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With John Gardiner, At Stratford

Falling in love with rock 'n' roll during the Summer of Love

Tuesday, October 1, 2002

Back in the summer of 1967 – the so called Summer of Love – I was a young pup of a kid with a burgeoning interest in rock 'n' roll music. A couple of short years prior, I'd traded in my clarinet and place in the town band for a bass guitar and a spot in an aspiring rock band that rehearsed in the basement of the Queen's Hotel.
1967 was also the summer of Canada's Centennial, our 100th birthday, and the town fathers in my home town of Hanover, Ontario decided to try to throw a party that would be worthy of such a notable occasion – actually, they came up with a series of events that ran throughout the year – we celebrated with pizza eating contests, beauty pagents, sports events and all sorts of great stuff.
But the biggest event in my young life that summer were the two rock 'n' roll shows scheduled for the recently-opened Hanover Coliseum. First, for us young people, there was a group from Toronto - they were called Mandella and I didn't have a clue who they were. The other group, coming later in the summer and for the older folks, our parents, was Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks.
Now, to try to describe the type of heaven I lived in back during that summer would not be to do the experience justice. George Oliver was the front man for Mandella back in those days, and the group was one of the bright spots on the fledgling Toronto rock scene. Indeed, I can well remember Oliver doing a complete flip off the front of the stage that night in the Coliseum and it was the most amazing thing I'd seen. I remember that the sound was terrible, but they were the biggest thing I'd seen in my young life.
Then came Ronnie Hawkins, credited with bringing rock 'n' roll to Canada – and who am I to argue with that. He and the Hawks rolled into town in a Rolls Royce that ended up parked behind the local arena, where every kid in town, including me, checked it out – it was likely the first time most of us had seen one of those babies.
I remember watching Rompin' Ronnie as he put the band through its paces – and I'm not using the word "band" lightly, because I have every reason to believe that was indeed "The Band" that visited Hanover on that summer's night. I didn't know them from Adam back in those days, and neither did anyone else, but the timing is about right. The Band, as most of you know, just might have been our very greatest Canadian musical group (excusing Levon Helm) for a period of time away back then.
Anyway, my experience with George Oliver and Mandella really turned me onto the Canadian, and more particularly, Toronto rock scene. There were some awfully good bands kicking around the TO area back in those days. Ugly Ducklings were one of my favourites. They had a huge hit with Gaslight back in about '66 or '67 and we used to do a couple of their tunes. Mike McKenna, who later teamed with Joe Mendleson (oops, sorry – Mendleson Joe) to form McKenna Mendleson Mainline, was the Ducks main guitar guy.
Along with Mike and the boys, there were many other fine Toronto bands. Think Sparrow, which became Steppenwolf and pushed out a variety of great hits. But also think Kensington Market, Luke and the Apostles, Bush – which featured the young "Don" Triano on guitar. None of these groups really burst out of the Toronto scene, but all were great groups. (My heavens, what about the Paupers? Skip Prokop's breakthrough band.)
These groups laid the foundation for a host of great bands that included Edward Bear, Crowbar, MMM and a variety of others that developed in a very rich musical environment. I saw most of these bands at my high school back in the old days and they sure beat heck out of today's video dances. I mean, we even had Lighthouse in our school gymnasium - those were amazing days for sure. And they've never been repeated. Back then, there were a veritable plethora of venues for bands to play in - and they were usually just up the street.
And while I'm busy raving about the Toronto band scene back in the '60's, I know I've only scratched the surface. Take a look at the cover called "The Wild Pair" that I've included as a graphic with this column. That's right – a Coke promotion from 1967 – the Guess Who were about to break out. More on that next week.



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm

He welcomes comments on his work.