At Planet Retro on Central Photo: Jeremy Sexton.
Rob Sexton, a longtime bay area musician and the owner of St. Petersburg’s Planet Retro Records, died Saturday of complications following a stroke. He was 55.
A native of the Tampa suburb Clair-Mel, Sexton was widely known as the drummer in numerous punk and hardcore bands, going back to the 1980s. He’d been in Lazy Susan, Failure Face and other popular groups, and was a member of the still-current Slap of Reality, a self-described “melodic punk/hardcore band” that first formed in 1987.
Sexton was known not to suffer fools gladly. As the face behind the Planet Retro counter, “He could come across as a curmudgeon,” said Sexton’s longtime friend Keith Ulrey, owner of Tampa’s Microgroove Records. “But the guy cared very much for his community, his bands and his friends. He would do anything for anybody, really. He just didn’t put up with any sh–.”
Sexton and Ulrey met as students at King High School in Tampa. “He and I talked almost every day on Facebook Messenger,” Ulrey said.
He began his retail career by selling vinyl online, then upstairs in the Furnish Me Vintage store on Central Avenue.
Sexton opened the first standalone Planet Retro on Central in August 2013, but a combination of factors including escalating rent and the increase in neighborhood burglaries sent him looking for a new location after three years.
Sexton, second from left, in Slap of Reality. Photo provided.
The second Planet Retro, at 226 Dr. MLK Jr St N., opened in late 2016.
Sexton often hosted live bands at his store, as well as vendor market events. Artist Derek Donnelly pained a mural on Planet Retro’s outside real wall in 2022.
Said Manny Matalon, aka Manny Kool, owner of St. Pete’s Daddy Kool Records: “The things that Rob did, with the bands and the markets, those really were a great addition to our scene.
“I think one of the really nice things about our record store community is that the stores all get along. We all send people to each other’s stores, and we recommend each other’s stores.
“And Rob was a part of that. And that was important, to have that camaraderie.”
Although he’d been a record collector in his younger years, Sexton – who dealt almost exclusively in used vinyl – was not about taking “the good stuff” home and hoarding it for himself.
“He wasn’t that guy,” Ulray said. “He’d rather give it back to the community – let somebody get really excited about finding their white whale in his shop.
“He was a respected member of the business community as well,” said Ulrey.
Photo: Microgroove Records.
People who go into the independent record store business, Ulrey believes, are simply unable to stay away from music. “Music is just in me,” he said. “I can’t speak for anybody else. Rob, same thing. He comes from the DIY punk music scene, he’s been in bands for years.
“For a long time, starting in the ‘90s, he got involved in the toy selling and trading business, and did that for a long time. And I think that’s what transitioned into records.”
Although he and Sexton weren’t close friends, said Matalon, they had much in common. “In a lot of ways,” reflected Daddy Kool, “I kind of lived vicariously through him, with his posts about ‘Oh man, this person came in today and said the stupidest f—ing thing!’
“And I was like, thank you. Somebody had to say it.”
The members of Slap of Reality posted a collective message on Facebook: “He was not just a drummer, he was our friend, our brother. 39 years of friendship, music, travels, ups and downs, and laughter. There are no words we can find to express the emptiness and shock we are feeling.
“We are grateful that the last time we were all together was rehearsal doing what brought us all together so many years ago. We were able to play a few more songs together not knowing it would be the last time and that memory will last forever in our hearts.”
Information about a memorial service was not available from Sexton’s family at press time.
Planet Retro, 226 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street N. , St. Petersburg. Photo by Bill DeYoung.