(If you’d like to add your memories of rocking out in Edmonton 25 to 35 years ago, or if we’ve forgotten big bands of the time, please leave a comment!)
The top concerts in the Coliseum (today’s Rexall Place) cost $20.
Nobody stayed home and watched TV.
They went out, in one of Edmonton’s golden rock eras, 1975 to 1985.
Those party-hardy folks are now 45 to 55 years old, and they were out in force last Tuesday to re-live the glory days with one of that era’s great surviving bands, Aerosmith.
So naturally, there was much talk of the good ol’ days.
“The Coliseum opened in 1974,” says my friend Pete Koziol. “The first act there was Stevie Wonder. Suddenly going to concerts was fantastic. The sound was so good, compared to the Kinsmen Fieldhouse or the old Gardens at Northlands which were the only places for big bands before The Coliseum.
“The Coliseum made a new generation of fans. We’d ride our bikes, and later drive, to the Coliseum to get in line at midnight for tickets that’d go on sale at 9 a.m. There was no Ticketmaster, no credit cards. The night before, we’d collect the cash from our buddies for the show. With the new arena, the really big bands started coming: The Who, Beach Boys, Styx, Queen, The Eagles on their Hotel California tour, ABBA’s first stop on their North American tour, Kiss, Fleetwood Mac on the Rumors tour, Supertramp.
The access to big bands, Pete figures, made everybody become big rock fans, in turn spawning the local cabaret scene.
Colin Bland, in those 10 years, had three different bands, The Shock, Spunk and the best known, Informer. “There were so many good bands, partly because there were plenty of places to play. Most of the suburban hotels had two rooms. A good band would play the bar Monday to Wednesday, the cabaret Thursday to Saturday.
There were a LOT of really good bands – The Fifth Avenue All-Stars, Slash and the Bleeding Hearts, One Horse Blue, Jenson Interceptor, The Models (with sexy Angie on the cover of the first album), White Wolf, Patch, towards the end Darkroom, a bunch of others that we’ve momentarily forgotten.
And the places to play: The Back Bumper at the Beverly Crest, The Londonderry, The Rex in Capilano, Night Fever at Kingsway, Esmeralda’s in the Edmonton Inn, Dancin’ Shoes at the Mayfield, Scandals in the Howard Johnson, Crackerjacks, The Riv Rock Room at the Riviera Hotel, the Renford on fifth, the Continental Inn West, Dinwoodie’s at the U of A …
“Nobody stayed home,” says Colin. “Everybody went out. There’d be line-ups outside on Tuesday nights! Everybody followed their favourite bands. The energy level of the band and the energy level of the audience fed off each other. It was unpretentious, unbridled energy, a great release for the working guy and girls, and gratifying for the bands.”
Then there was the time Colin, as lead guitarist for Informer, jumped up with one of the first wireless guitars in Edmonton to do his favourite trick of bouncing off the wall. Only instead of bouncing off at the Continental Inn South, he went through … crashing into the bathroom!
It was all so much fun. “We bought eight-tracks for our first cars, with big speakers in the trunk. At the bush parties, you’d open the trunk and the music would just pour out,” says Pete. “The girls all had Linda Evans (Dallas TV show) big hair. We all had mullets. And everybody wore really tight, scrotum-squishing designer jeans.”
Pete’s favourite show of the era: “Queen. It was the last stop of their North American tour. Freddy Mercury didn’t stop giving his all for three straight hours.”
Why did it all gently taper off by the mid to late ’80s? Colin figures the booking agents and the hotels (the “Ukrainian Mafia” that owned the utilitarian hotels ringing the city) squeezed too much. “The good bands just didn’t get paid enough to make it worth while. It wasn’t like we didn’t earn our keep – the hotels made a fortune off of liquor sales. After 10 years, musicians gave up. It just wasn’t worth it to keep going, when you could make far more stocking shelves in Safeway.”
At the same time, the recession of the mid-’80s had settled in; society became more serious about drinking and driving.
Pete and Colin want an argument settled. Who opened for BTO on its 1976 Rolling Down the Highway tour? Pete swears it was Boz Scaggs who returned to headline a few years later. Colin says Bob Seeger.
Who remembers? A lunch is riding on it!
Bob Seger opened for BTO in 1973-74, he was opening for Black Sabbath, go figure, in 1976, it was Boz Scaggs that opened for BTO. Bob’s last album for Palladium was 1974’s “Seven”.The singles “Need Ya” and “Get Out Of Denver” were hits in Michigan with the latter also charting nationally. “Get Out Of Denver” was written while Seger was serving as the opening act for Bachman-Turner Overdrive. His breakthrough album “night moves” was not released until 77, although he released live bullet in 1976.
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/archive/index.php/t-59634.html
Bob Seger, best ever!
My buddies and I caught Jethro Tull and the progressive rock band UK at the Coliseum (as it was then called) in April 1979. We were very close to the stage on the floor and I will never forget watching Tull’s Ian Anderson madly playing the flute with his eyes bugging out. UK (which I believe went on to become Asia) put on one hell of a show too. I miss those days, when so many bands had incredible musical talent.
This story is not for the faint of heart or stomach. This one involves D.O.A. back in ’78.
We were playing a double bill with the aforementioned Joey Shithead, Randy Rampage and Chuck Biscuits at the old Corona Hotel bar. We ( the Smarties ) had just finished our set and D.O.A. was just firing up.
Everybody was pogoing and slam dancing on the dance floor in front of the stage, including us and our lady friends, when Randy Rampage let loose with a big lunger that he spat at the ceiling. ( Spitting was de riguer in those days )
As the crowd continued to dance in a frenzy, only one fan noticed that the big green goober was now slowly beginning to elongate and slowly stretch toward the ground.
This guy, all the while dancing crazily under the looger, looked up in anticipation of the soon to be freed flying hork and awaited it’s arrival with his mouth open. He didn’t have long to wait when the great gob gave in to gravity and dropped lazily into his mouth whereupon he spat it back at the band.
This was and is possibly the most disgusting display of crowd participation I’ve ever been witness to and goes way-y-y-y beyond ” everybody, clap your hands ” or “everybody sing along”. Ahhh, those were the days.
They also blew our PA.
I remember the days running the People’s Pub at the Renford in on Whyte.
From around 1988 to 93, if you weren’t there by 9pm on a weekend you probably have to wait at least a couple hours to get in.
There was some great bands that were on there way up or down when they hit Peoples. Alannah Myles, Jeff Healey, Harlequin, Lee Aaron, Quiet Riot, Tragically Hip, or local faves like Click, or Budakon, China White, etc…
Those memories always bring a smile to my face and every once in a while I’ll get stopped at a mall or a concert or hockey game by someone who says “Didn’t you work at People’s?” We’ll talk for a couple minutes about the great times, and great bands and then go our separate ways with smiles.
And when this happens when I’m with my 19 year old daughter she says something like “1988!! boy are you old!! lol
How about…
Alice Cooper – Welcome to My Nightmare tour, falls off the stage in Vancouver a couple of nights before playing Edm, can’t complete the concert because of broken ribs. Came back ~a year later to re-do the show.
Dire Straits – (though this may have been just after ’85) Brothers in Arms tour, One of the best sounding concerts I’ve ever been to, technically speaking… but so lacking in any warmth or crowd banter.
Nazareth/Prism/Trooper/Chilliwack – Not all at once, but I’m sure some if not all of them played the coliseum (though memory does tend to get a bit foggy).
Totally agree about the Queen concert. I was a marginal fan before that. They totally blew me away.
When The Who played they used a relatively new ‘limited obstruction’ stage set which had no back. We sat behind the stage and got unique glimpses of Keith Moon diviing over his drum kit to open the show (and how he was helped up by a couple of roadies ready for just such an antic) and the view of Daltrey’s microphone spin-toss-return from behind was very cool indeed!
And all the smaller venues – like the Riv, Capilano, Saxony, Kingsway, etc (anyone else remember calling them “Cabarets”? … what a great time. Especially cool was catching a band before they hit it big… like seeing R.E.M. at Dinwoodies before anybody had really heard of them!
Thanks for the memories (or lack thereof!).
I definitely wasn’t around for those days (I’m 19) and find it very sad that justin beiber had rexall place on sunday while Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society will be playing a smaller venue (EXPO Centre) on friday. What has music come to? who knows. At least the smaller show friday will seem more, lets say, personal. The Lynch Mob at the events centre a couple weeks ago sure seemed personal, heck I got to meet the bands and even caught a drumstick! Rock will never die.
I wrote a blog entry last spring about B.T.O.’s 1976 Edmonton concert which had 2 opening acts- neither of whom were Bob Seger or Boz Skaggs (although Skaggs may have opened for B.T.O. in ’75).
http://motpsgravyboatoflove.blogspot.com/2010/03/first-time.html
Ya those days rocked all right ! One of my favorite bar was down stairs at the Klondiker the dance floor was on the side so there were exellent views of the bands like Archer [models] Kinlock, tacoy ryde, hotdog, This was a great live hot spot cheap beer and rock n roll the way it should be .
One Horse Blue – Crazy Fool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_gY5ylcQIM
Jenson Interceptor – Tiny Thing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgUFkyuaEyw
I remember seeing BOB MARLEY play at the Kinsmen Field House, that was a gig! There were so many people on the floor and Marley just played and played and everyone loved it! It was like an old time “Sock Hop” with much hipper people.
I grew up going to the Rex and South Side Inn (I think thats what it was called). My absolute fav bar band back then was Cannon Annie. They had some good originals but also a lot energy on the stage. I remember AC/DC and Loveryboy at the 630 ched concert (not sure where it was though). My first concert was KISS in 1976 at Northlands. Good times!