking layers of paints and decaying colours of many, visible as it should.

No doubt, the building is yet to be demolished and since I've photographed it, it's probably been trashed, graffitied and home to squatters with needles scattered on the floor - the scene which feels typical of just about all empty and abandoned buildings these days.

People whinge about not being shared locations and you wonder why?

Notwithstanding most people are too lazy to go and find their own locations to explore (or to photograph, for those who care about history), nor use their initiative in finding locations before and when they become abandoned, pending demolition.

BECAUSE ALL HISTORY IS IMPORTANT series

The History

Premier Pianos was registered as a business name on 4 June 1982 and are still listed as operating from 309 Stirling Highway, Claremont. They were also known as Premier Music Centre, which was registered on 21 July 2000 until it was cancelled on 31 August 2009.

Before moving to their last Queen Street address, according to Freotopia, they were located at the Oriana Building, on the corner of High and Queen Street before it was demolished in 1972.

It is almost impossible to find any other information or history on them but a multitude of business names are associated with it under the entity name of ZMS Pty Ltd with Zenith Music as the trading name for them all:

Acoustic Guitar Centre of WA (registered 14 March 1997 - cancelled 28 April 2003 + registered 21 October 2016 - current)
Clef Music (registered 30 October 2001 - current)
Jubilee Music (registered 04 November 2016 - cancelled 19 March 2020)
Musgroves (registered 29 August 1985 - current)
Musgroves For Music (registered on 01 July 1997 - cancelled on 02 January 2020)
Musgroves Music (registered 04 November 2016 - cancelled 19 March 2020)
Snadens (registered 08 August 1983 - current)
Snadens Piano (registered 4 November 2016 - current)
The Echo Chamber (registered 18 September 1981 - cancelled 24 October 2002)
Zenith Music (registered 05 May 1999 - current)
Zenith Music - The Acoustic Guitar Place (registered 14 August 1997 - 14 August 2009)
Zenith Musical Supplies (registered 01 July 1997 - current)

Snadens Piano were established in 1921 and appear to be a high-end piano store, particularly in light of their exclusive authorisation as a dealer for Kawai, Shigeri Kawai, Rönisch, Irmler, Fazioli pianos. They are located at 161 Stirling Highway, Nedlands.

Acoustic Guitar Centre of WA have two addresses in close proximity to each other, one being 882 and the other 900, both on Hay Street. No.900 is now the site of the The Adnate Hotel. A third address is listed for 252 Fitzgerald Street, North Perth but the recently updated Google Maps show no obvious tenants at that address.

Clef Music was located at 882 Hay Street (previously no.904 until 2013) and is marked as being permanently closed on Google. Their website listed their services as, "Importers, distributors & retailers" of "musical instruments, sheet music, piano CDs and instructional DVDs". Again, very little information can be found about them online, aside from reviews on Yelp:

- Sarah comments that Clef have a very good range of sheet music and are happy to order upon request but as to the range of instruments in stock, they were just "average".

- Cissi remarks on how they were once spread out over two floors but had since reduced the shop to just the top floor. Lower end instruments were priced much higher than other shops, although again, positive feedback was given to their range of sheet music.

- One last feedback by Gina held high praise, in contrast to the previous two. She states they had a wide variety of music instruments, the staff were very friendly and knowledgeable and they were willing to work with her on the price. She also states that they'd been in business for over 30 years. At the time of this review in 2012, the business name had been registered for 11 years.

Although Musgroves appears to have first been registered as a business on 29 August 1985, they were established in November 1922. Due to the extensive history and important contribution they've made to both the musical instrument and radio broadcasting scene in Western Australia, a separate webpage has been written up (incomplete draft).

Zenith Music were established in 1969 and has always been a Cranfield family-run business. They are located at 309 Stirling Highway, Claremont.

Queen Street Site

Located on a 420m² site, the building that was once home to Premier Pianos, sold for $950,000 on 24 March 2023, although RealEstate list the price as $1,045,000. Prior to this: