LINKAGES

Johnny Bagpipes: Okay, this one! I surfed the links from Wunderbread to their booking agents link www.integra-ent.ca ... and found a pleasant surprise. Appears this booking agency focuses on musicians that have a great sense of humour. My improv group straggled into the Nanaimo CityTV station one morning earlier this year all bleary eyed. No. It was me. I was bleary eyed. Who the hell watches breakfast television news and entertainment when they're trying to get ready for work? Or in my case, just getting to sleep? "Johnny Johnson"...is incredibly funny. He had us all splitting guts at the obscene hour of 5:30 a.m.. He is very, VERY funny! He says he likes the corporate gigs cos they pay more, but keep an eye out for his name if he performs near you. You won't be disappointed.

Steve Briggs: From: Powell River. Location: Toronto. Education: Guitar. M-College jazz program, then to Berklee College in Boston. The Brothers Cosmoline were nominated for a 2002 Juno award. Also belongs(ed?) to a band called Beebop Cowboy, no current info on that.

Jack Connolly: From: Nanaimo??? Location: Everywhere? Guitarist. This young guy's name is often seen on club marquees up and down Vancouver Island. I know he's in a stack of newspaper articles somewhere near this computer wasteland. When I find it, I'll post it. He has a new CD out. Connolly was the warm up act for some Allison Crowe performances last year. Upcoming Appearances are here. It's not listed yet, but David Gogos' site says Connolly is joining him in September at a Duncan BC gig.

Allison Crowe: From: Nanaimo. Hey, another hometown kid! Plays: Piano and vocals. No info on the bass player and drummer that round out the trio but I'm pretty sure I've seen some/all of them jam at Dizzys. Crowe did a great interview on CityTV this past year. Frankly, CityTV gives the best damn interviews and playing time to musicians, period. My moms best friend is an aunt to Crowes missing friend: Lisa Marie Young. So please check out the info and photos on Crowe's site. The case remains unsolved.

Vince Ditrich: Based on Vancouver Island according to his website. Extensive list of musical credits: Spirit Of The West, Supertonic, Doug and the Slugs, Colin James, and he's the only one who's made mention of it - but a pre-Odds band called CroonTunes with Drake and Elliott. Notice any overlapping of musical credits on this page yet?! Possibly, he played with Dave Kilner - also credited with some similar artists.

Gary Durban: Musician and producer from Nanaimo. Has an awareness CD out on the plight of drug-addicted women with help from other BC musicians. The CD's a reaction to the discovery of murdered missing women on a Vancouver area pig farm last year. There's a newspaper article about the CD on my site here.

Doug Elliott: Alumnus of the Malaspina College Jazz Program. Bass player & Vocals. Tours as a member of: Sharkskin, Craig Northey Trio, Colin James etc. Studio Musician, and Producer (Camille Miller). Based in Vancouver BC. By search engine requests, some wonder where photos of Doug are. Visit the above link as it's an updated website of Northey's. Within the new 3 page gallery, you'll find... stuff. [Edit: 27 April 2004]

Dave Gogo: Award winning blues guitarist from Nanaimo. His latest CD Skeleton Key contains other Nanaimo-ites. Like: Billy Hicks on drums and Earle Gibson on trombone. His tour schedule is here.

Paul Gogo: Piano player for Trooper, also from Nanaimo. I think he's Tim and Toms brother? Sounds younger. BTW: Tim played guitar at Malaspina, Tom was kick ass awesome in NDSS high school on the vibraphones. Seriously. There'd be like this, big awestruck silence when he finished a jazz solo. He could've gone to the Nationals with us and got a scholarship alongside Diana Krall. He just never showed up in the band class much. Couldn't forget that tall redheaded kid...His entire t-shirt wardrobe had the word "Genesis" on them. I've no doubt Tim and Tom still playing. Somewhere.

Mark Hasselbach: Trumpeter. Vancouver based musician, bandleader, businessman. He was my trumpet tutor at Malaspina one year. I had the somewhat misfortune of being last student of the weekend schedule. It almost always meant I ended up driving Mark ...Pfft! Pedal to the metal every time is more accurate!...to the BC Ferry so he wouldn't be late for a gig back in Vancouver. An original member of the Powder Blues band. He remembered me eight years later when I gave him a call. Which reminds me I owed a phone call back. Arg. Okay, what else. He's originally from Denver CO and attended the primo jazz program at Humber College in Toronto. One thing memorable about him beyond music is his snazzy wardrobe. Just popped into a website, yeah it's still his image. Looks like he added Gabriel as his first name now too. Juno Award winner. *Check out the(career) BIO section of his website link*

EDIT/ADD:JULY2003...I was visiting an older cousin recently. Last year, she bought a cd player and asked me to recommend some musicians. The fact she's now got a respectable list of hard to find keepers, plus is up on the newest stuff out there impressed the crap outta me. Classic jazz, BB King, big band (Bobby Darin! Don't get me started, she's even got Connick)...she's 51! Anyways, where was I. I opened up an older Michael Buble cd called Babulu to look at the credits after she plunked it in the player. I love that cd. Also thrilled to see Marks name in the credits. Two paws up! BTW, Babulu being the name of a Vancouver club they've held residence in. My cousin puffed up and couldn't stop beaming that I was impressd, so I guess I'll never hear the end of it. I don't know why I babbled on this. Maybe because it's 4:30 in the freaking morning. Geez Louise, g'night!

Kevin Hicks: Nanaimo based drummer. Edit/Add September 12th: Kevin has an official website that just started turning up in the search engines. It's the highlighted link to his name above, natch. Life And The Drum is the name of his CD. There's a huge list of musicians that recorded with him on this. Almost all are mentioned elsewhere on this website. Examples: Dee Daniels, Ross Taggart, Lionel Hampton (final recording), Myron Makepeace, Wally 'Gator' Watson, Tracy Myers, John Forrest and Ingrid Jensen.

Ingrid Jensen: A world class Juno award-winning trumpet player. Also plays flugelhorn. Born and raised in the Nanaimo area, she's a year younger than Diana Krall. A former student of infamous high school band teacher Bryan Stovell, she also attended the jazz music program at Malaspina College. If the only jazz musician you can think of from Nanaimo is Diana, well then you just don't know what you're missing. This good website link is maintained by her father. How cool is that. Her older sister Janet played in college as well, but no idea if she still plays. I'll have to read up on this site when I get a chance. Ingrids' done very well in Europe.

Dave Kilner: From Nanaimo. Location: California. Plays: Bass. This isn't a Dave site, but this is one of the bands he's in called Kevin Banford and the Bakersfield Boys. It correlates with article 3 from this main index. I think I remember him playing a different instrument each semester of Senior High School band. He was also a nice cutie blonde-haired kid that sat next to me on trumpet in grade 11. One of the cool kids. I wasn't one of them, but I can say I saw some. There's photographic band proof of it, but no one hauls them out of their storage rooms anymore. Don't ask. But here's an AWWW! photo. Congratulations, Dave.

Ryan McMahon: From: Ladysmith BC...a small community between Nanaimo and Duncan on Vancouver Island. According to the website: Soon to re-locate in Vancouver. Plays: Guitar and vocals. This 23 year old has a great website layout, check it out. He's currently doing regular gigs at the Katz club in downtown Nanaimo. It's on the corner of Commercial and Bastion Street. He has a new CD called: "Lights Out," due to be released. It's...alternative country style music(?), and at least one MP3 download has a bit of a Spanish feel to it. His thank-you list of credits for it reads like the motherlode of all lists, there's just about everyone on this site named. Looks like he has Nanaimo, Ladysmith, Victoria and Vancouver lined up in the near future. Watch for an upcoming tour to promote the cd, I'd assume. McMahons also been a warmup act for Allison Crowe.

Mother Blooze: [Edit! Name Change: Are now called "Stiletto" Location: Victoria. The lead singer, Nik, is one of the first people I ever met from the internet. The rest is a long complicated story involving live music and clubs. Scott's the lead guitarist, and a total ringer for Dana Carvey as Garth from the SNL skits. Between song banters often include a: "Not gonna do it," speel. The photos on their site don't have close-ups, or the Garth-type clothing he can't bear to part with, circa grunge era. Stiletto is a great band to watch and dance to. The current lineup is the tighest I've heard them play, they're really connecting. They have a wide repetoire of classic cover tunes, (hard rock, soul)and have recently begun to write their own tunes. 1970s-80's retro is often what the crowd wants to hear after five beers of courage to say so. They deliver. Very easy-going cool bunch of people. Check them out, and tell Nikki Onassis that yvonne sent ya! ;-)

Craig Northey: Vancouver based. Guitar and vocals on his latest cool CD Giddy Up. My favourite songs off this CD are: Famous Grave, Take A Hit Off This, and Slow Motion. All of them should be music videos. Musicians on this cd include Pat Steward (drums) and Doug Elliott (bass). Northeys' journal is thoughtful and well written. But I just don't ...get... some of the stories he makes up. They're kind of out there. Or an inside joke? BUT! But. Then there's gems like 26 April 2003 in his website journal. Classic.
***FOR NOW, HERE'S THE LINK TEMPORARY LINK TO MY TRANSCRIPTIONS, ETC. THE TEMPLATES FOR "A DAY..." ARE BEING REPLACED.***

Craig Northey on: " MySpace "

Sharkskin: Re-invention of personnas and musical style of: Doug Elliott, Pat Steward, Craig Northey and Simon Kendall (keyboards). *Check for August update of near appearances*

Pat Steward - drummer
Alumnus of Malaspina College Jazz Music Program. Based: southern B.C. Drummer. Studio musician. Vocals with Craig Northey Trio. Tours with Colin James, Matthew Good. Past history includes sitting in with ie: Bryan Adams, Tower Of Power, Doug and The Slugs. There is a very good newspaper article focused solely on an interview with Pat that came out not long ago. When I get a chance, I'll transcribe it onto a page and link it here. [Edit: 27 April 2004]

Strippers Union on MySpace
: Members are: (Vancouver-ites)Simon Kendall, Craig Northey, Doug Elliott, Pat Steward, and (Kingston ON-ite) Rob Baker from the Tragically Hip.

Strippers Union Local 518 : official website: As above, musicians from The (former) Odds, A (formerly) Slug, and a Tragically Hip

Colin Wiebe: From: Victoria. Based: Vancouver. Instruments: Vocals, keyboards, guitar etc. Colin is a member of the Randy Bachman band. He's the guy who sounds like Burton Cummings on the Guess Who material. "Every Song Tells A Story," is a Bachman release where you can catch Wiebe performing on the DVD - a live recording of a house concert type performance. It's also available on CD and it's one of my favourites. He has also committed to the Cops For Cancer Bike Tour, called "Tour de Rock," and it's held on Vancouver Island this year from: September 21st to October 5th, 2003. He is also a solo artist with a new CD available as a pre-release via his website. And hey, he answers his e-mails.

Wunderbread: This is definitely a must-see-all-of-it website. It'll give you an idea of how much fun they have doing 70s cover band music. All have played for most of their life. Both raised in Nanaimo: Billy Hicks on drums is one of the best in BC. Earle Gibson plays trombone, keyboards and vocals. Earle was a year ahead of me in high school and at the college music school. Keep an eye out for Wunderbread when they're on the road, you'll enjoy the musicianship. They're playing the Queens in Nanaimo next weekend, which is Friday and Saturday July 25-26th...Tix are $8 advance purchase or $10 at the door.

The Neurotics: This website is just too...unusual for a full description. I was surfing. Look where it got me.

Scaryduck: Award winning creations. Funny ducker. This is also the original home of Pengor.

Wil Wheaton: This is a great place to find out what you actually wrecked on your computer. MS, Macs, Linux, Opera, Mozilla. It's all there.

Zoe: I've only surfed into this site once. But it was interesting. Apparently her boyfriend is a twat.

Marc: My favourite Nova Scotian poet and researcher. He's working on his masters' thesis: Finding a cure for evil sex.

Sassylittlepunkin: My favourite kid from the Great Pumpkin patch. Sassy is into improv, writing and saving the world. She is a Canadian who fled the country. PS: She's in Los Angeles.

Texas T Bone: My favourite journalist from San Antonio. He enjoys beer, family and will likely plot to end Marcs' quest. Once he finds out about it.

Erm. Marc, Sassy and T-bone don't know I've updated the page comments. SHHhh.

I'll re-phrase the comments now. Marc IS indeed working on his Masters degree. Sassy really does do improv. And T-Bone will drink beer, drive his family north and end Marcs' quest anyways.