Laughing Coyote’s Blog

The piano player for Curtis Knight taught us many lessons. The one that stuck with us was what I call “Crowd Control”. I’m not going into detail here, we were sworn to secrecy, but we did try it out and we paid the price. Here is Star staff writer Morris Duff’s comments…….

The Boys Learn A Lesson

There’s such a thing as being to good

The Big Town Boys got fired yesterday. They were to good.

The Boys, a rock ‘n’ roll fivesome were hired to do four shows a day in Eaton’s during the Easter holidays to pull in the kids who are off school for the week.

About 300 kids showed up Monday; by yesterday the shows were drawing 1,000 a piece.

At first Eaton’s people were happy with the crowds but about Tuesday the situation became to good.

(insert) I’d say, more out of control.

When we showed up Mon. morning before the store opened and saw that there were only two security guards and a rope around the stage we asked, “is this all there is?”

The guards laughed and said, “who do you think you are, the Beatles? We smiled and said watch, we’ll show you who we are. We then went to work………..

Although the kids were’nt purposely destructive their heels marked the counters, they sat on them to watch the show, several manikins were pushed over. But it was at the end of the show that the real trouble started. A girl leaped onto the back of bass player Brian Massey and rode him piggyback, squealing, “I’ve got one.”  Another grabbed at `his hair and tried to tug out a souvenir. Fellow fans dragged her away.

There was just no pleasing those girls. One grabed drummer Josh Collin’s, kissed him then began to sob ecstatically. Another sobbed likewise, apparently because she did’nt kiss him. Another time Collins was hit by a bag off jelly beans thrown at the group. The greatest potential disaster of the whole fiaso occured when 30 girls chased Coo Collins  through the china department as sales clerks stood aghast. Nothing was broken.

Tommy Graham lost a shirt to the souvenir-hunting girls. Eaton’s added more security guards. Then yesterday a girl appeared with a big pair of scissors and tried to cut off a lock of the Boys’ , she did’nt seem to care which’s hair. That did it. They were cancelled.

The secret of their success? Eight months ago the four Toronto boys and a Montrealer formed their group. They were clean-cut, quiet,sincere looking.

They went to New York, starved, let their hair grow and took on a general scruffiness. Now they’re back as heroes.

This was also waiting for us when we got back.

Josh did most of our artwork as well as our logo. I had nothing to do with that. I was a dudley do right all the way.
There’s a Texan I know that would say, “Yeh, Right!!

Bare with me now, I’m tyring to keep this as short as possible so we’ll jump ahead to  The Big Town Boys in New York City.

This is straight from the Platter Chatter of Davey Disc.

New York City says yes to Toronto’s Big Town Boys. Tommy, Brian, Josh, John, Jimmy opened at the popular Trude Heller’s club in New York’s Greenwich Village and the crowd was so enthusiastic that Trude picked up the Boy’s option to keep them on indefinitly.       (it felt like an eternity)

Even New York’s thieves welcomed the Canadian visitors. While the Boys were doing their stuff inside the club, an energetic soul removed the windshield from their station wagon and stole everything they owned, down to their last pair of socks.

Competition is pretty strong in New York. Maybe the thief is afraid of the Canadian sound…..like so many of our friends in Toronto.

Those are Davey’s words folks but if the truth were to be told, it was’nt the windshield the thief removed. He had smashed the no-draft window…(do they make cars with these gizmos anymore?)…and then removed the contents of the car because we had’nt even checked into the hotel yet.  Always, always, check in before you go to work.  By the way the hotel was a piece of work in itself.

The Gramercy (sp) on Gramercy Park. In its heyday it was a posh for the hollywood elite, not in the 60’s. Being a fresh kid from Hogtown this whole scene was blowing me away. I had no idea what a transcient hotel was, and WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE ?

John who had been around the world a few times before me said with a smile, Cockroaches. There were hundreds of them and they were here to stay, indefinitly, just like our contract. 

The Hawks were staying a couple of floors above us, they were down helping out Dylan go electric.

It was Easter Break and some kids from, I think it was Leaside high school came down to New York for an education, one lad inparticular was Larry LaBlanc who wanted to write up an interview with us for his school project.

Jimmy and I were sharing a room together with the Cockroaches and had just gotten to sleep about four hours when the phone rang at 10:00am. I answered and it was Larry asking if he could come up to the room to do his interview.

I let him up and when I answered the door, the look on his face was priceless. I suppose he was believing the hype in the Toronto Star and RPM that we had finally made it to the top and assumed we should be staying in a 5 star hotel. Needless to say, he recieved an education that morning.

He submitted it to the local paper and it was used as a replacement for Bob McAdorey’s collumn who was on vacation.

Here is his submission……

The Big Town Boys Hit The Big Town

Some time ago there was a woman named Trude Heller who owned a club in the heart of Greenwich Village. It was called The Versailles and it was a bomb. So with the popularity of the Twist, she brought in the Trude Heller dancers, two live groups a night and elaberate decorations. Trudy and the rest of the world stood back in amazement as the club became one of the best-known of its kind in the world.

Part of that scene today is The Big Town Boys from Canada. Tommy Graham, Brian Massey, Jimmy Ardnt, Josh Collins and John Henderson have been playing at Trude Heller’s with marked success for over a month and will stay in New York ’til early March. There are also arrangments for the group to appear at a club Trude owns in Chicago.

The popular five have practically no day life with little time for enjoyment. The boys play’til four am. and then drive back to their hotel, make a light snack, fall into bed and the world hears the last of them until 5;pm. in the afternoon.

Some of their meals are made right inside their rooms and it is a wonder some of them have’nt been admitted to the hospital for food poisoning. I watched in horror as Jimmy made coffee and pancakes. I asked him whether or not the pancake was really a pizza in disguise. He replied, “No, it just looks that way.”

They like the village life although they admit it took some time getting used to. By now they are accepted in the village and Josh and Tommy are busy writing some songs for some of the groups playing in and around the clubs.

Trude Heller’s is the size of a small recreation room, with go-go boys and girls hoisted half way up the wall. The people are extremely friendly and it feels like a large party. You don’t try to move your feet when you dance or you may find some girl has put a spike heel through your foot. The Big Town Boys say that on a single night you might see Marlon Brando, the Turtles, the Byrds and countless other celebrities in the club enjoying themselves with the latest dances. Tommy says, “most of the adults come down here to watch the kids and end up by doing most of the dancing.

Greenwich is more expensive than Yorkville. To get into Trude Heller’s it cost $2.50, which is apparently one of the cheapest in the Village. If you want a drink while you watch that will be another $1.50. You could go through $25.00 in two hours and hardly do a thing. The Big Town Boys have changed their dress habits. While in Canada they wore neat clothes but in New York they are dressed in the traditional village garb. Striped sweaters, tight fitting jeans and leather boots are very “in”.

Their new record “Hey Girl Go It Alone” may do all right in the U.S. with their appearances in New York. Some people are actually surprised when they learn the Boys are from Canada. The Boys have left their mark on New York. Maybe other Canadian groups will follow.

“Two Acts a Night”

(as well as two clubs a nite.)

Trude’s son Joel had a club around the corner on 8th. St. called “The 8th. Wonder”. It did’nt take me long to figure out why it was called that, I was learning the ropes pretty fast, had to.

The other act opposite us was the Curtis Knight Band. The piano players name escapes me but I do remember he was with the ”Crests” that sang “16 Candles”, so he had`a couple of years on me. The guitar players name was Jimi Hendricks, he was cool. It so happened that while he and Curtis were waiting for us to finish our set so they could start theirs, we were called to a halt so as Tiny Tim could come up and do his audition.

I don’t remember who else was with us but Jimi and I slipped over to Washington Square to share a doobie while Tim squeeled out his “Tip Toe Through The Tulips” for booking agents that were always floating around the club.

Jimi pays the band a compliment that sure boosted our morale. He says, “you guys kind of piss me off in a way.”

Why?, what do you mean?

He says, ” we are the first bunch of white guys he’s ever heard that sound black when we play stuff like Mo-Town and when we play Beatles and Beach Boys we sound white.”
He says, “when a black group plays a song by a white group they still sound black, but you guys really mix it up, this is good.”

Thanks Jimi, we needed to hear that. I think though, that those black groups really don’t want to sound white, if you know what I mean?
Jimi just laughs and takes another hit off the doobie before we head back to work.

Oh! did I mention that Joel was always short a band, ” The Young Rascles”, these band would have nights off and the Canadians would have to cover for them by doing a set at Trude’s and then run around the corner to do a set at “The 8th. Wonder” and then back to Trude’s and back to Joel’s and then back to………………… this would go on until closing. I was down to 110 lbs. I went to New York wiry and came home gaunt.

If you read the last entry in Music, Jimmy has replaced Steve Kennedy on tenor sax. Shortly there-after Kay leaves as well as Fred.
Dave Lewis replaces Fred on drums.

(back row)
Brian Massey, James Ardnt

(front row)
Dave Lewis, Tom Goodings, Bob Andrews

Tom has left for L.A. and Dave leaves to be replaced by Wayne. I’m beginning to wonder, is it me, is it something I’ve said? Nah! what’s there not to like about me?

(back row)
Brian Massey, Jack Arsenault, Bob Andrews

(front row)
Wayne Harmond, James Ardnt, Barry Lloyd of Ritchie Knight fame

 Barry comes on board with his Hammond and B3, Jack with his Strat. We pull through another winter without having a wipe-out.
Draggin trailers is a drag. Pardon the pun.

The Spring of 63,…….Tom’s back from LA.

Wanting to start up a new band and needing a bass player he gives me a call. I’m looking for something more challenging and take the offer. The Regents go on to record under the name Dunc and Judy and the Regents, their hit recording “Me And You”.

The Big Town Boys…….

(back row)
Mike Lewis, Tom Graham, John Henderson

(front row)
Josh Collins, James Ardnt, Brian Massey
 

So where did they get their name?

Rumour has it that Shirley Mathews, while singing at The Club Blue Note was scooped up by Bob Crewe and flown to New York to record her first hit “Someday You’re Going To Be A Big Town Boy”.

Hey! who could resist the temptation? If it fits, wear it.

Bigland Agency handled all the acts from East to West about the same time John Bassett Jr. started a teen show for CFTO called After 4.  At that time records were lip sync’d but when the March ratings indicated good response the station decided to use live music.
The show’s new directer Johnny Johnson called the agency asking for some of their acts to audition. The Big Town Boys were one of the acts sent over. Luck had it they suited what Johnny had in mind.
It was they who stole the show at the Gardens in Toronto when the Dave Clark 5 appeared. Johnny Bassett Jr. signed them to play behind the show’s weekly guests.

 Sometime later Mike Doyle of RCA started to move to get the band on label. Their first recording “Put You Down” / “Forget About You” would be released south of the border.
In the midst of apparent success of the RCA Victor release of the Big Town Boys single, comes the speculation that the session was cut in New York or Los Angeles. If this were so, this would be one of the biggest hoaxes of the Canadian music industry, and rest assured RCA Victor is going to play it straight. It was recorded and produced by Stan Klees at Hallmark Studios.

May 1965 The Big Town Boys are now on the Capitol of Canada label with their hot release “I Love Her So”.

What a Great 2 Weeks

They always say, “If you remember the 60’s you were’nt there. So I ask you all to be patient as I fry,oops! already did that. I mean try my brain for info as close to correct as I can get it. 09/05/65I’ve made it to the Garden’s stage again, this time backing up Sonny and Cher who are one of the opening acts for the Beach Boys. Also on that lineup is Little Ceasar and the Consuls, and J.B. and the Playboys fresh out of Montreal. Brian Wilson was in bed for that gig so Glen Campbell filled in for him. That was a cool show alround.I’d post a picture but from where it was taken it’s hard to tell one dot from another.I digress….what’s with the word Boy?   Big Town Boy, Beach Boy,  Playboy, I think that Consuls maybe latin for Boy. Little Ceasar and the Boys? Nah!…anyway, where were we?Oh yeh, now dig the price of the tickets for this show. $4.50, $3.50, $2.50. In those days it was whatever you could afford. No wonder I never made any large sums of money.09/13/65This was the week that most of Toronto came out to view their new City Hall. 

 I’d like to share with you the story of “el juego de la muerte”, or for those who only read in english, “the suit of death”.

A few years ago when my aunt died my mother suggested she take me out to purchase a suit for the funeral. I declined, she said, “no really, I’ll buy you a nice one for $300.00.” Again I declined saying, “mom, as long as my clothes are clean and have no holes in them everything will be fine, afterall I’m here to show respect for the dearly departed and the family.” She agreed and we went to say goodbye to my aunt and mom’s cousin.A few days later when I had arrived back home I went brousing through the Salvation Army store looking for old wooden bowls to make my masks with…(you can see some of these at my web site “luna negro”)…when I saw this suit hanging around the store, it seemed to be waiting for someone,……anyone. It was a dark blue with narrow powder blue pinstripes. I’ve always been attracted to pinstripes because it gave me the appearence of being much taller than I actually am. It was brand new, still had the tags on it so I thought I’d try it on. Wonder of wonders, it fit perfect in the length yet needed to be let out about an inch.