The fascinating early days of the modern Canadian music industry, after the arrival of CanCon in the early '70's, is a rich source of hilarious stories and great memories for boomers, those of us who developed their love of music in this era. Where Britain had its Beatles and Stones in the '60's, Canada had April Wine and The Stampeders and a couple of dozen other homegrown talents. These were the bands that treated so many of us to our first real rock concerts, usually at the local hockey rink with plywood covering the ice and a couple of thousand teenagers crammed into the arena. Those bands, including Crowbar and Lighthouse, Mashmakhan, the early Rush, and perennial opening acts James Leroy with Denim and The Ian Thomas Band were the heroes of the road, as famous in Northern B.C. as they were in Atlantic Canada. They were on the radio, and brought a lot of magic into our lives, at least as much as we could stand on a Tuesday night with school the next day. We're going to scream, they're going to let off a smoke bomb, and my dad is parked outside, waiting for the show to end to drive us home.
Keith Brown was right in the middle of the scene during all those days, starting as the kid cleaning the floor at the rock star bar of choice in Montreal, and ending up running Aquarius Records, home to April Wine, Corey Hart and Sass Jordan. The story of how he got there is classic, in the right place at the right time, and an eyewitness and insider to the stories of the stars and the behind-the-scenes characters who ruled the scene. As a tour manager he ran the show and babysat the musicians, ruling the roost on the road and backstage at the venues. That included the big ones, like The Forum in Montreal, and the duds like the arena in Yarmouth, with the floor still covered in hay and horse dung from the agricultural fair. He met the big stars, with big problems; The Who's Keith Moon in full Loon behaviour, The Rolling Stones' truck suffering a bomb attack, and getting hired to be a "Jim-Carrier," to carry a drunk Jim Morrison to and from the stage. But the best stories come from the beloved Canuck rockers, as Brown and the bands roll across the country, pioneers in the touring business in the country.
Brown worked for the Donald K Donald group, the gang that invented the coast-to-coast tour circuit. It's a rare treat to get a seat on those tour busses, hearing the craziness and dumb luck that went on all day and night, wondering how Brown and any of them survived. He also lets us understand just how unglamorous it all was, from bad meals and worse sleep, car crashes and bike gangs, and Mounties trying to set up April Wine on a dope bust in Tisdale, SK.Then there are the cheap laughs, back break-ups and bad burns from faulty pyro.
Brown is a surprisingly strong writer, and if you were one of those kids in the hockey rink at your first rock show, this will be a page-turner for you. He's also done a great service, getting these stories down before they are lost to history.
No comments:
Post a Comment