Newsletter #17, Feb. 18, 2014 pictures below: (left) It was 50 years ago today…Gord (right) Willya still need me when I’m 64...Brian Sergeant Pepper’s Heartburn Band still younger than the Rolling Stones By Gord Lovelace Who can forget that amazing February night 50 years ago?... “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a very special edition of the Ed Sullivan Shoo and the first appearance by a band that that has fans screaming in their far-off foreign land of Sagweenee/Lacsanjeen in Qweebek. Give a big hand to … The Feebles!” Say WHAT?! Okay, okay. So maybe it didn’t happen exactly like that (mind you, how would we know considering we didn’t get the Sullivan Show on TV Up Home back then? Hell, we didn’t even have TV for the first half of Ed’s career.) At any rate, that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate rock and roll history at our reunion bash dinner-dance Saturday evening June 28 with the five-hour anniversary of our own BBB garage band! (The five-hour thing is based on the fact that the first time the members will ever play together is at the sound equipment check while the rest of you are doing heaven-knows-what in the shower getting ready for the bash…). Gluttons for punishment So, here we go over-reaching again …. We already have a super party building with things falling into place for our Blueberry Bucket Bash June 27-30 (and beyond, for many). Response is great, numbers attending continue to climb (meaning per-head costs are dropping), the hotel is filling up and all we have to do is repeat the successful elements of previous reunions to have many happy people buy us beers. So why would we muck with the formula by putting together a live band for the Saturday night dinner-dance?! It makes no sense at all. After all, Music Master Terry Loucks has already assembled 400 recorded tunes from the 1950s and 60s that kept things hopping in previous bashes. We hired a band in 1984 and fired them after the first set because they figured old people like us (in our late 30s and early 40s back then) couldn’t dance to anything not composed by long-dead Viennese waltz kings. The answer, of course, is that we’re nuts. If we weren’t, we would have abandoned the very idea of having a reunion before the third pint back at our first meeting in August. The opening BBB 2014 newsletter observed that “age obviously does NOT bring wisdom” and here we are. Still got the beat So, we’re going to have a band after discovering that Ray Morrisette--a veteran of many past reunions and a long marriage to Eleanor Perry—is still drumming with friends a half-century after his stint with our local fave band les Jaguars. Ray’s and his fellow musicians (Claude Mercier, Rejean Tremblay and Murielle Tremblay) have agreed to provide the foundation of the pick-up amateur garage band being thrown together to have some fun Saturday night, June 28. So far, guest artists who have joined the cause include drummer Sandy Hatfield, lead guitarist Brian Hollands and Les Baguettes, a back-up vocal group made up of Heather Hargreaves-Overy, Suzanne Cousineau, Karen Preece-Parker and Sherry Ridley. Bruce Campbell will be providing the lead vocals on a number of tunes—including his patented version of the Animals’ House of the Rising Sun. The bad news is that I will also be part of the group (until voted out by a palace coup of people who are actually musical), but I expect you in the audience will all be kind. No fan screaming or throwing support-hose onto the stage will be permitted. Turning off hearing aids is okay. Spread all over the country, we have no way to practice together, of course, but we’re hoping that the internet will allow us retune our skills playing from the same songbook (of course, we don’t have a songbook or even a band name yet, but we’re working on both.). If you have repressed talent worthy of taking wings as part of our show, get in touch with me directly at gordlovelace@aserty so that already-overworked BBB computer guru Tom Turnbull is spared talk about chords, keys and how to get cigarette burns off a 40-year-old Fender Telecaster …. More join the party Just a couple of weeks after announcing our new goal of 150 (up from the original target of 120), we are already at 148(!) coming or planning to attend. So, let’s welcome Leo Levasseur and Raymonde Rompre, Vicky Manderson-Cloutier and Yves Cloutier, Bruce Campbell, Arleen Buzzell and J.C. Vigneault, Chris “Toppy” Campbell and Mary Tessier who haves all joined the attending list … Doris Manderson-Decurnex and hubby Mick had cancelled due to a conflict, but solved the problem and are now back in the fold … the entire West clan, Hugh, Donna, Barbara and Lloyd, are the latest to reserve at le Montagnais. That breaks 30 on the 55 rooms we blocked off. Every reservation in the name of “51819 Blueberry Bucket Bash” reduces the charges on things we need for our reunion and ultimately saves us all money. Call 1-800-463-9160 or message [email protected] by email. Don’t forget to send a note to blueberrybucketbash@gmail after you reserve. Bus hijacking? Hey, don’t mess with our Blueberry Bucket Bash gang. Strong like bull. May prove it by moving a bus…. The potential hijacking is just the latest development as the BBB 2014 organizers (strong like ox, smell like beer) start seeing the results of nagging inquiries to shake the snow-bent bushes Up Home. The region’s tourism boss, Pascale Boivin, has been in touch with the Politburo’s accommodations tsar, Dave “The Gangster” Sangster offering to give all kinds of assistance to help our guests enjoy the fullest experience during their visit—including, get this, staffing a kiosk containing all their info right in Our Tower at le Montagnais. They could even end up in our registration/hospitality suite, unless this takes up space normally dedicated to the cases of beer and wine…. Plus Pascale advises our numbers may be enough to divert to our hotel the regular tourist shuttle bus that runs a scheduled route from La Baie through Chicoutimi to Jonquiere (the closet regular stop is a 10-minute walk from le Montagnais). We’re told it is a cheap and relaxing way to get around and we will keep an eye on this prospect as things unfold over the next months. Pascale was a little apologetic in noting that summer-event brochures would not be out until late April, but we assured her that those of us who grew up there are used to the reality that you can’t plan a season until the snow melts and you discover what survived…. More big news coming up Armed with more information from Le Montagnais and considering the negotiating clout of ever-increasing attendance, The Politburo will do an electronic huddle over the next few days and set the registration fee for the reunion as well as the ticket price for the Saturday night dinner-dance-show. Everyone should be pleasantly surprised. We will also be publishing updated lists of those attending, others getting our emails and a final edition of “lost trails.”
Posted on: Tue, 18 Feb 2014 16:10:29 +0000
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