That time we drank 100% pure ethanol in the lab.
Mike Porter, me, Christina Kraml, Janet Beardall.
Anne & Gene
Anne covering Gene - it doesn’t get any better than this. 1972 Beat Club. Fantastic.
Punching Nazis
Pictures from May 30 1965 when a nazi rally (of like, 8 people) showed up in Allan Gardens and got punched. The nazi’s got arrested, the folks punching did not.
Canada Fitness Plan
Everybody get in shape!
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox at Massey Hall in 1984.
En Tournée
Harmonium’s double album En Tournée contains a live performance of their third album L’heptade - recorded in Vancouver on June 20, 1977. Highly recommended - Quebec prog at its finest. The track below is Chanson Noire.
Leland Sklar on Bob Carpenter
Legendary American bassist and session musician Leland Sklar talks about his involvement with Bob Carpenter’s sole LP “Silent Passage” - one of the finest records ever pressed in Canada. There’s some really interesting information on Bob and his music - one anecdote describes Bob playing at the farewell party for the Festival Express tour.
"After the final Festival at Calgary, a young guitarist mysteriously showed up at the York Hotel where the farewell party was taking place," Rolling Stone's correspondent wrote, "and with the deep and painful voice of some Ancient Mariner performed songs of unbelievable dignity. No one knew his name. He said: 'It doesn't matter the kind of music I play. Your mind sort of melts and becomes that one place of beautiful bliss which is the only place to be.'"
Also recommended is Ed Och’s essay on Bob which can be found here.
Bob Carpenter was born March 12, 1945 on a reservation near North Bay ON and died in 1995.
Alexis "Rose" Radlin
Dig enough in the crates and every now and then a gem surfaces.
Alexis “Rose” Radlin was a singer and songwriter - she grew up in Windsor ON and moved to Vancouver BC to pursue a music career. She signed a deal with Mushroom records and released “Alexis” in 1975 which led to her nomination for the female vocalist of the year Juno award (along with Patsy Gallant, Susan Jacks, Cathy Young and the winner Anne Murray). She wrote all the songs on the first LP except “Canada, You're A Lady” which she co-wrote with John Patrick Caldwell of Mother Tucker’s Yellow Duck fame.
In 1978 she released her second LP (also called “Alexis”) on the Radio Canada International Transcription label which in my opinion isn’t quite as strong as her first. She apparently released a third album called “Fishing for Sanity” but I can find nothing about it.
Here is “War Baby’s Lament” which kicks off side 2 from her first album:
Alexis provided 3 songs (About Lies, Baby Talk, and Dragonfly And Kites) for the 1979 movie “Stone Cold Dead” which was set in Toronto with Richard Crenna, Paul Williams, Belinda Montgomery (who sings “About Lies” in a seedy bar) and a young Michael Ironside who gets shot early on. It’s a sleazy fun movie (TV Guide rated it 1 star out of 5).
In 1980, she appeared on the CBC Video Album which was hosted by Carole Pope and featured Alexis Radlin, Sandy Crawley, JoAnn Brooks, B.B. Gabor, Kevin Staples, Triple Feature, New Wave Rockers and Gas. It’s below - Alexis appears around the 6:22 mark.
In her career, she appeared in concert with Leon Redbone, Downchild Blues Band, Muddy Waters, Long John Baldry, David Clayton-Thomas, Alice Cooper, Dizzie Gillespie, Olivia Newton John and many others. An exceptional voice; it’s a real shame she didn’t get more exposure.
Alexis Radlin passed away February 28, 2001.
Like A Dribbling Fram
Race Marbles
Toronto DJ Garry Ferrier over at CHUM-AM issued a string of demented hits as a promotional device for the station - his goofy 'Ringo-Deer' (on Capitol) skated along both the Christmas season and Beatlemania to a comfy #7 on the CHUM charts in last week of 1964. In December 1965 with Dylan having plugged in his guitar and caused a storm with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, Ferrier unleashed his own send-up of 'Like a Rolling Stone'. As the fictitious studio band Race Marbles, he recorded the nonsensical spoof 'Like a Dribbling Fram', a mostly-forgotten top-40 song that was resurrected in the early eighties as the closer to the original Pebbles Vol. 3 - the Acid Gallery only to slip back into the dustbin of forgotten gems once more.
The Carnival
Doot Doot Doo Doo!
The Carnival were born from the ashes of The Flying Dutchman Drum And Bugle Corp and consisted of Tim Hallman (Piano), Don Pellow (Organ), Bill Wells (Bass), Bob Brownscombe (Guitar) and Mike T. Oberle (Drums).
The band settled in Kitchener-Waterloo as The Trendsetters and won the audition to become Robbie Lane’s backing band for the 'It's Happening' TV show, by which point they’d changed names to The Carnival. They were working towards releasing an album (tentatively titled 'Keil Heil Kelly') but split up before it could be completed. They ultimately released 3 singles for Columbia in 1968 of which “Doot Doot Doo Doo” is top pick.
The Youngbloods
The Youngbloods played the Riverboat in 1965 - from top to bottom are Jerry Corbitt, Joe Bauer, Lowell (Banana) Levinger and Jesse Colin Young.
Stormy Clovers
The Stormy Clovers were Ray Purdue, Susan Jains, Pat (Graham) Patterson and D.D. Fraser.
The following from CBC television is the Stormy Clover’s covering Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne in 1966:
Ultimate
A couple pics from the good ol’ days of Ultimate.
Nunavut Day
British Modbeats
If someone were ranking the top Canadian album covers, this would have to make the list (pants!). Don't be fooled by their name, these guys were from St. Catherine's, Ontario. The LP is really not very good; their version of “Somebody Help Me” is probably the best track on the album.
Upon A Once Time
The singer-songwriter known as Huckle was born Kelly Cavanagh in 1954 and grew up in Montreal and Toronto. He moved west to Gabriola Island in 1973 and adopted the name Huckle where he helped organize two western tours by Perth County Conspiracy (DNE), performing the warmup act for some of the shows. In spring 1974 on the first of the tours a live recording was made of eleven original Huckle songs with Gary McKeehan engineering - nine songs were recorded live after soundcheck for Perth County's Vancouver concert at Pender Auditorium March 1974. The band included Huckle (vocals, guitar, mandolin) with Richard Keelan (guitar, vocals), Michael Butler (bass), George Koumantaros (congas), Paul Gellman (vocals, fiddle, guitar), and Wende Sinclair (vocals, bamboo flute). Two more songs were recorded live on stage at Gabriola Hall the next night. These tracks became Huckle's first album release "Upon a Once Time". 500 copies were pressed and mostly sold off the stage at concerts. One of the very first "indie" records, it has now become rare vinyl and sells for a lot more than it did when it was new ($3).
The track below is “Beyonder (The Hymn)” and it’s pure lovely.
Computerized Meal Plans
The attempt to computerize meal planning dates back to at least 1971.
“If you think it’s tough stretching your dollars these days…”
Let the computer plan your family menus - the article from the Toronto Star 1971-01-05 lists mouthwatering recipes like “Sweet and Sour Pork and Vegetables”, “Meatball Soup Pot” and a “Fish Fry” - all brought to you by the wonders of technology.
Plus a sale at Holt Renfrew, Town Shoes and Fashion Council!
Bim
Roy Forbes (born 1953-02-13) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who began his career in 1971 after winning a "Battle of the Bands" competition in Dawson Creek. His first 4 albums (plus a Christmas LP with Connie Kaldor) were released under his childhood nickname “Bim” and are currently unavailable unless you (a) find used vinyl or (b) contact Roy and haggle out a price for CD rips - thanks!
A number of Roy Forbes studio albums (and one live LP) have been released up to his latest in 2020 (“Edge of Blue”) and they are all exceptional; his songs have been recorded by Sylvia Tyson, Garnet Rogers, Valdy, and Susan Jacks among others. He was also a member of CanFolk supergroup UHF with Shari Ulrich and Bill Henderson which put out 2 albums in the nineties.
“Can’t Catch Me” is the lead off track from the first Bim LP “Kid Full of Dreams” which made the top ten in parts of Canada:
Bim’s third album Thistles was produced by Emmit Rhodes with a great line up of session musicians - here is the second track “Right After My Heart”:
If you’re on the west coast, catch him in concert.
Below is an article from the 1977-04-30 weekend edition of the Globe and Mail weekend magazine - how does Bim feel about being a star?
An article from the 1990-02-22 Globe and Mail Folk Notes section:
Marshall McLuhan
Lest we forget, the medium is the message.
King Biscuit Boy
Canadian Blues.
Richard Alfred Newell (March 9, 1944 – January 5, 2003), better known by his stage name, King Biscuit Boy, was a Canadian blues musician. He was the first Canadian blues artist to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. Newell played guitar and sang, but he was most noted for his harmonica playing. Newell's stage name, given to him by Ronnie Hawkins, was taken from the King Biscuit Time, an early American blues broadcast. King Biscuit Boy played with Muddy Waters, Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, Allen Toussaint and The Meters.