Viva Brighton Issue #45 November 2016

HEALTH
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GAK owner Gary Marshall
Backing the Brighton Mindfulness Centre
I moved to Brighton
from Horsham in
1989, me and my
wife in a van with five
binliners. I was in a
ska band, The Hot
Knives, and we were
doing well - we headlined
the Astoria in
London twice, but the
radio wouldn’t play us
because of the name,
so I worked as a hod
carrier. ‘On the monkey’
they used to call it. Hardest job there was.
Acid House was happening, so the ska revival
became less likely. By 1992 I was thinking I had
to do something. My wife Jan had a head shop in
Kensington Arcade, in Kensington Gardens. It’s
shops now, but back then there were units for £70
a week. I realized there’s another way of making
money without grafting your bollocks off. It
started when I went to buy a guitar at a shop in
Gardner Street. It was full of staff with miserable
faces, and I said to the owner ‘Can you do me a
deal?’ He didn’t even look up, just shook his head.
If he’d said ‘Yeah’ and given me a few picks and
leads, then there wouldn’t be a GAK. I thought ‘I
can do a much better job’.
There was a unit spare at the arcade, so I read
up on buying guitars. First day, I had seven for
sale - five were my own, and two I’d bought. And
then a young guy came in and said he wanted a
particular guitar that I didn’t have. I said I could
get him it, and he said he had 20 guitars he wanted
to do a part exchange on. That was it, I had stock.
I’ve always had the attitude ‘Take it away and try
it, and if you don’t like it just bring it back’. I’ve
never ripped anyone
off. We opened the
North Street shop
in 1995, and now we
have a 30 million a
year turnover and 85
staff.
In 2004, me, Jan
and our three kids
got caught in the
tsunami on Phi Phi
Island. The wave
killed 3,000 people,
and I thought the
world was coming to an end. The family left on
a rescue boat, but I stayed, and I thought they’d
all drowned. We were reunited in Phuket, but
something changed for me. I realized then that
happiness doesn’t come from wealth. You forget,
though. You drift back. You sell your soul to the
devil in business. It takes over. About five years
ago, though, I re-read Eckhart Tolle’s Power Of
Now. The first five pages, I’m thinking ‘there’s two
of me!’
Now I’m financing Brighton Mindfulness
Centre, which has opened in part of the building
in North Street, because like Tolle says, if we
don’t become conscious then we’re not going to
live in a conscious world.
I used to wonder how I could justify the business,
but I employ a lot of people and bring a lot
of money to Brighton. I’m friends with the staff,
and it feels embarrassing to be called ‘Boss’. I’ve
overachieved, you know!
As told to Andy Darling
GAK, 76-82 North Road
Brighton Mindfulness Centre, 66/67 North Road
brightonmindfulnesscentre.com
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