So waaay back around the middle of the 1970s, a bunch of us local children were hitting the long and winding road, stage-slammin' in rock and roll bands all around Central Alberta and beyond.
In fact, we were the very first young rockers to roll music into dance halls and party places for other young teens who were too young (looking) to go to bars (booze age was 21 then) but who wanted to party like it was 1969.
Maybe we didn’t invent rock and roll but the young bands of the 60s and 70s in the heart of Alberta certainly pioneered the tunes, the grooves, the moves, and the mojo out of rented rehearsal “studios” (shacks, basements, and abandoned offices) and into the golden age of R&R (and I don’t mean ‘Rest and Relaxation!)
But many of the young, fearless musicians around here back then who played in bands as a “job” generally went on to slightly less crazy vocations and educations right around 1975 or so. For a lot of local bands, the worldwide outbreak of disco and DJs kinda killed the freelance rock and roll scene.
Not to mention the fact that the Alberta legal drinking age suddenly lowered to 18, and the bars (with ‘Ladies & Escorts’ entrances) and 20 cent glasses of ALCB (Alberta Liquor Control Board) beer quickly turned the dance halls and community centers for rock and roll dances into musical mausoleums.
1975. FIFTY YEARS! Really?
Somebody (possibly Albert Einstein) has been messing with a serious time warp because 1975 can’t possibly be FIVE HONKIN’ DECADES ago!? But my personal fossil pains keep reminding me that yes, it is in fact the fifty-year anniversary since our on-the-road-in-a-big-band-bus career playing music as Gaetz Ave Dance Band ended with our last job on New Year’s Eve 1974.
So when most of the Gaetz band plays next weekend, it will be quite a milestone. That’s right, three original members with friends from way-back bands like Bedford Page and Easy Street, plus rockers from other key bands from the 50 years ago like The Drifters and The Network will park our walkers off-stage and be rockin’ out at the Jam in June at the Elks Club this June 21st. And once again, I invite everyone within the sound of my keyboard to attend. Free. Donations to fight M.S. are welcome.
Furthermore, did you know that there’s a record of 53 of the very first rock bands in Central Alberta from 1960-1975 and that list will be featured in a new book coming out later this summer? It’s a memoir from the author of this very column, ChatGPT (Artificial Intelligence). Kidding of course, it’s called “Rock On!” and it’s being written with no intelligence at all, artificial or otherwise – by yours truly. So I’m scribbling the memories, and fellow fossil friend and bandmate Fudd Thompson has compiled the Band List.
“Rock On!” contains pictures, posters and juicy tales of local rock and roll. Like the time we five teenagers and all our equipment blew not one but two tires at 60 mph in the middle of the night in our old band car, which was a retired funeral hearse. Or the time Bedford Page’s pyro stage act almost burned down the Lacombe Memorial Centre.
Or Buckstone County somehow being one of only two bands booked for a disastrous 48 hour Music Festival somewhere near Kamloops. Memories, mayhem and magic 50 years on. Stay ‘tuned’ for news of the book release soon.
Meantime. Jam in June. 21st. 6:30 onward. Don’t miss it! Have your after-supper nap early and bring your own defibrillators (the bands may need theirs).
Harley Hay is a Red Deer author and filmmaker. Reach out to Harley with any thoughts or ideas at harleyhay99@gmail.com.
