Alberta Rock-N-Roll Reunion

[Esquillama]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but here goes.
I'm leaving in about six hours to go fly to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to play the show. It's kind of a big deal as many of the performers are getting up in age, and won't be able to do this agian. I'm not taking any of my own gear, but all will be supplied at the venue: http://www.winspearcentre.com/conten...tid=2&rootid=2
If you scroll down the right hand side there's a calendar and we're listed for October 6.
I've never played anything like this before, I'm a little nervous. So far they have sold about 900 tickets, and it looks like they might go a bit higher before Friday. We'll be backing up several acts including George Tomsco who is famous for "Sugar Shack" and "Bottle of Wine". It'll be a great experience for me. Here's a link to the site for the show: http://www.superoldies.com/reunion.html

I don't think I'll have any internet access while I'm gone until Sunday, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on this gig.
And anyone who's in Edmonton who wants to spend some money, come on down!

[Lazylion]

The Happy Feeling with "Sacroiliac Boop"???
I'd like to hear that one!

I always felt good about backing up any of the "old guard". I think anybody who had some success and didn't succumb to the pitfalls of stardom deserves a lot of respect. I always tried to do a good job for them, and lend them a little dignity. Also it takes a lot of nerve for stars long past their heyday, especially the women, to appear onstage. It's gotta be in the back of their mind, "can I still do it, or am I just a joke by now?"
One time back in the 80s I backed up a lady called Sue Thompson. Her hits (in the 50s) were "Paper Tiger" and "Norman". Typical dorky 50s pop fluff. I felt bad for her because she had to follow a wet t-shirt contest. She put on her half-glasses and read a poem about grandparents before doing her songs. She looked like somebody's grandmother, and in fact, she was. You can imagine how this went over with the wet t-shirt crowd. Tough gig.
I'm sure that former stars like her often get treated with less-than-respectful attitudes by backup bands. We were much younger than her, and I barely remembered "Paper Tiger" as an oldie when I was a kid. But we did a good job for her, and I felt good about that.
So do your best for them, and give them some respect. They deserve it.

[heroincredible]

Hmmm. If I didn't have a lot of things to do this weekend I might've driven up and checked you guys out. Good luck.

[Esquillama]

Just got home. It was a blast! Those guys are a lot of fun.
Some of them hadn't played(or seen each other) in over 30/40 years.
They had a ball reuniting and getting out there in front of an
audience again. We ended up with about 13 to 14 hundred in the
crowd, and the show ran almost 45 minutes long, but the whole
crowd stayed there 'till the end.
They even had everybody out in the lobby to sign autographs
afterward....even us! We actually had a bunch of people stop by
our table for autographs. That was fun.
It was great to get to mingle with those guys and hear all the old
stories. Seeing them see each other after so many years was a blast.

The day after the show we went to the West Edmonton Mall, for
those who don't know it's a HUGE MALL with an ice skating rink,
water park and sea lion show, and much much more. Anyway, we
were just minding our own business walking along, and a couple of
ladies stopped us and said they thought the show was awesome,
and that we did a great job. When we asked them if it went on
too long, they said, "No way, we would have stayed all night, we
got back to our hotel in time to have a drink. We had our tickets
months in advance." They came all the way from Victoria to see it.
There were a lot of people who came from quite a distance.

I took some pictures, but I STILL haven't figured out how to resize
them and post 'em if they aren't linked from a website. And either
way, I can't do it from home 'cause my computer only has dial-up.
I'll load them onto my computer at work tomorrow and see if I can
finally figure out how to get them to show up.
In a few days our guitarist will be back, and he's going to post
pics on our website, I'll be able to link to those at least if I can't
get mine up and running.
What an awsome place the Winspear Centre is, quite a concert hall.
Triple balcony and state of the art sound system.(I took a pic of
the front of house board) It was a real pleasure to play there.

I have more to tell, but I'll wait for some pics. It was cool to be
a small part of a historic night like that.

[Esquillama]

Originally Posted by Lazylion

The Happy Feeling with "Sacroiliac Boop"???
I'd like to hear that one!

Yep, and they did that one. It was a hoot.

[Esquillama]

Here's one pic from the show, hopefully I'll have more soon.
This is us backing up Canadian music legend Dick Damron on
a couple of tunes.

[Esquillama]

Here's a closer pic backing Don E. Scott who wrote Johnny Cash's
I still miss someone.

And a shot of the performance hall. It turns out there were a total
of 1440 in attendance.
without people:

with people: