It’s Tuesday night, November 17. My renovations are nearing completion, the house is dead quiet as I sit here, stretched out on the couch, looking around at this home we lived in together for 18 years. Remembering all the wonderful celebrations, dinners, Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, TV watching, companionable “book reading”, and just quietly being, soaking up each other’s presence.
My brother-in-law kept telling me about New York but all I could see was the tall buildings popping out of the ground of downtown Vancouver. It wasn’t the massiveness of the city. It was the feel! And make no mistake, Vancouver is a city. A big one with a big downtown and all of the pluses and minuses which go with it. Sirens all night, a large homeless contingent, people walking with rolling suitcases everywhere. Restaurants— my God, there were so many restaurants— every kind of food you could possibly imagine.
This week we rewind to the winter of 1978. On top of writing for a few magazines I would occasionally be commissioned to write a band biography for a record company. It’s pretty scary that the money for doing so is still about the same as back in the seventies. A&M Records in Canada used to print their own newsprint paper “Prime Cuts” that they would distribute in record stores across the country. To the unaware it looked like another rock magazine but the only artists they featured were on their label. There was nothing wrong with this as it was clearly stated in the masthead and their rooster was diverse enough to make it an interesting read. Most of the pieces were pretty light-weight (hey, they were trying to sell albums) and this is one that I wrote about the band Chilliwack. Thanks to Jim Monaco for giving me the gig so many years ago.
Once again, I must begin by apologizing for not mentioning something rather important in a previous column. I included the Shuffle Demons’ classic tune, “Spadina Bus,” in last week’s piece, without noting that one of the Demons, Richard Underhill, is currently running for the position of Toronto’s next mayor. You can read all about his platform here: http://www.underhillformayor.com.
Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 