Legendary London music shop closes after running for 75 years

An iconic music shop which has been selling and restoring instruments to famous musicians for nearly 75 years has closed.

Allodi Accordions Ltd in Lewisham, south east London, has been forced to close its doors after owners said it ‘began to take its toll’.

Emilio Allodi took over the shop from his dad Bruno, who grew up playing the accordion near Parma, Italy.

Bruno came to London in 1951, and Emilio decided to take on the business repairing them 46 years ago.

Now accordions embossed with the family name have spread across the music industry, including his brother Claudio who also plays professionally.

Emilio told Metro: ‘I have repaired and sold thousands of accordions in my time.

‘At one point we had the biggest stock in the country at around 600.’

Famous musicians such as Status Quo, Sir Paul McCartney and Sheryl Crow have all played alongside Allodi accordions.

‘Paul McCartney was playing for Michelle Obama, and his keyboardist was using my accordion with the Allodi name on it,’ Emilio said.

‘I had my friends ringing to let me know.’

But sadly the pressure of running the shop and constantly repairing the instruments has taken a toll on the musician’s fingers as he has developed arthritis.

Emilio said he also wanted to spend more time with his family, but his children have not been as involved in the industry as he was with his own father.

He said: ‘One of my sons could have easily carried on the business, but when he was briefly working here he would get customers saying, “you are not as good as your dad are you”.

‘This made him realise the job wasn’t for him.’

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