Ah, nostalgia ain't what it used to be!

[Wild Bill]

Anybody interested in a geezer rant on the scene for gigs in the early 70's, compared to now? How often we played? How much we got paid?

[cbh747]

Anybody interested in a geezer rant on the scene for gigs in the early 70's, compared to now? How often we played? How much we got paid?

Please tell us a story Wild Bill !

[Wild Bill]

Well, now that you asked... :)

Back in the early 70's I worked at my first job fixing amps in a music store in Stoney Creek, Ontario. Since the owner had a problem getting out of bed I was usually working the storefront too, at least until noon or so.

Bands like Moxy, Mara Loves, Old Sailor, Vehicle, Copper Penny - it seemed everybody was in a band and gigging all over the province, if not the country. Moxy was doing great opening in Texas for ZZ Top. They were Canada's answer to Led Zeppelin, until Buzz the lead singer wiped out on his motorcycle. Crying shame, that. Their stuff still stands up well today.

Anyhow, one day one of the bands comes in, moaning that their soundman/roadie had just quit to go back to Matawa, Ontario and feed mosquitoes for a living. They got the bright idea that having me as a replacement would be perfect so the con job started.

"Free beer! Loose women! 5 star hotels and the time of your life!"

Being young and therefore even more gullible than I am today I agreed, and off we went.

The first gig was in Wallaceburg, Ontario at the "Wallaceburg Inn". The band was 5 pc and the hotel had both a real stage and a dance floor. I sat out front at the end of a 75 foot snake to my mixing board and light controls, which gives you an idea of how big the club was. It sat maybe 350 people. No chicken wings, no pool tables. You came there to dance and drink beer! I couldn't mix sound and dance at the same time but I did the best I could with the beer!

First song, first set I feel something thunk against the heels of my platform shoes and the denim on my back was soaked with what smelled obviously as beer. I looked back and there was a 6'4" native warrior on the floor, it being his head that hit my shoes. There was a 5'6" bouncer sitting on his chest, rabbit punching him in the face like a machine gun. I watched in shock and awe as the little guy picked up the bigger one and literally threw him down the aisle and then kicked him out the door!

Being just a wimpy kid whose only claim to fame was sniffing solder fumes I was rather rattled! At the end of the set the band gathered round, reassuring me that such things were virtually unknown to happen and that this was a one in a million fluke.

I won't tell you what the band rooms looked like... :(

I swallowed this line just like the earlier ones and stayed with them for about a year. We were a "C" circuit band in that we weren't good enough to play big halls or the better Toronto clubs so we toured from Wallaceburg to Tillsonburg, St. Thomas to Woodstock, London, Collingwood and then work our way up north to play back to back high school dances in Hearst and Kapuskasing. After reaching this apogee we'd start our way back down province to get home.

Even a band such as us, playing covers of Deep Purple and Captain Beyond, Ziggy Stardust, Robin Trower, James Gang and lots of Foghat would tour for months playing 3 and 6 nighters every week, with the occasional high school dance as a filler. 3 nights got us $1600-$1800 dollars. 6 nighters paid at least $2400. High schools paid maybe $800 in Hamilton and $1400 for the Hearst folks, who had to fork over more to get a band to drive all that way.

You must understand that this was 1972 dollars, when a gallon of gas was less than 30 cents, a pack of cigarettes cost .45 and your buddy's old man had just bought a brand new Duster car for $1900. My first rent payment was $65 a month!

Can you imagine what the "B" and "A" bands were making?

People were not nearly as poor as they are today. At least not in terms of what they could spend on entertainment. Clubs booked us for 6 nights because people filled the place for 6 nights! People worked all day and after they paid the necessities they could still afford to go drinking and dancing.

Things started to decline as the 80's began and by the 90's the scene really sucked. Still lots of clubs to play but the money was getting tighter. Smoking rules were only the last straw. People feared blowing over .07 and no longer would drive 20 miles or more to see a band they followed. When Mulroney/Campbell fell we had a deep recession and many clubs closed up or went to strippers. They became part music, part pool hall, part restaurant and no longer paid enough for 5 and 6 pc bands. 4 pc even became rare as you'd have to be 3 pc to get more than $150 each in your pocket at the end of the one night gig. Now lots of bands take $150 total for the night. With travel time, setup and teardown included you're playing for less than minimum wage.

This "We offer everything!" approach worked about as well on each individual feature as a POD pedal, that is not very well compared to the real thing. The loss of the old owners and the ignorance of the new ones meant even basic factors were lost. Such as having no stage or dance floor! The band played in one corner, facing not the audience but the bar. They often were lucky to have one plug available for the entire band! The servers couldn't hear their orders and the audience couldn't see the performance. Ladies would drink and want to dance. Since they had nowhere to dance they often would't stay as long. So the owner sold a few more chicken wings but wondered why he didn't sell more beer!

Does anybody know of a high school that still has dances with live bands? Or even still have dances? My daughter's school gave them up years ago. The word is the teachers wouldn't come out after hours to chaperone. I've also heard excuses about insurance but frankly they didn't ring true. It sounded more like Ned Flanders from the Simpsons was in control.

Things did start to adjust and even improve a bit. Then the smoking rules kicked in and so much for that. True, the owners could have done a more imaginative marketing job. Then again, who else was under the same sort of attack? Especially when we were being told that there would be no negative impact on patronage at all...

That was the old scene! Would anyone like to chip in and say how today things are better? It's obviously much harder to make a living professionally, unless you're a young chick who can sing and pole dance at the same time.

There are a few bright lights. The Trews, Jet, White Stripes and the Darkness are some. My point is that bars and cover bands were a great entry path for someone to make a living while honing their chops. 6 months on the road makes a band really tight. Playing a set at the local "cookie monster metal club" that you have to sell enough tickets yourself to be ALLOWED to play is just not the same!

If I were 18 again I'd try something quite different. First, I'd give up on clubs entirely. Why flog a dead horse? I'd be looking for private appearances, renting our own halls and badgering civil "serpents" to get to play at civic festivals and the like.

I wouldn't bother with a label, either. I'd try to set up my own tour of repeat gigs at park bandshells in any town that could offer a crowd of at least a few thousand people. Then I'd flog all the self-produced promo off the side of the stage I could. Tshirts, CDs, buttons or whatever. Your label sells your cd in HMV and you get maybe a dollar. Sell that same CD off the stage yourself and you get maybe $14 out of a $15 sale price!

Maybe us older guys could start a thread about "road" stories. Who else remembers the cigarette machine in the only restaurant in Wawa, Ontario? The one where when the package hit the chute the plastic wrap cracked and fell off? Or the 300 lb, 5'2" waitress with a deformity in the diner beside the Sebringville Villa?

I wonder what she's doing now...

[faracaster]

Great Post Wild Bill.
I was part of that too. Although I didn't start touring around till about 75'-76'. And yes MY first gig on the road was......The Wallaceburg Inn. The owner stiffed us for a portion of the weeks pay because our bass player had been in a car accident on the way there from Toronto and we couldn't play the first set on the Monday. And yes those band rooms were AWFUL !!!!!!

Cheers
Pete

[GTmaker]

>My point is that bars and cover bands were a great entry path for someone to make a living while honing their chops. 6 months on the road makes a band really tight.>

So true..been there done that.
Waooo...where do I start...?
I've got enough stories to fill an encyclopedia...
This was the start of a 15 year "on-the-road" trip.
We where a 5 piece garage band in Scarborough basicaly playing free at parties and school dances and going nowhere fast. Then one mid summer 1970, our lead singer gets us an audition at a topless dance bar called the Diplomat ( dufferin and 401). Other then seeing topless chicks (go go dancers) for the first time in my life nothing happened after the audition.
I'll try and make this a bit shorter..
Lead singer leaves the band to get a real job. Lead guitar player marries my sisters and goes to school to become a silly accountant.
MId January of next year I get a call from the Dipomat. Still dont know how he got my number. This guy says we can start Monday, $300.00 a week for Monday to Saturday. I said great.we'll be there Monday night.
Breakng the news to my 2 budies, we soon figured out we had enough songs for 2 sets. Job calls for 4 sets 40 minutes each. Hmmmm...We had 4 days to put together as many 3 chord rock and roll songs we could think of.
We start Monday...and by Wednesday night we almost got fired. The stupid dancers hated us cause frankly we where bad. Boss said get better OR else. Being the youngest at 19 when the drinking age was 21, our bar playing options where very limited. Besides, the go go girls where hot (or was it just the naked boobs?). I got the boys in on Thursday morning at the club and we paracticed the whole day till we had to start at 9:00 PM.This must of impressed the boos cause he didnt fire us.OK...we didnt get fired....by the end of the month, we had lineups to get in the club most nights.
That was the beginning of 15 years of travel ( Monday to Saturday you play, and you traveled on Sundays. Except Quebec but thats another story) from Newfoundland to Vancouver to Florida and everywhere in between.

Did someone say WAWA....
Played there and met Eddie Trudoe (full blodded native Indinan and a great guy). he invites the band to his place for dinner and we go. Free food is allways a good thing. He serves us the biggest moose roast i have ever seen. While eating, his dog (ok Eddie calls it a dog but this sucker is a wolf and its houling so loud we cant even talk)..Eddie gets pissed off and said to hold on cause hell be right back. He leaves for a few minutes and when he returns, he shows us his bow that he has in his hands. The silly wolf stops houling. Cool. After dinner we chat a bit then we have to leave to go play. Leaving the house we notice a telephone pole in front of the door just past the side walk. There is an arrow stuck in the pole and there is a cat stuck up against the pole with the arrow thru its head. Eddie said his dog only houls when theres cats around. hmmmmm....

OK enough boring stuff....

[Xanadu]

wow. I'm waay to young to know about any of this. Thx for the insight Bill.:food-smiley-004:

[Milkman]

I spent more than eleven years on the road full time. We played six or seven nights a week with a lot of split weeks and worked pretty much fifty weeks a year.


Wallyworld? Yup, played there twice. There are more stories than I could possibly tell in a forum.


Money? Well we made lots of money




but spent most of it on production.


Back then a five ton truck FULL of gear was the norm for the rooms we were playing.

Here are a few rooms I remember as being pretty cool.


Anybody else play there?


Hamilton - Jockey Club
Toronto - Gasworks
Barrie - Wellington (yup, the Smelly Welly)
Sudbury - Colson
Timmins - Empire
Sault St Marie - Eastgate
Thunder Bay - Westfort, Sleeping Giant, Jolly Roger
London, Mingles, Fryfogles, The Barn
Cambridge - The Matador
Kitchener - The Coronet



I played a lot out west as well including some places WAAAAAaaaaay up north, like Ft MacMurray, La Ronge, Thompson.....(biggest fricking Ravens I've ever seen. So big, they call them Thompson turkeys.)


I ate lots of Kraft Dinner, nailed way too many shakers and wouldn't trade my time on tour for all the tea in China.


www.tmkb.com

[SinCron]

Even if I was in a band that went on tour, I still wouldnt drink or get anywhere near those dirty whores that want to sleep with band members. Those types sicken me.

[Milkman]

Even if I was in a band that went on tour, I still wouldnt drink or get anywhere near those dirty whores that want to sleep with band members. Those types sicken me.



LOL, I didn't drink or get high, in fact, I've never walked on stage high in my life, but sex?


That I enjoyed.

[FrogRick12]

The KL Hotel, Kirkland Lake, ON
The Tri-Town, Haileybury, ON
The Lakeshore, Haileybury, ON
Holiday Inn (not that Holiday Inn), Sturgeon Falls
The Ambassador, Sudbury
The Brockdan, Sudbury
The Queen's, Kirkland Lake
The White House, Renfrew - my first "on the road" gig December 1975
Barrymore's, Ottawa
Lorelei, Stephenville, NFLD
Logger's Lounge, Grand Falls, NFLD
The Chaudiere, Hull, PQ - played here too many times
The Avalon, St.John's, NFLD
Zapata's, Halifax, NS
bar, Charlottetown, PEI
The Wheels, Chatham
The Wallaceburg Inn, Wallaceburg
Landmark Inn, Thunder Bay
Kap Inn, Kapuskasing, ON
The Commercial, Kapuskasing, ON
Commodore, North Bay, ON
The Pines, Montreal, PQ
The Moustache, Montreal, PQ
La Circle Electrique, Quebec City
The Dexter, Welland, ON
Duffy's, Hamilton, ON
The Barnyard, Simcoe, ON
Yonge Station, Toronto, ON
The Level Crossing, Toronto, ON
The Nickleodeon, Toronto
The Picadilly Tube, Toronto
Penthouse Motor Inn, Scarborough
Knob Hill Hotel, Toronto
The Wellington, Barrie
Laurentian U, Sudbury
The Kenricia, Kenora, ON
bar, Timmins, ON
high school, Smooth Rock Falls, ON
--- Motel, Blind River, ON
Legion Hall, Cochrane, ON
high school, Hornepayne, ON
high school, Chapleau, ON
bar, Cornwall, ON
bar, Levack, ON
bar, Noranda, PQ
one nighter, Ville Marie, PQ
one nighter, Temiskaming, PQ
Harbour Inn, Owen Sound
Kelly's, London
The City Hall, London,
Fryfogle's, London
The Ridout, London
bar, Pembroke, ON
bar, Deep River, ON
bar, Smith's Fall's, ON
outdoor biker festival, Notre Dame du Nord, PQ
one nighter, La Sarre, PQ
Legion Hall, Hearst, ON
The International, Fort Frances, ON
high school, Wikwemikong, ON
bar, S.S.Marie, ON
a really stinky bar, Espanola, ON
The Atherly Arms, Orillia, ON
The Queen's, Peterborough, ON
The Sheraton, Brockville, ON

and that was from 1975-76....most of these places don't exist anymore

We opened for Mr.Henman's band, A Foot In Cold Water, Copper Penny, Brutus, Fluud, Thundermug, Seadog, Edward Bear, Abernathy Shagnaster, Father, Greaseball Boogie Band, and toured with Flying Circus. And that was before I was 20.

But hey - it's finally paid off -
I'll be at the Molson Amphitheatre on June 23rd....:rockon:

[faracaster]

Here are a few rooms I remember as being pretty cool.


Anybody else play there?


Hamilton - Jockey Club
Toronto - Gasworks
Barrie - Wellington (yup, the Smelly Welly)
Sudbury - Colson
Timmins - Empire
Sault St Marie - Eastgate
Thunder Bay - Westfort, Sleeping Giant, Jolly Roger
London, Mingles, Fryfogles, The Barn
Cambridge - The Matador
Kitchener - The Coronet
www.tmkb.com


Yep, been there, done all of those. And I can remember some stories from each of those bars.
The Wellington in Barrie was the first room I ever played that was wired in some completely fu#ked up way that I couldn't use single coils in there. I had to borrow a humbucker guitar from a friend to complete the week.
Add the list The Rideout in London, The President in Sudbury and who could forget the The KL Hotel in Kirkland Lake.
And I'm sure we could have a whole separate post on The Chaudier in Hull
Holy Moly what a trip that place was.

Cheers
Pete

[FrogRick12]

Pete - I loved your post on the Chaud - brought back memories (not necessarily good ones though)

I'll never forget one time we (Dodger) played there.

Our bassist Pat was laid up back in TO with kidney stones having come down with them the previous week at The Dexter in Welland where our opening act was The Battered Wives!
I was the front man in a four piece - gtr, bass, drums, vcls. We had his gear in the truck so I strapped on his '69 P bass, his SVT rig with the 8 X 10 cab, and a thumbpick (I was sweating so much I kept dropping the pick) and we went to work on those bloody 5 X 45 minute sets or whatever the hell they were with the 2 am finish.

I was spent to say the least. I think we did "Youngblood" by Bad Co. 3 times just to fill time.

I think I killed a quart bottle of Bras D'or in one swig after the show.

Cheers,

Dave

[GTmaker]

Even if I was in a band that went on tour, I still wouldnt drink or get anywhere near those dirty whores that want to sleep with band members. Those types sicken me.

they seemed like nice girls to me....LOL

<Mr.Henman's band, A Foot In Cold Water>

I think I went to school with the guitar player of Foot in Cold Water.
Did you go to Cedarbrae CI Mr. Henmans?

[lolligagger]

Frogrick,

Is your band opening for the Bachman-Cummings tour, or are you guys the touring band?

I have been a fan of anything B-C since I was in short pants...you lucky dog! Actually, I suppose luck doesn't have as much to do with this gig as patience persistence and preserverance.

By the way...cool name for your band.

:rockon:

[Robert1950]

Wild Bill

My brother did some rythmn as a fill in during the '70s. He's sitll in contact with them. They made $$$ back then. He confirmed everything you said about how it started changing in 80s and where it is now. The guys that still play are lucky to get 2 to 3 gigs a month for less than they were paid 30 years ago. Back then 3 a week was a slow week.

Milkman,

As for noteworthy gigs. There was only one for me. The Myna Byrd. In 1966 (That's really dating me, isn't it). John Lee Hooker was playing next door. Wilson Pickett dropped in for a half a set. It was a riot. We did it for 2 or 3 weekends before the girlfriends and parents revolted. Evil Yorkville and everything. Actually I did lose my girlfriend for putting the band first. We didn't live in the city,... Ajax (:zzz: )

[GTmaker]

[SIZE="3"]Will Bill


Milkman,

As for noteworthy gigs. There was only one for me. The Myna Byrd. In 1966 (That's really dating me, isn't it). John Lee Hooker was playing next door. /SIZE]

Speaking of noteworthy gigs....
My band played the 401 INN (Weston Rd and 401..I think its a Ramada now).
The 401 Inn had a big showroom in the front and a huge biker hangout bar in the back. Guess where I played?....LOL
Anyways ...Roy Orbison played there Thurs- Sat. at the same time. Met his band and I set our sets up so that when we finished, Roy was still on stage. Caught the ending of his 2 shows a night all three nights....that was cool...

[Lester B. Flat]

Great thread, Wild Bill!

I started gigging in 1968 at the ripe old age of 14. This was in New Brunswick. The first gig was a school dance and we got paid $12 and there were six of us in the band. Since three of the members were female backup singers, two of which were my sisters, they were immediately kicked out of the band and me and my buddies got down to some serious rock&roll.

All through school we played coffee houses, school dances, YMCA dances, concerts in the park, even private parties for adults. By the time I was in high school we even had a booking agent and we were on the road every weekend to a school dance. We even played pubs at the university before any of us were legal drinking age. We made enough money to buy gear, rent trucks, pay our agent, and still had a few dollars to put in our pockets.

When I started playing the bars full time a few years later, it was usually six nights a week and the money was decent, averaging $2000/wk plus accomodation. You could make a lot more doing one nighters. I played the Maritime circuit in the late '70's

I could write a book about all the strange and wonderful experiences I had on the road and some of the "legendary" bars, but here's a couple of Maritime classics:


The Riverview Arms - Fredericton, N.B.

Known as simply "the Arms", it operated in a parallel universe where existing laws of nature did'nt apply. It was close to the university so it was where all the students gathered for letting off steam. You could openly smoke pot, in fact, you could buy it from the waiter. Of course there was some etiquette involved. If you lit up a reefer you had to pass it on and you'd never see it again, which did'nt matter since there was always one coming the other way.
One night in the middle of a song, three or four guys landed on stage with one guy pinned to the floor, so we immediately stopped playing and prepared for the worst. After it cleared there was one drunk guy lying on the stage with half of his beard shaved off! Apparently it was his birthday and his buddies were having fun. This guy shortly afterwards was up on a table in his underwear with a fish hanging out of the front. At that point we took a break and pointed one of our par lamps at him. When we came back in for the next set he was still there, lit up, now completely naked and dancing on the table.

The Arms was never raided by the police. It closed and was torn down in the mid '80's


The Bear's Den - Richibucto, N.B.

The Bear's Den was owned by a wrestling promoter and was actually two bars, one a tavern which sold only beer and wine, and the other a cabaret which sold hard liquor and was open later. We were booked there for a 9 day stretch over the Christmas holidays on the cabaret side. We actually played on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! On Christmas Eve everyone in town came to the bar for a drink after midnight mass. On Christmas Day, the bar served only soft drinks so the kids could come in and enjoy the band and after 11 o'clock the bar opened again for the adults.

At some point during that 9 day stretch they had a wet t-shirt contest on the tavern side. Girls showed up from Halifax in a Cadillac wearing only their underwear and fur coats! There was a tractor trailor in the parking lot full of beer. The place was jammed and the waitresses were selling beer so fast that they didn't even bother stocking the fridge. They just went out to the truck, ripped the lid of a case and went around the bar selling the bottles right out of the box!

Yes, the seventies are gone but not forgotten. On a final note, remember when New Year's Eve was the biggest night of the year for bands and you could pull in 2 or 3 grand for a single night?

:rockon: :smilie_flagge17:

[FrogRick12]

Frogrick,

Is your band opening for the Bachman-Cummings tour, or are you guys the touring band?

I have been a fan of anything B-C since I was in short pants...you lucky dog! Actually, I suppose luck doesn't have as much to do with this gig as patience persistence and preserverance.

By the way...cool name for your band.

:rockon:

We are the touring band (The Carpet Frogs) - and yes, I am a lucky dog!

Believe me, we all know how lucky we are to have this gig.

And yes, as you said, it does take the three P's!:food-smiley-004:

[Wild Bill]

Never thought I'd get such a great thread started! Some great stories happening here!

One of my favourite spots was the "John Scott" in St. Thomas. We were booked for 6 nights and came in from the Royal in Tillsonburg one Monday afternoon.

As we were slugging in the A7's I went to the back to set up my mixing console. Suddenly I felt these "things" pressing into my back and something sharp on my shoulder and soft on my cheek.

I turned my head to see that it was the waitress. It was her chin on my shoulder and she did indeed have large, delightful "things"!

We started to chat and I discovered she used to be a gogo dancer in Ottawa but St. Thomas was actually her home town. She had quite boldly picked me out and we made arrangements to meet after the supper hour before the gig.

Sadly, she stood me up! At first I thought I was getting toyed with but she had seemed too open and honest to play those type of games. So I shrugged it off and soldiered on with the gig. Mixing sound was a lot of pressure, after all. The band all figured that if they sang flat I was supposed to fix it with the treble...

The next day she was back at work and immediately came over to me and started to apologize. I started to say there was no need but she insisted, saying that she realised she had led me on and was quite serious but that previous day after talking to me her old boyfriend from Ottawa had shown up and the short version was that they were back together.

I told her that I was happy for her and after all it was only a chance meeting between us anyway but she adamantly promised to make it up to me.

I usually kept a pair of draughts beside my board but that night I noticed it was impossible to empty them! All the other nights of the gig too, for that matter.

This is an example of what I loved most about that period of time. People just seemed much nicer to each other than they do today! I met LOTS of great and wonderful people on the road. Not just the stereotypical "groupies" - those were the days of "free love" anyway. The Pill had just come on strong and you couldn't catch anything the doctors couldn't cure easily.

Clubs routinely kept a marquee by the door with promo pictures of the next few bands. We had female fans who were kinda straight and not interested in a casual sexual relationship at all but were sweet and kind enough to take note of when we were coming to town and arrange dinners and parties for us!

They kept us from being bored out of our minds! During the day in a small town there was little to do. You'd go to their library only to find they'd let their book out! For months we seemed to be following "Towering Inferno" in the theatres. There never seemed to be any other movie to see. The friendliness and kindness of strangers made a great impression on me.

Then again, so did the NEXT ex-gogo dancer I met...come to think of it! :)

[TheTallCoolOne]

... That was the beginning of 15 years of travel ( Monday to Saturday you play, and you traveled on Sundays. Except Quebec but thats another story) from Newfoundland to Vancouver to Florida and everywhere in between.

...
I'm curious to hear your Quebec stories.
I've never toured (wasn't bold enough to get on that wagon) so I'd be kinda living those times thru your stories.

I've been told there's a difference between the French crowd of Quebec and the English crowd from the rest of Canada.
I don't want to start a polemic, I just want to hear it from someone who lived it. :smilie_flagge17:

[GTmaker]

I'm curious to hear your Quebec stories.
I've never toured (wasn't bold enough to get on that wagon) so I'd be kinda living those times thru your stories.

I've been told there's a difference between the French crowd of Quebec and the English crowd from the rest of Canada.
I don't want to start a polemic, I just want to hear it from someone who lived it. :smilie_flagge17:

Ahhhh...good old Quebec..
First of all you have to understand that before we did any Quebec gigs, the band did a bunch of northern Ontario jobs. Wawa, Kapuscasing, Sudbury, North Bay, Thunder Bay, etc etc. This is important cause there is a certain type of crowd up there in them there hills that misicians will know what I mean BUT you had to be there. OK...14 months of northern exposure makes us ready for the Holliday Inn circuit on Ontario. This primes the band for Quebec. By the way...our booking agent was Bud Maton Agency..anyone else use those guys for bookings?
About Quebec mid 1970's...
First surprise...you work Tuesday to Sunday....now that was different.
Second surprise...you dont start first set till 10:00 PM and even then there is hardly anyone in the joint. You soon find out folks start going out about 11:00 PM...but you do play till 2:00 AM
Biggest surpise...remeber I did mention about folks in northern Ontario.
Bottom line, the girls where the best dressed, best looking and as classy as you would only dream about.
Another surprise was that anywhere outside Montreal, no one spoke English.
Being the band leader and been able to speak fluent Italian saved my ass a few times but I gatta tell ya, it wasnt easy trying to communicated with club owners. Simple stuff like "when is our first set?", "Where are our rooms?" "Do we finish at 2:00 AM or 2:30 AM?, "where can we get food?" seemed to be a real problem sometimes.
WE played a club just outside of Montreal which to our surpise, was holding a weekend long ELVIS Finals contest.SOOO....Frid-Sun. all the Elvis wannabes show up. I think first prise was 500 bucks. Place was packed all 3 nights. We get to do one set then its Elvis time. They have an MC that announces these guys. One by one they come up and yell an Elvis song and a key. 1-2-3-4.and here we go. By the end of the first night, we played every dammed elvis song ever recorded. I must say at this point, these guys where realy good. Full costumes and even the "wipe the scarf and hand it to girls in the front row." Some brought charts which realy helped a lot but most just let us wing it. Did I mention how good looking the girls where?
Took us about 2 years before anyone in the band even sugested playing an Elvis song...LOL
We played a club in Montreal where the most folks to show up was Sunday night and they totaled about 20...I did my best to find out what happened but no one would say a word. While getting payed Sunday night , the club owner finaly told me that the week before, 2 folks got shot to death in the club and they didnt want to scare us. Sure scared the audience!!!...LOL
AHHH...another thing about Quebec...not that I ever went along BUT the boys in the band tell me that strip clubs at the time had girls and guys on stage doing what they do best and that was cool too.
I loved Quebec cause it was different. Different hours, different food and a different language. Was realy like going to a different country and everyone was friendly.
Most traveling bands at the time would do Quebec on route to the eastern provinces. IF Quebec was a different country,"out east" was a different world.
thats it for now...going to sleep...CIAO

sorry...just read your initial question and I dont think I answered it properly.
About Quebec audiences...one word..CLASSY.
They loved to dance, and they loved all kinds of music. They got dressed up and wanted to go out for a good time. Hardly anyone got so drunk they could not walk out. The complete opposite was true about Ontario...which I tried to explain earlier.

[Wild Bill]

I remember playing in Hearst, WAY up north in Ontario! It's a French town and we were playing a high school. It's a sign of how lonely they were up there that they booked us, considering that we were straight up rock and roll. French towns in Ontario and gigs in both Hull and Montreal were predominately progressive rock at that time. If you couldn't do Genesis' "Watcher of the Skies" they found you boring, and if you did prog rock watch out 'cuz they would catch every mistake! Must have been a cultural thing...

First off, we were greeted by some student council types who asked us in passable English "Did you bring adapters?" We didn't understand until we tried to plug in our gear. The entire school had been wired with 20 amp receptacles, the kind where one pin was sideways so no normal plug could fit! No one seemed to know what this was done.

So we did what was often done by bands in similar situations. We went into a breaker panel and tapped into the buss with a pair of vise grip pliers! Dangerous as hell but when you're that young you're blissfully unaware that you could die...

First time I ever saw "dancing wax". This was wax powder strewn on the gymnasium's hardwood floor. I had jumped off the stage during setup and I swear that when my platform shoes hit that stuff I literally skied to the end of the floor!

One little sweetie with limited English but tons of ambition decided that she was in love with our front man. It was strange 'cuz he had refused to let her into his hotel room but maybe that made him more of a challenge. Next morning we crossed the main street (gravel!) to the only restaurant for breakfast and she showed up at our table, professing her love for him.

Incidently, I had taken 5 years (Grade 13 days) of high school French and was the only one of us who could follow the french language television. Including the little sweetie! The dialect in that town was so far gone from even joual patois, being a mix of 17th century french, a bit of english, some native Indian and perhaps a few words of Chinese from some laundryman who had passed through town once that not only did she have little english but she couldn't understand the proper french on the tv!
:D
After we hit the highway we forgot all about it until Easter, which was 3 or 4 months later. We were playing the "Hunt Club" beside the QEW in Grimsby, ON when lo and behold she shows up, looking for the front man!

This was a disaster! His woman was going to be there tonight! Being a resourceful roadie I quickly sprang into action. Me and a friend invited her into the band room with the offer of free booze! We got her laughing, giggling and then sleeping. Drove her to the bus station, bought a oneway ticket back to Hearst and gently tucked her into her seat.

She probably didn't wake up 'till at least Kapuskasing... ;)

[TheTallCoolOne]

GTMaker, nice stories.
That's about what I've been told, that the Quebec crowd is a fun crowd to play for.
I was in a little cover band up to last year and the leader and the singer where of the English community, here in the Montreal region, and they were saying they'd rather play for the French crowd. As long as the sound is good and you show that you enjoy playing on the stage, the crowd can't care less if you're doing a note for note rendition of a song. It just needs to be recognizable and the party is on. I guess there is a cultural difference after all. :smilie_flagge17:

I'm guessing that in the mid 70's, people were more high than drunk.
That kinda set the mood for music, wouldn't you say?

As for the hours, lets just say that still today, my daughter of 22 only leaves home at around 11PM when she's going out.
Evenings are to get ready, nights are for parties. Some things just don't change. :food-smiley-004:

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed reading your post tremendously.:rockon:

[TheTallCoolOne]

Wild Bill, that's a funny story.
That poor kid, she must've been quite lost when she woke up. :D
You guys were quite some gentlemen to have handled her that way.
Kudos to you.
Your frontman must've been quite relieved. :D

Thanks to you too for sharing.
It's real fun to read. :DevilGuitar:

[dirtdog]

Cool stories, Wild Bill et al...

I'm about one generation behind ya'll but I was a regular (customer) at venues such as the the Chaud, the British and The Papillion (Aylmer/Hull, Quebec) and of course Barrymore's as a teenager in the early '80s. Saw some great acts and got exposed a bit to the business and the seedier side of life. The wording on the wall at The Papillion read: "NO DRUGS/PAS DES DROGUES" but of course, the stoners and bikers in attendance paid no attention to such nonsense what with all the joints smouldering in ashtrays on the tables. I got spooked a bit when bikers blew up a Camaro in The Pap's parking lot one summer, but it didn't keep us away for long.

My buddies and I dreamed of the time when we would be good enough to play on stages like they had at places like these. Sadly, the seediest place we play now is the Rainbow Bistro (Ottawa) and it really isn't that seedy by comparison nor as seedy as it once was.

But keep these stories coming - it's like "Hardcore Logo" for the non-punk crowd.

Let's lift one (or a few) for those old time taverns/clubs.

DD

[rippinglickfest]

I spent more than eleven years on the road full time. We played six or seven nights a week with a lot of split weeks and worked pretty much fifty weeks a year.


Wallyworld? Yup, played there twice. There are more stories than I could possibly tell in a forum.


Money? Well we made lots of money




but spent most of it on production.


Back then a five ton truck FULL of gear was the norm for the rooms we were playing.

Here are a few rooms I remember as being pretty cool.


Anybody else play there?


Hamilton - Jockey Club
Toronto - Gasworks
Barrie - Wellington (yup, the Smelly Welly)
Sudbury - Colson
Timmins - Empire
Sault St Marie - Eastgate
Thunder Bay - Westfort, Sleeping Giant, Jolly Roger
London, Mingles, Fryfogles, The Barn
Cambridge - The Matador
Kitchener - The Coronet



I played a lot out west as well including some places WAAAAAaaaaay up north, like Ft MacMurray, La Ronge, Thompson.....(biggest fricking Ravens I've ever seen. So big, they call them Thompson turkeys.)


I ate lots of Kraft Dinner, nailed way too many shakers and wouldn't trade my time on tour for all the tea in China.


www.tmkb.com

Hi I've been to a few of those places.................The Colson here in Sudbury is still called that by us older guys even though its technically The Nightclub..
zero for original nomenclature................and where my old drummer lives in Timmins........The Empire Hotel is now an old age home...........
The Gasworks was a great place.

Ray

[Milkman]

Hi I've been to a few of those places.................The Colson here in Sudbury is still called that by us older guys even though its technically The Nightclub..
zero for original nomenclature................and where my old drummer lives in Timmins........The Empire Hotel is now an old age home...........
The Gasworks was a great place.

Ray

The Empire, an old folks home?!?!?! LMAO, I could probably still play there and there'd be some of the same people in the audience.


This is a shot from the Empire from around 1986.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b221/MikeLaPointe/Jett.jpg

[Zeusse]

Great thread its always been a rant of mine with the way things are now I feel sorry in a way for the bar bands of today..(even if they can find a paying gig) Last summer we played The Elmo and the last time I was in that place the Ontario beer strike was on...think that was about 1984..something like that. They moved the stage upstairs to the westside and its just too damm small now...and nowhere to sit everyone stands now..huh! It was just too comical for me and put the nail in the proverbial coffin.. As much as giging is fun the paltry little scraps offered to play a gig now aren't. I'll just stay at home and mess around in the studio here I got a comfortable chair and cold beer and a service staff second to none..mind you I have to pry them from the playstation to grab my beer. The wife asked me the other day if the Gasworks in Toronto was still around, I just laughed because we met there Dec.2 1986 me thinks she wanted a nostalgia night out. "No" I replied its probably a book store now!

[Michelle]

The Riverview Arms - Fredericton, N.B.



Awesome Lester! I remember the Arms and it was *the* place in Fredericton, never played there and being from SJ, I've only been there a few times.

Yeah, the bar scene ain't what it used to be, it's weird playing your ass off while people plug quarters into gambling machines, totally oblivious to what is going on around them. But last fri at AJ's was a good gig, there were people actually there for the 4th set.

Here's a link to the band I'm currently in:

http://mike.emmerson.googlepages.com/

Mike is one of the guitarist, the guy with the GAP shirt, I'm the one with the spider-web shirt using my bass to keep me standing up. :) Some of you may know Paul, Steve, or Brad. Steve made a comment the other nite to the effect that we have over 100yrs experience in our band. That gives me a strange feeling...

SeeYa
Michelle

[Lester B. Flat]

Michelle, I used to play in Saint John occasionally at the 3 Mile Tavern, the Golden Lion and another place who's name evades me at the moment... no wait! The Fairville? Does that sound right? And I played once at a strip joint called the Bottom's Up before they shut it down. A stripper messing with stuffed animals during the breaks if you can envision that. God, the world has become so conservative.

:banana:

[Michelle]

The Golden Lion used to really rock, hung out there lots. The 3-Mile is just down the road from where I live but haven't been there for quite a while. Yes, the Fairville, pretty rough spot and the Bottoms Up, oh yeah, that was a pretty raunchy palce, it was also called the Unicorn and the Ol Grey Mare, (after the mayor, Elsie Wayne) haha I won't do taverns or bars now unless I am at a gig.

SJ is very backward-conservative, almost retro, I'm not sure if there is a strip bar here or not now, people get into a big fit over that. I wish people would mind their own biz, if you don't approve of strip bars, don't go there.

Gotta go
Thanks for the memories :)
Michelle