A POPULAR shop owner who inspired a generation of musicians is retiring after almost 40 years in business.

Joe Baldi not only sold instruments and sheet music from his AdLib shop but shared his passion with customers who soon became his friends.

The 74-year-old says he is stepping away with a heavy heart from a big part of his life but hopes someone with a love of music will take it over.

Joe said: “I’m going to miss it.

“I have made so many friends in this trade and we are now serving second generation customers, children of parents who supported us when we first started.

“My wife Margaret and I both want to thank all our customers at home and abroad who have supported the shop over the years.

“I am sure we’ll miss the daily banter and funny emails from the many customers who have become friends over the years.”

Joe established the business in Roxburgh Street with his late brother Aldo 37 years ago, inset, before moving premises to Jamaica Street 10 years later.

He told the Tele: “Over the years it was very satisfying to see the development of young musicians who bought their first instruments from us in Roxburgh Street and went on to make music their careers.”

The businessman, who plays drums with the Capitol Big Band, developed his love of music at an early age.

He said: “I started battering pots and pans when I was about five and my father brought me my first drum kit when I was 15, pictured.”

A combination of ill health, a desire to spend more time with their family and changes in the retail market has prompted Joe and Margaret, 71, to step down.

The couple have three daughters – Angela, 46, Emma, 43,and Serena, 38 – and grandchildren Lucy and Tom in Greenock and Beth and Meg in New Zealand.

Joe said: “It’s been a long time but there have been a few things which have made Margaret and I decide to retire.

“We both have some health issues and Angela is in Auckland and we also have family in Canada and we never see them, while our youngest daughter Serena is expecting her first baby in June.

“There is also a downward trend affecting the retail business with more people using the internet and legislation from the government is making it more difficult for small businesses in the long-term.

“This is the right time.”

Joe was born in La Spezia in Northern Italy and came to Greenock with his parents Maddelana and Amadeo and brother and sister when he was five.

He said: “My mother and father had lived in Greenock before but my father was interned when war broke out and was sent to the Isle of Man for nine months.

“My mother returned to Italy with my older brother and sister and then my father was shipped back to Italy.”

The family returned to Greenock after the war because they had made so many friends here.

Joe said: “They also had a business in Belville Street which was bombed in the blitz.

“The shop was completely destroyed and the council was building new units in Glenbrae Road and they opened another chip shop there in 1952.”

Joe says he’s enjoyed his time at AdLib but he’s had up and downs like anyone else.

He said: “There have been many highs and a few lows over the last 37 years, the greatest low being the passing of my brother Aldo in 2001.

“He had a wonderful sense of humour – he would politely offer the customers a box of matches for a repair to a badly damaged guitar.

“Both Margaret and I hope that someone will come along and continue the business name, which is not only a musical term but an anagram of our surname.”