I had rightly predicted that the Parksville concert would “up-my-personal-profile” on Vancouver Island (where I live). I found that everything takes a little longer now, when I am out running chores at home, ‘cos some people pull their cars over to chat….which is super friendly, and fun.  Everyone wants to see us do well on tour.

Before Taking to the Road …  Life at Gogo Manor

My days off at home are FULL of activity, even if it is recreational, like swimming, ‘cos that can include cliff-jumping.   I am responsible for filling GOGO MANOR with food; all the freezers up to the top, to be sure that everyone, all the summer international high school students all survive in my absence. We have new guests from Columbia….Korea.  For those who may have missed the topic that ate up the past year of my life  … GOGO MANOR is the new international student housing complex for Malaspina International High School that has been established over the last semester.

Such a facility has never been established, or allowed, in my hometown of Nanaimo, by the city, or the school…… so it is a brave venture, on everyone’s part.   Somehow, all three parties (me being the third) all had the same idea at the same time….I guess, and I proposed it. This is also the perfect side-project for a musician, (which is all I have ever really taken on as a profession).  I have invested in a dozen small businesses since I was a teenager…..each one failing more miserably than the last.  Brutal, year after year of putting all my resources into a “really good idea” that eventually bombed. And this concept is based on a serious student housing shortage…….so I call it a success, so far….. There’s an idea……base a business on something that there is a proven need for, as opposed to something that I think people will really like.

There are 8 summer students now, and will be 11 by the end of the month.  There have been 30+  guests over the last 10 months.

For fun, here is a list of the nations represented so far at our mini-UN:

Egypt
Saudi Arabia
Germany
Japan
Canada
Viet Nam
China
Mexico
Mongolia
Ukraine
Nigeria
Columbia
Korea
Brazil

But nobody from NORWAY, so there have not been many cakes baked…….

————————- Joke Break! ——————————-

So, my huge joke:
How do homeless people educate their kids ?
Homeless schooled.

——————————————

I am sure I talked about this before…..me buying this huge old house I grew up in, and the constant updates….new shower, bathroom, electrical service, drywall, paints…..total face-lift.  It still needs a ton of extensive (expensive) updates, that will probably take up towards 2 years to complete.  But the house is already successful to the point where 3 more first-class bedrooms are being built into the suite below. Before I left town to go on this leg of the tour, I said good-bye and good-luck to 2 electricians and 2 carpenters.  All working in my absence…..

……….so what do I do at GOGO MANOR ?

Well, I financed it…..I oversee bookings……help settle students in…..cook a bit…..(I hate cooking).  And before we had any guests, I tried my hand at everything from tons of drywall mudding to electrical.   There was very little time and very little budget last year, so I did what it took to get it all running….  Now I really just shop for groceries. That is what I do…..and I enjoy that very much. I have a thing about grocery stores. I love them.  I compare brands and prices in every province, just for fun.  I don’t know, it makes me feel some kinda fancy to push that big cart around.  I honestly find it really interesting and entertaining.  I’ve always hated (non-grocery) shopping, but this project has taught me to somehow enjoy it. During our next break I must go and acquire three more desks, lamps, curtains, sheets…..all matching, of course…rugs, too.

Oh….and having a house full of international students….I did plunge a toilet and sink on my way out to tour.  That is the downfall of international education. I hear that the washrooms at the school are like upside-down septic tanks. Many wealthy people, from overseas, neglect this part of their children’s development.  If you can believe that.  The good news is……this new semester, the students at GOGO MANOR don’t just get a washroom orientation….they also get assigned janitorial duties.  I am not saying that all of these kids are pigs……but it only takes one….right?  And chances are, there is more than just one.  Same deal with the kitchen.

Tracy-Lyn is Den Mother Extraordinaire and she delegates things very well….the chores…. I give it a year before the system is at a point where a manager can take a lot of that on.  Once the house is fully rebuilt, and the systems are all in place…..someone else can run it….please (!?!?)  And I don’t wish to write blank cheques to a house manager….I have written enough blank cheques in my short business life so far…..

Before leaving with TROOPER, I also had to cancel a recording session I had booked with the Opera Girls, due to my having been sunstroke.  With so little time off,  I decided to condense my fun in the sun … during a heat wave (the likes of which I never see ‘cos we’re on the road so much during the summer).

Heading Out On the Road

So I got to sleep by 10 PM on our last day off before the tour……set the alarm for a 4 AM leave.  This HP MINI is my new best friend in the hotels. It is sloppy, slow to warm-up, and the whole system looks hopelessly dated… but it is friendly.  Paul Cloutier (aka Cloots), our tour manager had a briefcase full of fresh homemade spring rolls that he shared at our regular spot at the Calgary Airport (our second home these days). He also brought seaweed chips, deep fried spiced seaweed. So, I plug this little computer in at airports and read emails while I snack.  The best.

The first flight had me next to Laura Lee, who retired from skiing after she won the Canadian Championship, and she now runs ski schools and arranges charity events, very successfully.  She had really funny stories … neat people you meet on planes hey………………

Two  cabs, one ferry, two planes, and one hockey bus later, (12-hour travel day) we arrived in the Best Western Prince Albert, where we used to stay frequently, many years ago.  That night I fell asleep after the last gig listening to the Jonestown death tapes on YouTube on the HP MINI.  The next morning it played different performances of Schubert’s AVE MARIA……

Pavarotti is in Italian, but a really high key.

This quiet time away from home is something to adjust to. The time it takes to start up this computer is well spent ironing my 3 new stage shirts……….

Prince Albert

I managed a mini nap at the hotel, and we got a ride for the one block to the arena, and stood in the hallway connector to hear the last bits of Kim Mitchell’s set. They were in top form. I went back to our dressing room (hockey change room) to snafle and sandwich, and we could hear the crowd howling for Kim’s band. Excellent.  Kim walked in to our room to shake hands and show some brotherhood. I am a fan, and I always liked him.  It was an unusually long changeover between bands, and I had the time to visit his room.  The band was very nice, fun and gracious when I asked if I could enter their dressing room. I asked KIm if he was a big fan of progressive rock, being that he always had one foot in that camp and he replied, “Yeah, I always used a slide ruler and calculator.”  Then he said “Here check this out” and put the heaviest pizza box in my hands….funny stuff.  He told me that “ anytime you are in Toronto, drop by my radio show and chat, play something or whatever…”

And Peter Fredette, bass player and famous singer told me all about the new MOOG TAURUS 3 pedals that he is getting, and that backline companies are going to supply….and that he has two sets of Taurus ones; Kim has three sets (I have one mint set) so some shop talk.  I am careful not to overstay my welcome in these types of situations these days, I don’t know how good a job I did of that in the past. But seeing those guys lifted my spirits for sure.  Great band.

Has anyone noticed how our audience is getting younger every year?  I would guess that most of the arena audience that night has never seen us before, ‘cos we have not played this town in so many years. They would have all been little kids. This is great hey….I got some wonderful crowd shots with my fancy little new camera. No offense to people my age, but teenagers are great upfront as well.

I don’t know if the security crew felt the same way, because it became a game for the stage-runners to try to not get caught and thrown off the stage by this army of bouncers. I have never seen so many kids get bounced, and it actually got dangerous at the end, to the point where we did not do our stage bow….for the first time ever. There were people flopping around all over the stage, and it was all really unnecessary, from my perspective. All they wanna do is dance, and I have nothing against stage dancers at the end of the set … once all the guitars are off of the stage, what can it hurt?  It is a love-fest, always….this is not a political riot…..very high-energy and physical….but all totally positive.

Scott walked back onstage and pushed all those guys aside ‘cos they were stomping on his cable.

And they ran out of booze…..a LOT of booze.

My fav quote of the day:

“The way you guys interact with the audience is not normal either.”
(from Mr. Bus Driver)

So we kept moving on….more flights….
Had a day off in Calgary….so I called up my old friend Dave Kean and visited him at Audities Studio.  This place is a registered charitable foundation dedicated to the acquisition and preservation of important electronic instruments and recording devices. Dave has been doing this for over 20 years, and the results have been the resurrection of  the MELLOTRON, and now several synths and outboard compressors.  The bottom line is a serious world-class recording facility. I stayed up late playing some neat instruments including one of the BEATLES old pianos on a track the next day (also, some electric violin).  It was amazing to hear what a full-out analog studio sounds like, after hearing digital for the last 20 years. Lots of discussion about that with Dave, who is a detail fanatic.

Dave and I also went to a party that featured a bar-b-que and performance by 79-year old Art Adams, who is a rockabilly pioneer, and cool guy.  I met the neatest people, got to spazz-out on a 1875 square grand piano … and had a grand old time (with salad).

We TROOPERS played a corporate fundraiser gig in Calgary with BC-DC, who were amazing; the guitarist was in a cow-suit.  There was a violent hailstorm that knocked out the lights, but we were able to finish the show with sunbeams as lighting.  I had missed the sound-check for the Calgary gig … I had no piano onstage ‘cos it was turned down, so as not to kill Clayton on drums.  Didn’t feel that I played very well, and that my solo was actually not fully smooth or exciting……but hey still kinda wild.  I got back to the hotel in time to stay up for our  7:30 AM leave.

Had some laughs and stories with THE STAMPEDERS at the airport before catching a flight to Winnipeg.  Once there,  we stayed in a hotel outside of town a wee bit,  so I just spent the day in my room for the day, watching a serious storm and getting some serious snooze. I got a call from one of the builders back home…..the GOGO MANOR 3-ROOM renovation was behind schedule, and I had slightly overbooked the place with too many students (or so I thought )…..some phone calls were made. It felt like my hotel room was a spaceship going nowhere…..feeling disconnected…. I am not used to that kind of isolation, to the point where it was strange to see the guys the next day at the sound check. Longest sound check we have ever had, and a state-of-the-art casino.  The gig was super high energy, my favorite  quote of the night was:

“people here don’t usually go ape-shit like that…..”

Scott wiped-out into a fog machine and cut his leg, and we had real Winnipeg rye bread backstage. In fact the nicest sandwiches of the tour;  and Scott is not too worried about the gash in his leg. (Should I have made that into two separate topics?)

It was strange … this huge casino hotel was FULL of kids, all families, all Natives.   I wondered why everyone was on holidays at a massive casino with a McDonalds that is open until 3 AM.  I finally asked someone and apparently there was a huge flood at a Manitoba reserve and the village got evacuated.  The gig sold out, and we signed a ton of stuff and I was proud to see our picture on the wall next to WAYNE NEWTON, DAVY JONES and KENNY G.  I was also proud of how well we played and what a great party-vibe was created at the gig.

We learned “Little Loretta” to play at the next gig at a huge festival with our friend Greg Malo. At the Winnipeg Airport, we ran into THE STAMPEDERS again, for some mega-laughs.  They got rained-out and didn’t play the same festival the night before, that we were going to play that night…..

Steve Crane (our stage manager) got to jam afterward with a guy from STREETHEART and HARLEQUIN at the Jaguar Lounge.   I almost went, but got too enthralled with a hallway which was really a gigantic aquarium, with fish flying over your head. About the neatest thing I have ever seen. There was a hallway like that in Vegas with lions above, but this was much more psychedelic.

—— Rant Break ———————————–

“…MUZAK….Eulogy for a dead art….”

OK…here is a short essay I just wrote, FOR FUN…..
(inspired by chit chat on the Eddie Jobson Forum)…..

the location:          8th floor, empty office building
wardrobe:              dated gray suits
time:                       4:45 pm, Friday.
ambient sound:    MUZAK “One is the Loneliest Number” on flugelhorn
action:                   man walks up to a microphone, clears his voice…

“I LOVE Muzak….always have.
But, sadly, I hear it less and less every year.

I take different elevators everyday now,
and not even one plays a drop of Muzak.

It is all now just a series of BEEPS from buttons now.
Everything has a loud BEEP, everywhere you go…..what floor ?
in case you don’t know that you just pressed
for your floor, or that the door is about to close…..BEEP BEEP….

No,
I can not even tell you that last time I got to bliss in Muzak.
It just is not there any more, not even at ZELLERS,
(where the lowest price is the LAW.)

Now it is classic rock,
and even the first ASIA album can not match
the profound reverb wash of pure, traditional, classic Muzak.

My big brother Tommy, and I  bought a stereo when we
were kids, and there was a radio station that played nothing
but Muzak…..and I cranked it all the time…..
the most compressed mixes I have ever heard….
it was insane…..NO bass to speak of…
just one big safe, plush, ocean of glorious and relaxing mid-range….

And now even that station is “Soft Rock”…Whitney Huston….and so on…
top of their field…. and they don’t even play the zaked-out Christmas carols.

I fear that the Golden Age of Muzak has dropped its sail.
The sun sits on the horizon, and barely a silhouette remains.

And what some considered to be
“America’s Classical Music”
has become much like your old computer…….
….uncelebrated for its former glory.
…a junk relic, scorned for getting old
while the rest of the world moved toward
new ways of recycling old ideas.

MUZAK has lushed-out its final harp-swoop……..
..sounded its final bell as the tuba case
obscures its last gasp at a lush novelty military bark…..

….when the racks of tube audio compressors…
all sold to “retro-sound” studios….who search “That Beatles bass sound”

While the halls of creepy studio reverbs……are filled
of boxes of assorted tax papers…from the lucrative accounts
…..phone services…..on hold….boring offices…
…spiced with vintage instant coffee dust

The virtuoso violists and bassoonists with relaxed toupees…retired on union pensions,
with kids past the age of university dropout…..

And the weird aging scientists who scored for multi-strings,
all designing websites for small-time knitting clubs…..

Yet,  it did not have to be this way.
We could have saved the beast,
protected our non-entertainment
from this demanding modern age…

we could have added more bird and whale sounds..
waterfalls…..the sound of sunshine through the rain…
scored new tunes rather than always covering the big hits….

And we could have cut production costs
by investing in a sampler
or an Elka Rhapsody…and a drum machine….for Pete’s sakes…

We could have added vocals,
Mormons, fine singers……..always on time….
‘cos…who need to hear the actual voices
of Simon and Garfunkel?
The meaning is in the melody….
always has been…….until now…….

I mean, think of the lost revenue here…..!
the piano tuners…….the album sales….!!

’Cos there used to be full albums too, you know.
……..the complete version of Sgt. Pepper’s,
TOTALLY Muzaked to death.

Hilarious……..a total party-killer.
I bought a copy, and can not even find it on CD…..

And, a valuable educational tool……to prove
once and for all that soft drugs are
not a necessary recording technique for the music business.

And you thought that Altamont killed the ’60s…..

They even hired a sitar player and recreated
“Within You Without You” with the Muzak philharmonic…gorgeous !
Way safer than the George Martin production.

And “A Day in the Life”……the vocal melody
on left-hand piano notes…before the beat
…behind the beat….wild phrasing…stuff of genius.

Nobody plays like that any more.
Nobody produces like that any more.
And shoppers are not as relaxed as they used to be, either…

And, get used to hearing more straight-out advertising on the
phone lines, while being promoted here and there….

Because….
since 1997,
only 11 years past the summer of love
(Expo 86….)
Muzak uses only original artists for its music source
(wiki)……

And you can hear how many accounts they have lost in the process.

Meaning….Muzak still supplies piped-in music,
but they don’t record it themselves anymore.
(other than the environment channel…whatever the heck that is….)

So………there is corporate America for you.

Now you can enjoy “soft jazz”
in hotel lobbys……cable TV “what’s ON” stations……….

If you DO hear real, honest-to-Betsy, Muzak at all these days,
consider it a time-capsule moment.

Because, like great second-generation fresco artists
of the Post-Renaissance…….the true Voice of Muzak has been muted.

Will there be a backlash ?
A 20-year-cycle Muzak revival ?

Will we ever live to enjoy late-night
“greatest Muzak-Moments” on paid TV ads
when we are strung-out on the 3am couches of the promised land ?

No,
I don’t think so.
‘Cos so far, nobody has noticed that MUZAK has disappeared…….

And how can you miss something that you were
not supposed to notice, anyway ?

I never could figure that one out.

….and that, my friends,
is why the soft jazz if so darn LOUD in hotel lobbies….

love,
Gogo

———

Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Road Programming …

Where did we leave off ?
We played an outdoor festival the day after Thunder Bay and for three days we averaged about three hours of sleep per night. I got my snooze at airports, and on planes.

We played outdoors at Thunder Bay, in the rain…..got wet…..

We had one very early hotel leave and Scott and I cruised in one of the cabs to the airport with the funniest driver. I don’t even know what was so funny, but it was the best AM comedy….the driver was a total fan and capable of designing the wildest ideas…..lots of fun…..

Then, four days off at home, and other than one afternoon spent with some friends at the cabin on Protection Island, I pretty much dedicated my energy toward helping to complete the building of the three new student rooms that were started before this tour began.  This is exactly what I said I would NOT do with my time-off……but I did get to jump in the river by 9 PM every night.

After the days at home, Scott and I were back catching an early 4:30 AM ferry to continue the tour – this time out for 26 days … when is the last time we did that ?
Years ago.

We played a gig in Red Deer as part of  Westerner Days, so a HUGE arena concert, the place packed……..followed by a  fund-raising gig in Calgary…. and  a VERY successful casino gig at the Deerfoot.

We stayed a a brand new Ramada, where I shopped at two brand new stores next-door, a  SOBEYS grocery store and a  Wal-Mart….. bought a new lap top and mailed it home. That night’s gig was a big metal grandstand in Olds, Alberta…..a radio station promotion.  The radio station people were really nice and they took great care to every detail of getting us, and our equipment in and out from Calgary. A local (and very cool) elementary school teacher brought his gigantic limousine to the hotel, and took us to a backstage room, and a meet and greet, and then right onto the field to the stadium…..so having us pull-up to the stage in this huge limo was part of the actual show. Hype….I love it.  It was really neat, and the floor section had all young people, cool groovin’ kids all very enthusiastic. As the sun went down we could sometimes get a glimpse into the bleachers where everyone was standing up and dancing….as the crowd-blaster lights worked their flashes of magic.

What is really interesting here is how LOUD the audiences have been lately.  In my 16-years with TROOPER I thought I had a pretty good idea how loud festival crowds can be.  But lately, and all the band guys noticed have also noticed, the roar has taken the next step, if you could imagine that possible. And having everyone stomping on the gigantic metal grandstand helped at the Olds festival as well.

But it has been noticed, at these last few shows, that some key songs are just one massive roar from the audience,  and our excellent sound engineer Cloots can not even hear the band at some points.  (This is a good thing, by the way.)  And, we were breaking attendance records everywhere.

Writing this, we were far above it all, in a plane going back to Toronto.  It had been a long travel day … my seat-mate for this flight was a little baby crying, which was all right.  I had one of those $2 vegetable soups, and a good book to read, so I dug into both of those while most of the band and crew had already fallen asleep.

—— Rant Break —————————————

Essay of the concept of: AGEISM…..

I remember once performing at an outdoor festival in some town and doing
REALLY WELL at it……everyone was ecstatic as could be. And the next day, the local paper had a review, that focused primarily on:
“They were really good, considering how OLD they are…..”

The review just made one reference after another to that fact that we are no longer teenagers……..nope, not teenagers.  Well, neither is the president of the United States.
But somehow he got the job. I couldn’t help but think how silly the person who wrote
the review is going to feel when he/she reads it again someday.

You know, the people are great, at our shows, of course, always are, God Bless ‘em.
But the media looks for anything on anyone who they are still allowed to pick on.
…and who are left….”old” people….fat people….Catholics……gays……. all of the same
groups that the Nazis were not too fond of……

The gays have a lot of power in the media, now, so they can fight back, with comedy. They still get picked-on …and there is no defense for the fat people who not united, yet, and the Catholics are too busy praying to counter the attacks…….which will never end, until “THE END.”

….and meanwhile the alleged “old people” still take the blame for ruining the planet……….

And you know, they are going to pick on Mick Jagger until the day he dies………then they are just gonna talk about how great he was. And they may even recognize the fact that he GOES FOR IT even though he can well afford to stay home.

He is 67 now, and do you remember the “Steel Wheels” tour, when everyone
with access to a microphone with a TV (or print) feed made jokes about the
“steel wheelchair tour ?”…..when was that? 1989?

How old was MIck Jagger then?……46 ? Or is my calculator on drugs ?

And now, we have Bon Jovi on tour……front page headline glowing reviews
in Alberta….and not a mention of the notion that the singer is (gasp !) 48.

What has changed ?
Is it suddenly OK to be a “Dad Band?”
Or do the glam-metal era reviewing-fans not want to admit that they too are spinning around the sun at the same pace as the rest of of the world…….and that they too are aging……

And somehow the media allows classic performers like Tony Bennett, George Burns, Gordon Lightfoot, Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck…..to age gracefully….
like ….”they get better with age”……….

Well, I like to think that everyone gets better with age, as do THINGS….classic cars……movies…..recipes … if they were any good to begin with, and if people care to keep them alive.  Does anyone ever say “Yeah the Mercedes Gullwing 300sl is good, but
it is so OLD !”…….funny, nobody ever says that.

I read a book where the author called the 1769 Cugnot Steamer a “lemon.”
Well, if it was the first car, what was it being compared to?
Wouldn’t it just be kinder to admit that something is “unique?”
Really, the guy did  pretty good job of building that first car when so many other innocent souls in France was getting their heads cut off.

There are plenty of factors for change……details can be flexible over time…
a guys uses a different gauge guitar string….
the band plays through a frappy PA……
things can sound different over time….
even a listener’s perception changes (matures)..
but if the spirit is there, it cannot be all bad.

But I guess it is the job of the media to jump on the factors in nature, that can not be altered ….like age…..(although things like weather conditions get a pass.)

I sometimes wonder … what is it that some people are looking for, that they do not already have?  What is the magic detail that upsets the balance in life ?

To me, it is like when people complain about McDonalds.
Does anyone really think that the world would be a better, safer or happier place without McDonalds? Maybe…..I dunoooooooo…….. but I like my McFavorite Hamburger Clown……even if he is in his 60s.

———

Rant Over, Off to Toronto

We enjoyed two days off in downtown Toronto. I got into a big slice of pizza right away, and answered a text from our tour manager to join everyone for a little gathering (party) in his room. Neat when everyone hangs out for no reason other than for some good company.

So after some snooze…….I walked around the next day and bought religious necklaces from a neat Mexican lady who makes them and sells as a street vendor. I was so inspired that I went to a bead store and started to make some as gifts for friends back home.

Talk about a no-pressure scene.

We performed a private birthday party gig at the famous old dance hall, Kee To Bala, where a successful businessman honored his 82-year-old dad with a big party….about 100 people, and us playing, loudly. I liked this one ‘cos our tour manager Cloots got to run into a store as it was closing to get stuff to make up a deli tray. It was really funny, ‘cos he loves oranges. There were some pretty girls there, and the belle-of-the-ball ended-up with broken shoes, yet was still walking around, crying, and yelling at small groups of guys.  I liked it all. The people were fun, and the local crew were great, and the Cloots’ deli tray magnificent.

We went on to a schedule that was basically the same every day:

wake,
drive,
mini-nap,
ride to gig,
gig,
meet people,
hotel ….

But what was neat was that we had three big outdoor gigs in a row:  Port Colborne, Peterborough, and North Bay,  where the crowds ranged from 10,000 – 20,000 people. We broke attendance records, had huge PA systems and met hundreds of really nice people. I liked everyone I have met on this tour. At every gig, we were the last people to leave the site, (other than the security and the techs who tore the big rigs down).

The routine did not really allow for much walking around the neat towns…… other than walking across parking lots to find some snacks…….so really I did not get into the local culture much.  But I could see that it was summer in Ontario, by the canoes on the roofs of the cars, and obviously by the fact that it was so hot…….(heard from home that there was a heat wave there too).

Ahoy Matey!

Canada has a law now that you have to get a boating license to operate any power boat, of any size……all you need to do is pay a fee and take a test online. So, we had four days off in Ottawa, and I had the “Safe Boating” guide sent to my hotel.  With Smitty as my sponsor,  I read all the study materials, bombed 75% on my practice test…but nailed the real test at 94%.
Kinda proud of that…..

Feel free to skip this part…….. the two questions I got wrong:

#1
Under what conditions can a marine signal, such as a marker buoy be used to moor pleasure craft?

Answer: Under no conditions.

I said “In an emergency”
(I figure I would tie-up rather than die…in an emergency……but that is just me…..)

#2
Why should you reduce the speed of your pleasure craft in poor weather ?

Answer: to avoid losing control

I said “to avoid taking in water.”
(which is true in my 2 hp open aluminum boat situation…..very much so…..with no risk of ever losing control).

Ottawa

We had a few days to relax in Ottawa, and the Marriott became our home.  I walked around tons downtown.  Beautiful.  Also saw the multimedia light show presentation on the Parliament buildings….a couple of times. Nine projectors of 14000 lumens each hey….and serious subsonic quad sound. This is quite the amazing country we live in.
I learned East Indian riffs on the violin, off of YouTube,  slept sideways on a KING bed, and stayed up until 3 or 4 AM every night. It took a while, but I finally got rested from the busy year we had, and grew accustomed to spending time by myself. No international students…….

Ottawa…………….10 things to do in Ottawa……..

1) walk around in the pouring rain and get SOAKED

2) walk around in the sunshine and get soaked

3) sit on the lawn on the Parliament building at night and enjoy a huge quadraphonic multimedia display….awesome…

If you want to read the rest, you’ll need to check out my Facebook page!

The other neat thing was a private tour of the Archives and Library Preservations Building in Ottawa. The band  got a two-to-three hour private guided romp through this indescribable tight-tech operation which preserves treasured Canadian artifacts, including every book that has ever been published here.

A 98-milllion dollar, four-story concrete structure, housed in a metropolis-looking glass building……containing 48,368 square meter vaults, all serious temperature and humidity-controlled. In fact,  the air is completely changed seven times per hour.  There is not one speck of dust….no wood, no drywall.  The whole thing was so shockingly high-tech….the film to video lab, the map restorations…..wow.  The video and film transfer, restoration and archival section blew my mind….tens of thousands of hours of hockey games, as you can imagine, in the most high-tech facility possible on our planet…..ANY format to ANY format.  Dignitaries from various nations visit just to see how Canada does this.  No dignitaries on our tour, just a really nice reporter who accompanied us. The day before, I toured the Canada Mint, and same deal……the rest of the world visits just to see how well this can be done…..consequently we mint coins for dozens of other countries.

Days after our visit, I got an email from Mister Chris, back home, telling me that a half page of our local newspaper is about our trip of the National Library, and the fact that TROOPER documents are stored and studied there…….pretty neat….it was in the National Post too…..and probably a few more papers,  I would imagine.  All good.

Toronto

We played a 600-seat venue in Toronto as part of a radio station, Q107 summer party, we headlined (the KINGS PLAYED TOO !!!).  Driving into Toronto for this gig, the traffic was at a standstill; everyone in attendance had won tickets for this very serious party with go-carts, and a pool.   I had invited Prince Abeeb (from Nigeria) to the gig tonight (he lives at GOGO MANOR, but was holidaying in Toronto)….but he couldn’t make it because of his Islamic fast.   I guest-listed my friend Jeehoon and his friend, both of whom are rock journalists from Korea, living in Toronto.  Unfortunately, didn’t get to hang out with him, but he sent me a note after the gig with some cool comments … “I witnessed the audience going MENTAL” … “Phew!  My ears are back to normal now after all the female fans around me screamed to death” … “Your solo was superb … Jon Lord would have fainted if he had seen it!”

The Bus

I was really jazzed to get the tour bus for the last leg of this trip.
The thing was deluxe … these crafts cost a million dollars new.  Trooper’s bus had 12 bunks, mine was very snug, but I got a full 8 hours sleep the first night …  3 AM and I was the first one to retire.

I hung out on the bus the whole day for the Navan Fair. That was cool, ‘cos I could practice a lot, and also see the best of the demolition derbies, what we used to call smashup derbies. I had never seen one live before, always wanted to when I was a kid. The best one was all big 8-cylinder cars, Cadillacs and stuff…..big crowd, super redneck, super funny. GREAT fair, one of the top ones in Canada…..again we broke attendance records.

Remember exercise?  Scott has been working out on the road, but not me.

Well, it took a while to drive up to Cochrane, Ontario.  We got 11 hours of hotel time before the show, so there was some snoozin’ and some walking around, looking at the old locomotive….there was a heat wave, apparently their first in a few years. I read the wiki on the town, and learned that the arena we were booked into was named after local son Tim Horton.

Waking up on the road is always a bit of a challenge. I can sleep anywhere and through anything. On the bus,  tour manager Paul Cloutier would casually announce,  “Gentlemen, you have arrived at your destination. Your room keys are waiting at the front desk for you. All you have to do is pick up your keys and go to your rooms.”

This is the first tour where I also discovered that my cell phone is also an alarm clock. I learned that one out of every three “wake-up calls” from the front desk never happen.

The town of Cochrane has a declining population of around 5000 (so I read in the wiki) and a short growing season. Cool to be the main act as they celebrated their centennial!

I love when the people are right up front, touching the stage like this. The arena was full,  with more people outside who could not get it. The temperature and the humidity made it one gigantic rock and roll oven. I think this was my fav gig of the tour, just ‘cos it was so raw. No pleasant summer wind across the stage, just a bouncy wooden stage (my keyboard rig bounced and moved a couple of feet during the show) and one of Clayton’s cymbals fell over and knocked a couple of knobs off of my synth.

The production crew had a heck-of-a-time arranging a digital keyboard for this gig….. they called everyone in town who had anything  (one lady said hers was too expensive to let out), so they ended up grabbing the one from the high school.

Again, I liked everyone I met, which was a decent percentage of the crowd. Near the end of the night, someone commented on the brotherhood of the band and crew. I have to agree, we are all good friends, and we have a lot of fun together.

One fellow met (who had played guitar in the opening act) was a third generation local, as a train engineer (do I have that right?)….he made a documentary and left some DVDs at the front desk of the hotel for Ra and I to pick-up….but after my two-hour snooze I woke-up in just enough of a daze to get onto the bus in time … didn’t remember that I needed to pick the DVDs up at the front desk until it was too late……downer.

I was not excited to see this tour end. I could have gone on for awhile.  The last two weeks of this 26-day tour had no flights…only the one home.  It was actually nice to take a break from airports.

That final day turned out to be a 24-hour travel day between  the bus to the airport, and the three  flight delays.  We ended up at the airport in Vancouver at 2 AM, Monday morning, so Scott and I got a hotel room  and caught the first ferry back to the Island.

OK, I will admit it, I am tired……  the summer has been very free-form on my part.
It left me a lot of time to practice….snooze……and play keyboards.  I took a digital camera on the road this summer, and took a picture of every concert crowd.  That has been my fun … plus reading a lot, I found a book about the lives of saints at one of the excellent used bookstores in Toronto.

This summer also had the most whales on the side of the ferry to the Island.
One trip we had them jumping up and all around, really close…..orcas, hey, killer whales.
The most graceful and powerful creatures.
Sometimes we get the dolphins…..porpoises…. escorting the ferries.  I love that.

Thank you for being here!
LOVE,
GOGO

Home School Drop-Out

Sitting here with Ra at the Regina Airport, and he is showing me pictures of this amazing bus-yacht…. who —hooo! But I don’t know if he is suggesting that we take that rather than fly today.

We have lots of fun. I was just razzing the guys that “I am here ONLY for the conversation…..”
I hear stuff on the road that simply is not discussed at home.
I have already learned more about Mac OS that I had thought about all year.

We have  just enjoyed the longest stretch of winter and spring inactivity,
being that our last gig was the Olympics, about 5 months ago.
And suddenly we are at it again, a flight per day……

ITINERARY:
20 June -         arrive Vancouver (TROOPER) 9:20 am
21 June -         fly out of Bellingham Washington 10:50 am
22 June -         arrive Los Angeles (days off )…..Eddie Jobson UZ concert and go to the beach !
23 June  -        fly out of LAX 8:40 pm
24 June  -        fly out of Vancouver 1:30PM (TROOPER)

Life is amazing, (or am I just in a really good mood?)!
I think that the smaller the town, the friendlier the airport security staff.
I never get hassled.
I get asked to tell my little road stories-to-date with those cats sometimes,
and they never question bringing a violin bow onboard.

‘The Cloots’ (Paul Cloutier, tour manager) is simply the best guy around,
and he gets us all checked in and organized,
All I do is show a ticket and passport to a WESTJET person at a gate
and at the last fight we both said “rock and roll” at the exact same time.

Nice to go on the road………….
The day before this tour (2 days ago) I borrowed the neighbour’s truck and smashed out their taillight at the recycling depot….(I got guided into it by a worker there)…..hassles, you know….just trying to dispose of old drywall….

…so I went to an auto wrecker and got a used truck taillight, broken in a different spot, and a
wonderful mechanic friend just Frankensteined the two together……….

….and 2 construction guys are making 3 new bedrooms out of my GOGO MANOR basement suite, and the windows I ordered for the job were the wrong size……so a re-order
and a re-design there…..and now,  all of that has been taken care of……all I do is talk on the phone now….thank you.

…. I sit here wondering what the next youtube song is that I should listen to……probably CHICAGO’s  “If You Leave Me Now” ……..I LOVE the violins.

You Tube is my new best friend on the road.
I have listened to every posted version of CHICAGO’s “If You Leave Me Now” ……I never get tired of it.

I have always been obsessed with string arrangements.
Most songs, I could not tell you the lyrics, but I can sing to you all the violin lines…Annie’s Song….Roger Whitaker… all great real strings. Over the winter I have been recording lots of violins, making my own string section.
VERY liberating.

The Olympics

I did not write a road report about the Olympics; about the athletes at the hotel, and having run into each TROOPER band member amongst the thousands of people crowding all the streets…and the beautiful gift basket, and the lux hotel and the limos and the tight security …..
….. and the huge scrim in front of the stage, watching the countdown before the curtain drops, hearing the crowd roar … and seeing the BC PLACE crowd for the first time, surrounded by high-def cameras.

It wasn’t until after the show that I learned that the whole thing was broadcast on Much Music and that my friends back home got to see it too. Then I was all “Oh did I screw-up ay parts or look too ridiculous?”
But I saw a DVD and am really proud of how we represented.

Loverboy was wonderful as well, and great dinner-mates at catering backstage. Mike Reno and I had soup, and for the first time ever, I had a nice long and detailed chit chat with Doug Johnston, (keyboard player),  and I got to know him a little better…and I let him know how much I look up to him, and always have.

I love profile-raising gigs like that…and I love all gigs. We played the Arena in Regina last night to a ton of people.  It was billed as a COUNTRY NIGHT, and there were still messages for Dwight Yokum backstage, who had the stage, (and backstage,) the night before….we Troopers all stayed back after the show for awhile laughing with each other…..the start of our summer tour.

I somehow woke up for this 9 am lobby call this morning, despite my phone and alarm not working…..and I have a ton of emails from my family…..estate stuff….TONS of it……and I would prefer to take a break from that, but this is about the only point where my 2 lives collide right now.

I spend a lot of time dealing with family emails on the road.
Total reality shift.

Did I mention that I have 8 international student living in the downtown house right now, and they are so fun, so cool, but most are leaving now.   I just got a schedule, with a chart for the summer students who will by staying at GOGO MANOR.
The school takes care of booking everyone, and GOGO MANOR acts as a private wing of the school. Nice hey!
But I will miss these kids, for sure…just said good bye to Anastasia (from the Ukraine) before I left.  I asked that she keep in touch over the years, ‘cos she is a really neat kid.

(As I read this over before submitting it for publication on the TROOPER site,
I find that I do not, in fact miss the students as much as I thought I would).

Going Back on the Road

That day (2 days ago) before I left, was way too busy. I told myself that I would just relax the day before I leave, but no, I always fall into a mini-time panic…..even after our record-breaking long time-off break between shows.
Things somehow find their way into being important at the last minute.

I drove back and forth from SLEGG LUMBER to GOGO MANOR with loads of drywall, 2-by-whatevers lumber…..and then to the recyclers with the old drywall…..and I did not get a chance to go to the swimming pool. Brutal. But I did get the construction guys to carry the new 5/8ths drywall into the house, and the international students to help load-in the boards. I can not risk any hand-strain before going on tour.

But swimming, I CAN do !
We have the biggest wave pool and highest waterslides West of Edmonton…at the Nanaimo Aquatic Center…..and I manage to dive-in 3 times a week…..and it is COLD….COLD!  I tell you!
So we are now back to hotel pools, and I am always on the look-out for a lake to swim in.
Gotta be more careful though, ‘cos for years I would jump into any pond…..

The fancier the hotel, the less people use the pool….and the nicer the pool too.
I watched a windshield-breaking hail storm from the hot tub at the Marriott in Calgary,
with nobody around…….but if that had been the econo-motel…..the place would be jammed with kids.  Fancy hotels may not get the people into the pools, but they sure get them into the restaurants.

I remember once when the whole band went swimming in the Georgian Bay….early into my run with this band….summer time, cliff diving…..slightly more than a pond (Lake Huron!) hey, awesome……
this band has gone swimming together lots over the years…..the salt pool of Saskatchewan….we always have fun.
I think that is why we are all still here.

I love this band, even if they didn’t notice the huge wild blonde streaks and wild hairdo stuff that I did for this tour.

Man, I forgot to pack my vintage stage boots and had to go onstage last night in my skateboarder shoes. I was pretty-much embarrassed about that, or at least uncomfortable, but nobody hassled me about it. It does not feel right to be in the same shoes from sound check to the gig…..for me anyway, ‘cos I have been doing some things a certain way for so long.

I bet tons of people are like that with their professions.
A doctor doesn’t want to operate in gum boots
and a bricklayer does not want to wear ballerina slippers.

Yeah, and I am missing the Saint Peter’s Council bar-be-cue in a couple of days, at Father Valdimar’s house. I got nominated for church council last month, and also elected (I think on the back of my late Mom’s old friends….like the CWL choir) ….and I managed to stay awake for the first meeting. I dunno ………I kinda do what is asked, you know.

Wow, 28 emails from my immediate family alone over the first day-and-a-half, would be fun if it was not all related to estate issues.
We are into day 2 now, and both mornings I did not get my wake-up call, and my alarm has not worked. Amazing that I woke-up at all, and not even late.

Alberta Badlands

I drove home from the gig in Delia last night, and we stayed at the Ramada in Drumheller. I didn’t bother to get out to see either the dinosaur or the creationism museum. What a stupid argument that is, between the two, hey. Things started somewhere in the universe and things developed, didn’t they?  How things start, and where they go from there are two different concepts…….so what is all the fuss?…. So other than some violin scales, a walk to the IGA for bananas, and some email replies, it has been pretty recreational, lying around.

I drove the band bus back from the Delia Town Hall after we finished signing stuff and meeting all the good-vibe folks. I drive way slower than anyone else, and made room for people to pass me. I have to concentrate, cos Ra has pictures of ultra-gourmet meals on his new iPad, in the passenger seat

Smitty was driving one day and got pulled-over for a bit of speeding, and the cop was a young guy who was not as impressed with TROOPER as he was to have finally caught someone on his deserted stretch of highway. His quote was,  “Just because you are a celebrity, I can’t give you a break.”

I love gigging, and I do miss it when I am away…..as soon as we stand on the side of the stage for the last couple of minutes before we go on, I can feel the intensity of what I would miss if I ever had to stop touring. I love it all…I love the fog machine at the back of the stage….don’t get that at home. I miss my people back home, of course, and the ocean out the front window….but I do not miss the telephone. Terrible invention that one.

And I miss the TROOPER people who were with us over the years, and we talk about the guys tons. About Lance,….who has heard from him…..how long his hair might be now …..Frankie and his wild energy…..Richard Nott and what a great guitar player he is…and lately, that Craig is no longer with us as well. Craig, the ultimate tourist, the best day-trip buddy and the computer fix-it man, the human GPS, the eating machine……I totally miss Craig. Great man. Craig was always a good vibe, really smart, and organized.  We hung around lots in Barcelona and took a Niagara Falls day trip once too…and Wasaga Beach….I like when cats are always up to going out to see stuff.

Ok ….. ever since that  guy on TV tried to blow up a plane with toothpaste, or whatever, we always check-in our shaving kits with our crew, who put stuff into the merch bags. So when I get into any airport, I am handed back my shaving kit. The idea is that I never bring a suitcase for tours that are less than 4 shows, so I put the shaving kit into my knapsack, and it has to get transferred every time we go through security, which is A LOT. So … as boring as it was for you to read that, it has been equally complicated for me to keep track of …..and I lost my shaving kit 3 times over the last 2 days.

Somehow it always comes back to me, (thanks to our amazing tour-manager)…..and even if I accept its eventual demise someday…. I always tell myself that it’s better than forgetting my violin.

Two Birthday Party Gigs in a Row

And I talk to anyone I see who has any kind of music case at airports, even the Australians with the banjo. To my delight, Ian Cameron got on the last flight (he is a very versatile guitarist and violinist). I have been a huge fan of Ian’s since EXPO 86…..so I very casually went up to him and got really excited about getting a violin lesson from him. He knew I wasn’t kidding.

So when we landed in Grande Prairie, checked into the fine hotel and spa (I had a KING suite with 3 sinks)…and I got a chance to reply to the latest batch of wild emails…….I got a text from Paul Cloutier “Lobby 8:30 the gig is awesome.” If we had left earlier we could have gotten in on the helicopter rides, and the set of tunes by the 7-piece band DEERE JOHN. But we arrived at the restored antique caboose, turned private gaming room…. with plenty of time to snack-out and meet the big-time wheelers and dealers of Northern Alberta. I was told that these are the big boys who deal in hundreds of millions. Cool, I guess…..

This was a private party, a retirement and birthday bash for some folks who are into trucking, oil and everything,…..(well not everything…….I am not convinced that they are hooked on abstract expressionism…)…… the party was was held on their  5,000 acre buffalo ranch. VERY beautiful setting with a small lake and high-end PA and staging. Scientists have studied the unique plant life on  this farm ‘cos the last ice age passed over this area.

(I am at the Edmonton airport for an hour stop-over as I write this, Ra is contorted and sleeping on the 3 seats next to me…) sleep at 3 am and awake at 6……had the LOUDEST phone in history wake me up today; the first of 3 wake-up calls that I actually got… and some airports have free internet, this one not……..try to type thoughts with 3 hours sleep …….whooooooooooooo

Ok,  so about 200 people at this private party last night surrounded by oceans of fields. Very nice people, I liked everyone, but I was most excited to track-down Ian Cameron for the big violin lesson. He was very enthusiastic, smiles and opened his case, brought out his electric violin and quickly pointed out 5 things that I could improve in my technique. From my thumb to my shoulder position, I got a total work-over. It was the best crash-course lesson since that last one he gave me, backstage at Club Soda when he was with JUAN TRAK…..when was that ? 1986. EXPO…..I was THERE !!!

So really what are the benefits of playing with a very successful rock band? Everything….whatever you land on really. What interests you? At this gig, you could have learned anything you wished to know about tractors, oil rigs, card playing…..and have contacts at the top of every field. The nice wealthy folks left us alone in their private caboose, with all their booze and cheezies….so you really could have as much high-end party delights as you want as well, really…….. But me…..I am thrilled to grab as many violin tricks as I can from Ian Cameron. Considering how many musicians we meet, you really could learn anything about music (and booze and cheezies) anytime.

I saw Bill Henderson (singer with Chilliwack) at the ferry terminal once, so I asked him what the first chord to BABY BLUE is. I knew it was not a regular E6th. He told me to play a C, 5 frets up with your pinky down. And really, how else would I ever have figured that out?

It is like Smitty’s intro to THE BOYS IN THE BRIGHT WHITE SPORTS CAR…what he plays is so original, and bizarre, that you have to learn it from the master himself. Nobody would ever guess the actual technique.

OK, having said all that…….here we are back on the flight to Toronto.

Who have we seen lately at the airports…THE TREWS….THE GUY FROM SPIRIT OF THE WEST. He is really nice, John……

California

We just had 5 or 6 days off, so I drove to Bellingham, stayed with a friend and then  flew to Los Angeles to see Eddie Jobson’s new band.

I had booked these flights months ago, before these Trooper dates came up, and I only had to shift the arrival time to make it work.

The few days I had in California would make a book in itself.   A lifetime in a short time … the highlights were warm ocean swimming, a whole lot of chit chat with British people, gourmet Mexican food, and a concert by my favorite keyboard player, who also happens to be my electric violin guru (Eddie Jobson)……I am a mega-fan, and was guested at the concert and after party, along with several others who flew in from around the world. We all stayed at our friend  Lenore’s beautiful Spanish Long Beach house, and were treated like kings the whole time.

The vibe was as golden as the California sunshine.
As far as I can tell, the beaches in LA are the ULTIMATE hip scene.
The epitome of cool, with everyone invited, not elite, just groovy as the day is long.

Lenore’s husband, Bob, who goes to the beach A LOT, helps a 86-year-old, with a stroller, in and out of the water every day. It is total community. I can imagine that not all of L.A. is like this, but I sure got blessed with the right crowd.

My dune buggy obsession took the next step on this trip, as an overnight stop (with our excellent friend Scott Miller) exposed the little green dune buggy that I now intend to buy, bring back to Canada and have rebuilt. Stuff of dreams, but I think I am awake enough to pull this one off. Gotta have some fun, right?

My plan is to tow-bar that dune buggy across the border and over to Vancouver Island after the closing date of the PNE on September 6th.

Life can’t all be just simply flying, hotels and rock concerts.
You gotta be able to hit the beaches in style….even if the style is classic 1965 Meyers Manx.

The drive over the US border and connecting flights were seamless, back from my little California holiday, and I got to VYR earlier than the rest of the band; happy to see Clayton arrive next.

I sat next to Ra on the flight out…(empty seat in between) in the emergency exit and I told my stories, plans and concepts…..subdivisions, house rebuilds, recordings and of course, dune buggies. I think Ra is up-to-date with my hype.

Ra showed me pictures (on his iPad) of the house next door to him being ripped down by an excavator, and I showed him all of my pictures of boating and cabins on this little HP mini. My battery died, (and his iPad battery never will).

Ontario

Played the Casino Rama last night; TROOPER and COLIN JAMES. 
4,200 people in a HUGE theatre with top-of-the-line production and hallways with hundreds of photos of the top world’s entertainers, who one-by-one have filled the 200 shows this place hosts every year. The building itself in on a reserve up from Toronto; a multi-multi-million dollar facility, with the fastest glass elevators in town, and the most giant buffet of the year. I was surprised to get six $20 food vouchers with my room key, but it all made sense when I saw the size of the hotel suite. These people are first-rate about everything. This is the KING of the casino gigs, as far as I could tell……4 front-of-house consoles to choose from…..

Scott Brown kept running into Colin James all day and they became chums.  I stayed in my room the whole time, other than to do laps in the warm indoor swimming pool. We played our “OLYMPIC set;” 45 minutes, and then spent most of the evening signing t-shirts, with money from that going to a charity for radiology. I have never seen a more genuinely friendly staff at any facility on earth. Everyone was happy to be there.

My local Toronto friends Derrick and Jen came out for the hang-out and concert, and they will be there tonight as well. It is very rare for me to have guests, and really quite a nice treat when it happens. So we all hit the buffet pretty hard.

We sat out front for a bit for the Colin James gig, and the sound was really good, and the facility, (the biggest concert theatre I have ever seen), was very comfortable. We signed a ton of stuff on the way out, and I never did meet anyone from that band, other than the really nice new guitar player…..I kinda know those guys from years ago, but between meet and greets and me being a hotel hermit, there were no extra jams that night.

There had been a tornado and an earthquake in the same day….and then the G20 riots, that looked totally staged to me. Why, oh why, would there be cop cars burning away for the cameras and nobody putting the fires out? How could anyone even light one up with 8 zillion cops around? Seriously. There are more riot police than regular people on the street, and still somehow….guys can jump on the cars, burn them……good theatre, but I don’t like it…..It came across like a handy way to justify the incredible expense of all of that security, and a proven method of trying to keep the public in constant fear. Really, like the cops couldn’t figure out who the “BAD” people are (all dressed in black) and get them to smarten-up. Primitive bunch of clowns.

My friend Jeehoon dropped by the hotel to hang out, but he couldn’t make it to the gig, ‘cos his job was to take the Korean First Lady to a Catholic Church in the morning. I will be flying at that point, and avoiding earthquakes by being in the air.

Hey, speaking of which…..
Our priest back home is happily trapped in the 14th Century.
When he talks about getting stoned, he means that people are gonna throw rocks.
I just wrote that one hahahahahaha……..

The brand new Ferrari California (the first ever with a removable hard-top) was parked next to us when we left at 1 pm the next day for a short drive to the airport hotel …cloudy.  As I hear … it had also turned that way in  Los Angeles as soon as we left.

So we stayed the last night at the Delta Airport Hotel in Toronto. It was about an hour drive out to the Mossport Speedway, for the ‘Ride for Sight’…..a huge biker festival for charity. This was my fave gig in quite awhile. There was a huge bus for the opening act COLT HARLEY and I got permission to board, and they called me by name and said I couldn’t leave until I had a puff on a reefer. I just took pictures instead., had some laughs, grooved on the crazy green lights and the mob of people sitting really low….and then got to play a really nice digital piano outdoors for a sea of bikers. It was kinda ominous with the surrounding fields all dark with a dozen big campfires glowing. 800 bikes, apparently, amongst the campers…..

This is the start of the summer shows, and this one was loose and psychedelic. Great people. Ra got the guy up front with the harmonica to play a solo and I got the dazed-looking  teenage girl to look up and smile. I almost got to take a picture of 3 huge bald guys with very serious faces and video cameras, but I was still playing piano….. It would be neat to see a documentary and interviews of this crowd. Everyone would have a ton of good stories, I’ll bet.

Canada Day … Parksville Beach

We are all at the TO airport now, everyone with their computers and iPhones out…..next gig is just minutes away from my hometown….outdoors at Parksville Beach, Canada Day.  Chilliwack played this one last year….30,000 people on the beach….legend has it.  It is a free concert and EVERYONE is going to be there…….the last time we played Vancouver Island at all was 2006….4 years ago……and it sure raised my personal profile on the Island. I got very friendly service at the lumber yard after that one…..and that is what I do with the odd days-off here….drive back and forth to the lumberyard……but happily I do not pick up a hammer these days….at all…..not even for fun.

So what is the best thing about dating a homeless girl ?
You can drop her off anywhere.
hahahahahahah

Scott and I saw a huge pod of orca (killer) whales right off port-side of the ferry. Absolutely majestic. They did the huge water-spray and curve-up out of the water routine. There was about six of them moving along at once. Made the trip for sure.

We had a day off, and I continued to organize the summer students booked at GOGO MANOR, and see-off the ones leaving. Mr Chriss took the gang to the beach in his limo for the last night together, and it was all very loving……. until I saw the mess that they left in their bedrooms. Some people just don’t get it, and probably never will. Love and kindness are not always rewarded, of course…..and I suppose that is why the Lord invented damage deposits.

I figured that as renters….international students were a pretty safe bet.
But still……….you are going to get slobs.
Shameless.

I was very excited to be playing Canada Day on Parksville Beach. Talk about a dream gig; a huge outdoor festival 30 minutes from my hometown of Nanaimo. The big word was that Chilliwack played last year, for 30,000 people………as I keep telling everyone….. I was hoping that we would beat that attendance record, of course, it  rained  (but it did stop in time for our show….)

Our 2 days off of touring was far busier than I had been on the road. And most of it was really fun, including my drive to Lantzville to rehearse one song on electric violin with the band 33rd Rail……. Heather (our webmaster and promotions manager) and her husband stayed one very short night at Gogo Manor, and we went for a nice stroll around the neighbourhood and had a midnight jam with Richard Nott…..these are the defining moments of a summer. It is always the events between the events that are the most outstanding memories, hey…..

So what is the best thing about the homeless?
They are good on Pita Bread.
hahahahahahaha

My goal for the Parksville concert, being that it was a local show, was to not have a huge entourage. Pretty-much everyone I ran into said they were going to this gig.  At other shows, such as the Vancouver Island Exhibition, I had well over 30 people in my entourage, on a guest list, and most of them were guests of my guests. That is way too much work for me.

Scott told me that he had spent that day alone, back 4 years ago at the VIX,….relaxing, and I can learn from that kinda of wise approach. I mean, there is no reason why I need to burn out before an important show…..so this time, Tracy-Lyn and I hopped into the new Maxima and made an early drive up to Parksville, without anyone else onboard…..no students, no nephews…..nobody.

The idea was to get to the site for a 10 am sound-check, being that there were to be bands from 12:30 onwards. What I did not know is that Parksville shuts down the entire Island Highway for a parade every Canada Day, so the highway was backed-up, and traffic was detoured down residential side streets. I thought it was really funny, and I loved running into the very friendly traffic directors who were so excited about our show that night, and I got waved right across the parade route. Scott, who was ahead of me, ran into a bad cop … one of those “I don’t care who you are!” guys.

So I made the soundcheck, saw ex-Trooper crew members Randy Bergner and Harvey Windsor, Richard Nott…..we played some songs, had some laughs and watched the last half of the huge parade, ‘cos we sure were not getting out of there until that passed. I loved it all. Great sound check and a great parade.

We checked into the Beach Resort Hotel, a brand new luxury 8-story beauty right on the massive expanse of Parksville Beach, and as Tracy-Lyn ironed my shirts, I got set-up with violin scales. I walked the boardwalk and the beach up to the stage and was astounded to hear how good one of the opening acts was. THE RACKET CLUB, a 4-piece group of Nanaimo veteran players, with a stunning Beatles medley, heavy and great vocals. They cover songs that nobody else would dare (“Conquistador”), and yeah, I wanna play with them too!

I got prepared for the one song to jam with 33rd Rail at 6 pm, and I arrived at the stage at 5:30 to plug in my ZOOM echo pedal thing, and have my cable ready for “Paint It Black”…..the closing song of their set. I did have a mini entourage of 6 at the hotel by then, and I told them where I would be, so Tracy-Lyn video-taped my violin intro, and the song I got to play … I was horrified to watch the play-back, ‘cos I could barely hear one note onstage. The next band up was also a who’s-who of excellent Nanaimo musicians….my people…..so I was a little excited to play electric violin loudly in front of all of them. (I did watch the video tape back that night and was happy that my pitch was not as bad as I thought it may be…) Of all instruments, the violin is the one you don’t wanna play by sight alone (fretless, hey, with tiny spacings…..) The crowd was yelling TROOPER all day……..

The other local musicians were very gracious and tons of fun. I only got up there and jammed for the fun of it, you know….when we headline a festival, this is usually nap time in this situation. I walked the boardwalk back, got a half-hour of lay-around time and met with the rest of TROOPER for a beach board-walk to the stage. The crowd had filled to capacity by then, and I had a hard time making it to the backstage trailer, as there was so many great people that I knew, who had made it up for the show.

There was a host who would talk in the mic the whole time during any band changeover, and he had earlier threatened to have my car towed during sound-check (in a huge empty parking lot with the parade still going on the highway) and he stomped on one of Ra’s jokes in front of everyone…..he ended up playing tambourine right center stage behind me during my guest violin spot with 33rd Rail….so I don’t think I wanna post any of that footage on Youtube. He was a nice enough guy, but I don’t need to hear comments over the PA about “TROOPER is backstage collecting their social security…” before we go on. Both untrue, and unfunny. What is the point of slagging the headliner before they play for a festival audience?

I know, a joke is a joke, but the best ones are not at the headliner’s expense…..in my opinion.

The stage was not huge, no big video screen production, (but a GREAT sounding PA!) and the people were pretty compressed up front, as far as I could see, and a great sea of people going back in all directions, and a HUGE exaggerated lion’s roar as we hit the stage.  This, I would say was my favourite gig ever….or in the last 25 years anyway. Very proud to have the band up and running so tight and powerful, and I loved improvising a big keyboard solo at that volume.

The crowd was magnificently loud for the whole show, and I have really never seen so many people that I know all in one place in my life. Great gig, great fun. The autograph signing session went on for over an hour-and-a-half afterward ….the field had become empty, and just a line of people left to see us. My voice was raunchy by the end of it, for chatting everyone up, and this is where I run into friends from junior high school (and dance class) that I have not seen in 30 years. Tons of little kids, smiling, lots of young girls, one with a mom who barked at me “SHE’S ONLY SIXTEEN !!!!!!!”….yeah, as if I was hitting on her……get real. There were also special needs kids there from the acoustic volunteer gig I do, family people, Facebook people…….not exactly the time of place to be hitting on 16-year-olds.

I was the last guy there, with Carson, the bass trombone player from Gogo Manor this year….so along with his entourage of 3, we went back to the backstage trailer to have some laughs with Ra, and a few other people still having fun  …had some deli snacks and we walked the lit-up boardwalk back to the hotel., I had a ground-floor room with beach chairs, so I just walked through the sliding glass door, and we had some laughs until they departed and I hit the snooze, for real. No extra overnight guests….. just a rare, rare moment of silence.

You know, festivals of this magnitude tend to burn out after a few years. We see it all the time. There will be a run of 4 or 5 years, until the thing becomes unmanageable. I was thrilled that we got to play one while it is still fresh in its run. I could see, very clearly, from the stage, how the security guys were picking on the people in the front row, causing a fight, and that kinda thing ends up looking bad on the festival, and on the band. Also, I heard later of one mugging, one stabbing and 5 guys beating up one girl in a parking lot. THAT is the kind of junk that shuts down a festival, even if there are thousands of very chill, happy and loving west-coast people there to sing and feel the music in the summer sea-breezes of the sea.  It only takes one violent offender to shut the thing down.

Oh yeah, and it was FREEZING that night…..2 days before the heat wave hit……

Our amazing drummer Clayton got assaulted after the gig as well. He went to see his friend’s band at a local venue THE ROD AND GUN, (the name alone scares me)…… I had played there with Megalicious a couple of years ago, and I don’t ever need to go there again. The big guys yelling YOU SUCK, and the girl fights….no thanks. I generally have boycotted all alcohol products since I was 19 anyway, so I have no business even being there, really…..

Anyway, Clayton had a wonderful time, met new people, and on his way out he heard some derogatory comment about his pants (he was wearing his mildly-embroidered cool rock and roll pants) and someone pushed him by his neck and shoulders and he fell face first on the pavement. When he got up, nobody would admit that they did it, or knew anything about it, and he appeared for our flight (I am on the flight to Regina as I write this) with huge scrapes and rash all over his nose and chin and face. This really upsets me a lot … there is no reason for this kind of behavior other than cowardliness and bullshit cruelty. Nothing he can do about it. He also has a very sore neck. This is the drummer for TROOPER we are talking about here……

These are the stories that have kept me from “going out” after gigs.
We get invited to tons of parties, or to see bands, and I NEVER go, unless I am with an entourage.
So really, I just never go.
Especially in small towns.
But thank you for all of those invitations anyway…..no offense.

So here we are at the Calgary airport for a 3-hour stopover, after a 5 am leave….Smitty is telling kid stories….Scott is laying down to sleep….we can smell SUBWAY…..you know, musicians don’t work, right……they PLAY.
And we don’t get paid to play……….we get paid to travel………with two flights and a drive, that amounts to 9 hours worth today……

We arrived at a hotel with a gorgeous view of a yellow canola field….slept for a couple of hours before hopping back into the fully-loaded Buick Enclave and down the prairie highway…”to the gate…you can’t miss it.”  My other fave quote was from a roadie at the hotel,  “Every 18-year-old girl in Manitoba is there, learning how to drink…”

True enough, the huge country fest was sold-out to capacity, which we saw as we drove down a narrow road full of people all walking the opposite direction. There was a delay getting past the gate, which I had never seen since I joined this band.   (As I write this, it is now 6 am the next day, back on the road out of town, and Smitty just got pulled over by the cops).

We found the stage, right in front of a sardine-packed-shoulder-to-shoulder-TROOPER TROOPER-chanting-mob who had been waiting for a long time.  (Smitty just used the T-word on the cop here…)…….where were we…….oh, right … the opening act was backstage, BOB’s YOUR UNCLE, some security guys (the coolest ones ever) and some snacks…the crowd was very loud…..

The crowd was right up to the front of the stage, no barricade, and I could see the huge video screen of the other band (Aaron Pritchett) who was playing in the space next to us  (Keith Urban had played the previous night, and still had all his merch for sale)…..our audience did not wane through our entire set, and by the end a few dozen had jumped up to join us, dancing and singing, and the security guys awaiting Ra’s direction. We did a huge mass-bow and went backstage to rave about what had gone on.

Ok … so back to the present … best cop quote,  “No I can’t give you a break, just ‘cos you are a celebrity……..I smell alcohol in your van….”  First time for everything. I don’t think we have ever gotten a ticket before.

And did I mention the mosquitos? I had 8 major welts before even getting out of the van on the way to the gig. Besides all this, some guys in the band said that this was the PERFECT GIG….what more could you want ?

THANK YOU for reading  (or skimming) through this.

I try to  find the time to type out what is going on as best as I can…..and I want to THANK YOU for being here.

LOVE
GOGO

P.S. ….to be continued…..

Special thanks to Derek White for helping out with this road report!

Saskatoon —— Calgary.

OK, up and out of the studio at 4:30 am…….hard to wake up, but always happy to gig……

Am at the Vancouver airport, passed security in a breeeeeeeeze, no beep beeps going off lately, even with my huge alfa-omega cross necklace (from South Africa)….am surrounded by the band now, all drinking coffee (not me)….

and also here is Shaun from Wide Mouth Mason, who is also singing at this gig……or so we think… Christmas gifts are being presented, and me quiet, because I didn’t bring anything…yet.

………One of the things that got lost in my mind during the Christmas spazz.

Craig (lighting guy) says he is going away next year for December.

He is Mr. Tourist-Man.

Me too……in my dreams……

It was totally dark and quiet out driving to the ferry with Scott, other than me explaining how I took on way too much stuff over the Christmas season, and how burnt-out I am. Typical.

With some friends in need, and the 10 volunteer gigs I took on, there wasn’t much relax time this year……….next year will be different. I insist.

Scott picks me up in the alley behind Gogo Manor just after 4:15 am for these early leaves. My studio is in the back, and this way I don’t have to go in the house and wake up any of the 8 sleeping students………….like they would wake up…….the house is much better sound-proofed since each bedroom has a 20-minute self-closing solid-core fire-door installed.

Yeah……..I used to volunteer to entertain in the hospital, old folks homes, polar bear swim, and at church when I was a kid, a lot………I mean, I used to dance for “the people from the cruise ship”…. and I wanted to do more of that…..lately……but not this much, and not for the cruise ship people again ….

Back when I was a kid, I was always being bossed around, of course, and never even considered getting a reward, or compliment for anything that I did. But now, as a long-time (and well-rewarded) road musician, and also as a volunteer entertainer (usually an hour of Christmas carols) I was uncomfortable being treated by people as if they had HIRED me.

OK, we are on a totally brand new airplane now, and have an empty seat between Scott and I.

That is the best, when there is that empty seat, a rarity around the Christmas flight season.

That is where the books go.

You know, with all these cool International students living in my over-sized 3 story, 1010-year-old house, and the fact that I agree to feed them (food and more importantly, internet)……….I do a whole lotta grocery shopping now. I mean, gotta do that anyway, right, and I have always had a fascination with grocery stores……so what is an extra few potatoes (?)…Every time I open my wallet I automatically whip out the RBC Infinite Avion VISA….(they don’t just give those to anyone, you know !)….points points points….and I fell into my default setting of whipping the card out at the gateway to the plane, where you are supposed to show your ID…well, kinda funny….but here is nap time.

Yeah, I yapped (complained) at Steve Crane (guitar tech and stage manager) about my recent schedule of thankless volunteer gigs; each one an epic…..before I forget all about it, and do it all again next year…..every  year I add a few more tunes to my Christmas repertoire (starting with the full sets that I used to play at restaurants with my Dad)…….and I can howl these songs for an hour for the special needs kids, and then drive out to put the daily 4 liters of milk (and 24 eggs) on the VISA, that our internet-junkie students supplement breathing with……and then straight to Church Choir practice, where you stand and sing every verse of every Carol, again, despite quite having “gotten it” by the middle of “deck the halls”.

During one such church choir practice, I sat down and accidentally passed out during Oh Little Town of Bethlehem. I think that insulted the other people in the choir….oh well……. I was awoken for my duties as conductor for Oh Holy Night……not that I was not taking is so seriously….I was just really tired. (Tuesdays also had RCIA class, mass and midnight meditation…..too much..but what the heck, all by choice…..)

I thought I did a decent enough job singing in the choir, and I was ASKED to join, but I found that my duties as cantor and soloist diminished at every gathering, to the point where I had no special duties whatsoever. By the last gig, (mass) what solos hadn’t been reassigned to others were now gang-vocalled. The leader had actually stopped me right in mid-solo at one point, imitated what I was doing, and a choir lady said “yeah this is NOT a rock band !” I dunno, I thought I was pretty good. But what you gonna do. It is about humility………

Anyway, the choir had never sounded better, and I have heard this choir since I was born, being that my Mom had put it together in the late 1950s….and I got to learn some classical Latin, (which I really dig) and the Priest liked it………… Parishioners told me that it was good.

And the free gigs I played at were totally brutal. Nobody at the hospital would book me to sing for anyone other than the really old people, and those selected groups acted as if they had totally given up on everything. People who had given up on life. Depressing enough, oh yeah. And the people who worked there had given up on having any joy associated with their careers….And the Old Folks homes (seniors care facilities) ……..I played one repeat free gig with a cellist (we also played last Christmas day…..) and this time I asked in advance that they could offer me a wee bit of the food that we are watching everyone else eat. They agreed, but didn’t go through with it……oh man, no snacks…..so I still don’t know what everyone was eating, or if was any good.

My Mom used to call it “singing for your supper” when you would go somewhere, play or sing some songs, and get some snacks out of the deal.

It appeared to me that the people who work at these facilities would rather be at home, I would bet, and probably figure that I am making double union scale, and the residents would all rather be in their rooms. Other than the one guy who went-for-it on the maracas. No matter what, there is always at least ONE PERSON who is touched by what you do. So that makes it worthwhile…….that is kinda what Steve Crane assured me as I ranted this crud on the ramp way…………..

All I wanna do is spread a bit of joy, you know.

It is true. Years ago, at a Trooper show, a young lady told me that she and her girlfriends used to sit at the back of the room when my old bands had played clubs in Vancouver, and they would cry during my solos………..not that it was bad……..it was all good, or “touching”, was what she told me. And of course I had no idea that anyone even cared. Yes, there is always someone who appreciates what you do, whatever it is. I appreciate when the dinner bell rings at home.

I remember playing CLUB KAOS once with the Broken Toys, and a really good-looking young lady walked over and sat on my lap during a break, and asked me if I wanted to go camping with her. I asked her what the scene was, and it all sounded too redneck for me, so I passed on it. I don’t know why I just thought of that, but I wonder if she remembers that as well. How music affects people hey………wild.

Next Day:

OK, just played this Trooper gig last night. Am on the flight from Saskatoon to Calgary, Westjet, speed 430 mph, alt 3402ft………

Just met Quincy in the waiting area, he is a big man in a suit who travels all over the world. His main job for the last 25 years was in taking care of troubled kids, refugees, runaways, the violent, rescuing kids from drug houses and abuse………..he burned out on it. And I complain about singing in the church choir…….Smitty passed around his huge mac laptop and showed everyone how to enter their security information into Excel, so that we can all pass clearance for the upcoming Olympics gig. My next idea is to look at Steve’s art portfolio, cos I just heard that he is a high-end portrait-artist. Pretty cool.

Ra is getting picked-up by Heather (promotions Manger for Trooper) in Calgary and I have been invited along to an art gallery, but I think I may just go to the hotel and continue the nap that I have been working on. Now the plane turns a bit and the sun is blocked by the wing……… oh…….. there, the sun is back.

Later:

I loved being 16 floors up in the Radison in Saskatoon. 2 huge plate-glass walls in a triangle corner looking over the whole town. I am big on views…….who isn’t hey. Great to lay around and just look into a great distance. From my studio at home, I can see the freighters on the ocean at bight, with all their lights forming lines, and the ferry going by………I love that so much….my favourite thing…I…The gig was great too. The whole city of Saskatoon is hockey-crazy, it is all you hear from airport security to the hotel elevator. Everyone happy about it.

We play at the World Championship Junior Hockey Association….big sports stuff, Brian Smith is very excited about it all.

Stupid me forgot about the time change and was late for lobby call to the gig. Scott phoned my room and the band had to wait as I grabbed my bag, ran out the door and waited for the elevator. I hate that, very embarrassing. The worst thing is being late. Makes me feel like a total zero…I mean, the most that is asked from us is that we be in the lobby in time (And that we do a good gig), which I am always totally confident with.

It is minus 22 out, and that has some zing…into a mini van shuttle, through town to a huge concrete indoor stadium…..park outside, walk through past the disassembled ZAMBONI and stacks of SYSCO cooking oil…..past the rows of curtained-off rooms, behind the stage to another indoor tent with snacks, drinks, and some people to greet us. NO soundcheck, cos there were several bands, and people, and TSN cameras.

Our crew gets us ready, we all slip into the TEAM CANADA jerseys gifted to us and we hit the stage. You know, we meet nice people everywhere, but I find Saskatoon to be especially hospitable, I liked every person I met. The crowd had the attention of a theatre crowd and the attitude of a party-hall. Nice to play again, it has been a couple of weeks……..a treat to hear Smitty’s excellent guitar tones again.

This gig had awesome stage dancers. It started with the Dutch sea captain on Ra’s mic, and gravitated to all girls, beautiful, dancing, singing, looked great from what I was told…….and the one guy on stage was ejected hahahahahahahahaha………….way it goes………..

The vibe is high in the band, for sure, everyone knows what to do, and lots of stories to share. Ra had 15 custom T-Shirts printed as gifts, with big bold print:

IF YOU DONT LKE WHAT YOU’VE GOT WHY DON’T YOU CHANGE IT………

….and also

HERE FOR A GOOD TIME NOT A LONG TIME…….

…..and I am so thrilled with these t-shirts that I wanna hang them on my wall.

I also got a JESUS ROCKS shirt, that I will wear-out

someday (before I ever stop getting compliments on it……).

After signing T-shirts, and photo shoots, inviting fans backstage who missed out on that for more photos and good cheer…..Ra sang onstage with the last act of the night, a local country band, and we all donned our gig-bags and walked out, without even saying “let’s go”……everyone seems really in-tune right now. In-tune with each other. I like that.

A few of the guys went to another hotel to hang out with the bands Big Sugar and Wide Mouth Mason….I went back to our hotel……

Back to the hotel, on my 3rd gig with a computer in my room…..and yeah, it changes things, having a new computer in my room, as opposed to a violin, and a TV.

Again I watched no TV, and I emailed friends here and there and listened to neat music on You-Tube. Computers can be good little friends, hey.

I booked my little guest list with Paul Cloutier (tour manager)………..can not say yes to every request for New Years tickets, but it is sure special and fun when I can.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

…….am in the shuttle van back to the Calgary Airport….

It’s a blue moon…..not that it has anything to do with the colour……..Ra is explaining, the last blue moon was New Years 1999.

The driver CJ Smith, is saying that it was 20 degrees above celsius (chinook) at that time.

I hope there is enough time and battery power for me to tell about the gig last night.

Clayton is shotgun, Ra and Scott middle seat, Smitty and I in the back……..the sun is cranked-up……Smitty is such a serious huge sports fan. He says he wants to go back to Saskatoon and watch more hockey games. I say it just goes back and forth, you know….the puck, that is……

When we got into town yesterday, I passed on the invitation for a trip to the art gallery…..hey….did I tell you about Steve Crane’s (our new stage manager) art portfolio ?

Clayton handed me a binder on the last flight……..all 8 by 10s of his large black and white acrylic portraits and chalkboard art. He has a pop culture theme, and I am astounded at how good they are……here is his page……..

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=413569405&albumId=830682

Steve is a full-out virtuoso rock guitar performer, and he traded his guitar lessons with an art teacher, and it only took him a few years to become a great painter. In fact, the Keith Richards portrait was his first, and Hendrix his second. Amazing. He is really looking forward to summer with us, and I have already hit him up for painting lessons.

I have a serious wish to be able to paint ivy up and down some stairs, and on walls. My ultimate dream is to be able to paint some flowers as well, like a clematis vine, but we will see how that goes. Don’t you love it, when you are in Mexico (or Spain) and you see the vines going up and down the stairs, and around doorways ? If you know how to do that, well, it is a huge difference that you can make to any area without having to spend a fortune. I think I have already spent the fortune at Gogo Manor, and now I wanna make it shine. Plus, it would be fun to paint vines and flowers.

I wanna build concrete houses too.

Cover them with real vines.

We have this cool driver today. Charley Smith, my fave Calgary guy (rock singer) drove us to the hotel yesterday and I got to sit upfront and hear more of his life story, he is 60, and full of mischief….well, is now a huge Baptist, and that is where the conversation ended-up, with me going, “NO, Catholics do NOT worship Mary……….” The big denominations debate, which I do not enjoy, really. Let love rule, man.

What is it you are not supposed to talk about………religion, art, politics……well, get real, that is about all we talk about……..(other than politics)….He gave us his CD a few years ago..and he went to our gig, and I think he had a wild time, along with the 1 000 people (my guess), who were divided between the 2 ballrooms, us in one, April Wine in the next.

Ra had proposed a band-swap, with April Wine….stage to stage, for one song, but that never materialized.

I hung out with the April Wine guys, got a nice hello-hug from Miles….I love those guys.

Hey, you know………

Did I tell the story a few years ago about a symposium I did at an elementary school (my level of intellect) where kids asked questions about the music scene. To my great surprise, the #1 question, by landslide, was “how much money do you make ?”

Wow, at that age I never thought about that……it was about the ART….man….I always thought that money came from business, you know, like hotels and bridge-building….so I asked my jazz sax player dude Pierre what to say to that….how to answer the question of how much money musicians (me) make….and he came up with: “Musicians talk about music, other musicians, chicks and funky clothing. Never about money.”

How true, so that was my answer.

Brilliant.

I have no idea what a funky jazz sax player dude makes, even if he is a very close friend who also plays corporate gigs like I do…… I don’t even know what our own crew makes; Craig makes, or Steve Crane……..and I don’t wanna know. Not my trip. I don’t know what Tony Thompson, (the excellent house-builder), makes, other than I suspect that he gives me a SERIOUS good-buddy discount…..on weekends between real jobs…..We have built the mountain house and the Protection Island cabin this way.

I wonder if he can build a concrete house.

And cover it in vines…….

So yeah. No money talk here. I think that money is a private issue. I even feel weird in the bank talking that shite. My Uncle Mickey can tell you how many Christmas trees he sold from his farm this year, and he can wave a fist-full of crisp hundreds in your face, and I don’t even wanna tell the world how many Christmas trees he DID sell this season…….(but it is very impressive)….

…I have had 3 music-fans in my lifetime ask me how much $ I make, and one young lady who (was trying to squeeze me out of my position as keyboard player for Trooper), so that she could have the gig. No go on either front there, despite her ridiculous propositions. (in my opinion).

I will talk about stocks, even though I have none.

I will talk about interest rates, even if I have no interest.

I toured coast to coast with THE Bryan Adams tribute band many many years ago, saved every cent I had earned and quickly lost it all the next month on the Vancouver Stock Market.

Some scammer had left a brief-case full of Bullshit contracts on the ferry and got the union guys all excited about this NEW awesome company when they read his private stuff………I got the HOT TIP and lost everything.

I guess those kinda people can explain that to the taxman….and save that speech for Saint Pete at the gates……..

And I feel is OK to talk about Real Estate, of course, cos I think that is fun.

It is a big game…….

And house design, cos both Ra and Smitty are some kinda geniuses there…….

Ra was the one who showed me how to made a scale model of a house, using foam core and pins………….which I did, very successfully……..Smitty can talk for hours about renovations,

and his waterfront “cottage” epic was pretty wildly inspiring.

This is what we talk about:

Ra and Smitty are talking (in the shuttle bus here) about when they were kids and the entire neighborhood would all go outside and bang on pots and yell at New Years. Scott had never experienced that, but I totally got in on that when I was a kid, and anyone who had any kind of horn would go wild, like me on a blaring French Horn, and to be the last one on the block making noise. I loved that…….Now we are looking at a rainbow. This is our last Trooper hang-out for a month and 2 weeks, our big winter break of the year.

I had first run into the April Wine in the hotel lobby at check-in, and I went right up to my room and fell deep asleep for a few hours. Am still tired from all the extra Christmas duties this year, and I didn’t want to be bagged-out for the show. I contacted the few people that I had on the guest list, told them that New Years in a GO, and crashed-out. I had a buffet ticket, and rather than take the shuttle across the 2 big parking lots, I walked to the casino and YIKES……….cold enough !?!?!?!? It is SO freezing that your face starts to turn to rubber………..I don’t know how the pioneers did it, in tents, and the Natives…..Ok we are at the terminal……

….in the Calgary Terminal now……..gate whatever, I just saw Scott and Clayton and sat by them. I told them that I saw another huge lady wearing the same big red sweater as I……….a told her “hey, I thought you said that you wouldn’t wear yours today……” she laughed…….anything for a cheap laugh hey………..

So yeah, after my huge and well-deserved nap yesterday, I walked to the casino, which was packed with people, noise and GOGO DANCERS………… and I saw a gigantic line-up of people, and I thought wow, they are at the gig early, but some folks called me over and I saw that they were slowly atacking a massive buffet…gorgeous salads, prawns, salmon, all gourmet, and plentiful……and a big beef thing……huge desert disply……apple pie is all I want, thank you…..well, nobody asked me for a ticket, I just walked throught the cassino into this huge hallway……….and I did have a buffet coupon, (to what restaurant in the casino I dunno), but I joined the buffet line-up, chatted with some Trooper Fans, and sat behind a curtain at the side of the stage by myself enjoying the last super-super of 2009. This was a neat moment, and the last one I was to actually spend alone in a while.

There are annoucments here at the airport, guy talkng about the brand new planes, wow WEST JET sure is expanding hey………..he says that the new planes have no TVs yet, so everyone should get a newspaper or a book……….I will sleep, thank you. Man, there is free wireless almost everywhere now hey…….even on the plane before it took off yesterday.

Ok here is Craig with a super slice pizza…….Craig is always happy.

…….am on the plane now

Nice shy Chinese lady beside me, I offered that I could trade seats so she could sit with her husband, so she was happy too, and now I am between a young rap guy and a teenage ski girl………all good. They both say nothing, despite my HOWDY………..am wondering how many people here are hung over, or whatever.

I have noticed over the last few years how people are becoming one step more stand-offish from each other. I have mentioned this to others who agree. If you ever need a jump start with your car, and you stang there, with the hood open, with the cables attached, and wave at people……… count how many cars just drive by……..guys in pick-up trucks……..I have a goofy headlight that gave me this opportunity twice lately, being on and draining the battery…and the count of how many people ignored my plight was higher than it was 10 years ago. I could call a tow truck for a jump-start, but I live in a NEIGHBOURHOOD, you know…….

I used to experiment with waving at people, randomly, years ago, to see who would wave back. My big rebelious science project….Old guys from India ALWAYS wave. Teenage girls, rarely, the hippier the girl, the more wavier……..but they have reason to be suspicvious I guess………sad to see that our society still drives people into invisible cages. Oh well.

A couple of our serious elders died in Nanaimo this year. (sure a banner year for celebrity deaths too, hey !)……………a big old super-redneck mill-owner died……….I missed his funeral cos of the MEGALICIOUS reunion concert…………and our local Chief died as well…………a new chief was elected (a 40-year-old lawyer who works exclusivly with land claims issues) so I phoned him up.

His Grandmother answered, who I have known for years, and at 87 she is chatty, funny, brilliant and full of world travel and cosmic energy stories…………she tells me that she talked to my Mom all the time about cosmic energy, auras, God and nature…..trippy as it gets…….I just called to see if they wanted to sing any Christmas carols. Aparently there is a message on my answering machine from them……..I think we have a sing-along on our hands.

My Mom and Dad were pretty tight with the gang on the reserves……..once my folks transcribed a bunch of music that was going to be lost. I remember it was pretty strange and they had to invent new notation for 1/4 tones. I don’t even know where those manuscripts are now…….but the people at the Nanaimo Music conservatory can figure it out when they sort through the pick-up load of sheet music that I donated to them when I was in power-cleaning mode with the estate house.

There was thousands of potential ebay dollars in old old amazing sheet music……..and they assured me that it would all be sorted and made available to the public. They probably have grants….if my parents had ever figured out the web of arts and music grants, they could have been ever so slightly less depression-era poor (in their minds).

The Trooper New Years gig at the Deerfoot Inn Casino in Calgary last night, yeah the place was packed, everyone all dressed-up beautifully and going crazy…all black dreses, suits..the best……stage pounding…………full-out yelling encore….do we have the best fans on Earth or what, hey !…$160 a ticket (according to the ones I signed)…the merch booth was madness, strange cos some New Years we don’t even do merch……you never know hey…….Paul Cloutsier (the Cloots) tour manager, jumped back there to help Steve with all of the people. …………..Heather was there with her husband Doc…….she customized my fave stage jacket.thank you, pretty cool……….now Scott is sitting net to Steve and they are catching up on rock talk, who is doing what, Paul Laine is in Japan, is huge there……hey man, what about a reunon tour ? Like a January jaunt………..yeah……

Ok………….am asked to power-down for take off…………..OK…….and on again, sorry,

I forgot where I was………..

Right, OK……focus………..the gig…..the buffet….YEAH !!!!!!!!…the keyboard stand was very tall, and the top keyboard was as high as my eyes and on a huge tilty angle. At first I went, OH NO but I tried it, loved it, had a  riot……nothing worse than a low stand to make a keyboard player fel very un-cool………this has ben an issue that I adress recently in the technical rider……..I remember some very imprtant gigs where I felt lke I was playing witht the Partridge Family….almost bending over to play……………I want a high stand, proper posture, no reaching DOWN…..ever…..you gotta stand really tall to play a Tall rig like the one in Calgary, and I love it, you gotta make the whole presentation big. My kinda fun. It seriously affects who you feel that you are, how you feel, and what you feel people will feel about you………..and imprtant as where yur guitar hangs.

We also have a digital piano on the rider, and last night I got the new YAMAHA MOTIF, which has a great sound and light action, so I could play whatever style I wanted, and not compensate for heavy action. I am not a heavy action guy at all. I can not even trill on heavy keyboard action. I just donyt have really strong hands, I guess…..MY piano at home (1914 KIMBAL grand) has very very light action, like a synth……..why work harder, you know, why have to hit an instument so hard ? I was the only one of my teen-age clasical stuent spazz gang that didn’t get tendonitis, and I am not planning on geting it now. I am SO careful with hand use, hand strain, and I spend my life avoiding hand injury.

Oh yes and thank you to Jurgen for tuning my piano as a Christmas present !

Ok, so we did not get soundchecks for with of these Trooper 2 shows,

and everything was set-up perfectly for us. DO we have the best crew of what !?!?!?!?!?

Speaking of best people, Richard Nott, who has recently retired his position (handed his stage manager job over to Steve Crane)…….Richard is pretty busy, mixing orchestra and jazz geniuses.

Great, and now the progarm I am using is running all wierd. Anyway, Ricard is doing great.

OK, I think I fixed the wierd computer thing.

Better than carrying a typewriter around, I bet.

I still don’t now how the pioneers did it…..survive, that is.

I guess Scott and I don’t have to wait for Richard to deal with the gear before we split from the airport……..and drive of for the ferry….well, I should grab my keyboard for recording……….apple juice being offerd here on the plane……..i will put this away…..

…..on the ferry now……

It is raining heavy at the Vancvouer International Airport, and Craig is talking politics,

Federal…and I commented on how that is the first of that kinda talk in a quite a while

………”ever” suggested Ra.

Scott grabbed his truck and we caught the 3pm whatever ferry, ran into an entrerpenour friend of Scotts, a guy who owns some surf-wear companies………this is going to be a stormy ferry ride, here we go……..rumble rummmmmmmmmble…….guy talking Chinese really loud behind me…..everyone else dead quiet………even the kids………….windows starting to rattle…………………….

Ok……

…….home…………..whooooooooooooooo……….see you all soon………….I hope.

January is off.

Gonna have fun.

ALways.

LOVE to everyone

and thank you for making life the best dream ever.

Gogo

PS…….I am now on the highway between Peace River and Edmonton, finishing-up 2 days………….the Casino in Edmonton………….and the Alberta Pond Hockey Association at a Catholic High School gym………all great people including Clark Gillies from the New York Islanders who hung out backstage and signed pictures for us……..usually we sign for other people………what a gas……….all of it……….

Next gig is the olympics………see you there !

16) So we gotta drive…………..

(…written in the van, early afternoon in the Kootneys………..)

We are going down hill now, highway, in the snow storm, this is freaky. This kinda stuff never used to bother me. It is not like I have never been through a snow storm on the road before, a million times. I dunno.

Update: snow stopped, and we stopped, in Creston. Coffee shop, a granola bar with almonds and cranberries, the Something Buffalo Coffee House, across from the Big Foot Lounge, by the Sleeping Sasquatch……man, these little towns have become so funky and cool.
ZZ Top could have gone unnoticed at this cafe, next to the other beard guys.

Ok, our Calgary gig is packed already,
and we are on in 6 hours……..hope this next flight is not cancelled too.

17) ….but only to the next airport.

(…written on a Central Mountain Air Flight………..)

Now, we are on a really small narrow cute plane, now flying towards Calgary, with a 4-hour waiting time to join the 5000 waiting at the Telus Convention Center. I predict a wild crowd tonight. The place has been packed since noon, (we are told) and we are on at, what 11pm, or something. If people go out, the cops let more fresh people in. This is The Grey Cup party.

OK there is the landing gear, I should put this away…….

(…written in the hotel in Calgary….before the gig…….)

We have almost an hour in this new hotel, and off to find the venue. I am going to read these notes so far and clean them up a bit………

(…written in the hotel in Calgary…….after the gig….)

We circle some blocks, get directed to the loading bay and walked through a city block labyrinth of underground hallways. Presented with Saskatchewan Roughriders jerseys, (thank you !)..we are ready to hit the concert stage, facing a sea of green sports fans, the craziest in the world. Chanting, hat throwing…..

You know what thousands of people cheering sounds like…loud, and I love it…..by the end of the night, with friends backstage (including the most excellent comedy writer Harry Dupe) I was feeling it…….bagged. All my energy was spent onstage.

I feel that it was the uncertainty of the day that caused the run down, I mean, we have tons of long travel days……we do two shows in different towns in the summer….but this travel day was kinda heavy…….and now arriving at the hotel, 2am…….I drove the band back to the hotel again and went by myself to park the huge new SUV. It took me a while to figure out how to turn the lights off on this spaceship, and to deal with how awesome the stereo sounded.

(…written in the hotel in Calgary…..in the lobby……)

18) My early morning grumppy spazz…..

I text Scott, from my room, to see if our lobby call, leave time, is for 5am or 5:30. I can not really go to sleep until I know. Well, I have the truck keys, not like they are going to leave without me. That is 2am attitude logic.

We always set a leave time at the end of every gig, or at least text each other with a leave time. I got left out this time ‘cause I was out parking the truck, I guess.

I guess Scott was asleep already, at 2 am, and did not get my texts, so here it is 5am, the alarm went off 3 hours into a disturbing dream. What should I do now?

Not much I can do, other than wake someone up and ask them when I am supposed to wake up.
So I get dressed, bring my stuff to the lobby and wait for everyone, and here I sit now, by a beautiful gas fire, with really loud soft jazz over my head.

6:30 and the rest of the band arrives. No, Scott did not get my texts ‘cause I am using an old phone and he has a new number now. Technology. Bullshit. You spent $300 replacing one part of a broken electric car window. We had a ‘fridge from 1930 that still worked in the ‘80s.

Those are my grumpy thoughts after 3 hours sleep.

(…written in the van going to the Calgary Airport………..)

So really, my options in retrieving leave-time information are to actually phone someone, or knock on someone’s door, risking waking them up……like the old days….or I could get an iPhone, I am the only guy in the band without one………I am also the only guy in the band that buys a new synth every year…….or I could switch to the newer cell phone that Scott just gave me.

Yes, this is my brain on not much sleep.
Yesterday was a bit of a burn.

I know very well that this is all really stupid, and a terrible way to end this road report, and that I really should delete this last section. I can rant that modern stuff is all useless……but I did enjoy having this little notebook in the bathroom listening to Gino Vinelli
“It hurts to be in loooove…”…………youtube, stuff we didn’t even dream about to discuss at teenage stoner parties in the ’70s. Amazing.

19) let’s try GOOD MORNING !!!!!!!!

(…written in the Calgary airport, past the security gates……….)

Yes, let’s try this again.
It is a beautiful morning.
I met up with the guys, Scott navigated the huge SUV to the airport, passed the gas station that was still closed…. and boarded a 3-week old jet; the newest one in the fleet. Clean, smooth…I love new stuff !!!!!!! The Prairie sunrise was stunning. I even ran into the drummer from Chilliwack at the terminal.

A great early flight gets us home early.
Perfect.
And I sit here by the new little airplane window, with no water vapor, no scratches…Craig in the aisle seat, his 2 computers going on the other 2 fold-out trays…….and in 2 minutes he had answered all of my PC questions, set-up my machine and made me confident to run this new computer safely. For this I am thankful.

I think we all played well on this trip as well. Clayton in particular, makes us sound like a record, like a live album. I am astounded at how tight he and Scott are sometimes. Other than that, it is just one big groove that we all settle into. No problem getting into the zone. These are the good times.

(…written on the B.C. Ferry ride back home to Nanaimo………..)

We mildly said Merry Christmas to each other as we waited for the special baggage to unload all the instrument and monitor cases at the Vancouver Airport. I grabbed my keyboard and Scott’s bass as he went to get the Izuzu Trooper, and the crew loaded everything into the van that Joe arrived with. Scott and I took off to catch the 10:15 am ferry back to the Island, and got hung-up in the ferry Terminal lobby waiting for the Chinese food place to open. You could see all the food but couldn’t get any, yet.

I always just get a nice bowl of rice, ‘cause I love rice, and as soon as we sat down to eat, I said “hey doesn’t the ferry go in 5 minutes.” We looked out the window and the cars were all driving on already, so by the time we walked across the parking lot, the truck was standing alone, with a BC Ferry guy parked next to it. So we got in the truck and happily we didn’t miss this ferry. It would have been totally our fault. I think we are all a bit tired, that was a pretty full weekend.

There is an old lady snoring on the ferry here, and another old gal just asked me if that was my cell phone making that noise. Didn’t she read earlier where cell phones don’t all work on the ferry? Sounds more like a big cat. I can’t believe how many people are passed out here, Sunday, at 11am. We have bearded touque-hippies, cowboys, Indians, two Elvis tribute artists, a plethora of elderly…………..I slept on the last ferry back, and woke up so stiff I had to use my arms to get myself standing up again. Richard said that he thought he was going to have to call a paramedic for himself. These ships are not built to sleep on. Not like the old ones with the big McDonalds orange benches, which were also pretty cheesy at the time.

I don’t expect to go home to any emergencies, other than 2 kids (international students) need to be picked up at the ferry sometime today. One of the students has a drivers licence, and as long as he is OK with doing some of that, he can use the car too. Why not hey. As long as I can get up to the pool or over to the Island. That is my plan for the rest of the month.

According to Smitty, this was the most difficult Trooper tour ever assembled, between himself and Annie the travel agent……….and for only 2 shows. That is why the crew had to drive to those two shows, leaving after the gig to pull-it off. Between 3 airlines, it was not possible to do this smoothly. The details are far too nasty to publish here, and I can not follow it anyway.

20) ……………..thank you………

My closing thoughts:
———Happy first day of Advent…….

———Ra found it strange to see a young person talking on a payphone,
at the airport, another airport………

———And I never did stop singing the soprano vocal solo from Harry Chapin’s Taxi
Baby’s so high that she’s skying,
Yes she’s flying, afraid to fall.
I’ll tell you why baby’s crying,
Cause she’s dying, aren’t we all.

You know, the ’70s could be brutal.

And now we get to watch singing parrots on Youtube,
any time of the day. Life is good.

Thank God for Canadian rock and roll, hey.
———And Thank You
for reading this
and for going to our shows

———–I am going to get some sleep now……….

LOVE
GOGO

end of 2009

12) Welcome Steve Crane…………..

We have a new guitar tech, Steve Crane, and he just practiced some guitar changes with Smitty at soundcheck….it was like watching modern rock ballet. He is SO fast. Amazing. ..we have all known Steve for years. He is an amazing guitar player, a veteran of the Vancouver music rock scene since the ’80s. He is one of us! I faked Classical Gas on the digital piano at soundcheck, and he liked that.

I have known Steve since the famous Vancouver Summer of Love (Expo ‘86) when he was with a band from Calgary. He was also huge buddies with John Stoltz, former Trooper drummer..hey !.they were both in that band….Kay-lee-reesh……..however they spelled it. Cool band. But good luck finding that on youtube. Too bad all our old bands, (that never got record deals), all disappeared like that, hey.
Nowadays you don’t exactly need a deal to make a video or a CD!

My Dad had a 3-piece folk group in the ’40s when he was a teenager. They made a record, a 78…… I wonder where that went? We cleaned out the house as quickly as we could. …wheww………you know…..I am still bringing truck loads to the recyclers. There are 2 outbuildings, both really cool cabins at GOGO MANOR, I live in one, and the other is what I am so excited about rebuilding….as soon as I get all the last dead lawnmowers out of it. Everything from now on will have heated electric floors.

See !?!?!?!
No matter what, I end up thinking about that stuff.

Let’s hope that Steve Crane has a gas and that there are lots of stories to share, soon.
This is his first night with Trooper, as tech, so I don’t wanna hassle him too much.

(…written in a van, sitting next to Scott, with Clayton behind………..)

13) Flight Cancelled………………

The crew had to drive on this tour, as the band flew, and that very, very rarely happens. Once every several years, I bet. The flights were goofy, including the one that just now got cancelled, in Castlegar (Cancelgar)……as we start a new day here on the road..so I am now back in the bus with the band, adding to this report, driving through the snow to Cranbrook…..we gotta get to Calgary like NOW.

The mood of the band dropped the moment we heard the words “flight cancelled”.

You know the song WHITE BIRD, by the band It’s A Beautiful Day……..I am singing that now.
Smitty loves that song too.

It is 1pm, and word is that there is already a huge line-up to get into tonight’s gig (we are on in 8 hours) and the show is sold out twice capacity. It is THE party of the Grey Cup, and I know that the Telus Convention Center holds an easy 5 000 people. Yeah we gotta get there.

We are soon to hit the highest Pass in all of Canada, we are going 120……it is snowing, We just slowed for a curve…..Salmo Creston pass, here we come…….we are still in the low land, here, and it is snowwing like mad……….this is actually a bit scary. Writing this helps at this point. I have a rosary too.

The pass is 5887 ft, 1774 meters. We are still going uphill, so it is not so bad, all fresh snow. Quite beautiful, really. This is the first little blast of Christmas. I just phoned home, the kids are all eating French toast, there is a fire going, and the Mexican guy is hanging in there, with no privacy. All is well…………..I reminded them of the Church Bazaar today.

The International students are SO excited to see snow, and to experience Christmas. They had a howl at Halloween….each kid carved a pumpkin, and we lit them up and placed them with a thousand others along the side of a road. We have fun. And I have fun shopping for them. Did I tell you that my side gig now is grocery shopping ?

You know, the whole plan of today was for a late hotel check-out, an easy one hour flight, and hang out at the hotel all day. (Not for the crew, who drove, two hours after we got off stage last night.) But this gives us some time to tell more stories, and for Ra to show us the totally cool films that he entered into a film festival.

I can talk about myself.
Rather than talk about everyone else all the time.

Also, since last time I wrote any road report, I have become an even huger religious fanatic. I sit in on classes, read a lot, and am really having a gas with it. This is not the website for that topic, but anytime anyone wants to chat about God stuff, in person, I will take up the topic.

Doesn’t mean that I have to live differently than ever before, other than the odd bread and water fast, but I still hang out with the same gang, and have the same kinda fun. Religious nuts get a bad name in society, sometimes, ‘cause some are quite goofy, but I think there are goofy people in every interest group.

14) Last night’s road block in Castlegar…………..

(…written past midnight in the hotel after the Castlegar gig………..)

The guys were still laughing this morning about a road block we drove through after the gig last night. I rant and ramble on the Eddie Jobson Forum a lot, like over 3000 posts, ‘cause I am such a huge fan of my fave violin player, and this morning, of last night’s roadblock I wrote:————————————

Had that vocal solo
from Harry Chapin’s TAXI
going all night last night.

Tried not to drive everyone nuts.
They think I sing like an old lady.
And maybe they are right.
Sometimes.

I gotta delete that song from my mind
before getting in the bus
with the guy’s today.

Hey, I drove the gang back from the gig last night
and hadn’t planned to,
so I had my licence at the hotel,
………and got pulled into a road block

I told the cop that we are the rock band Trooper
and we just played the Bar and Grill….
and he asked how it was.
I told him that “there were tons of people,
mainly chicks, yung ones up front, old ones to the side.”

He liked that and waved me by.
The guys could not stop laughing.
It was the stupidest thing I think I had ever said.
But what the heck hey…….go where the spirit moves you, I guess.

15) Disclaimer…………..

You know I am just kidding, right?
We are all spirits, all equals.
I don’t care where the young people are!

9) Fun stuff always happens…………..

I am, also, of course, still thrilled to hang out with Ra and Brian Smith, after all these wonderful years. They are always full of great advice, and fresh modern spirit. They remember all the details of past conversations, and we can start up 15-year-old topics where they left off.

There are so many funny things going on, I am sorry that I didn’t write down more stuff this year.

At the last hotel, Clayton was sleep-walking and ended up in the hallway, locked out of his room in his underwear. He had to take the elevator down and get a new key from the front desk in his gaunch. It was late and there were two guys who thought it was funny.

This is the kinda thing that gets mentioned, and then the next one moves it backwards.

He says he hasn’t gaunch-walked like that since October 2002, Stoke-On-Tent, England, on tour, on his birthday. A modern Ikea-looking hotel, ended up outside, no elevator, had to walk down 2 stairs to the front desk.

I never wear anything in the hotel, especially shoes and socks……I don’t think anyone does really, so he was lucky that way.

I know a guy, a bass player, who is a huge big galute, who slept walked into a lobby in New Orleans, totally nude, and apparently it was a big scene. Everybody freaked out. What a way to wake up, hey.

10) Fire can be bad…………..

Ra and Brian have heard all of my stories. Brian likes the one about the forest fire on Gogo Mountain in the 1940s, where Great Grandpa Gogo got so bummed-out that he wrapped up in a blanket and sat under a tree. He figured that was it. That was going to be his last stop. No more traveling Vaudeville, (he was in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show)…….no more rope tricks, no more signing his name with an X……..My Dad and my Grandpa had to rescue him. It was a tough grind back then, working in coal mines, clearing land by hand.

I still don’t like the idea of a forest fire on Gogo Mountain, but I don’t think I would wanna just pack it in. I wonder what kind of timber value we have up there now? Let’s clear-cut it. NOT. I can show you a fir tree that is wider than an elephant. Probably 1000 years old. Tall, too!

100 years of paying taxes on undeveloped land, I figure I can brag a bit about the stuff that only the bears get to see.

Did I tell you about the house across the street from us on Protection Island? The guy accidentally left open the door to his wood stove….went outside to have a smoke…..his house caught on fire, ‘cause it was full of stuff, and I mean FULL…..and speaking of smoke, more black smoke than our harbour has seen for years. From downtown Nanaimo, it looked like it was my place on fire. A bad feeling, for sure. His house burned to the ground. Just a pile of burnt junk, no house.

All the Protection Island fire team could do was to water the other houses and not let the blaze spread. And we just had had 3 days of rain, after a dry spell, thank God, or the whole Island would have gone up. Fires are not good things on Gulf Islands. We gotta be SO careful in the summers.

He had no insurance. And through the generosity of fellow Islanders, now has enough donated money to clean up his site, barge away all the burnt crud, and build a new house to lock-up. We had great fund-raising concert parties, where my big brother Johnny and I played together for the first time in 20 years (he is a great singer!!!) Three rich familes donated a bulk of the cash to rebuild. That is the kind of society we have there.

Now, next door to him, (right across from me)….a super rich developer-family is building a 2700 sq ft cabin for their mom, in a beautiful swamp lot. I guess they bought the lot in the summer when it is dry. It is now like a lake across the street, trucks getting stuck; trucks barged over to unstuck the stuck trucks. Excavators……..people fighting over lot lines and what rocks belong to who.

Don’t ever try to rip-off a shovel of dirt on an Island. It is like gold.
It is also that kinda society.
Dynamic. I love it.

Tons of rich folks moving to the Islands these days. I see barges go by with one car or truck on them. People moving almost empty barges around, at $300 an hour, on their own ‘cause they don’t need to buddy-up. I am OK with it all, of course. Means that if I ever have to go next door to borrow some tea, I will get the good stuff……..Not that I will ever run out of my own stash. Did I ever tell you about my tea collection? Massive, including the tea museum, complete with Oregon Chai I stole from Neil Young.

11) The Protection Island Cabin…………..

Our Protection Island cabin has a finished interior now (other than the heated floor not installed yet). All the rescued and recycled yellow cedar that we have been deconstructing, de-tarring, de-nailing, sorting, storing, moving, planing and sanding for the last 5 years is now a shiny floor, with 7 coats of heavy varnish.

Seven coats for the seven seas, I always say……. like a classic wooden sailboat.

There are uncountable hours into that floor. I killed 3 belt sanders on it. I calculated the hours for several sessions and lost track. One night I was over there until 3am, with one weird green lightbulb.

The place looks amazing. High-end West Coast Modern, almost Japanese. All the new furniture has also recently been barged over. Will Chadwick has a new aluminum barge, with wheels, so it trailers on land. With a truck on each island to tow it, you get door-to-door service. It is about the coolest thing I have ever seen. Fun trip, too!

When Trooper starts our winter break next week, I will ZODIAC over more often, crank up the sauna and bar-b-que and set the furniture up for real. But first I gotta get the rain water out of the boat….by bouncing it onto the dock….we had the wildest rain in 40 years last week………like our regular rain wasn’t wild enough already(?)……..don’t let that scare you, though. It just means that campfires are allowed.

I miss the steam sauna with the red hot rocks.
This is real West Coast Island life.

The whole experience of lighting the fire, cooking some food, singing some songs, and shoveling the glowing sandstone rocks into the cedar-lined little sauna room, is some kinda ritual. It brings total peace, and it warms your bones. I sat for 3 hours a while ago just looking at the fire. No instruments, no books, no wood whittling.

I let friends all stay at the cabin whenever they want to, of course, and some do. I have a special rate also for Trooper fans. Free, but you gotta at least play bongos at the campfire jams.

I also noticed at Gogo Manor, since the big high-tech fireplace insert was installed, nobody watches TV anymore. I watch the fire, and the students all have laptops. They think TV is all garbage. Poor old TV is gonna disappear from society, like the gramophones, hey.

But the fire stays, ‘cause I get free lumber tailings from Uncle Mike’s sawmill………like truck-load after truck-load of it, all bundled up. I hire a chainsaw guy (Trooper players don’t use chainsaws) and I stack tons of firewood way up high, just how my old Dad showed me, so many years ago.

Wood heat is the best.

(…written in the hotel in Castlegar after soundcheck………..)

OK, it is now 9pm, lobby call in less than 2 hours. I am lounging in a KING bed at the Sandman, back from dinner at the venue, the Bar and Grill in Castlegar. BEST blackened halibut. Thank you. Funny how we always leave the coast to have seafood. Great rock and roll room, cool blue lights on the stairs, CLEAN!…..super high stage….huge bar all lighted up from below, cool blue tones…..acoustic duo opening, sounded great during dinner.

This new toy computer has been eating my day, as you can tell…..have not even turned the TV on yet. Life on the road can be run run run, and some days, like today, quite relaxing for a few hours!

We always fly home on Sundays, so when everyone else is in church, I am watching The Sopranos with little earbuds, sipping tomato juice and eating those raunchy bits and bites. I love it, great combinations, hey.

3) Ok, we made it to Castlegar…………..

(…written in the hotel in Calgary………..)

Ok, this all off the top of my head……….

4) Last week in Edmonton……………..

Last week, Scott flew out of Victoria, ‘cause he was gigging there, and Richard Nott (stage manager and guitar tech) and I flew out of Nanaimo on a sea plane…….well, ‘cause we drove to a ferry at 4:30am that was not running. Winter schedules, don’t you know. Richard has one favorite little word that he uses a lot to express dissatisfaction in these situations, and it never helps move stuff along, but he likes it. So we drove back to his house, and got online to book seaplane tickets and eat olives with crackers. I am OK with all this, ‘cause I am a big fan of strange events at strange hours.

The seaplane is more fun than Disneyland on your birthday. Not that I know. It is best to go to Disneyland on a cloudy day (or Superbowl weekend)……the seaplane flies really low and you can see what is going on with the little boats and island cottages. You can see details of the ocean. I hear these planes take off in the harbour every morning. And yeah, I love that too…..and the train honk honk. I especially love huge spooky boat horns at night. So I think Richard had a good time. It was his last show with Trooper, as a full-time guy, so it was important that it be special.

We went to Edmonton to play John’s surprise 50th party, in a warehouse, put on by his company, AXE MUSIC. There were a lot of techs and rock musicians there, and an open bar, so I figure Richard had a good gig, along with the invited audience. Other than being kicked out of a cab, and having to walk to the 7-11 at 4 am, he was fine.

5) A mini Richard tribute…………..

I will miss Richard. Hey, another reason I didn’t write road reports is ‘cause I was too busy talking with Richard on every trip over to Vancouver. He is brilliant; a really funny conversationalist. Anything you throw at him, he can summarize and throw back with a twist. He can quote the Bhagatta-vita, but Krishna knows where Richard left his cell phone. We rode every long ferry ride, and waited every missed sailing, together (along with Scott of course!) and I watched him eat a ton of Chinese food.

Richard became famous for leaving things everywhere, like his pack sack on the floor, in an airport. He left all his keys in his hotel room after his last show. I will miss watching him search for Scott’s truck on the ferry. Trooper has been so blessed with such extraordinarily great crew people. Richard is great. He lives about 2 blocks from me, downtown Nanaimo, and I bet that I could start his car with any one of my Toyota keys that I amassed from my old cars over the years………..

Richard is also a great rock guitar player, as Smitty let the crowd know at the last gig.

Richard was waved onstage, handed Smitty’s Les Paul, and he got to trade-off tasteful solo riffs with Sean Verreault, as we jammed along with Saf on drums. This is 2/3rds of our fun-fave band WIDE MOUTH MASON, of whom we have become quite close. Sean opened for us, as a solo act (along with Connor McGuire and the Lives of Others), and Saf, the drummer, has told me about his side career as a lawyer during a bus ride on another trip out last summer. Cool cats, and no dummies either. No, they ain’t no dummies.

Sean is amongst the greatest of Canadian rock singers, along with Ra, Bill Henderson, Larry Gowan…….and others perhaps less known Chriss Cumley (Megalicious)……Ricky the Nobb…Darcy Deauche………….Gary Gillespie……..

So much has gone down, what an amazing busy and successful year………we have been on 50 flights every summer, and I think that our schedule is the reason why Richard had to leave his position with the band. After 4 years, he found himself pretty busy at home as well, being the front-of-house guy for the Cowichan Theatre and in-demand tech at the Port in Nanaimo. He works all the time, also as a guitar builder, rebuilder. He just got back from a tour of China with Michael Kaeshammer, in fact, and tried every strange food that he could think of. Richard is busy. We were very much blessed to have had him for so long, and he is forever a Trooper brother, in fine, fine company with many of the finest techs and players in Canada. And yes, I am proud to still be here as well.

6) Trooper is special…………..

Trooper is a very special band in this land of ours. I feel it at every airport, every hotel check-in, and oh, yeah, at every gig. It is very much a loving vibe. A Mobile party of good times……..and I refuse to live life any other way. To play such music, from such a great nation, with such fun people………amazing. I think that anyone who reads this far into this road report can feel that.
If you were new in Canada, you could go to any Trooper gig and make a whole lotta new friends, ‘cause that is where the fun people are.

Over any given couple of years, we play with every great Canadian classic rock band, in one form or another, or at least go out and visit them at different venues. Red Rider’s bass player, Jeff Jones, invited me to the Cummings/ Bachman gig in Victoria…(I am such a HUGE Guess Who fan)……… And we get to hear all the fun stories…..Robbie King, bass player from the Stampeders, lays on the goods every time we see him. Last time, he had Jose Feliciano and Wolfman Jack quoted in a hotel party story……

I really like all of these guys, and am proud to be this closely associated with folklore. I would say that my best band run-in all summer was FOGHAT at the Vancouver airport, everyone waiting at special baggage together………..

7) Fun in Airports…………..

Every time we see musicians in airports, well, anyone with instrument cases, we get to find out where they are going, and what is going on……and where they have been…..

Of course, anyone can chat up musicians at airports. I just happen to be in airports a lot, and I like to chat with musicians, ‘cause I find it really interesting how people approach the scene. How they deal with this life in the arts. I ran into a 7-piece Cuban band yesterday, and the sax player had 5 times as many effects pedals as Smitty. I wrote down their name, on the boarding pass, and I am sure I stuck it in some book about Mother Mary, in my backpack.

(No, it was in my back pocket…the Lexi Borows band………..let’s YouTube search that one).

The most fun I had recently with traveling musicians was coming home from the last show in Edmonton, where the band followed Ra into a HARVEYS, and I spotted a lady setting up a harp. I introduced myself as she plugged in, and she said I should jam along. Well, I just kinda wanna hang back.

8) The Harp Chick…………..

Sometimes it is nice to give people their time and space, and not feel judged, like I always did at every family reunion. I don’t exactly feel that way any more, but I guess my years at music education and classical dance festivals, where there is a table of adjudicators, it was hard to shake the idea that people are all critics……… but 2 songs into it, I said, “Can I really play along?” ‘cause I figured I could follow her patterns and progressions. She was delighted……. and there was a full digital grand piano right next to her (!)….so I got to fake my way along 4 songs with her until I was pushing it with getting through security.

I could have played with her all day.
She was having so much fun that she was laughing.
Me too.

Laughing means different things to different people, you know.
In Indonesia, people laughed when they were nervous.
Here, I take it as bliss.

www.harpchickcanada.com
Beautiful flowing music. I held back when I was unsure of anything, as we played together, of course, and Scott said that it sounded like we had practiced and that it was all arranged music. I countered some or her rhythms and arpegios, avoided cliches, and played melodies with trills. And I held down some bass notes, but not all the time. Not too much of anything, you know. Sprinkle ideas and techniques like you are making a delicious pizza. My kinda fun. It is a real ear test not to mess up something that is already so undeniably and remarkably beautiful.

A nice crowd gathered, and the airport people liked it enough to take a nice picture for their website. The harp lady told me about the symphony she plays with, and all the tons of gigs a harpist gets. I always thought so. If you play a harp, you will NEVER be out of work. Cool. Could you imagine living with a harpist? With that music playing in your house? Talk about a no-stress life, for the listener anyway……..those things are way more difficult than they look.

I totally wanted to play violin with her as well, and I was carrying the one that I just inherited from Uncle Tony, who was the best musician in my family (my Mom said). He passed away from bone cancer 3 years ago. I am ultra-honoured to have his perfectly set up 100-year-old French violin. It sounds amazing. Especially when someone else plays it!

But I practice, and at the Edmonton hotel, the bow broke, actually exploded while I was playing it. Right by my head. Freaked me out, for real. So no bow, no sound. No jamming with the violin and harp. Arrrrrgh.

Yeah, I like artists.
I like musicians.

Remember Scott and I in a hotel lobby in Toronto while this new band, Nickelback, tells us about their record company negotiations? Neat, hey!

November 27-28 2009 Castlegar-Calgary

(…written on the Departure Bay Ferry to Horsehoe Bay B.C.)

1) Leave the Island…………..

Hey man!!!! What up?

….that was Scott.

/\————-We are on the 5:15am Departure Bay Ferry,
heading towards the airport in Vancouver.
It is still dark out, black sky.
Sky black.

Scott has his Izuzu trooper, black truck,
truck black,
downstairs,
on the middle car deck, in the middle,
and is looking for an eggwich.

Early mornings to catch flights.
Sure beats the coal mines.
Like the one Great Grandpa Gogo died in.
So yeah, life is good.
Now.

I have a new HP notebook.
How do you like it so far?
I think I dig it.

Brought it on this road trip to see if it is fun. If I have any questions, like, how it works, I will ask Craig (lighting director) ‘cause he knows basically everything that mankind has assembled as knowledge, so far. I will ask him if there is a spell-check on this thing, and how to restore the toolbars that I just lost………blah blah blah, poor guy, knowing me.

2) Why no road reports…………..?

So far, this is fun!
Ok, I bet it has been over a year since the last Gogo Road Report,
which is nuts, sorry ’bout that.
After about 10 years without a break at all,
why the sabbatical?

a) Lazy (kidding)
Dealing with couch injuries.
Suffering trauma from getting up too quickly.

b) All the other road reports were from scraps of paper, notes I amassed as I traveled with our beloved Trooper band, and I would sort them out and type it out when I got back home. Yeeeeee….I am the worst sloppy typer, and this would take a bit of effort, and it turned out that life’s twists ate that last bit of productive leisure time.

——————————————————————-
Hey !
The sun is up now, halfway across the Georgia Straight!
I love these huge modern ferry boats.
Beautiful!
Big hollow metal thing that floats.

Cell phones don’t work here.
But the violin still does.
Have had many good jams with people I never even spoke with,
and will never see again,
on the decks of the B.C Ferries, in good weather.

One hippy on banjo hated me.
It was probably my red summer hospital pants.
Oh well, the tambourine girls are okay with it all.

Or we could just sit, chat and have some tea.
Maybe lay around on the deck and get some sun.
In the summer…………long ago………long forward……

Have seen schools of porpoises lately,
and several Orca whales, all jumping around
and blowing water into the sky.
All very joyous, and a good reason for
everyone to actually stand up for a minute.

It’s funny how so many people from the Island complain
about boring ferry rides. I love it.
You don’t have to DO anything!

Did I mention how many schools of dolphins
and gangs of killer whales we saw this year ?

(…written in Scott’s truck on the way to the Vancouver International Airport)

c) I guess the big thing was with my Mom ailing last year, and me becoming a primary care-giver, she passing away……..My Mom was cool, a total genius, but I am sure I wrote all about that experience; one that I don’t wish on anyone, yet we all must endure.

I refused to have the family house sold……..so the only option was to buy it
…so..all of my other projects got put on hold.
I am a Taurus of simi-Dutch descent,
a stubborn breed of funkster.

So, I managed to hold onto this huge mega-awesome Victorian Mansion that I grew up in.
I did NOT grow up rich, am still not RICH, (nor have I grown up)
but we had, and I have, a gigantic and very cool house, ‘cause we had a lot of people,
who were also very cool. I grew up the youngest of 7, with 2 parents, and 5 tenants.
Multiply that by the square root of every teenager in town,
and divide by a lot of burning toast.

(…written at the gate of our West Jet flight to Castlegar B.C)

Uncle Mike offered to co-sign the (also huge) mortgage, (thank you) in order to buy out the estate, and I leveraged the Protection Island proprty, and we took on a frightening 10 month restoration project. Fire code updates (new 5/8 drywall and 20-minute doors)..everything possible cosmetic and functional……We had to have rooms ready to rent out for September.

I also had no idea what to do with the house. It was too big for me to live in.
The race was on, on all fronts, to prepare and to figure out what it was being prepared for.

We now have 8 international high school students living there (and one Mexican boy on the living room floor.) And that is a lot of empty milk jugs.

Just like that!

That explanation is greatly over-simplified, ‘cause it was all a TON of work, politics, planning, finance, and more work, and planning. A lot of heart, a ton of prayer, add a dash of panic. There was also a ton of resistance to work against from within the estate itself. Not easy. But we did it.

The project is one-of-a-kind; a breakthrough in modern student housing. Nobody in the city has ever housed this many students in one house, and up until now, it was not allowed on any front. I have quickly become some kinda expert on International student housing and the University is suddenly asking me for advise, ‘cause they are hoping that I may have started a social trend. Good timing too, ‘cause they expect twice as many students in January, and there is NOWHERE for them to stay.

Other than the HoJo.
Or the clink.

So, well over 100 gallons of paint later, and over 50 truck loads to the recyclers bins, to the Music Conservatory, and church office……..my old family house was emptied, cleaned, repaired, refinished, and now looking good. That is 50 years of archives (junk), all sorted; we were talking 16-hour days, every day for almost an entire year. There were 49 large full boxes of newspaper clippings alone, not including stuff to do with the church, or family archives. I can not explain how much stuff was in this house, and it all had to be sorted, as we scrubbed and painted and ripped out carpets……

The house also ate a ton of cash, everywhere, and will continue that feast on greenbacks well into the summer. Whewwwwww…………..but what an amazing project. We created a mini United Nations (and a new shower.)

The house sold out of vacancies immediately with kids from Japan, Germany, China, Mongolia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam……….half boys, half girls…..way more fun than I had imagined. Great sing-a-longs, killer meals. Tracy-Lyn helped a whole lot with all of this, and we have our friend Rose helping out as well, keeping the vibe up. I could talk about this all day, and I do………….but you get a picture here. Huge 3-story, downtown Nanaimo, high-tech-fireplace-insert blasting, dinner bell ringing, kids mopping floors…….me explaining and strumming E minor……I will update this topic as we go along with this, ‘cause this story has just begun!

(…written on the airplane………..)

d) I had to get a new computer, ‘cause my formerly top-of-the-line IMAC didn’t do what it used to do so well anymore. Sometimes my sent emails would get lost ‘cause the computer clock decided that it was 1914. Strange options….I am told that Mac has rethought some of those features…

It took me a while to walk down to the Harbour Park Mall and lay down the new infinite Avion Card, again. Ahhhhhhhhh………..the Avion card, they don’t give those to just anybody you know!!!!! (I always quote that Dan Akryod line at grocery stores)………….I think I have 5 credit cards now, and settled on that one, thank you.

So I had to buy this little HP notebook for the purpose of trying to reset the high-speed wireless at GOGO MANOR (turns out I just had to plug stuff in in the right order)………..so let’s use it for a new road report! I can also now tell you how a modern sump pump works, and how to divert flood spring water, and save a basement from disaster…….stuff I never thought I would even think about.

I can also recommend a decent plumber.

I have 6 buildings now, and the ones I designed are on the tops of hills.
Don’t like floods.

e) Also, and most importantly, I fell in love with the violin…….something I have played with, off and on since I was 13, after seeing Eddie Jobson play with his band UK. I have lately amassed a collection of fine violin instruments, have taken more lessons, decided that tone IS important, and committed to a practice schedule that leaves little time for other projects (other than babbling on Eddie Jobson’s public forum).

I love the violin, even play it in my dreams. It makes me feel, smart, elite and fancy.

I have taken on acoustic gigs, with banjo and piano as well, just having a gas……but I gotta take the violin seriously. It is that difficult.

It is all in the bow.

Here is a quick example of how I babble on Eddie Jobson’s Forum
(feel free to skip over this………..)

Re: Music that freaks us out.
Author: gogo Date: 12-21-09 23:16

You know what kind of music freak me out
but in a BAD way ????????????????????

The kind that involves people…..all talking,
or even one person talking……………
REALLY loud over top of a sing a-long

This had ben my MAJOR gripe for years.
Try to host a campfire sing-along
and half of the people are singing
…and half are trying to talk
louder than the singers.

So what I do is just cut a song short and stop.

It drives me nuts.

Years ago it didn’t bug me as much.
But I take it as such an insult now.

But really, can they not just
talk their crap later ?

I mean, they can talk ANYTIME
but how often do they get a genuine sing-along ?

What is worse is when you play piano,
quietly and it is like they are YELLING.
It is like a chicken coop on steriods.

I was at a dinner party last night
and the host, well into his 80s
………not THE 80′s
but HIS 80′s…….
he asked for a rare piece that I
am happy to fake…………and I had to walk.

You know, you are listening so close to what you are doing
and where you are going and all you hear is

“OH MY GOD DID HE REALLY !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
AND WHAT WAS SHE DOING WITH HIM ANYWAY !?!?!?!?!?!?!?
AND NEXT TIME I SEE HIM …….I AM GONNA TELL HIM……!!!!!!!!”

……….and then the terrible story of some car crash
and then the guy who got dehydrated on the flight
back from Mexico and he had to lay down in the asile..

So forget it, I must take a break
and soon enough go sing Happy Birthday
with everyone starting on a different note.

love
Gogo

Re: Music that freaks us out.
Author: gogo Date: 12-21-09 23:39

You know,
my Dad was a far more hard-core
sing-along master-spazz than I shall ever be.

He had a case with binders FULL of songs,
hundreds of songs, all in categories
——-Irish…….Scotish………Show Tunes……

He also had one gripe about the scene.

He didn’t think that people should
get drunk at their gigs.

He said “If you work at a bank,
are you going to get drunk on the job ?”

I always agreed with that one.

But a drunk bank teller may be funny
and good for some extra loot.

So life was always confusing, especially
if you were a big fan of the Guess Who

Yet, other than my early bands,
and my fabulous heavy metal bands,
………who were all pretty serious………
I have managed to gig with a few lushes in club acts.
And they manage to not fall down too much.

I had a fill-in drummer actually pass out onstage once.
Years later someone told me that he was on heroin.
Glad I didnt know that at the time
or I may have done something rude about it all.

But then again……I guess Dad never said anything about
not doing heroin at a gig.

I guess there are some things that
people gotta figure out for themselves.
Even the most obvious stuff…….

Re: Music that freaks us out.
Author: gogo Date: 12-21-09 23:49

Another thing that my Dad did
that was odd……..was dress like Santa
and spend the day at the hopsital.

He would go from room to room,
and visit EVERY person in the entire facility.

Well, I inherited his Santa Suit
(a really good one……..)
and I figured I woudl try that this year
for the heck of it……….

But there are new laws
that deal with the confidentiality
of who is in what room
and you can’t do that any more.

(When I had pneumonia in grade 9,
nobody knew who I had in my room…..)

Anyway, I am sure that we all hate hopsitals,
especially if you HAVE to be there…….
so I figured this was a good year to
rock them all out with some caroling.

So today, Tracy-Lyn, Rose and I
got all dressed-up and tried
our best to get two groups of people
to sing, and drum…….

We sang up and down the hallways
and probably woke up some people
who have been trying for weeks to get to sleep……….

It was all fun for a while
but it got pretty depressing
cos a lot of these people have
just let their spirit fade……..totally given up on everything.

The staff was into it,
even the Sea Hag
who expected the 12 days of Christmas
(I am not into howling that one…..)

We needed a code to get out of there.
The people are actually locked in.

Don’t wanna end up like that.

Or if we do, someone please come along and sing for us…………

love
Gogo

Re: Music that freaks us out.
Author: gogo Date: 12-23-09 00:33

This forum has never been an open gripe opportunity,
but I can see that my last mini-rant is not finished…

What I think is RUDE in the audio-arts………

I never liked it when people shush each other with a shhhhhhhhhhh,
you know…….the big horrible demeaning 4K white noise……….
sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……..maybe with a pointing finger
in front of thier lips………(whatever that was ever supposed to mean)…….

I always found that noise to be more offensive
than whatever it is that it was supposed to be combating,
and really, have you ever seen that tactic actually work ?

People that get the shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh never shut up as a result.
I have never seen it, anyway.

I know a folk guy,m who’s wife goes into the crowd
and stares-down the chatty-people.
That works.
Kinda wierd, but it works.

That is a little too “grass-roots” for my taste……..
But what-you-gonna do ?

love
Gogo

Re: Music that freaks us out.
Author: gogo Date: 12-23-09 00:44

So anyway………a few days until Christmas
and I drag my Carol-weary carcass to the Church
for the LAST choir practice until the big Midnight Mass gig
(speaking of free concerts…….)

And I told you how my Mom would
YELL at the choir, and not waste time…….

Well, the new lady, God Bless her, of course,
she gets everyone to stand and sing EVERY verse
of EVERY Carol…..which is also good,
I suppose…..and after a few I sit down………..
and by Oh-Little-Town-Of-Bethlehem……..I am passed-out on the pew.

Which I imagine is also fairly rude
but I never thought it to be a big deal
who’s eyes are open, closed, or doing what.

So they wake me up to conduct the next piece,
cos it is odd, and I pretend to know what I am doing.

Classical people can be funny that way.
They don’t just wanna jam.

And then we watched a film about Mother Teresa,
which was good, cos I really did need the extra sleep.

Peace
Love
Gogo

———– so that is why I have been so lax on the road reports.
I have had many requests from Trooper friends and fans to get this going again, so thank you for that support and encouragement.
Trooper is all about the fans.

Thank you
Love
Gogo

But I think that I really should be talking about the end of the summer and the idea that one of these wonderful corporate gigs landed us in Barcelona, Spain, in a 5 star hotel for 5 days, with one show in front of a hundred traveling Canadians, who we got to meet after the show, and all week, really, as we were all in the same hotel. Scott Brown and I got familiar with the local transit train and we found our way around the big city, and for these days it was free-form tourism, Mediterranean swimming and shopping.

Lighting guy Craig Jager is the best tourist, of course, and a level-headed companion on any expedition. He is very well informed, has in built in GPS in his brain, and has great taste in architecture.

Richard Nott is a hoot as well, (no kidding!) and I hit the La Ramble at midnight with him, and we split up for an hour while I looked at chocolate and he got his chin pierced. We get back to the hotel later, and Richard goes back on the train, into town and sits up all night talking to some Monks in a Monastery. That’s Richard. There was an international music festival in the city, and more people than I have ever seen assembled anywhere. Literally thousands of people through the medieval stone walkways well into the night. I got lost a few time in the labyrinth of walls. It was like one big outdoor castle that you have to navigate your way through.

The first night we all went into La Rambla for pizza and snacks with the super drunk guy who got mugged, in the big cowboy boots. He was yelling at people on the street, which I thought wasn’t very good.

We all settled into the Spanish scene, I had a 88-key Korg Triton delivered to the ultra-grand hotel ballroom where the few thousand had gathered for our set, with gourmet food and jug after jug after real orange juice………

After our show, we went out and chatted with the people, which was a magical vibe, everyone so excited to be there in Europe and after a couple more days of touristing around great cathedrals, everyone went their own way, with the idea that we all meet-up again in Vancouver a month later. Ask any one of us what we did, and you would get some varied answers.

Craig went all over Europe, Ra all over Spain, Smitty all over Europe, Randy back home to Germany, Clayton has spent so much time overseas that I think he went back to Vancouver…Scott and I went North to Roses, a sea-side Spanish town, missing Richard at the train station, I dunno why, he just wasn’t there. Richard got lost on a Spanish mountain and ended up having a wonderful time in a beautiful village. Scott and I mellowed out on a beach, until I jumped on a train and drifted through France for a while.

Even after I got back home, I still felt like I was on a trip when I was sleeping. Kinda neat, I miss that now.

The corporate people, LORDCO, (an auto-parts distributorship in BC and Alberta,) all went on a cruise ship into Italy…….

I didn’t know that there was a train strike on in France, and I don’t speak any language very well, but I did manage to buy enough tickets to sleep on train seats and wake up in really neat places. All by myself. Not in a sleeper car, mind you, but on a seat, a regular train seat. The whole thing was cinematic.

One place I fell in love with, of course, the South of France, indescribably beautiful. All the hype I have endured over the years, all just a touch of what this place really adds up to. The colours are all soft pastels, no metallic hues, I didn’t need to wear my glasses. The people are so fun, funny, loving and gracious. The buildings so grand,and the sea so cultured somehow, not the rugged BC coast that I hold so close to my heart.

It was a beauty that I had never imagined. There is no natural sand there, you know, in the Mediterranean at all. Any sandy beaches have trucks bringing the sand in. Nice has small smooth stones. It was the month of September and the water was warm and lovely. Nobody gawks at each other, like they do in Canada, and everyone wears whatever, or not whatever they want.

There are fresh water showers for the public, and this beach is HUGE, goes on forever. I took a break from the beach only to hop on a city bus to Monaco, to see the yachts and cliff-side seascapes. And then back to the beach. Yeah, could live there, for sure. South of France, cool.

My big dream was to have a violin lesson in France, and I walked around playing my intermediate scales in every town and village. I was finally approached on the beach after getting back into my civvies, from my skivvies, and lifting my backpack (I traveled with one backpack and one violin case).

It happened that a virtuoso violinist was also on the beach, a nice old fellow that I had heard of when I was a kid, and he showed me bowing technique and stressed the importance of that. You know that all is well on earth when this kinda thing happens.

So now, yeah, I studied in France.  ;)d
But what I really wanted to do was see the site of Saint Bernadette’s Vision of Mother Mary in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains at Lourdes France.

So another train station, another overnight sleep and good-bye South of France. Hello small village with 250 hotels (I got a room at a youth hostel) at the second largest Catholic attraction on earth, what, 5 million people a year visit this town. What a trip, what shopping, I bought a ton of rosaries…….

……and there is nothing I like better than a pilgrimage, and a good procession, of course, so with my pink plexiglass violin in hand, I follow a mob with banners and signs stating all points of destinations. This was a truly international crowd. And where we were going, I don’t know, but it was underground. Hallways……..Oh wow, this is the world’s largest underground cathedral, seating for 25 000 people, it was like a football game. And it is high mass, there is a swarm of priests, a huge pipe organ, choir, brass band, video screen, buckets of Lourdes water, thousands of wheelchairs, clouds of incense smoke…I love ritual.

But I got out, into the pouring rain, cause I wanted to go to the Grotto, the place of the vision, and the source of Lourdes healing waters,before this mob gets there. And because it was raining, I got a good photograph of the grotto with no huge crowd. You walk through, touch the stone walls, people are weeping, the vibe is electric. There is a pipe that disperses Lourdes water, french Spring water with miraculous healing properties, to dozens of faucets, I drank a ton of it,blessed my electric violin and yes it is a miracle that the thing still works.

This is about the coolest place I have ever seen, and the thickest spiritual vibe I have ever been a part of. It changed my life really. This water, I brought a liter of it home, and it sits here in my ‘fridge, frozen into a solid block. Nothing else in the fridge is frozen, mind you.

And then the candlelight procession, with thousands of flames around the sanctuary, me in tow, with an immaculate PA system and really cool live choir music. These people do this every night. The city FULL of wheel chairs, so much hope, so much faith. This is the real thing. And the walk back to the Hostel was steep twisty dark wet, cold and long.

By the time I got back to this wild little retreat, I was soaked soaked soaked. I had sent all my stage clothes and anything un-Mediterranean back to Vancouver with the crew. So I had 3 black stage T-shirts on, all soaked right through. No problem I take a shower…no towel…..no heat in the tiny room as I sort through the dozens of little bottles of Lourdes water, and I go to bed with a small tiny thin blanket and listen to the rain. And then it occurred to me, “Hey, Pilgrimages are not supposed to be easy!”

I had planned on going back to the grotto at 3am to see if the party goes all night, but I felt I need a break from that rain………

I think I should also mention that the whole time I was there, nobody asked me what I was doing there, or hit me up for money. I could see the security, serious security, big scrappin’ Italian dudes, but they were all very casual and hidden in the crowds. These people know their stuff. Very cool.

With the french train strike, and being sold the wrong tickets, and general bullshit, it was a miracle in itself to get out of there the next day, and I was told that there was NO WAY that I was going to get back to Barcelona in time for my flight back to Vancouver, despite it being only 140 kms and about 2 days away. So OK, time to think……..as opposed to drift.

Easy, I got a train, a bus, another bus, to Toulouse, to an airport, and a flight to Amsterdam.

Wow is Holland ever cool! I just walked around eating beautiful cheese, playing violin , talking to everyone, laughing. I don’t smoke pot, or hash but if I did this was the best time to do so, but no, I just walked into cafes and jammed with their music. What a dream, and yeah I connected to Richard and Scott at the Amsterdam airport and went on the next 9 hours back to Vancouver with them. They were happy to see me, because I was kinda lost for a bit there.

I made a neat scrapbook of photos from this trip that I will bring out on the summer tour to show who ever likes to see holiday pix.

The last page had a huge THANK YOU to Trooper and while we are at it, thank you to LORDCO, for the gig.
Had a gas.
Love
Gogo

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Road letter #6:

I’m in montreal,I just flew in. I’m staying at the HILTON, my favorite hotel, but only for 5 hours, as there is a 5;40 lobby call to fly way up north to a reservation for 2 days.Played at some fancy persons family home in the prairies last night, fun, saw about 30 old black light posters from the ’70s in their work shop, which blew my mind, best collection I have ever seen……… this trip is pretty nutty, lots of flights. One month from today i will be in Barcelona ….
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HEY we play a lot of corporate gigs these days, some with other bands, Loverboy, who play many of the same types of gigs as we, and are a riot to share the brotherhood with. Mike Reno is so fun, what a great singer, I stand right up front and just listed to his power and range, amazing. And Paul Dean (guitar player) is a great story-teller………corporate gigs are like private holidays for both the band and the audience. Great food, always the best hotels…….. so many good shows.
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Road letter #7:
I swam in the ocean today, mid-July, dove into lake Okanogan a few weeks ago the day of a gig there, as a  new friend of the band, a great dude who owns the local music store, took us on a fast boat, other than that it is hotel pools coast to coast. But they are still so COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD. Okanogan Lake was freezing, but you gotta go for it, don’t you?
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And libraries. I love going to the local library in towns, seeing what people are reading. I love Black history month, and this year we were all at home to enjoy it. Tracy-Lyn and I volunteered for the gospel events, set-up tables, Tracy served at a buffet and we danced and I got some new insight into Black spiritual music. Inspiring, oh yeah. This is all stuff you can do for free if it you find it interesting, and I do.

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Road letter output #8:

OK, 10-hour flight day, including stop overs, started up North Quebec, landed what, 4 times ? That is too many trips through security, only to see the Nairobi shooting club, all in suits get their guns from the carousel in the end………….oh lord, thank you for getting me off of those planes………At a best western now in an administration room in the hotel, midnight, have some tofu in my suitcase, just ate it. yum, what a nut, everyone else is starved, nothing happening……………YET………….

The first guy I met here was a CREE fiddler, so I asked him for lessons, went into his room and he showed me some neat stuff, fiddling is an actual living tradition here, everyone plays the same tunes, the same way, all by ear, nobody reads music, super old old school……..and this guy, it turns out, is the grand chief from the council, meaning that he is the main chief, the chief’s chief………the leader of the entire group of Cree nations…..and hey i was in this town 15 years ago, and it was so isolated, and people were so, what, I dunno…. timid. Now they all have cell phones, have had lots of big rock bands play, can get whatever they want, and now they are no longer so shy, that’s the word……………yes the world is changing, there far less secrets, everyone knows how everyone else lives, and we are becoming some kinda one big generic Americanish media culture………….for better of worse, who knows?

Good news is that some of these little towns are getting bigger WALMARTS out of the deal.

And i was concerned that there would be no food her, as sometimes is the case on very remote gigs, yet here we get set up with 3 meals a day in the cafteria of some huge construction company, enough food to kill our roadies…………..and the extra freight on AirCreebec is  $5 per pound………..and then they invite us to the island where their community used to be, before quebec hydro moved the entire town…and i sit in the back of a new ford escalade pick up thing down dirt roads, practicing a fiddle song that a kid just showed me on the street, then joined by a native gal in the box of the fab new pick-up, and we drive onto a barge that runs all day, no signs, just a barge to an island where about 4 people live, and drive to this ghost town reserve with half fallen-over ancient churches………whoo…..spooky…(for real)…….and look at grave yards, and i find the nice sandy beach, in the mouth of James Bay………and i go around the corner where nobody is and jump in, and get out and walk around in my baggy jeans and wet hair and cross from South Africa……. no shoes, all rocked-out, and someone says that I should go and sit inside  the tee-pee, which i do, and everyone is sitting in a circle around a fire, with a goose on a string hanging, slow cooking, and a really old Native lady sits quietly cooking bannock on a stick, telling stories, (quietly)and there is no smoke, and it is hot, and it is summer, and i have done some pretty neat things, but this was perhaps the most cosmic thing of the summer, for real, not a museum, actual real natives up noth in a teepee cos that is what they do, no rock and roll bullshit talk, just the water, sky, the birds…………..peace……………

………and we get back into the 3 trucks, and I chat with the most openly gay guy i have ever seen, and really the only gay native guy i have ever met,  he laughs at everything…………….and some French  Canadian roadies are there too, and i get back into the pickup, like i did when i was a kid, pull out the violin, and the big native gal starts yelling at the other trucks not to go any farther “cos there is nothing there!”, then she says that she has “never been this far up this road”, so we look and climb on a huge old rusty ship, and go farther down the road, and even Dennis, our big gracious and loving host, (the same age as me but looks 60) isn’t so regular at this beach, unbelievable…..like a mini Prince Edward Island beach..and I am a serious beach critic, and this one was the softest sand and it went on forever, so what do I do ? I take of the shirt and shoes and RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wheeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!…………..and i run as far as i can from everyone, until they are little specs on the beach, and i drop my drawers and run in. and it is cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the mouth of
James Bay, and the first swim was more of the Chisasibi river, this one was more of the arctic or whatever silly ocean it is that fills the hudsons bay…cold………………..well, there is something to the old cliches about swimming in cold water, like first of all, that it is really COLD, but I swam around had a great time………….and i run back and jump into my pants and shirt and run around and end up back with everyone, who were all really far away and all giddy about seeing a porcupine walking around beside them……………

Well,  guess they thought i was the wildman of the day. I guess i could have gotten the cultural hint when the last people i saw were all bundled up like eskimos, ………so nobody could BELIEVE that i went in swimming…we all go back on the barge and i shake the sand out of my toes, and back to the cafeteria on the main reserve, …and i go back to the hotel, which is above a twighlight zone community hang out auditorium where old men play checkers VERY slowly, and up the concrete stairs and i take a quick nap, and we go on at whatever hour cos time isn’t of the greatest concern to some of  these guys………and i go backstage and our host says that the tribal band council had a meeting and they decided to name that beach GOGO BEACH.

So i guess they are Ok with me and my silly way of dealing with the JOY of being there. I have never had a beach named after me, quite an honour, and such a nice beach!

I don’t suppose they would let me move just a littel part of that Beach out West?………
And as a reult of that fun trip, the people are so kind that they have invited me to camp out there anyime, on Gogo Beach, anytime…………..and this in on a part of First Nations land that
is NOT open to the public. Something to write home about.

And I really like the chief of all chiefs, the main Cree of the world, the fine fiddler, i really like him a lot, and we will stay in touch……………
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