SUNNY DAYS: THE SKIP PROKOP STORY (PART 3) by Jaimie Vernon

Skip Prokop (drums), Bill Misener (guitar vocals), Chuck Beal (guitar), and Denny Gerrard (bass)  formed The Paupers on December 10, 1964. Skip picks up the story from here.

Bill moved to our house in Alderwood (south of the QEW near Browns Line) to stay with us, and he went home on the weekends. We would drive from Alderwood, New Toronto, over to Scarborough and we would practice in Chuck Beal’s basement because we could set up our equipment there. That’s where we really began to put the band together.

Roxanne Tellier – What’s That In Your Pants?

If anyone had said to me, even a couple of months ago, that in July of 2017 the President of the United States would suddenly decree, apropos of nothing, and via Twitter no less! to “please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military” I’d have snorted like an outraged donkey.

JAIMIE VERNON – 40 SUMMERS AGO

The end of the school year is fast approaching. As I take my son back and forth on what will be his final year in high school, I find myself drifting back in time to when we looked forward to summer break. My childhood was filled with great ones. In 1975 I took a two week trip west across Canada with my grandmother in her 1972 Skylark which changed my life, and my world view, for the better. That was almost completely undone when my parents attempted to take my sister and I on a similar trip to Canada’s East Coast in 1977. It was a study in stark contrasts on how not to travel with one’s family.

JAIMIE VERNON – K-TEL’S SHINING STARS

I’ve run out of epitaphs. The battlefield of pop continues to accumulate bodies. During this past week we were reminded of the passing of Karen Carpenter (33 years ago) and the officially recognized Day the Music Died (really? Then what have we been listening to in the intervening 57 years?).

JAIMIE VERNON – CIRCULAR IMPRESSIONS, 7 INCHES AT A TIME

There once was a band called The Extras. They were an amalgam of players that used to back up the late, great BB Gabor. When they went off on their own they released a debut album called ‘Bit Parts’ and had themselves an FM radio hit with a novelty tune called “Circular Impression”.

JAIMIE VERNON – SPIRIT OF ’76

 

My world in 1975 was earmarked with two rollercoaster events – the emotional and physical upheaval of my life when my parents bought a new house and uprooted us to the suburbs…and a two week trip across Canada with my grandmother in her 1972 Skylark. The trip trumped the upheaval and I slowly began to grow accustomed to my new surroundings, friends and lifestyle. So 1976 was a complete surprise when it introduced a number of firsts.

Justin Smallbridge: Radio Redux

Mad Men is back, which is great. In addition to the multilayered work of Matthew Weiner and his cohorts on the series, the accompanying history and popular culture are concomitant joys of that show; it’s fun to work out when a particular episode is set and run down the attendant details. Season 6’s opener, “The Doorway,” happens at the end of December, 1967. “Hey,” some folks said, “What about the Summer Of Love”? Having Season 5 end before it started and Season 6 starting after it was over was a deliberate choice Matthew Weiner made, and it’s not tough to see why. The Summer Of Love happened in San Francisco — miles away, both geographically and psychically, from Manhattan, Rye NY and Madison Avenue specifically. Weiner said his specific reasoning for that choice was that the come-down and “hangover” offered a richer range of dramatic possibilities than the groovalicious summer months of 1967.

Doug Thompson: CONFESSIONS OF A PROFESSIONAL ROCK AND ROLL INTERVIEWER – “AND SO, DEAR FRIENDS, YOU’LL JUST HAVE TO CARRY ON. THE DREAM IS OVER.”

I’ve been interviewing musicians, singers, actors, authors, record producers, session players and songwriters for almost 40 years…everyone from ABBA to Frank Zappa.  I’ve also produced over a thousand hours of radio programs that have been heard around the world.  Every interview and program has a story behind it.

This is one of them.

Doug Thompson: CONFESSIONS OF A PROFESSIONAL ROCK AND ROLL INTERVIEWER

IN THE BEGINNING (MY RADIO DAYS & HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS)

When I first started in radio in 1964 at CJCA in Edmonton (while still attending school), then, in February of 1965, being hired at CHUM Toronto, the station I’d dreamed of working for since I was 13 years old, I never for one second, ever imagined I’d become a professional rock and roll interviewer.  Of course, that was and is only part of what I did and continue to do.

Doug Thompson: Confessions of a Professional Rock and Roll Interviewer – Ringo Starr

Filling in for Cam Carpenter (who is busy with the NXNE Film Fest this week) is Legendary radio and television producer and writer, Doug Thompson. Cam will be back next week, but look for Doug to be popping up again soon. 

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

John Lennon wrote that lyric for the song “Beautiful Boy”.  It works for this column as well.  When Bob Segarini and I first discussed my writing this, I thought I’d tell some funny stories about some of the interviews I’ve done since 1964 (my first year in radio).  There’ve been over a thousand in total with everyone from ABBA to Frank Zappa and all the letters of the alphabet in between.  I thought I’d start with one of my favourites, Ringo Starr and a couple of thousand words later, there was no room or time for anyone else.  That’s why this is only one of many.