Read 2 reviews of their first reunion tour concert From Nancy Steisslinger here (http://www.orbitworld.net/bnsteiss/Reunion/Crescentwood/crescentwood.html) Also link there to great concert photos!Guess Who News -
latest update: 07-04-00 Read 2 reviews of their first reunion tour concert From Nancy Steisslinger here (http://www.orbitworld.net/bnsteiss/Reunion/Crescentwood/crescentwood.html) Also link there to great concert photos!
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Bachman, left, Cummings and Kale conquered time last night with a triumphant return to their humble beginnings at Crescentwood Community Centre before a crowd of close to 350.
THE GUESS WHO CanWest Global Park ***** out of five stars Winnipeg Sun Article VI Sat. July 1 Striking while Guess Who's hot By CHARLES ADLER -- Winnipeg Sun How many people watching the Guess Who last night won't be tempted to purchase a videotape souvenir of the concert? Of all the ideas the promoters came up with, that one has to be the best. They'd better have the video available soon. Got to strike while the band is hot. Lorne Safer, their manager assures me that the boys won't give one ounce less than what they delivered last night, when they hit the Keystone in Brandon. Pros play the same way whether the crowd is 6,000, 1,000 or the few hundred that were able to sardine their way into the Crescentwood Community Club earlier this year. By the way, if Burton Cummings isn't the second coming of Jerry Lee Lewis, I don't know who is. Burton, what would it take to get you and Randy and Bill and Garry to record Great Balls of Fire? Guess Who warms hearts of fans soaked to the skin Sun, Jul 2, 2000 By Bartley Kives and Bruce Owen IT was a typical Winnipeg evening played out in typical Winnipeg fashion when our own Guess Who hit the ball park stage Friday night. Good times. Good music. Good beer. Good friends. Good thunderstorm. Really good thunderstorm. Only Winnipeggers would stay through this,'' singer Burton Cummings told the crowd of about 13,900 after fierce sheet lightning and heavy rain interrupted the show for about an hour -- about enough time to elbow your way to the bathroom and bar. Cummings and the band then launched into a ripping version of their biggest hit, American Woman. "Isn't this wonderful?" a soaking Peter Murdock asked as the band played on. "The rain just makes it all the more better." Murdock and wife Brenda Keyser spent most of the two-hour-plus show on their feet, dancing up their own storm. Neither had a rain jacket or umbrella. Neither cared. Or noticed. For most, the show was a memory trip of the Guess Who's greatest hits, back to a time when the hair was longer, not greyer, and waistlines weren't hidden by extra-large T-shirts. "This is a big part of our city's history,'' said Kent Kramer, 31. "To see them is just awesome. "To me, this is Canada Day. This is way better than any fireworks." For others, it was a chance to share the Guess Who's wheatfield soul with their kids. Rosanne Papadopoulas, 38, brought her daughter Jazmin to celebrate her ninth birthday. "It's my first concert," Jazmin said. "It's kind of neat to see the Guess Who. I've heard so much about them." "This is a unique moment in time,'' mom Rosanne said. "I think it's important she's here for it." There were also a lot of more seasoned concert-goers on hand, guys like Stubby Law and Bruce Somers. "The Guess Who have never let Winnipeg down," Somers, 51, said. "They have never forgotten us." "When I heard Cummings sing Share the Land during the farm benefit concert in Toronto a while back, it was hard not to have a tear in my eye," added Law, 53. "I know I'll have a tear in my eyes tonight." And a lost voice. Most in the crowd, no matter what their age, knew the words to all of the hits. The audience got into it big-time during Undun, almost drowning out the band. The crowd included a few notable rock fans, such as Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy and University of Manitoba law dean Roland Penner. One Winnipegger who didn't make the show was the band's original bass player, Jim Kale, who was busy playing with his new powerhouse trio Dinkboy at the Blues Can, a former police bar across from the Public Safety Building. Kale withdrew from the Guess Who tour because of personal problems, but did attend the after-concert party at the Spaghetti Factory at The Forks. The band also agreed to share the proceeds of the tour with Kale. Kale said he wishes his former bandmates all the best, but didn't regret for a second not being at the ball park show. "This is a wonderful time for them and I wish them all the luck in the world," he said after Dinkboy finished its last set in front of a packed house. "But it just wasn't for me." Winnipeg Goldeyes owner Sam Katz, who essentially hosted the inaugural concert at CanWest Global Park, said the show rolled along without a hitch, save for the electrical storm. "I've spent almost 20 years working with artists and many of them, even if it's just a hint of lightning, won't go on stage because of the danger," he said. "These guys didn't want to leave the stage and it was a really tough call, but I think when they came back they were full of energy. "We also did the fireworks during the break and I think people were appreciative of that." The show was videotaped for future broadcast on CBC and PBS. High-voltage homecoming Guess Who, weather serve up unforgettable night at CanWest Global Park Sun, Jul 2, 2000 By Bartley Kives WHEN lightning, fireworks and baseball park floodlights illuminate the same stretch of sky simultaneously, you know you're watching one hell of a memorable spectacle. Friday night at CanWest Global Park, The Guess Who's emotional homecoming concert lived up to all the advance hype and more, thanks to amazing sound, excellent performances and a spectacular display of violent, Prairie summer weather that led to a one-hour electrical storm delay in the middle of the legendary quintet's set. The sold-out concert -- the first by a rock band at Sam Katz's baseball diamond -- was the biggest show on The Guess Who's six-week Canadian tour. Almost 13,900 people (including 200 who paid $25 each for standing-room space) attended the CanWest concert, beating out the tally at Toronto's Molson Ampitheatre on June 15 by almost 1,000 soaking-wet fans. The ecstatic, mostly middle-aged crowd, which included dignitaries such as Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy, endured a virtual music marathon. Three hours and 45 minutes elapsed between the beginning of Saskatoon trio Wide Mouth Mason's opening set and the final strains of The Guess Who's Share The Land. The music started late because a documentary camera crew wanted to shoot The Guess Who in as much darkness as possible. Wide Mouth Mason, a blues-rock outfit that made friends with Guess Who frontman Burton Cummings at last fall's Prairie Music Awards, kicked things off under partly sunny skies at 8:35 p.m. with Why, the trio's biggest single. By the end of Wide Mouth's set, which included songs from a forthcoming new album called Stew, lightning strikes illuminated the darkening skies. But the real electricity started at 9:35 p.m., when The Guess Who walked on stage. After a standing ovation from the audience, a black-clad Burton Cummings kicked into Running Back To Saskatoon's harmonica-and-piano intro. Guitarist Randy Bachman also wore black for the occasion, while bassist Bill Wallace and guitarist Donnie McDougall chose dark-blue baseball attire. Only drummer Garry Peterson opted for something colourful: a yellow headband. "Nice to be here," Cummings said after the conclusion of the band's most parochial song, whose xenophobic refrain ("This band is homegrown/Don't come from Hong Kong") was kind of fitting appropriate the night before a nationalistic holiday. Appropriately, The Guess Who followed the Canada Day anthem with anti-American Guns, Guns, Guns. Then came first monster hit of the night, These Eyes. The sound quality was stellar. Every nuance of Cummings' voice and every intricacy of Bachman's guitar-playing sounded plexiglass-perfect in each corner of the ballpark, even as baseball netting and the CBC cameras obscured visuals for several hundred fans. Up near the front of the stage, older couples started hugging. And off to stage left, Wide Mouth Mason's Earl Pereira watched in awe. "I hope I'm as good a player as these guys when I'm their age," said the 25-year-old bassist, born the year The Guess Who broke up for the first time. "I never saw them back in the day but I don't think they could have sounded better." Rain Dance, which proved far too effective in a literal sense, brought most of the audience to its feet. But they plunked back down for Glamour Boy and the start of a six-song unplugged set. Cummings took a break during Looking Out For No. 1, which featured whispery lead vocals from Bachman, acoustic playing from McDougall and Wallace and conga rhythms from Peterson. The big guy returned for Sour Suite, which saw the first drops of rain sprinkle the ballpark, followed by a medley of No Sugar Tonight and New Mother Nature. This is when the concert really started to take off. The entire floor crowd was back on its feet, clapping in time to No Sugar, while the overhead drizzle turned into a downpour just in time to salute Mother Nature. "It'll let up," Cummings said. "We're not going anywhere." Minutes later, the concert took on a completely surreal air. While the wind picked up and lightning intensified over the horizon, Cummings and Bachman performed the little-known Talisman, a psychedelic number reminiscent of The Doors. The only thing missing was an on-stage bong. Peterson, McDougall and Wallace returned for the end of the tune, plus an acoustic version of Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Let It Ride. The crowd, now a heaving sea of umbrellas and rainsuits, apparently oblivious to the removal of the spotlight crews and a cameraman from the roof of the ballpark's main building. No union members were to be harmed in the making of this concert. Everything came undone for Undun. By this time, the audience had reached a critical mass, dancing in the aisles and singing along to every word. But that distant lightning was now a very close electrical storm. After Cummings held Undun's impossibly long final note, his manager, Lorne Saifer, stepped on stage and announced an intermission to preclude the possibility of Crispy Fried Rock Stars. "It got really hairy there for a minute," Saifer said after the show. "With all the electrical power and lighting on stage, it's like a magnet to lightning. I'm glad we made the right choice." At 10:25 p.m., the floodlights came back on, competing for space with electrical discharges in the sky and one of the biggest displays of fireworks Winnipeg has ever seen. Those candles at the Pan Am Games looked puny in comparison. But when you think about it, if it wasn't for the documentary taping, the concert would have been almost over by this time. Without the camera crews, there would have been no need for a delay. But few fans left the ball park during the ensuing hour, which saw the beer and hot dog concessions do bang-up business. "I think the weather makes this even better," said fan Connie Morrison, hiding from the rain underneath the ballpark's grandstands. "We'll be looking back at this for years, how we stuck it out at The Guess Who concert." At 11:25 p.m., the band was back on stage, launching into its biggest hit of all: American Woman. The audience was beyond ecstatic -- somehow, the brutal weather actually intensified the show. "Only in Winnipeg would the crowd stay," said Cummings, who busted some '80s metal moves during an extended, over-the-top Bachman solo. "We love you!" The Guess Who kept up the momentum for the rest of the night. Cummings sat back at the piano for Albert Flasher and dedicated Hand Me Down World to late guitarist Kurt Winter, who wrote many of the band's later hits. Then Bachman stepped up to sing lead vocals on Takin' Care Of Business, which whipped the already charged crowd into a full-blown hoserpalooza. Laughing was nothing short of amazing. The jazzy number featured angelic, almost impossibly precise harmonies, leading all sorts of couples -- young and old, gay and straight -- to get seriously physical. We're talking serious flesh-pressing, folks. Thanks to the delay, the band was forced to cut a number of songs from its set. That's why it was strange to see Clap For The Wolfman make the cut -- it's easily the biggest Guess Who stinker to ever made it to the charts. Of course, the boys recovered for the Beatlesque Bus Rider and two truly amazing encores: No Time, which featured more stunning harmonies; and a patriotic rendition of Share The Land, which ended in a sea of swaying arms. "We want more," the crowd chanted. But there was no more to be had. It was already 12:20 a.m. and every noise bylaw in Winnipeg had been broken. The Guess Who and almost 14,000 fans had survived. After four hair-raising hours, it was time for millions of follicles to get some rest. Guess why the clapping wasn't louder Even Calgarians and Haligonians gave our home-town stars better Mon, Jul 3, 2000 Gordon Sinclair Jr. GUESS AGAIN . . . And now, some leftover impressions, observations and stories from last weekend's wet and not wild enough Guess Who concert. GUESS WHAT? . . . I don't know about you, but I know what my first thoughts were when the 50-years-plus Burton Cummings -- he of the full face and even fuller voice -- filled the video screen with great big greybeard Randy Bachman. Those guys look like me. And nearly 14,000 people of all ages paid money to see, hear and worship at their timeless musical shrine. Better yet, unlike the rest of us mere mortals, these guys are our fantasy in the flesh. The older they get, the better they really are. Although, in all candour, I was surprised that we the audience didn't clap louder and particularly longer for our home-town boys. People who were there Friday night, and also took in the concerts in Edmonton and Calgary, said later that while there were fewer fans -- 9,000 in the 20,000-seat Saddledome -- the Alberta audiences acted and reacted more like home-town crowds. Halifax, too, according to a neighbour who was there. Maybe it was the venue. The others were all in arenas, which meant the fans were closer to the action than the throngs seated in the ball park grandstands and the boxes. There was a huge difference between being at field level at CanWest Global Park -- where the rain-drenched fans were more "into" the concert -- and way back in those grandstands and boxes, which were so far away from the stage the fans might as well have been watching the show from across the street. It wasn't a lack of loyalty or appreciation, because the lightning and rain didn't drive anyone away and there were lots who danced and sang. One woman even bared her breasts Mardi Gras style from a balcony overlooking the front of the ball park. Maybe we didn't cheer louder and longer because we were so hungry to hear the hits. Maybe it's what band members Gary Peterson and Bill Wallace told me independently at the after-concert party. "There was too much hype" before the show. In other words, there was no way anticipation -- the fantasy -- could live up to the reality of the moment. Maybe it was just that we really do take the Guess Who a little bit for granted. Or maybe, as one of my pals who was there suggested, there's another reason the crowd wasn't more demonstrative. "We're old." z z z GUESS WHERE . . . There were fans watching from the rooftops of Portage and Main office towers. Fred and Cynthia Brick sat in front of their Brick's Fine Furniture location -- on lawn chairs -- and listened from Lombard Avenue. And there were even two couples from St. Vital who parked near the ball park and brought their kids. The kids were ready for the concert, too. They were wearing pyjamas. z z z GUESS WHO WAS THERE . . . Spotted seated together -- somewhere in the first 10 rows at field level, David Asper and Progressive Conservative leader-in-waiting Stuart Murray, the former road manager for Blood, Sweat and Tears. Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy flew in from Peru for the concert, arriving just a couple of hours before it started. MLA Steve Ashton danced the concert away with wife Harri. Former Bomber Miles Gorrell was in the grandstand, looking large as life, as was the city's film commissioner, Kenny Boyce. Meanwhile, upstairs in the private boxes were the likes of WOW Hospitality's David Wolinsky -- with realtor wife Isabel Wolinsky -- and Doug Stephen, former Manitoba gaming commissioner Archie Cham, lawyers Robert Tapper with wife Michelle, Sheldon Pinx, Jack and Belva London, and Charles -- just call me Chuck -- Adler. Most of those names showed up at the after party, which Wolinsky and his WOW Hospitality and Maple Leaf Distillers Inc. hosted across the parking lot at the new Old Spaghetti Factory. The band members showed up, including Randy Bachman and his brother, realtor Gary Bachman. Burton Cummings, wearing sunglasses, made an appearance, too, but quickly ducked into a private room. Apparently, Burton needs to wind down after shows and he needs time to himself. "It meant so much to him, and I think Randy, but Randy is able to deal with it in a much more quiet way. But Burton wanted to do his greatest work for Winnipeg and he didn't sleep for two days before," Wolinsky said. Also spotted in the invitation-only party crowd were David and Cathy Deleeuw, Dr. Michael Sheps, property managers John and Lee Ha Bryck, Maple Leaf Distillers exec Costas Ataliotis and wife Susie, David and Ruth Asper, realtor Tom Hayward and Linda Hayward, filmmaker Kim Johnson, Garry Levenson of Garry's Deli fame, Max and Ann Feierstein, Lorne and Lois Weideman, Joel and Sharon Dudick, and Michelle Ashcroft from ScotiaBank. Shindico's Sandy and Diane Shindleman, Garth and Judy Steek, Reid Eby, Tom Kontos, the unassuming port director for U.S. Customs and Immigration, plus the Astra Credit Union's Ian Dark and Lynn Smith Dark, Clarke and Brenda Gulbertson and Randy and Diane Cullen. Then there was Mike and Marjorie Birch, the head of the First Nation's Beverage Co. and of course Sam and Baillie Katz. z z z GUESS WHO WASN'T THERE . . . David Wolinsky's sister, Linda Kornberg, left her home in North Carolina at 7 a.m. Friday en route to Winnipeg for the concert. Unfortunately, her plane was delayed in Raleigh. Then again in Toronto. By the time her Air Canada flight landed in Winnipeg, it was 10 p.m., which would have still given her enough time to catch most of the show. Except that the plane sat on the tarmac until midnight. Airport ground crews don't work in lightning. So you can imagine how upset Linda was, sitting there, phoning brother David on his cell and leaving messages. David got the message and called Air Canada to find out what was happening, of course. They said there was nothing anyone at Air Canada could do to get his sister to the concert any faster. "You don't understand," David said. "I want to keep her on the plane. If she gets off, she'll kill me." The Peg's party boys Guess Who heat up the ol' hometown By RANDALL KING Winnipeg Sun The Sun conducted in-depth interviews with Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Gary Peterson and Jim Kale, prior to Kale's dropping out of the tour last month. Now we take a look at those unsung local heroes, second guitarist Donnie McDougall and bass player Bill Wallace, whose experience with the band runs from the early '70s, after Randy Bachman left the group, and into the '80s and '90s as occasional members of Jim Kale's touring version of the band. It was in May 1972 when bass player Bill Wallace got a call to replace Jim Kale when the band needed a member to fulfill the contractual obligations of a tour. Twenty-eight years later, it happened again, when Kale dropped out of the tour last month for personal reasons. "It was almost to the day, actually," says Wallace, on the bus to his Edmonton playdate. "Back then, it was right around my birthday and I had my (52nd) birthday on my third night of rehearsal (for the current tour)," he says. He was as happy to get the call this time as he was last time. Indeed, it looks like Wallace might not be returning to the job he left behind as a teacher at R.B. Russell Collegiate. "I got a leave of absence, but it looks like I won't be going back," he says, anticipating that this Canadian tour will expand to encompass the U.S. ... and maybe the world. "I did like my job, but I like this better." "This" is touring with bandmates Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Garry Peterson and McDougall. Wallace says it was a joy then, and it's a joy now but for different reasons. "We're a lot older and more mature and we're enjoying it a lot more than we could appreciate in the old days," he says. "Back then, we were all pretty young and we were always trying to achieve the next new single and the next new album and the next successful tour. "Now it seems it's changed enough so that, basically, we walk on now and we're not trying to achieve anything, other than let the crowd enjoy what we've done in the past." And enjoy it, they do. McDougall, 51, says, "The crowds have been incredible. You look out at the audience and you've got kids from 10 years old and you've got people there who are 60 years old. "It's the kids of the parents of the parents of the parents," he says. "It's amazing to see. These kids are in the aisle ... singing the lyrics to the songs. It's just mind-blowing." The audience has changed and so, of course, has the band. McDougall, remember, joined the band after Bachman had quit, at least partly as a reaction to his bandmates' reckless lifestyles. "I was in the party version of the band, eh?" Wallace says. "But we're not staying up and partying all night like we used to. "Now you finish your show and it's like: 'What am I going to do now? I'm all wired up and I've got nowhere to go,'" he says. "I hate cable. "Sometimes, if we're in a smaller place, I'll go for a walk. Back in Kamloops, I went down to the 7-11 to see what was going on." As for the set list, McDougall and Wallace were pleased to see their creative contributions are well represented. Indeed, half the Guess Who songs to be performed are from the era after Bachman was replaced by Kurt Winter and McDougall. "I was very surprised to hear that Burton had featured Road Food in his show," Wallace says. "I wrote that, and Burton re-wrote the lyrics and made them a little more esoteric. "I was surprised. That song is not a hit ... but it's the one that the road crew sings," he says. "We're doing a good representation of the whole era of the band," he says. McDougall is enthused about the performances thus far. "Burton is singing is singing his face off, and I've never heard Randy play this good," he says. "He's playing smokin' hot. Bill and I are just standing by the monitors, listening to him pull off these incredible licks." McDougall says there is one way this tour could have been better for him. "Kurt is not here unfortunately," he says of the guitarist who died in 1997. "We would have loved to have him here along with Randy." Wallace says Winnipeg should get pumped about tonight's concert, because the band is. "Everybody's getting really fired up about the Winnipeg show," he says. "But other than figuring if I've got enough tickets for my thousands of relatives, I haven't thought about the Winnipeg show at all. "I'm just taking the (concerts) one at a time, sort of like what the hockey players say in the playoffs," Wallace laughs. "We're taking this one game at a time and we're going to fight a good fight and they're gonna fight a good fight and God be willing, one of us is going to win." Wednesday 28 June 2000 Guess Who still Rockin' Heath Jon McCoy, Calgary Herald Sure, these burly old coots make today's Mick Jagger look like a rock n'roll Ricky Martin. Sure, it's yet another trip down classic hits memory lane. Who cares? The Guess Who canon is one of the mightiest in Canuck rock history and they proved it Tuesday night in front of about 7,500 adoring fans at Canadian Airlines Saddledome. But maybe adoring doesn't do the show justice for some people. Maybe ecstatic is a better word. As in the beaming old timer sitting at my right, who looked really out of character periodically stamping his feet and barking at the stage. Or the cute lady at my left who told me she went to school with the Guess Who. She slipped me a note during the show telling me to "say good things" because "they are the best!" Then there were those who made the concert a sort of religious pilgrimage as in the 47-year-old man from Halifax, who caught the band in his home town and decided to fly into Calgary to catch the Tuesday show. He was also looking forward to shows in Edmonton and Winnipeg. Yes, the crowd was mostly of the baby-boomer-plus variety but there was a fair sprinkling of youngsters as well, who stood up to dance during the more groovy, rockin' numbers. From the moment the Guess Who took the stage for their 2 1Ú2-hour show, they sounded confident and tight -- the five of them clearly enjoying themselves. Particularly 52-year-old Burton Cummings, for whom swaggering is apparently still second nature. They opened with the cool, blues whimsy of Running Back to Saskatoon, Randy Bachman, 56, a behemoth, chugging away at his guitar, Cummings hamming it up and bobbing his head to the piano boogie. These Eyes was held back slightly by a staid beat from drummer Garry Peterson who didn't sound as energetic as in days gone by, but ultimately the song was saved by Cummings authoritative, yet smooth rock n'soul crooning. There were the schmaltzy bits, as in the overblown AM radio bluster of Glamour Boy, but such moments were redeemed by genuine surprises, like Talisman, an obscure track from American Woman that until this tour had never been performed live. It was also pleasant to hear Bachman unleash a few BTO warhorses and to see him, at one point, soloing wildly grinding a drum stick up and down his guitar strings. Cummings even bowed to his long-time rival on this occasion. Prairie pups Wide Mouth Mason, for their part, made a humorous contrast to the Guess Who's seasoned prairie dog look. Their energetic, funky, blues set came up against a bit of a generation gap, especially during the more screeching, rapid fire guitar parts, but they won an applause of polite enthusiasm, if not over excitement. They also tore up the stage with blistering, soulful versions of their hits Why and Midnight Rain.
Tuesday, June 27, 2000 Shakin' all over again The Guess Who finally launches 1970 tour By MIKE ROSS -- Edmonton Sun EDMONTON - Randy Bachman speaks like he's the Douglas MacArthur of rock - "I have returned!" He's entitled. In the Canadian rock 'n' roll wars, Western Canada theatre, Bachman is a five-star general. Yes: inexplicably, amazingly, against impossible odds and thanks in part to "our new best friend Lenny Kravitz," who made American Woman hip again, the Guess Who has indeed returned. The original lineup (minus bassist Jim Kale, who bowed out to deal with "family issues") will perform tomorrow night in Skyreach Centre. Bachman doesn't need the media to tell him what a momentous occasion it is. "It's incredible," he says. "This is the American Woman tour of 1970 that we didn't do because I left the band. It's 30 years late to the month." One can imagine heroic music playing (probably Wagner), as Bachman expresses his excitement: "It's an impossible thing, but suddenly through the god of rock 'n' roll and God of the universe, it is possible for us to get together and do this. Gordie Howe can't play with Maurice Richard in the Stanley Cup. But we can get back with the original guys from the team, the winning American Woman team and do the tour 30 years later. It's incredible. It's The Field of Dreams - this mythical Canadian band that's coming back from ashes to tour. It's unbelievable." Sheesh, it's just a band, man. Or is it? These guys are regarded as the fathers of Canadian rock. The band formed in Winnipeg (original name: Al and the Silvertones) in the late '50s, just as Elvis was getting really huge. Bachman entered the scene shortly thereafter and the group recorded Shakin' All Over in 1964. Quality Records released the single under the mystery name "Guess Who?" because radio rarely played Canadian music (this was before Canadian content laws). The song became a hit before the truth came out and the name stuck - but the band still wasn't making much money. Founder Chad Allen finally had enough and quit to go back to school. Enter a fiery young singer named Burton Cummings - and the legend is born. The Guess Who proceeded to crank out more hits than had ever been created by a Canadian rock band - thus paving the way for the future. (Cue Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie.) "We always did what they said couldn't be done," Bachman says. "We just went ahead and forged a road, ran into the forest and knocked down trees and made a way that became like the Trans-Canada Highway of music which bands have followed on, your Bryan Adamses and Celine Dions, and suddenly we're going back on the road again saying, well, we made this highway. We made this. It's kind of unbelievable." As with all such reunions, questions arise: 1. When are we going to hear some new Guess Who music? and 2. Will it be any good? To the first, it'll happen as soon as the band renegotiates a measly two per cent royalty rate that's still in effect, Bachman says. (And we think the modern record industry is filled with a bunch of pirates.) As for the second question, Gen. Bachman is supremely confident. "If we really sat down to write something, we'd be churning out more of These Eyes and Unduns and No Sugars Tonight. It's some incredible magic that we don't know what it is but suddenly we're Lennon-McCartney, Jagger and Richards and we can crank out these things. We can't do it alone and we can't do it with anyone else. Together, we do this thing. I don't know what it is, but it's magic. "It just comes from being 14, 16 years old, playing in a band together and having dreams and living in a station wagon and driving across the Prairies, back and forth for years and years and years. There's something that you communicate that you don't even know you're communicating. It's like being in a war with guys. It's bigger than each of us." And that, ladies and gentlemen, is pretty darn big. GUESS WHAT! * When Randy Bachman left the Guess Who for health reasons in 1970, he had no idea of the hard feelings left in his wake until he read an upcoming biography on his life, Takin' Care of Business. That's 30 years of misunderstanding. * Bachman credits the fact that he's a devout Mormon for keeping him alive. "I would've OD'd long ago. I have an obsessive personality. The church kept me straight." * While he's no longer a vegetarian, Bachman's been working out to get in shape for the tour. He says he's lost 60 pounds. "I feel somewhere between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards," he says. * According to an early tally of The Sun's Rock of the Ages poll, American Woman is the front runner to determine the top 20 Canadian rock songs of all time. * Bachman credits his eight children - including his oldest boy Tal - for keeping him current. "My daughter started playing Nine Inch Nails over and over until I said, 'OK, I really like this.' They're amazing." * If all goes well - i.e., renegotiating that "criminally" small royalty rate - the Guess Who will come out with a box set that includes tracks recorded live on this tour, "rehearsal" tapes and maybe even some new tunes. * After the Guess Who reunited to play four songs at the Pan-Am Games in Winnipeg last summer, Bachman commented to his bandmates, "Did you guys feel like me? I felt like I was 25." And Burton said, "Well, I felt like I was 18," and I said, "I didn't feel that young, but you can't buy this feeling." Tuesday, June 27, 2000 Guess Who revamp classic albums By PAUL CANTIN Senior Reporter, JAM! Showbiz The Guess Who will be the subject of a long-awaited reissue campaign in the coming months with two of their classic albums -- "American Woman" and "Live At The Paramount." Their 1970 album "American Woman" will be issued by BMG Records and their American catalogue imprint Buddha Records on July 25. The original disc was The Guess Who's biggest-ever American success, powered by the classic title cut, as well as "No Sugar Tonight" and "New Mother Nature." The new edition of "American Woman" will include liner notes written by singer Burton Cummings, as well as an added bonus track, "Got To Find Another Way," which was never issued by the group, but was revived later on Cummings' 1977 solo album, "My Own Way To Rock". "(The song) has never been out by The Guess Who, but Burton did it as a solo track years later," Guess Who manager Lorne Saifer told JAM! Tuesday from a tour stop in Calgary. (Burton) never had it out as a Guess Who number," Saifer said. Then, on Aug. 8, BMG/Buddha will release an expanded version of the group's 1972 concert album, "Live At The Paramount." BMG Canada's Valerie Lapp said the new version of the live album will include new liner notes, rare photos and six previously unreleased tracks recorded at the same show, but not included on the original seven-track album, including "These Eyes," "Hand Me Down World" and "Share The Land." "Everything has been remixed and remastered and all that stuff," Lapp said. Depending on the response to these two reissues, that might not be the end of The Guess Who's catalogue clean-up, Lapp added. "I think Buddha may have plans for the others. I think they are going to pull a bit of a wait-and-see. 'Wheatfield Soul' and 'Canned Wheat' would probably be the other two that would be the key ones," Lapp said. Meanwhile, the revival in The Guess Who's status that began with "American Woman's" appearance on the soundtracks to both 'Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" and "American Beauty" and gathered momentum with the band's reunion tour, looks like it will continue in the coming months. "Jerry Maguire" director Cameron Crowe's as-yet-untitled new film will likely include The Guess Who's "No Time" on the soundtrack, Saifer confirmed. "They have requested it, but you never know until a movie is cut whether they will end up using it. Cameron Crowe loves The Guess Who," Saifer said. In fact, the untitled film is a semi-autobiographical account of Crowe's career as a teenage rock critic for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines. According to Entertainment Weekly, one scene shows the character based on Crowe meeting the late, legendary rock critic Lester Bangs, who is portrayed by "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia" star Phillip Seymour Hoffman. In the scene, Hoffman-as-Bangs is shown wearing a Guess Who T-shirt exactly like the one the real Bangs wore to his meeting with Crowe. In real life, Bangs was a fan of The Guess Who and his notorious review of "Live At The Paramount" was included in Greil Marcus' anthology of Bangs' writing, "Psychotic Reactions And Carburator Dung." Crowe's film is scheduled for release in October and stars Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Fairuza Balk, Anna Paquin, Bijou Phillips and Zooey Deschanel. Although the picture doesn't yet have an official title, some sources have suggested it could be released as "Stillwater," the name of the fictional band Crowe's character follows on tour as a reporter. Monday 26 June 2000 LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT Guess Who deliver Canadian magic John Mackie Vancouver Sun GUESS WHO GM Place Saturday Some bands are rooted in a certain time, and fade from the public consciousness. Others transcend their era to become timeless. The Guess Who belong in the latter group. Twenty-five years after they broke up, the band have reunited for a cross-Canada tour. Saturday night, they stopped at General Motors Place, and it was just, well, magical. The two-hour show was like a Canadian celebration, a musical version of the "I am Canadian" TV commercial. Opening with the hoser anthem Running Back to Saskatoon and closing with the hippie anthem Share The Land, the Guess Who reeled off a veritable soundtrack to Canadian life. When Burton Cummings proudly announced the band members were all born and raised in Winnipeg, Man., the roar from the crowd was unbelievable. When he followed it up by stating that Canada was the greatest country on earth, the roar from the crowd nearly blew the roof off. The band has so many hits, it's ridiculous. They just kept reeling them off, one after the other: These Eyes, Laughing, No Time, Undun, No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature, Hand Me Down World, Glamour Boy, Guns, Guns, Guns, Albert Flasher, Bus Rider, Orly, Rain Dance, Follow Your Daughter Home, Clap For the Wolfman. But the band wasn't a human jukebox doing note-for-note renditions of past glories. The Guess Who played with passion, with fire, adding flourishes and slight changes that gave the songs new life. They also threw in several lesser-known nuggets for long-time fans, like Talisman and Roadfood. And they came up with some surprises, like a coffeehouse acoustic version of Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Let It Ride with heavenly harmonies from Cummings, Donnie McDougall and Bill Wallace. The new version of the Guess Who combines two eras, and the band is all the stronger for it. Having Randy Bachman back in the group is key -- there really is no one in the world who can play American Woman like him, and adding BTO nuggets like Lookin' Out For Number One and Takin' Care of Business to the Guess Who's set makes it even stronger. Takin' Care of Business, in fact, was the biggest crowd-pleaser: all 7,000 people in the audience were standing and clapping and singing along. As Joe Keithley of DOA says, Takin' Care of Business is Canada's real national anthem. McDougall and Wallace hail from the band's later years, and really add a lot of depth and texture to the live show. McDougall is a fantastic singer, and is able to double Cummings' lead vocal parts perfectly. Wallace -- who was teaching high school in Winnipeg until he rejoined the band a month ago -- is also a great harmony singer. It would also be amiss to not mention drummer Garry Peterson, the unsung musical force in the band. Peterson is like a Canadian Jim Keltner, a subtle, but rock solid drummer who really plays what's best for the song. Finally, there's Cummings, The Voice. Cummings hasn't sounded this good in years, maybe since the Guess Who broke up. He was scattin', he was croonin', he was rockin' out in a Jim Morrison T-shirt. Put him and Bachman together on a stage and look out. Sunday 25 June 2000 Guess Who stands tall for the fans lottsa baggage, lottsa angst-- but Who magic wins out Allan Kellogg The Edmonton Journal Concert Preview The Guess Who Location: Skyreach Centre Q: What could be scarier than four pasty, pudgy, 50-something former rock stars from Manitoba -- who haven't had a collective hit in over a quarter century -- going on a national tour? A: Why, the thought of running a competing concert against them on the same night. Share the land, lock up your aunties and your beef jerky stash -- the boys are running back to town. It's true: The Guess Who -- originals Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Jim Kale, Gary Peterson -- are hot. Well, OK É maybe warm -- in the same way Pop-Tarts are heated up in a microwave kind of warm. They may not be quite in the same league as the band I saw on Canada Day, 1971 at Place des Nations in Montreal, when the lads from the 'Peg drew 40,000 headlining a bill that included hometown heroes Robert Charlebois and April Wine. But selling 7,500 ducats a week before the show in summertime 2000 Edmonton -- with a top ticket price of $80.00 -- is more than respectable, and ticket sales in other cities have even been stronger, selling out in certain locales. More boomer nostalgia? Retro madness? A harbinger of incipient Canuck nationalism? Perverse curiosity? Honestly-held respect? Neither Randy Bachman or Burton Cummings, from the beginning the band's sacred and profane respectively -- Randy the Morman family man, Burton the swaggering rock ego, as the stereotypes go -- seem to have a clue why the fates have determined the time is right, but they're not arguing with the feeling -- or with each other, for now. For years, Kale -- who owns the trademark Guess Who -- has dragged the name through the mud with a variety of bar bands trading on an unfulfilled past. Too bad he dropped out of the tour at the last minute. As they told me in separate interviews (natch!) weeks ago, before the band went into rehearsals for the Canadian leg of the tour, Randy and Burton do agree where the idea began. It was Winnipeg last summer -- the Guess Who began there in 1962 -- as the original four answered a call by former premier Gary Filmon to play the Pan Am Games gala. "It came right out of the blue," recalled Bachman on the phone from his house near Victoria. "I never thought it could work: diverse directons, serious baggage, various monkeys on various backs. But we played that gig, got offstage and there was this weird silence. Finally I said, is it me, or you feel like you're 25 again? They don't bottle something like that. I can't even find a word to describe what happened. But there were tears, hugs -- it all came back. And then the phone started to ring." From Winnipeg -- he keeps a house in the old hometown and works closely with a local oldies station -- Cummings affirms the Pan Am magic. In his case, it made him "feel like I was 18." Some things never change. "The last official reunion was in '83. The Pan Am thing was a really emotional night for Winnipeg, a potential TV audience of 350 million, a big deal. And for us it was nostalgic in the best sense, it felt good. We reconvened at the Prairie Music Awards in October and the plan began to emerge. There was no pivotal moment, really, just that seed." A few things have helped out of late. Lenny Kravitz's cover of American Woman was a hit, especially in Europe, and the song's inclusion in American Beauty didn't hurt. "It's ironic," says Burton. "The song is his biggest single ever, it's probably more popular than ever. So you can see the timing is pretty phenomenal. Our songs have stood up, much better than a lot of other groups. There's hardly a day gone by in 30 years when I haven't heard one of our songs played on the radio. It's never going to go away, it's a constant." Not that Burton -- or Bachman for that matter -- will own up to the retro life. Indeed, each points to pressing personal projects necessarily shelved to allow space for the unexpected Guess Who phenom. Bachman says his kids keep him young with new music, which apparently includes Nine Inch Nails, for whom the old professor expresses admiration. Cummings isn't so sure. He's listening to Bill Evans and Chet Baker these days. "Fats Domino, too, 'cause he makes me feel good. Some new stuff is OK. But I'll tell you. I hated that disco (manure) the first time, even more now. Alanis is brilliant. Rap leaves me cold." And what of criticisms of oldie stations -- or slagging old band reunions, for that matter? "I say (bleep) 'em! Who am I kidding? I'm 53 this year and that's fine. If they're whining about us boomers, let them go out and make their own magic. If old songs make people feel good, what can the harm be? It's ridiculous. If no one is interested, they won't buy the tickets or listen to the music." Another area of agreement. Each volunteered that he was looking forward to the 23-city Running Back Through Canada tour with a heightened sense of expectation, and offered a guarantee of sorts. Bachman: "I'm still a prairie dog at heart. I had this working class dream and it came true and I would never do anything to ruin any of that -- our goal is to re-capture that magic every night. We're going to work hard to make it happen, driving down that big Canadian highway, from St. John's to Victoria." Burton: "We'll be there for the fans, I promise. We're here to sing our musical legacy, and that's real buzz. We will do these songs proud, we will rock the place. To tell you the truth, I'd rather be in the front row than onstage.É" Saturday 24 June 2000 John Mackie: Guess who's hot again Winnipeg's favourite sons had a megahit in 1970 with American Woman. Now they're reliving their glory days on a cross-Canada tour. A postcard created to promote the Guess Who's hosting gig on the CBC show Let's Go in 1967 and '68. From left: Burton Cummings, Jim Kale, Garry Peterson, Chad Allan (the band's original singer) and Randy Bachman. Guitarist Randy Bachman says the Guess Who's current tour is "like a big family reunion." Burton Cummings towels off between songs during a concert in the band's home town of Winnipeg before its cross-Canada tour. There is a vintage Guess Who T-shirt with a cartoon beaver flexing his muscles while wearing the band logo, along with a stylized maple leaf bearing the legend "The Rock of Canada." It's classic Canadiana, simultaneously patriotic and satirical. But damn if it hasn't come true. Three decades after their heyday, Winnipeg's finest have reunited for a summer tour that stops at GM Place tonight. At first glance, it looked like a nice bit of nostalgia for aging baby boomers and a chance for band members to patch up some old differences and pocket a bit of cash. But as the tour has picked up steam across the country, it's turned into something quite different -- a bona fide, certified Canadian phenomenon. The Guess Who isn't a mere rock band any more. Its members are national heroes, in the Stompin' Tom Connors sense. They receive a standing ovation for walking on stage. Fifteen-year-old kids are punching the air to American Woman, which was 15 years old when they were born. People are crying during Share The Land. Over the phone from Toronto, 56-year-old guitarist Randy Bachman sounds stunned by the reception the band has been receiving. Unbelievable," says Bachman. "Beyond any comprehension. We never had any idea it would be like this. It's like an audience full of our relatives, except we don't know them. It's like a big family reunion, coast to coast. " It is a good time for the band to regroup because American Woman is almost as big a hit now as it was in 1970. It first cropped up in the movie The Cable Guy. Lenny Kravitz then had a big hit with a cover version from the Austin Powers sequel The Spy Who Shagged Me. The capper came when Kevin Spacey howled American Woman while driving down the street when he flipped out in American Beauty. American Woman has also been licensed to commercials for Gatorade and Tommy Hilfiger, which doesn't sit too well with some of the band's new fans. "There's young kids complaining that American Woman is our song," relates Bachman. "They think it's a Canadian song, an anti-American anthem, except now with this American Woman ad for Gatorade, they've turned it into an American anthem." Bachman feels blessed by the attention the song has gotten and the opportunities it has given him. "I left the Guess Who in May of 1970," he explains. "The American Woman album and single were No. 1, and I never got to do the American Woman 'victory tour.' Thirty years later, May of 1990, I'm rehearsing in Winnipeg [with the reformed Guess Who]. It's like God is giving me the chance to do the American Woman victory tour. "Because of Lenny Kravitz and all these commercials, the song has as much visibility now as it did when I left. It's an incredible opportunity to go back and build bridges that were burned. Not many people can do this in their life." In retrospect, it was probably inevitable that Bachman would leave the band. Bachman had become a Mormon, while the rest of the band were young and wild and ready to sow their wild oats. (They did.) In a way, splitting up allowed both Bachman and Guess Who singer Burton Cummings to explore sides of their musical personalities that may have never surfaced if they had stayed together. It's hard to imagine Cummings singing a Bachman-Turner Overdrive bone-cruncher like Sledgehammer or Let It Roll Down The Highway (which was written by BTO bassist Fred Turner). Takin' Care of Business probably would have sounded totally different if it had been done by the Guess Who. And if Bachman hadn't left, the Guess Who would have never recorded songs like Hand Me Down World and Bus Rider, which were written by one of Bachman's replacements, Kurt Winter. Cummings and Winter were also a dynamite songwriting team, writing hits like Running Back to Saskatoon, Clap For the Wolfman and Heartbroken Bopper. Winter died last year, a victim of decades of hard drinking. But he's there in spirit, as the concert opens with Bachman reeling off a classic Kurt Winter guitar line in Running Back to Saskatoon. "It took me awhile to learn his guitar style, to play some of the solos," says Bachman. "I really appreciate the songs. He filled my shoes quite adequately. "It's fun playing songs from another era [of the band]. The thread that ties it together is Burton and Garry Peterson, the original singer and drummer, who were on every single cut. For me to be there filling Kurt Winter's shoes is kind of an honour, but it's sad that Kurt can't be there. Burton pays a tribute to him every night when we do Hand Me Down World or Bus Rider. We kind of feel he's there on stage, because they're his songs." The reformed Guess Who actually mixes two eras. Bachman, Cummings and Peterson are from the original quartet, but bassist Jim Kale bowed out of the tour at the last minute. (Kale owns the Guess Who name and has toured with an ersatz Guess Who for years.) Kale was replaced by Bill Wallace, who also replaced Kale in 1972. Oddly, Wallace rejoined the band on his 52nd birthday, 28 years to the day after he originally replaced Kale. The band is rounded out by Donnie McDougall, the former lead singer in Vancouver's psychedelic stalwarts Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck (remember One Ring Jane?). McDougall joined the Guess Who in 1972 and has recently been playing in Bachman's live band. Cummings, McDougall and Wallace are all lead singers, which makes for some spine-tingling harmonies. "You will not believe Let It Ride," says Bachman. "Burton e-mailed me and said 'I want you to sing [BTO's] Let It Ride.' I said 'You're nuts. I didn't sing it on the record, Fred Turner sang it.' He said 'I want you to sing it in the special voice that you have, and I've got this great idea for harmonies.' He worked out these harmonies for them to sing and it's just heavenly, it's magnificent.' " The impetus for the Guess Who getting back together was when the group was asked to play at the closing ceremonies of the Pan-Am Games in Winnipeg in 1999. Now things are going so well, the group has a three-year plan to reconquer the world, including a live album from the tour. The band knows how to be patient. After all, it took them nine years to break out of Winnipeg in the 1960s. "All we were was prairie dogs who wanted to be in a rock band like the Beatles or Elvis," he recalls. "We forged a trail out of Winnipeg, because no one had gone out of Canada before. "Everyone said it just couldn't be done. We just kept going and going and going, running into a wall, coming home and regrouping and going again. Nine years of bashing our heads, overcoming every obstacle. Every other band out of Winnipeg pretty much broke up. We just kept going and then suddenly we broke through." The band's first million-seller, Shakin' All Over, was recorded with the band's original lead singer, Chad Allan (who now plays lounges in Vancouver). Bachman now owns the rights to the Guess Who's early recordings, which were released on Quality Records. He bought them after he received a phone call asking if he wanted to buy "the Selkirk tapes." Bachman thought this referred to Selkirk, a town just north of Winnipeg that was known for its mental institution. "I thought 'gee, it's our Christmas show out at the old mental institution in Selkirk, Man.,' " he says. "I didn't realize Quality Records was owned by Selkirk Communications. I started out offering $500. They said 'what, are you crazy?' They wanted like $100,000. I didn't realize it was our old records. When I got the box and realized it was all the Quality masters, all the artwork, I was literally stunned. I thought someone had made a mistake. Then I saw 'Selkirk Communications,' and it was 'bing!' The Selkirk tapes." Bachman has re-released the first three Guess Who albums on CD and plans to do a fourth, This Time Long Ago, that brings together rare singles like Flying On the Ground Is Wrong (written by Neil Young) with live recordings from the CBC show Let's Go, which used to broadcast across Canada every day after school. The band played on Let's Go for two years, and Bachman says it was a pivotal time in the band's development. "It turned us into a great studio band, because we had to go record the band tracks every week on the show," he says. "It taught us studio etiquette, it got us out of a financial hole and it was steady income. And suddenly we were visible, people in Ontario and the Maritimes and Vancouver knew who the Guess Who were from the TV shows. When These Eyes and Wheatfield Soul came out, they knew who we were."
Thursday, June 1, 2000 The Rock rocks St. John's jumps as Guess Who opens tour By JOHN KENDLE Winnipeg Sun THE GUESS WHO Memorial Stadium, St. John's, Nfld. Wednesday, May 31, 2000 ST.JOHN'S, NFLD. Finally. After months of negotiation, speculation, trepidation, anguish and anticipation, The Guess Who is finally out on the road, together again and sounding tremendous. The Running Back Through Canada tour -- which will hit 23 more cities before it concludes July 15 in Craven, Sask. -- kicked off on The Rock last night with a 135-minute show which more than answered the many questions posed prior to the tour's start. Questions such as: Can these guys still cut it? Can they put on a show of '60s and '70s music that incorporates 21st century production values? Will bassist Bill Wallace -- drafted into replace Jim Kale when Kale said he couldn't make the tour -- be able to make the grade? The answers are emphatically yes, yes and YES! That these guys can still cut it was evident simply in the fact that in a 25-song set which contained American Woman (and an 11-minute version of it, at that) as the 14th tune, the quintet of Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Garry Peterson, Donnie McDougall and Wallace held the audience's rapt attention right through the closing strains of Share the Land. Between them, Cummings and Bachman have written the quintessential anthems of hoser rock (and that's not a bad term, either). American Woman. Takin' Care of Business. Let it Ride. These Eyes. No Time. The other songs aren't half-bad, either, and the version of the Guess Who that was on view on this night performed them with a well-rehearsed precision and a gleeful joy that was evident on all their faces. From Peterson's skillful brushes and bongo playing to Bachman's inventive solos, McDougall's harmonies and the powerful thump of Wallace's bass, this was no band of has-beens. The production itself is a clean, well-honed spectacle. Two giant video screens flank the stage, throwing the onstage action to the very back of the hall. A bank of high-tech, coloured lights, Vari-Lites, strobes and spotlights illuminates every inch of the stage and -- during what will be dubbed the group's Acoustic Coffeehouse set -- psychedelic rear projections illuminate the band's simple backdrop, hearkening back to the freer days of these songs' genesis. But the bells and whistles don't hold a candle to the music's sheer, effusive beauty. There really should have been no doubt that veteran Wallace, who played with the band from 1972 to 1975, could step in and fill Kale's shoes. The high-school music teacher has kept his chops up, gives the group a tremendous harmonic voice and seemed absolutely thrilled to be up there. Almost as thrilled as the audience of 3,400. Cummings said before the show that he was nervous, and Bachman was heard saying he hadn't slept well the night before, he was so excited. They needn't have worried. The crowd listened intently, sang, clapped along, danced and shimmied. Several standing ovations were meted out -- and the roof was nearly torn off when American Woman hit its grinding, thudding climax. By the smiles on their faces last night -- smiles of eagerness, relief and joy -- it was evident Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings are enjoying making music together. Couple those two with this band -- on this night and any of the next 23 nights the group performs -- and The Guess Who will be one of the hottest tours of this Canadian summer. It's about time. Set List 1. Running Back To Saskatoon 2. Guns, Guns, Guns 3. These Eyes 4. Rain Dance 5. Glamour Boy 6. Heartbroken Bopper (acoustic set) 7. Looking Out For Number One 8. Sour Suite 9. No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature 10. Talisman 11. Let It Ride 12. Undun 13. Follow Your Daughter Home (end acoustic set) 14. American Woman 15. Albert Flasher 16. Hand Me Down World 17. Orly 18. Road Food 19. Takin' Care Of Business 20. Laughing 21. Clap For The Wolfman 22. Star Baby 23. Bus Rider enore 24. No Time encore 25. Share The Land Thursday, June 1, 2000 Guess Who invade the Rock By MICHAEL MACDONALD Canadian Press ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) -- The Guess Who, Canada's first supergroup of rock, launched their Running Back Thru Canada tour Wednesday night by exploding out of the blocks on The Rock. Over 3,300 fans, most of them greying boomers in denim and fleece, jammed Memorial Stadium for the opening date of the 24-stop tour. The energy and enthusiasm of the performance was remarkable, considering each of the five players is more than 50 years old -- and a bit lumpy around the edges. "I thought they were fabulous," said Heather Sparkes, a student and "full-time mom" from St. John's. "I remember them from the '70s and it's nice to go back and listen to it all again." Backed by a 100,000-watt, high-tech sound system last used by The Rolling Stones, the legendary Winnipeg band's faithful renditions of their biggest hits sounded better than the original, scratchy recordings. The band, which traces its roots to 1962, opened the show with their hoser anthem Runnin' Back to Saskatoon, followed by the lesser-known Guns, Guns, Guns. The fans sat passively in their hard, hockey-arena seats until lead singer Burton Cummings slowed it down with the band's popular 1969 hit These Eyes. The most telling moment came when the crowd heartily sang along with guitarist Randy Bachman's BTO hit, Lookin' Out for No. 1 -- a boomer anthem if ever there was one. "It was fabulous, fantastic -- best show I've seen in a million years," said Cliff Peddle, a 52-year-old sales manager from nearby Mount Pearl. "It brought it all back." The show proved the band is as good as it ever was, even though it hasn't toured since the 1980s. Cummings' voice was strong and steady and his soaring falsetto never quavered. "You're helping us get rid of the butterflies tonight," Cummings told the crowd after a particularly gruelling number. He was clearly nervous, but eager to please. He also seemed to be having the most fun. The rest of lineup -- Garry Peterson, 55, on drums, Bill Wallace, 51, on bass and Donny McDougall, 52 on guitar -- performed solidly during the two-hour, 15-minute performance. But it was Bachman and his incredible guitar licks who stole the show on several occasions. The crowd seemed stunned at times as the big man made the instrument sit up and talk. When it comes to stage presence, however, the band was somewhat lacking. At 52, Cummings is no Mick Jagger. He can still spread his legs and clench his fist, but that's about all. And Bachman, who now bears an uncanny resemblance to Orsen Wells, isn't about to do any stage diving without insurance. He's 56. Still, the crowd didn't care. The laser light show and massive rear-projection screens provided enough of a distraction. Besides flawless renditions of Rain Dance, No Sugar Tonight and Undun, the crowd was treated to an extended version of American Woman, a 1970 hit that drew the biggest applause of the night. The band assumed legendary status when sales of that single eclipsed those of The Beatles and Stones. At the time, Billboard magazine -- the bible of the music industry -- declared The Guess Who as one of the top five bands on the planet. American Woman, with its hedonistic guitar riff, has become a rock standard that has been covered countless times, most recently by Lenny Kravitz. More recently it was part of the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning film American Beauty. "Even though I wasn't around when they were around, I just love their music," said Michael Worthman, 16, of St. John's. "I love old rock music, and they're one of my favourites. The songs today are just not as good. Back then there was rhythm and there was meaning to the songs. Now it's just poppy." The reunion tour, which actually started last week with a practice gig in Winnipeg, had its first lineup change before the official opening in Newfoundland. Wallace replaced original bassist Jim Kale, 56, who withdrew from the tour citing personal reasons. Wallace was one of a dozen or so musicians who played under The Guess Who banner as the band underwent several mutations in the 1970s. The tour includes 24 dates across Canada. It moves on to Halifax on Friday, then Saint John, N.B., on Saturday. The tour wraps up July 5 in Craven, Sask. Cummings and Bachman said they decided to get back together after they played a brief, four-song set to conclude the 1999 Pan-Am Games in Winnipeg. The mini-concert attracted a huge TV audience and much praise from fans who last saw the band perform in 1987. Some facts about The Guess Who, which began a cross-Canada reunion tour Wednesday night: Formed in 1962 in Winnipeg as Chad Allen & the Reflections. Burton Cummings, on vocals and keyboards, joined the group in 1965. He was barely 18. The group's first single and album, Shakin' All Over, was released in 1965 in a white record jacket with only the question "Guess Who?" written on it. In 1968, the single These Eyes reached No. 1 in Canada, earning the band a U.S. contract with RCA records. Later that year their second album for RCA contained the Top 10 hits Laughing and No Time, as well as Top 40 hit Undun. In March 1970, American Woman gave The Guess Who a No. 1 single in the United States, unseating The Beatles for three consecutive weeks. Guitarist Randy Bachman quit in 1970; Cummings followed in 1975. Quotes from fans who attended Wednesday night's opening show of The Guess Who reunion tour: "What they play is real music. It's not synthesized. It's not fake." -- Geoff Hann, 16, of St. John's. "They're almost like a Canadian icon." -- Ken Kennedy, 48, of Trepassey, Nfld. "I thought it was fantastic, and Burton Cummings is wicked." -- Jody Morrison, 29, of St. John's. "I thought it was a great show, even though I wasn't there back in the '60s." -- Scott O'Connell, 28, of St. John's. "They were fabulous. I remember them from the '70s and it's nice to go back and listen to it again." -- Heather Sparkes of St. John's. "The thing that impressed me most is that they haven't changed. They're still the same, that's the best part. I'm only 19 and I still find them amazing." -- Amanda Dunphy of Bay D'Espoir, Nfld. "Even though I wasn't around when they were around, I just love their music. I love old rock music, and they're one of my favourites. The songs today are just not as good." -- Michael Worthman, 16, of St. John's.
Thursday, June 1, 2000 Great expectations, memories fan jitters over kick-off gigBy JOHN KENDLE Winnipeg Sun ST. JOHN'S, NFLD. -- "Nervous? Sure I'm nervous. Very nervous. But there comes a time when you have to hit the bricks." So said Guess Who singer Burton Cummings on the eve of the inaugural gig of The Guess Who's Running Back Through Canada tour. "We really like what we're doing in rehearsal," he said in the lobby of the Hotel Newfoundland, where the revamped Winnipeg band was staying. "But now it's up to the people to decide if they like it." Certainly the folks at Memorial Stadium in St. John's wanted to like the two-hours-plus spectacle about to unfold last night. Especially those who had rushed to ticket offices the day tickets for this show went on sale in April. For them, nostalgic sentiment and a certain sense of national pride were enough to ensure that they caught the band up close and personal. "I really like The Guess Who, all their songs," said Pat Gulliver, safely ensconced in her front-row-centre seat. "I used to have a lot of their albums in the late '60s and early '70s." The show afforded Kevin Kelly, who managed to snag the last front-row seat available, an opportunity to relive fond memories. "My first car was a '78 New Yorker with an eight-track player, and I only had two eight-track tapes -- Burton Cummings' Dream of a Child and The Best of Burton Cummings," said the 28-year-old. "I met Burton when he was downtown shopping earlier this week. I said hello and welcomed him to Newfoundland and he seemed very sincere. He said he was nervous. I told him he'd do fine. There were even a few Winnipeggers in the crowd. Six members of the University of Manitoba Students' Union executive in St. John's for a conference managed to snag tickets from a crew member. "The last show I saw was Great Big Sea at the Walker Theatre. Now I come to Newfoundland and get to see the Guess Who," said UMSU business manager Darryl Smith. "How ironic is that?" With excitement and anticipation at such a high, it was no wonder the boys in the band were nervous. Even in their 50s, the veteran Winnipeg quintet wanted to put on a good show. Jitters seemed to infect the group's mostly Winnipeg-based road crew, too. Stage manager and guitar tech Gary Koshinski confessed to nerves as he fumbled with his cigarette package. "I've gotta stop smoking," he grinned. "Actually, it feels good to be out here, getting it up and running." Wednesday, May 31, 2000 It's 'a lot of closure' Bachman happy with Guess Who reunion By JANE STEVENSON -- Toronto Sun ST. JOHN's, Nfld. -- Randy Bachman finally has closure. On the eve of The Guess Who's reunion tour launch at Memorial Stadium tonight, the 56-year-old guitarist said he's getting to perform the tour he could have 30 years ago when the beloved Winnipeg band's song American Woman, was at the top of the charts. Instead, Bachman, suffering from gallstones and at odds with the other members over their rock-and-roll lifestyle due to his conversion to the Mormon faith, left The Guess Who at the height of their success. "I left in May of '70 and here it is May of 2000, where I've just finished rehearsing with the band, and this is like I'm getting to do the American Woman victory tour," said the excited veteran rocker during a 90-minute interview at his hotel last night. "I feel a lot of closure. I think the band feels closure. I think tempers were high, emotions were high when I left the band. A lot of things were done and said on both sides that I think we all regret. I feel very fortunate, and possibly they agree, that we're able to go back and rebuild this bridge that we burned between us. I really feel complete. I feel like I'm with my buddies again." Publicity stunt It was 1962 when Bachman originally got a rock group together with Chad Allan, pianist Bob Ashley, drummer Garry Peterson and bassist Jim Kale. By the time they had recorded a cover of Shakin' All Over in 1965, they were officially Chad Allan and the Expressions, although a publicity stunt turned them into The Guess Who to suggest they were a British band incognito. The name stuck, the song went to No. 22 in the U.S., singer Burton Cummings replaced Ashley and Allan left shortly afterwards. The rest is history. Which brings us to tonight's show on The Rock, where the classic Guess Who lineup of Cummings, Bachman, Peterson, bassist Bill Wallace (a last-minute replacement for Kale) and rhythm guitarist Donnie McDougall will play about 30 songs over at least two hours and 15 minutes. The band arrives at Molson Amphitheatre on June 15. Toronto, where all 8,000 of the reserved seats were sold out in the first day, is the second hottest-market on the 24-date Canadian tour after Winnipeg. Bachman said their electric-then-acoustic-then-electric show will begin with Runnin' Back To Saskatoon -- "the ultimate Canadian hoser song," as he calls it -- and end with Share The Land. Bachman, at Cummings' urging, will also sing three Bachman-Turner Overdrive songs -- Lookin' Out For No. 1, Let It Ride and Takin' Care Of Business. "All that really matters is you can do something that affects thousands and thousands of people and it's as simple as your childhood dream of playing a guitar in a band," explained Bachman. "And now, after 30 years, it has become magic to play these songs and see the reaction of the people -- it's an unbelievable intimate moment, without even speaking. It's like an ESP kind of thing." In Hall of Fame The Guess Who carried on after the depatures of Bachman and then Cummings (in 1975), with Kale, and sometimes Peterson; the classic lineup was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame in 1987. But it wasn't until Cummings, Bachman, Kale and Peterson played together at last year's Pan Am Games in Winnipeg that the seeds for a full-blown reunion tour were sown. The musicians, all now in their 50s, began rehearsing in Winnipeg on May 1 and played a small community centre show on May 20 for about 350 people. It turned out to be the only show in which Kale, who left the tour in order to deal with "family issues," performed. "We're just all sitting there, we're all in tears, we're all hugging each other and shaking hands saying, 'We're really sorry,' and him saying, 'So am I,' " said Bachman of Kale. "It was just really a realization that he had so much family stuff to take care of at home, and pressures and stuff, that he couldn't deal with it long distance. He couldn't deal with it daily there. It was affecting our rehearsals just because his mind wasn't there." The lowdown on American Woman The Guess Who's most famous song debuted on the American charts on April 4, 1970 and became the band's only No. 1 hit. Earlier that year, No Time reached No. 5, and a year earlier These Eyes peaked at No. 6. In the early '70s, U.S. First Lady Pat Nixon asked that the anti-U.S. hit be deleted from the band's White House performance. "This was just after I left the band," says Randy Bachman. "Now if I'd been there, I would have launched into that song. It would have been the greatest press to be tackled by G-men and stuff saying, 'Stop playing this single!' " Lenny Kravitz's cover was featured on the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack. It won Kravitz a Grammy. The original version of the song currently can be heard in Tommy Hilfiger ads, and in this year's Oscar-winning movie American Beauty. Wednesday, May 31, 2000 Laughing once again Guess Who revisit their past on tour By IAN NATHANSON Ottawa Sun For a six-figure fee, they would play just four songs, no encore, then be on their merry way. It was a chance then-Manitoba Premier Gary Filmon, as well as the committee of the Winnipeg-hosted 1999 Pan-American Games, were willing to risk in order to get the original members of The Guess Who to perform again. Save for a 1987 induction into the Juno Hall of Fame, it had been 16 years since The Guess Who shared a stage for a 1983 reunion tour, a tour which reputedly ended in acrimonious squabbling. Reports of ill will had been arising since Bachman's departure from the band in 1970. But lead singer Burton Cummings had recently denounced that ill will as "all bulls---." Everyone knew the risks of another reunion. The tell-tale sign would be how well Cummings, Bachman, Garry Peterson and Jim Kale would get along during rehearsals for the Pan-Am Games closing ceremony set. "It was a little awkward at first," Bachman says from his B.C. home. "When we got together, the ice was broken by somebody piping in, 'Well, let's all say why we're here. Randy, you're first.' It was like a blind date, 'Well, I'm here because I like to do something weird like catch butterflies.' 'Wow, I like to catch butterflies, too,' somebody else says. "After a while, it became like a family reunion. You know, you had a fight 10 years ago at some barbecue. Now you're all grown up, you've been invited to this reunion and you wonder if that cousin is still going to fight with me for hitting on his girlfriend? But when you get there, the fight is inconsequential. All that matters is you're all back as a family again." With Cummings and Peterson the mainstays after Bachman's departure, there were still memorable songs -- Hand Me Down World, Bus Rider, Albert Flasher, Sour Suite, Runnin' Back to Saskatoon, Follow Your Daughter Home, Glamour Boy, Clap For The Wolfman, just to name a few. Changes abounded But personnel changes abounded: Guitarists ranged from Kurt Winter (from 1970-74), Greg Leskiw (1970-72), Donnie McDougall (1972-74) through to Domenic Troiano (1974-75). Bassist Bill Wallace (1972-75) replaced Kale, who rejoined the group after Cummings quit in late 1975 and managed to gain rights to the band name. "I always said all along that if this had ever been written as a story, how we got together and did the Pan-American Games, it would be the equivalent of (the Eagles') Hell Freezes Over. But ours would be, oh, '80 Above, Jan. 1, at Portage & Main,' " Bachman says. On the night of Aug. 8, 1999, the original four took to the stage at Winnipeg Stadium, the same stage they shared when the 'Peg hosted the Pan-Am Games in 1967. Following an excited introduction, Peterson dug into that familiar drum intro, leading into that instantly recognizable fuzz-toned Bachman lead riff for No Time. An extended guitar solo hit a raw nerve -- all four smiled and swayed into the groove. It sounded as good as it did in 1983 ... hell, as good as when it was first rocked into our bloodstreams back in '69-70. Sitting down at the piano, Cummings plucked into These Eyes, the breakthrough record for the band back in 1968, after years of toiling on the road, playing every high school auditorium and every TV show across Canada. Their producer, Jack Richardson, mortgaged his home so they could record that song -- and the rest of the Wheatfield Soul album -- in a New York studio. Its piano hook originated not from the classically-trained Cummings, but from the tinkering Bachman. Masterpiece With jazzy guitar chord structures and a flute solo sailing over an intricate bass line and drum arrangement, the Bachman-penned Undun wouldn't have been a hit had a radio deejay not decided to spin this B-side to Laughing. To this very day, Cummings credits the number as arguably Bachman's masterpiece. Shuffling into a steady-rolling, Muddy Waters kind of blues, Cummings rolls out the harmonica then warbles "American woman, gonna mess yer mind" over and over for about a minute or so before Bachman puts the pedal to the metal and delivers the electrifying riff that inspired Jim Carrey to use American Woman in the film Cable Guy, Mike Myers in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (along with Lenny Kravitz' cover version) and Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. "I remember seeing Cable Guy with my kids," Bachman recalls. "In the middle of that film, he gets this big sound system and he and Matthew Broderick start doing, 'Randy Bachman, doo doo do-do-do-do-do, da-do da-doo' -- they sing my guitar line. And my kids are going, 'Wow, Dad!' I didn't even know it was in the movie." Energy arose from Cummings' raucous vocals and Bachman's killer guitar solo -- it was over as quickly as the concert began. Now Canada will get to hear The Guess Who once more. A 26-city tour begins tonight in St. John's, Nfld. and wraps up July 15 in Craven, Sask. (They stop by the Corel Centre's WordPerfect Theatre June 7). While Kale, 56, had to pull out citing family problems, Bachman, 56, Cummings, 52, and Peterson, 55, will be joined by guitarist McDougall, 52, and bassist Wallace, 51. The mood is nothing short of upbeat. Says Bachman, "After it was over, I asked the guys, 'Did you feel like you were 25 years of age again?' They said 'Yeah!' I said, 'Well, you can't buy this or bottle it, but we found it. I want to do this again or many more agains.' For that period of time, you forget everything. You're in this trance and it's like science fiction -- there's this mesmerizing connnection of feelings between us and the audience." Talk also turns to a Guess Who box set, Bachman and Cummings perhaps writing together again, another set of memoirs as a companion to John Einarson's biography American Woman: The Story of The Guess Who, as well as a possible tour through the United States. "Promoters there are looking at us going, 'Wow, maybe this is real, maybe this could go on," Bachman says. "Maybe this could be like Aerosmith again -- all these guys are sane, they're all sober, in shape, they're playing again. Maybe they're going to start writing again and who knows what?' " After this tour, it's anyone's guess as to what happens next. Tuesday, May 30, 2000 Guess Who live album a go By PAUL CANTIN Senior Reporter, JAM! Showbiz ST. JOHN'S -- Burton Cummings says he's upbeat and optimistic about Wednesday night's kickoff date for The Guess Who's cross-Canada reunion tour. "Of course I'm nervous," Cummings told JAM! Tuesday evening. "But there comes a time when you've got to stop fooling around and just do it. And I think people are really going to be impressed. "Of course, we think it's great, but now it's up to the people to decide," he said with a laugh. "I've never heard Randy play guitar this well," Cummings said, in reference to his band-mate and songwriting partner, Randy Bachman. "The solo he did on 'Glamour Boy' was amazing. He just blows me away." Moving from a small rehearsal space in Winnipeg, where they have spent the past several weeks working through their repetoire and assembling the show, the band has spent the last couple of days running through rehearsals and making sound adjustments with their full stage production at St. John's Memorial Stadium, which will be the scene of Wednesday night's performance. "The lighting looks amazing," Cummings said. "We've got some rear-screen projections that look fantastic. I'm really looking forward to it, and I think people are going to enjoy it." For anyone who can't make it to one of the two-dozen dates, The Guess Who's "Runnin' Back Through Canada" tour will be thoroughly documented with a live album and a proposed TV documentary in the works. Band manager Lorne Saifer said the shows will be recorded, and the results will definitely be released as a live album after the tour. "Recording live nowadays is a lot easier, so we will be recording every show," Saifer said. "The production is really going to be amazing. It's not just going to be let's-go-see-the-Guess-Who-again. The projected two-hour and 20 minute live show will include some Guess Who material that hasn't previously been performed live by any of the various incarnations of the band, but won't include the performance of any new compositions written since the band reformed -- despite speculation that the songwriting duo of Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman might collaborate on some new songs. "I don't think people are coming out to hear that (new material). I don't think they have the patience for it. Next time around, we'll play some new stuff," Saifer said. Meanwhile, the entire process of the group's reunion has been covered by a documentary video crew, with a TV special likely to be drawn from that material. "We're in discussions with a couple of TV networks to broadcast a complete show or a special," Saifer said. "We've been photographing a lot of the rehearsals, and we also shot Crescentwood," he said, referring to the band's sneak preview show at a Winnipeg community club last week. "There is definitely enough material for a documentary," he said. St. John's Memorial Stadium, which is soon to be replaced by a downtown recreational facility already under construction, has a capacity of about 3,500, although the scope of The Guess Who's production will reduce the number of available tickets to just under 3,000. As of late last week, locals had already picked up 2,400 the available tickets and Saifer said he expected the show would be sold out. With temperatures in St. John's barely climbing above zero Tuesday, the members of The Guess Who had a day off after extensive, full-production rehearsals Monday.Wednesday, May 31, 2000 Guess Who's Next? Bachman, Cummings writing new numbers as new tour kicks off By JOHN KENDLE ST. JOHN'S, NFLD. -- Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings are writing songs together again, says Guess Who manager Lorne Saifer -- but he's not about to go counting any chickens. "Yes, I am aware that they are starting to write together and I look forward to hearing what they're up to, but let me get through these first few shows of the tour before we look at what's going to happen," Saifer said yesterday. That was the news from the Guess Who camp yesterday, on the eve of the first show of the band's first Canadian tour since 1983. Speaking from his suite at the Hotel Newfoundland -- where he, the band members and their road crew have been ensconced since Saturday -- Saifer reflected on the events of the past months and says he's breathing easier now the group is set to launch its 24-date Running Back Through Canada tour tonight at Memorial Stadium, a 5,000-seat hockey arena. A FEW DETOURS "I'll breathe even easier when everything has been up and running for a few shows," he says. "We've had a few detours along the way, what with Jim Kale not being able to come along, but I think we've overcome that and I'm thrilled with the way the music and the staging and the lighting has developed." More than 100,000 tickets have been sold for the band's 24-concert tour, and Saifer said he's thrilled overall with response. Yesterday there were still seats available for tonight's show, but St. John's Telegram entertainment reporter Mark Vaughan-Jackson wouldn't be surprised if the concert did decent walkup business. "This is the toughest ticket to sell in Canada," he said of St. John's. "But I've heard a lot of people talking about the show lately -- even some younger folks, which I guess is one good thing that came from that Lenny Kravitz remake of American Woman. There should be a good mix of people." Bachman, Cummings, guitarist Donnie McDougall, drummer Garry Peterson and bassist Bill Wallace spent Sunday and Monday rehearsing with their full stage set and lighting rig. "They worked eight-hour days the last two days," Saifer said, adding the group had no special plans on the eve of the tour. "It's going to be the Guess Who like you've never seen them. They're going beyond their comfort zone." They'll have to. It was 5o C and misty in St. John's yesterday, so this town could use some Prairie fire. jeremy.lori@nf.sympatico.ca (Jeremy Earle) writes this review of the initial concert! Just wanted to write to let you know how awesome opening night in St. John's, NF, was!!!! All I can say is...simply amazing! At around 9:00 p.m., the Guess Who took the stage to a roaring response by the stadium crowd. They opened with Running Back to Saskatoon. It was clear from the opening notes that Burton was in TOP vocal form, and Randy was home again.... For the next 2 hours and 15 minutes, the Guess Who rocked the house. They played ALL their hits (and some surprises!). These Eyes, Laughing, Undun, Hand Me Down World (with a nice tribute to Kurt Winter), Bus Rider, Albert Flasher, Broken, Rain Dance, Sour Suite, Heartbroken Bobber, Follow Your Daughter Home, Clap For the Wolfman, Guns Guns Guns, Orly, Glamour Boy...they were all there... Highlights of the concert included a Coffe House/Unplugged set, in which the band opened with - get this - Randy Bachman doing 'Looking Out For Number One'!!! Just him and acoustic guitar. It was really nice to see Randy in the spotlight. The crowd went nuts. I think Randy's vocals have improved over the years. He was flawless. Other songs in the set included an AMAZING acoustic version of 'No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature', another BTO song - 'Let it Ride', and a memorable performance of 'Talisman' by just Cummings and Bachman. Burton's vocals sent shivers down your spine... The crowd were on their feet for a 10-minute version of 'American Woman' (eat your heart out, Lenny Kravitz!), as well as for another Bachman rocker....T introduce it, Burton said to Randy: "Randy, can you play that song that EVERYONE on this planet knows?" To which Bachman began the opening riff to 'Takin' Care of Business'!!!!! The excitement in the crowd was immense. Everyone went nuts, yelling out the chorus in unison, stamping their feet, and clapping their hands! To end the evening, the band played an encore of 'No Time' and 'Share the Land'!!!!! What a night. I can't wait for the pictures to turn out. I'll e-mail some of them to you as soon as I get them developed.... The night was truly complete when, after the concert, I was fortunate enough to have the band autograph my album jacket for 'Track Record', AND have pictures of my mother taken with Burton AND Randy!!!!! Amazing......can't wait for the DVD and live album to come out (and yes - this was verified by their road manager!) Jeremy Earle |
Older Guess Who shows fine form
By JOHN KENDLE
Winnipeg Sun
GUESS WHO
Crescentwood Community Centre, Winnipeg
Sunday May 21, 2000
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They came as early as 9:30 a.m. to win a chance to buy tickets. At 5 p.m. they cheered when their lucky lottery numbers were called and groaned when they weren't. And finally, a select few Guess Who fans -- just 200 ticket winners and a hundred or so media and guests -- were ushered into the intimate confines of the Crescentwood Community Centre last night to see their heroes go, as the promotional tag went, "back to where it all began." Crescentwood is indeed one of the training grounds for The Guess Who -- a place where they cut their teeth, learned their chops and began to realize their potential.
Anticipation for the event was high -- so high that a pair of tickets for the show sold at silent auction for $750. Offers of $100 to $300 per ticket were heard being made outside the small hall just before the show. Inside, the atmosphere was a complete throwback. The band was set up on a low stage at the south end of the club's small gymnasium. The backdrop was a simple black curtain. The club's canteen was serving candy and pop.
Homegrown songs
Sure, the hair on some fans was a little greyer than it would have been 35 years ago, and there was an awful lot of forehead on view -- but the difference between now and then is that these fans knew precisely what they had come to see. Homegrown songs, that don't come from Hong Kong. Everyone in Crescentwood Community Centre last night, as well as the 1,500 or so people who flocked to the playing fields outside just to listen, knew every single word during the two-hour show. What songs, too. Running Back to Saskatoon. Laughing. An extremely rare rendition of Talisman featuring just Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman. Undun, with Randy and Burton trading vocals. They kept coming, too. Hit after hit. Clap for the Wolfman. Albert Flasher. Star Baby. Versions of Louie Louie and Wipeout. Yes, these guys are older. But so what? All BS aside, the ultimate test of these reunions is whether the band is up to the job. And the Y2K version of The Guess Who is in fine, fine form.
Cummings proved right from the opening notes of Louie Louie that he's in rare vocal form these days, and that form showed itself through the soaring chorus of Glamour Boy, the long, sustained note he held at the peak of Undun and the barrelhouse, rollicking tale of Albert Flasher, the workshop owner. One of the world's great rock singers sounds as strong as ever. Bachman, too, is obviously relishing playing this music. His solo in a 12-minute version of American Woman was almost five minutes long, and certainly proved why he is one of North America's most influential rock guitarists. The pounding, pulsating beat of Garry Peterson and bassist Jim Kale (who will step aside in favour of Bill Wallace when the band's upcoming summer tour begins proper) gave the band the backbone that carried its songs to the top of the charts 30 years ago. Donnie McDougall kept the harmonies mid-tour sharp and fit in as if he was an original member. Yes, this was a night for the ages. The crowd at the Crescentwood was ecstatic about being able to welcome the boys back to their roots -- the places where they began singin' on their Prairie tunes.
May 29, 2000
Music
Guess Who's Reborn
One of Canada's most successful bands is enjoying a new vogue -- and hitting the road once again
BY NICHOLAS JENNINGS in Winnipeg
On an early May afternoon, on the eastern outskirts of Winnipeg, a spring ritual is under way. Like bears emerging from hibernation, some grey-haired men step out to play their first round of golf of the year. Teeing off under a warm sun, the golfers are oblivious to another ritual taking place nearby. Inside the Transcona Country Club, members of the Canadian rock legend the Guess Who are running through the familiar chords of such classic songs as Undun and American Woman. The original lineup of the group -- middle-aged and reunited for the first time in 17 years for a national tour that opens this week -- is being put through its paces by singer Burton Cummings. "Keep it lazy," he shouts, as the band starts to speed its way through the ballad These Eyes. "Don't rush it." Rain Dance, with its thumping tribal drums and counterpoint vocals, is better. But by the time the band croaks its way through the four-part harmony of Laughing, Cummings becomes exasperated. "OK, that's it for the day," he barks. "Go home -- I don't care if you have to take sleeping pills -- just get some sleep. We need everybody's voices tomorrow." Later, over a soft drink, the perspiring singer concedes that a couple of band members, including guitarist Randy Bachman, are fighting viruses that have affected their voices. Yet he made no apologies for cracking the whip in rehearsal. "The end will justify the means," says Cummings. "There's no way we're going to disappoint with this tour -- we'll be better than people even remember."
Can the reborn Guess Who deliver? The answer will become apparent when the tour starts in St. John's, Nfld., on May 31 -- it winds up in Craven, Sask., on July 15. But make no mistake: the band is already back, bay-bee. Think Austin Powers and The Spy Who Shagged Me, which turned Lenny Kravitz's cover of the Guess Who's anthem-like American Woman into an international hit. Think American Beauty, the Oscar-sweeping film that used the original American Woman in its sound track. Suddenly, the band, one of the most successful acts of the 1960s and '70s, seemed cool again. Then last fall, Manitoba Premier Gary Filmon personally summoned the group to perform at the closing ceremonies of Winnipeg's Pan-Am Games. Although the quartet -- Cummings, 52, Bachman, 56, bassist Jim Kale, 56, and drummer Garry Peterson, who turns 55 on May 26 -- played only four songs, they were embraced as returning home-town heroes, and the seed was planted for a full-scale reunion. Tickets for the tour, which had a sneak preview last week with an intimate performance in a Winnipeg community centre, have been selling fast. Says Larry LeBlanc, Canadian editor for Billboard magazine: "People sense that it may be their last chance to see this piece of Canadian music history in the flesh."
That history has been as fractious as it has been celebrated. Ever since Bachman and Cummings first clashed in the late-1960s over lifestyle preferences (Bachman became a devout Mormon, while Cummings remained a resolute party animal), there have been tensions and issues surrounding the group. Bachman left in 1970, just as the band was hitting the big time, and moved on to even greater heights with his group Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Cummings kept the Guess Who going -- and the hits coming -- through various incarnations until 1975, when he embarked on a successful solo career. But the two left a trail of jealousy, resentment and lawsuits over publishing royalties in their wake. To make matters worse, Kale and Peterson continued touring as the Guess Who (Kale had assumed ownership of the name) with various Bachman and Cummings clones on guitar and vocals, much to their old band mates' chagrin. (Late last week, Kale was forced to bow out of the tour because of "family problems," according to the band's manager, Lorne Saifer, a Winnipeg-born impresario now based in Los Angeles. Onetime Guess Who member Bill Wallace will replace Kale.) But time -- and money -- can heal all wounds. And the Running Back Through Canada Tour, which is being recorded and filmed for CD and video release, is clearly a curative and lucrative undertaking. In separate interviews with the band members (another onetime Guess Who member, guitarist Donny McDougall, is also part of the tour), each musician repeated the phrase "healing process" to describe the reunion, as if the term was some kind of soul-soothing mantra. "It's a chance for the group to tie up unfinished business," says John Einarson, a Winnipeg schoolteacher who has written a book on the Guess Who. "This is the 1970 American Woman tour that Randy never took part in. It's an opportunity for the band to relive it's greatest hurrah." Added Einarson: "If Bachman and Cummings are the Lennon and McCartney of Canadian music, then this tour is every bit as significant to Canada as a Beatles reunion."
That may be stretching things, but as the Guess Who ran through its hits at the country-club retreat earlier this month, the band's legacy as a Can-rock behemoth was on full display. Cummings, a dynamic rock singer-pianist who rivals Elton John, is still in fine vocal form, while Bachman, Kale, Peterson and McDougall made old favourites like These Eyes, recently updated by Canadian rapper Maestro, No Time and American Woman sound as fresh and feisty as the day they were recorded. In a nod to Bachman's post-Guess Who success, BTO hits like Let It Ride and Lookin' Out for No.1 are also being included in the show, but in stripped-down acoustic form. "I'm glad I saw the recent Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young tour," says Cummings, "because it gave me the idea of how to structure our shows. We begin by rocking out and then switch to an acoustic set, where we're going to try and create a coffeehouse atmosphere. Then it's pretty well rock 'n' roll from then on out. Each section should take the fans a little further up the staircase." Like CSNY and the Eagles before them, Bachman, Cummings, Wallace and Peterson know that some cynics will see their reunion as a cash grab by another four fat, greying rock stars who simply want to top up their retirement fund. The band members, of course, see it quite differently. "I don't feel like I'm cashing in on anything," says Bachman, a father of seven who lives with his second wife, former singer Denise McCann, and their 16-year-old daughter on British Columbia's Saltspring Island (his son, Tal Bachman, is currently enjoying a successful pop career of his own, buoyed by the hit She's So High). "I'm celebrating the hits I've had throughout my career, both with this band and with BTO." He added: "Timing is everything. If we had done this 10 years ago, it might have felt tacky. The world wasn't ready for classic rock. But now, with Neil Young and Santana's comeback, there's absolutely nothing tacky about this. It just feels right."
Cummings agrees. "Most reunions are lame," says the singer, who owns homes in Los Angeles and Victoria, and recently bought another in Winnipeg, where he has been spending more time. He is separated from his wife, Cheryl DeLuca. "One or two guys have overdosed, a couple of members have become accountants or truck drivers and then they try to get back together and pick up their instruments and it simply doesn't work. In our case, we're all still alive and we've stayed involved in music and continued playing many of these songs over the years. So it's totally valid." They admit, however, that their 1983 reunion tour was a mistake. Lured by the offer of big money, they undertook seven Canadian concerts despite lingering disputes within the group. "We weren't very friendly on that tour," recalls Cummings. "There were some nights when the vibe was really awful. Not actual fistfights, but terrible arguments." Added Bachman: "We still had baggage and bones to pick, so the tour imploded halfway through. This time, it's all about the music, the songs and recapturing the old magic." The magic was first kindled 35 years ago in the community centres sprinkled throughout Winnipeg. There, in the wake of the "British invasion," teenage boys traded hockey sticks for guitars and began forming rock bands that played on Friday and Saturday nights. Toronto's Neil Young, then living in Winnipeg with his mother, had a group called the Squires. But Bachman, Kale and Peterson, as members of Chad Allan & the Expressions, were the first to score a hit when their frenzied recording of Shakin' All Over topped the charts across Canada in 1965 and went on to sell two million copies worldwide. When Allan left the following year, Bachman quickly recruited Cummings, then a wild, screaming singer with the group the Devrons. Recalls Bachman: "He had an incredibly strong voice and had once desecrated a piano at the Winnipeg Arena while opening for some British band. We needed his kind of sassy, cheeky attitude." After an abortive trip to England, the Guess Who came to the attention of Toronto producer Jack Richardson, who saw the group perform on the CBC program Let's Go. So impressed was Richardson that he mortgaged his home to finance the recording of the 1969 album Wheatfield Soul, its title a reference to the band's so-called Prairie sound. After the album's first single, These Eyes, topped the charts, the band never looked back. The next album, Canned Wheat, contained three more Bachman-Cummings hits, including Laughing, No Time and Undun. But it wasn't until 1970's American Woman that the Guess Who achieved pop supremacy. The fuzz-guitar-drenched title track shot to No. 1 in the United States, where it unseated the Beatles for three straight weeks. The hits kept coming: No Sugar Tonight, Albert Flasher, Share the Land, Rain Dance and Clap for the Wolfman.
According to Billboard's LeBlanc, the band opened countless doors for the many Canadian acts that followed, including Lighthouse, Motherlode, the Poppy Family and Five Man Electrical Band. "They were small-town guys who became stars from coast to coast without a national touring circuit," says LeBlanc. "And even after they became known internationally, they essentially remained small-town guys, always rooted in their community. In that respect, they were quintessentially Canadian." Jeff Bishop, whose family owns Winnipeg's Sound Exchange record store, agrees. "They gave us an identity," says Bishop, who is currently turning the entire Portage Avenue store into a Guess Who shrine, complete with photos, albums and rare memorabilia, as a display of civic pride leading up to the group's June 30 concert there. "I was born in 1967, and my whole life has had a sound track supplied by the Guess Who. Those songs tell us something about who we are." That was certainly the case for the three young members of the band Wide Mouth Mason, who grew up in Saskatoon. Cummings says that when he met the group at last year's inaugural Prairie Music Awards, where the Guess Who was inducted into the Prairie Music Hall of Fame, Wide Mouth Mason's Shaun Verreault told him how much Cummings' song Running Back to Saskatoon meant to him. "We're all Prairie boys, born and raised," says Cummings. "We have that remote feeling in the winter and that all enters into the way we play and write. The guys in Wide Mouth Mason share that with us. They, too, have wheatfield soul." Which is why, after jamming late into the wee hours with the trio at a Toronto bar, following an appearance at the Farm Aid benefit this spring, Cummings broached the possibility of the band opening for the Guess Who on its summer tour.
As the golf balls fly outside the Transcona Country Club, the members of the Guess Who and the crew try to concentrate on getting themselves ready for the tour. Aside from rehearsals, arrangements are still being made for sound equipment, accommodation and merchandise in each of the tour's two-dozen venues. Manager Saifer seems to have a cellular phone surgically attached to his head. "When you see these guys onstage," he's raving to someone on the phone, "it's almost like time has been turned back." Bachman, overhearing the comment, nods his head. "It's true," says Bachman, who describes the Pan-Am experience as something akin to Viagra. "After that, I felt 25 again, that I could conquer the world, go on the road forever and play guitar 24 hours a day and never sleep. The other guys felt that, too." He adds: "A few years ago, Neil Young told me that the minute we stop doing this, we're not living our lives as they were intended. And he was right. This is what we were born to do."
Guess Who conquers time
Band turns clock back for rocker at community club
Sun, May 21, 2000
By Morley Walker
THEY came. They played. They conquered. Eat your heart out, Russell Crowe.
Winnipeg's favourite rock'n'roll gladiators, the Guess Who, vanquished the enemy Time last night with a triumphant trip down memory lane at the Crescentwood Community Centre as they warmed up for their coming national tour.
"People from all over the place are here," lead singer Burton Cummings said, surveying the crowd of close to 350 who stood bopping and clapping in the air-conditioned gymnasium.
"I came all the way from the north end tonight."
The four time-ravaged warriors, Cummings, Randy Bachman, Garry Peterson and Jim Kale, put years of rancour behind them to blow the rafters off the Corydon Avenue venue with a rapturous set of rock standards and Guess Who hits, recalling their days as stars of the Winnipeg community-club circuit.
"I love you, Burton," one matronly woman screamed at the back of the room.
"It's too late to have my children, but you can have my grandchildren."
Introduced by KY 58 disc jockey Gary McLean, the boys took to the stage at 8:40, opening with a rollicking version of Louie Louie.
Next came an old Deverons ballad, Blue is the Night, followed by Guess Who tunes Runnin' Back to Saskatoon, Clap for the Wolfman, Albert Flasher and Star Baby, American Woman.
Cummings, clad in a Jim Morrison sweatshirt, recalled the band's first Crescentwood dates in the early '60s, when his mother drove band members to the gigs because none of them was old enough to drive.
"I remember it fondly," he said.
At press time, they had played nearly 30 songs, including encores of No Time and Share the Land, American Woman, and a version of Follow Your Daughter Home, featuring Cummings on flute.
Last night's show, which also featured sideman Donnie McDougall, was a warmup for the group's 25-date national reunion tour, which begins May 31 in St. John's, Nfld.
The age range of the crowd was surprisingly diverse. There were more than a handful of children and lots of people in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
Two hundred people gained admittance by winning a draw to buy $5 tickets held yesterday at 5 p.m. The rest of the audience was made up of music industry people, friends of the band and media.
Speakers set up outdoors pumped the music to the crowd of about 1,500 who listened in the field west of the community centre.
Inside the club during the show, the air quickly grew hot and the mood celebratory.
Molson-muscled men and love-handled women danced and sang along as Cummings, in fine voice, belted out famous numbers like Laughing and No Sugar Tonight, songs that made the band one of the top-selling rock acts in the world in the early '70s.
The show marked the first and last appearance by Kale, the group's original bass player, who has dropped out of the tour because of personal and family problems. On the coming tour, Kale is being replaced by Bill Wallace, a former Guess Who member who had his first stint with the band from 1972 to 1975.
The tour, which is being hyped as potentially the highest grossing show this summer in Canada, officially stops in Winnipeg on June 30 for a sold-out concert at CanWest Global Park.
The Guess Who, Canada's first international rock superstars, began life as Chad Allen & the Reflections in 1962, with Kale, Bachman and Peterson in the lineup.
Guess Who bassist Kale bowing out of national tour
Fri, May 19, 2000
By Bartley Kives
THE original
Guess Who will head out on tour without its original bass player, Jim Kale.Kale, 56, is bowing out of the legendary Winnipeg rock band's 25-date, seven-week Canadian tour to deal with what Guess Who manager Lorne Saifer describes as "family problems."
The bassist still plans to join The Guess Who's remaining original members -- singer Burton Cummings, guitarist Randy Bachman and drummer Garry Peterson -- as well as sideman Donnie McDougall on stage at tomorrow's tour preview show at Crescentwood Community Centre.
But after that, Kale will be replaced by Bill Wallace, a former Guess Who member who had his first stint with the band from 1972 to 1975.
"When you have matters weighing on your mind, you find it difficult to focus," manager Saifer said in an interview yesterday. He described Kale's departure as a mutual decision involving the rest of the band.
Friday May 19, 2000
Guess Who less one?
Health could keep Kale off band tour: sources
By JOHN KENDLE
Entertainment Editor, Winnipeg Sun
The reunited Guess Who may hit the road this summer without original bass player Jim Kale, The Sun has learned. According to several music industry sources, Kale may step aside from the Winnipeg band's upcoming North American tour for health reasons, a story band manager Lorne Saifer would not confirm yesterday. "I'm hoping Jim does the tour," Saifer said. Reached at his home, Kale would only say that a reporter had come "at a very bad time." Asked if he was going to work yesterday, the 54-year-old musician replied: "That's a very good question, isn't it? "I'm sorry. I can't say more. I'll talk to you at some other time."
If Kale is unable to tour -- which may be the case even if he performs at the band's preview show tomorrow night at Crescentwood Community Centre -- sources say his replacement will be former band member Bill Wallace, who played with the group from 1972 to 1975.
Wallace, 51, was noncommittal when contacted by The Sun. "Right now I'm teaching music," said the R.B. Russell High School instructor from his job at the inner-city school. "We're making kids' albums, rap and rock and just having some fun." Wallace, a former member of Winnipeg trio Brother, which also included now-deceased Guess Who guitarist Kurt Winter, initially joined The Guess Who just prior to the well-received Live at the Paramount album in 1972. He played on the #10, Artificial Paradise, Road Food, Flavours, Power in the Music and Born in Canada albums before the group disbanded in 1975. According to recent published reports, Kale refused to enter an alcohol rehabilitation program prior to beginning preparations for the upcoming tour. In August 1998, the bassist spent a night in the Winnipeg drunk tank after an incident on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Winnipeg. At the time, he said he had mistakenly mixed alcohol with prescription medication he was taking for anxiety. Police said he had acted "belligerent" during the flight. The Guess Who's Running Back Through Canada tour begins May 31 in St. John's, Nfld., and stops in Winnipeg June 30 for a sold-out show at CanWest Global Park. It is expected to become one of the top-grossing tours of the Canadian concert season. The band -- which also includes original singer Burton Cummings, guitarist Randy Bachman, drummer Garry Peterson and singer/guitarist Donnie McDougall, who was a member of the group in the '70s -- will perform an intimate preview show tomorrow night at Crescentwood. The 200 available tickets for that concert will be distributed by lottery at 5 p.m., tomorrow afternoon in the Crescentwood parking lot.
Those wanting tickets can enter the lottery by donating a non-perishable food item to Winnipeg Harvest after noon tomorrow at the community centre. Donors must be in attendance at the draw to win the opportunity to purchase a pair of tickets for $4.99 each.
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Tuesday, May 16, 2000
Guess Who preview tickets up for grabs
By JOHN KENDLE -- Winnipeg Sun
WINNIPEG - The toughest ticket in town goes on sale Saturday.
Winnipeg rock legends The Guess Who confirmed yesterday that the band will indeed play a special preview show at Crescentwood Community Centre at 8 p.m. Saturday. But you'll have to be lucky -- make that very lucky -- to get in to see the gig that will bring the band back to the community clubs where it launched its career. The capacity of the community hall at 1170 Corydon Ave. is just 250 people, so the 200 tickets to be sold (50 passes have been reserved for guests and family of the band members) will be allocated Saturday afternoon via a special lottery. To register for the draw which will determine who can purchase the $4.99 tickets, entrants must bring a non-perishable food item to Crescentwood after noon on Saturday. Donors' names will be registered and drawn at random at 5 p.m. Draw winners must be present in order to purchase their tickets.
'INTENSE DEMAND'
"I expect demand to be intense," said House of Blues Concerts spokesman Paul Haagenson. "There will be no opening act, so the show will be all-Guess Who all-night. I think there'll be a lot of people who can't wait to get in." Indeed there are -- the Sun offices received several calls yesterday from fans who were desperately seeking ticket information. The band has been rehearsing in Transcona for its Running Back Through Canada tour since May 1, and Saturday's show will mark the first time the four original band members -- Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson -- have performed a full show together since 1983. Early '70s band member Donnie McDougall has been added to the lineup for the upcoming tour. The Running Back Through Canada tour begins May 31 in St. John's, Nfld., and stops in Winnipeg June 30 at CanWest Global Park. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, May 7, 2000
Blasts from the Past
The Guess Who discuss the good old days - and the better days to come
By JOHN KENDLE
Winnipeg Sun
On the day The Guess Who reconvened in Winnipeg to rehearse for their upcoming 77-day, 23-city Canadian tour -- which stops in Winnipeg June 30 -- Sun entertainment editor John Kendle conducted the first interview with the group, courtesy of manager Lorne Saifer. The band discussed the thrill of reuniting and how they're enjoying the wellspring of new interest in the group. Today, Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson look back to the past -- and ahead to the future.
Sun: Talk about your favourite moments of the early days of The Guess Who, the first five or six years you were together.
Randy: I think going to England in '67 was a thrill of my life at the time. We had grown up so attuned to the pipeline, and to go there in '67 when everything was happening -- Cream had just started, Hendrix had just started and the Stones were going.
The trip was a disaster, but I just had the greatest time. I've been there since with a No. 1 record and limos and Daimlers driving around, but it was never as much fun as walking and going on the tube and going around Soho. Then (after) coming home, and being in debt, getting that CBC show (Let's Go, a Canadian version of American Bandstand) regimented us into working together and recording and copying the hit parade. We learned everything there, and we were a production team. For us, those two years of CBC were a big turning point in the band. Burton and I started writing together and I think it really brought us together.
Burton: It's obvious and it's still a thrill for me, but getting that first gold record (for These Eyes in 1969) and holding it in my hand, and being on American Bandstand, which is something I'd only fantasized about, really, until that point -- that was huge.
There was a very special day, too, when we were touring and touring and touring, and No Time had already been a hit, Laughing, These Eyes and Undun had already been major hit records, then American Woman came out and every Wednesday was when we got the advance chart listings for Billboard and it cracked the Top 10 and went to No. 7 and went to No. 4 and No. 3 and then the following week it knocked off either the Jackson Five or The Beatles, it was either ABC or Let it Be. When we found out that it gone No. 1 in Billboard, that was quite an amazing moment. The four of us got together in a hotel room in Milwaukee and we all hugged each other. We stood in a circle on the bed with our arms around each other's shoulders and we bounced on the bed and screamed and yelled ourselves hoarse until that bed cracked. That, to me, was a lot of self-validation for us, I think. Being from a remote place like Winnipeg, the closest major centre to the south is Minneapolis, the closest major centre to the east is Toronto and the closest city of any ilk is Regina. To have that No. 1 single ... I remember carrying that Billboard for weeks to the pool hall, to parties, to the pubs for two or three weeks, it was amazing. Going to England that first time was pretty astounding because we were there at the height of Carnaby Street and Twiggy and The Beatles. I remember being in a club one night in Soho called the Bag O' Nails and I was playing the slot machines and having a brown ale and there was this guy standing next to me. He had long hair and I didn't take much notice of who he was, so I played the slot for 20 minutes and then I looked at the guy ... and it was Bill Wyman. This was 1967, and the Stones were like gods at that point. It was a very exciting time. I have fond memories of the TV show, as well. We were really tackling a great amount of different music. We had to learn 10 or 11 songs every week for two years. You'd finish one show and rehearse for the next. It made us better -- I know that my playing and awareness was certainly raised. Larry Brown, the producer of the TV show, said one time, "Well Randy, you and Burton are writing songs. You have a national forum for your songs, play me a couple of the original ones and if I like them, you can throw the odd one in instead of just doing Donovan again or Van Morrison again or whatever." One of those tunes that we did was These Eyes and Jack Richardson (longtime Guess Who producer) happened to be watching the television show that week and loved the song so much he mortgaged his house and flew us down to New York City for the first big recording session that became Wheatfield Soul. That, to me, was a huge milestone, being flown down there, recording near Times Square -- that was a pretty magical time. Later on the business took over and the grind and the gruelling schedule. God, I remember in 1972 we released three albums in one year. By today's standards that's astounding -- people work on one album for three years. It got to be more of a treadmill later, but my fondest memories are of the early days, when we were a little more naive, a little more innocent and learning to be better. Those are the days I look back on most fondly of all.
Jim: The big one for me was the Seattle Pop Festival. We watched 80,000 people stand up and respond to American Woman, which we hadn't recorded yet -- that was pretty far out. I remember Place des Arts in Montreal as a great gig. Varsity Stadium in Toronto, where they burned (an American) flag. One of my personal favourites was Burton and I rolling through Times Square in a limousine, looking at our first $50,000 cheque from RCA -- that was fun!
Garry: Those are all highlights. But I've always loved to play, so for me, the creating and the rehearsal of new material and going into a studio to see what you could come up with -- there's nothing like that for me. For me it's always been about the music -- and that is very, very special to me. The playing and the creating was great.
Sun: What can we expect and what can you expect from The Guess Who in the future?
Garry: That'll be up to The Guess Who. I don't think that there's any far-reaching plans, we're going into rehearsal and we'll see. I'd love to tour the States with this band, which we didn't do on the last reunion tour. And I can tell you from personal experience, the people down there are just waiting.
Jim: Speaking only for myself, I think that you can contemplate anything and everything for the next three years, and after that it'll just be plums off the tree as they present themselves. I think we're looking at three years of concerted effort and, who knows, maybe I'm even right, or accurate. That's what I think's going to happen. As far as the folks are concerned -- they'll get bang for the buck.
Burton: We haven't started yet and I'm already tuned up. We're looking at the entire Guess Who catalogue as an entity and these five people are hopefully going to do justice to that great catalogue, that great musical legacy. The songs are going to sound better than ever. I can definitely foresee a new album out of all of this. I think we'd be very foolish if we didn't think one studio album would surface out of all of this, and definitely a live album. We're going to be recording a lot of stuff at soundchecks, perhaps some stuff by other artists. When we plugged in at the Walker for Pan Am rehearsals we did Moby Grape stuff and Cream stuff and Hendrix stuff and old Grass Roots songs that we used to do years and years ago and the fun factor was very high. I think the sky's the limit. It's certainly not going to stop after Canada and I think once we move into the States, that's four times the amount of touring in Canada. By that time, we'll be up and running and so well-oiled and I can see Australia. After that, who knows? There are going to be television shows and there's some talk of filming this, too. Every week that goes by we get some more good news. We've got a month of rehearsals, so by the time we hit the stage in Newfoundland it'll be wonderful.
Randy: I believe the amount of Guess Who fans out there is in the zillions and I don't think one of them will be disappointed. I think they're very lucky that we're one of the very few bands from the '60s and '70s that can get together with the original guys. In a sense we're a new band. We don't know what this tour is going to be like, it's gonna be day by day and week by week. We have this magnet that's drawn us here and we have this three-year dream, and I have this special feeling inside me that it's going to be a very special time for me. The songs are great, and Burton has the set sorted out so that it's not going to be just a night of familiar hits. There'll be album stuff and songs that people thought they'd never hear again. I can't wait -- and I think the fans will love it.
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Saturday, May 6, 2000
American Booty
Three decades later, The Guess Who celebrates a new year of the Woman
By JOHN KENDLE
Winnipeg Sun
On the day The Guess Who reconvened in Winnipeg to rehearse for their upcoming 77-day, 23-city Canadian tour -- which stops in Winnipeg June 30 -- Sun entertainment editor John Kendle conducted the first interview with the group, courtesy of manager Lorne Saifer. The band discussed the thrill of reuniting and how they're enjoying the wellspring of new interest in the group. Today in part 2 of our three-part series, Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson talk about the renewed success of American Woman and the upcoming tour.
Sun: Your music has resurfaced in pop culture in the past couple of years, basically through movies such as Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, American Beauty and Jackie Brown. How does that make you guys feel?
Garry: I saw our version of American Woman in a Castrol GTX ad a couple of days ago. Tommy Hilfiger has a thing going -- so you can almost say it's the year of American Woman. Interestingly, you can't go anywhere in North America and say you were with The Guess Who and drop a few song titles without people going, "Oh, really!" For some reason, in our past history, perhaps because the promotion was never really done properly, people didn't connect The Guess Who with all those records and you tell them and they go wacky. Now, though, you can travel all over North America and hear the great songs Burton and Randy wrote.
Jim: It had to to happen, it was inevitable. Sooner or later a song called American Woman, in North America with the whole retro thing and demographics being what they are, was going to happen the way it has. The Pan Am thing and the movie thing have come together at the appropriate time and now -- with the multitude of things that have shaped the lives of the guys, including the regrets and the unfinished business, the unfulfilled dreams and unfulfilled promises -- we've got the shot again, and here we are. It had to be, it was on the agenda. I said "never" many times, but what did I know?
Burton: Boy, American Woman has really had a good run the last four or five years. It started with Cable Guy, with that crazy karaoke scene where Jim Carrey invites all the loons over to his apartment and some old guy gets up and does American Woman with a sort of a Yiddish accent. Then it happened in The Spy Who Shagged Me, and we knew it was going to be in the movie, because we had to do the deal upfront, but nobody knew it was going to be a certifiable smash hit record by Lenny Kravitz. It's one thing to have your song in a film. That's nice. But it's another thing when it surfaces out of the film and charts in about 27 countries around the world. It was a monstrous record, and it redirected the focus of many, many people from the MTV generation back toward the original Guess Who. Then, to me, the icing on the cake was American Beauty. I went to see that here in Winnipeg, and I knew the song was going to be in the movie but I had no idea how it was featured, or how prominently it would be used. Then Kevin Spacey gets in the car and shoves a cassette in the deck and starts singing along with me -- and along with Randy's riffs at first. Then it swept the Oscars, so that was a serious piece of immortality for American Woman. On Oscar night I was watching with bated breath, and sure enough, the film came through. It says something for the songs. Undun, again, was featured in the Jackie Brown film, in a prominent scene with Robert De Niro and Bridget Fonda having a fight and Undun is playing all the way through it. She puts on an old LP with Undun on it. This to me is very exciting. It shows the strength and power of the songs. There's some kind of magic fairy dust in the songs or they wouldn't be used in these great films with these wonderful performances surrounding them. It's very flattering to have done something 30 years ago and see it surface in the movie of the year.
I concur with what Jim said. Maybe it was meant to be and this was meant to be. It's all timed so perfectly now, because it seems tickets for the tour are selling extremely well, far better than we imagined. It won't stop in Canada, it will definitely continue on into the States and, I would even venture to say, possibly even Australia. We were very successful down there. Once we're up and running I don't think anybody's gonna want to see this fall apart too soon. It'll be gruelling. We're a little older and it's going to be tougher, especially on me, singing. I've been doing a one-man show, essentially slower songs and easier ballads, for six years, so I've got to be taking my vitamins this summer. But I'm looking forward to it very much. I get an extra energy from being around Jim and Garry and Randy, an extra charge and surge that I don't have. I think it's wonderful that these films have redirected the focus of millions of people back toward the group called The Guess Who. I really have been incredibly flattered by it all. And personally, as the singer, I was flattered that Lenny Kravitz kind of copied some of my ad lib vocal riffs at the end, for him to do that was flattering. It's kind of a nice stroke for everybody's egos, I guess. It's the perfect time to tour.
Randy: I was flattered that my guitar part was so hard Lenny couldn't even play it on his record -- just joking. I remember the first time I heard it. I got it in the mail and I was at my son Tal's house. I heard it three times and I really liked it, because, to that time, I'd heard four or five or six other versions of the song by heavy metal bands -- The Almighty, Krokus, the Butthole Surfers -- and they were all The Guess Who to the thousandth power, the same riffs. So for Lenny to reinterpret it, doing a little key change in the middle, was incredible. The Timbaland mix has a few extra drum loops, a little extra synthesizer and more background vocals, taking on a whole new '90s thing. To have my daughter, who's 16, and all her friends really love this song -- all of a sudden I was hot and happening. Personally, I left this band in May of 1970 and I was cheated out of the American Woman No. 1 victory tour. But now, exactly 30 years later, this is the American Woman No. 1 victory tour for me. It's a little late, I have a few aches -- but to get out there and rock with these guys and do this song that is so hot right now ... it's going to be great for me to do the 1970 tour right now.
Sun: How long a set will you be doing? What songs will you be doing and, like the '83 tour, will solo material be involved?
Burton: I have a proposed set list. A lot of it depends on whether I can do justice to the songs vocally every night. I don't want to give away too much right now, because then it won't be too surprising and interesting and exciting for people the nights of the show. We have X number of songs that we're obligated to do -- obviously people will be hearing These Eyes and Laughing and Undun and No Time and No Sugar and American Woman and Share the Land -- but there will be some other things, too, some album cuts. I don't particularly want to do any Burton Cummings solo stuff at all, partly because of the fact I've been doing that for the last five-and-a-half years and I've had enough of that stuff, but also because there's more than enough Guess Who stuff. There's such a great musical legacy that The Guess Who has. There are dozens and dozens of recognizable songs. While I was in the band for the 14 or 15 albums on RCA, there were some 240 to 250 songs that were released. Out of that well of material, it's easy to put together a two-and-a-half hour show. I do want to have Randy sing a couple of things he's written, Let it Ride and Lookin' Out for Number One, because they're great songs and because it gives me a rest for five minutes vocally, which is a luxury I don't have otherwise. I haven't had another singer in any band I was in for the last 10 or 12 years. And we'd be silly if we didn't do Takin' Care of Business -- it's an anthem.
But as far as Stand Tall or My Own Way to Rock, well, there's Saskatoon to think about, or Guns, Guns, Guns. There's Heartbroken Bopper and Glamour Boy. I think it'll be well-rounded and I think we'll be giving the people really what they want to hear. If I had the pipes to do it, we could do a four-hour show.
Randy: I've been sitting for the last couple of weeks listening to songs that I had no part of that I feel very fortunate just to be able to play -- Kurt Winter songs and Greg Leskiw songs ...
Garry: I wish Kurt were here.
Randy: I was sitting there with my engineer making a CD and I realized that the stuff they wrote was just so incredible, and I wasn't even there. The stuff they wrote, Running Back to Saskatoon, Guns, Guns, Guns, Glamour Boy, Sour Suite -- Burton did an incredible thing with the band when I left.
Burton: We did a Bachman/ Cummings thing in '87 and he played a lot of those tunes and then in the '83 reunion as well, with the four of us sitting here right now. He did Glamour Boy, and I think we were doing Guns, and Rain Dance -- songs that we did after Randy had left. As I look at it, I don't break down in my head who was on what anymore. I just look at it as The Guess Who, the musical legacy that is there. I wish our dear friend Kurt Winter could be part of this; unfortunately he left us a couple of years ago. But he'll be with us in spirit onstage. I just look at it as an overall great batch of songs, and we're blessed and lucky to go out and play those tunes.
Sun: Donnie McDougall was in the band in the early '70s and he'll be playing with you on this tour. What will his role be?
Jim: He'll be playing the second guitar and providing the second, really strong vocal. Donnie came in essentially to replace Burton. It was going to be a well-planned exit of Burton into his solo career, and Donnie was a natural to assume the role. So Donnie is going to play a very strong role, to provide a strong role. When it came up, it was a natural, right out of the chute.
Randy: Donnie was playing in my band for two years, playing some of the same songs. He's one of the guys. It's great to have four originals and one guy who is an alumnus of the band after I left.
Burton: One of the great things of having Donnie along is it's valid. He was on Star Baby, he was on Saskatoon, he was on the #10 album, he was on all that great stuff on Artificial Paradise. He's the perfect guy, because he's been playing in Randy's band and playing on these things. Donnie and I got together at my place with an acoustic guitar and my old upright piano and just started going through vocal lines, on things like Road Food, and it sounded great, just the two of us. So if two guys with an acoustic and a beat-up old piano can sound that good, the band will be just rockin'. It made just perfect sense. I suggested this to the guys at one of the first meetings about touring, and there was no negativity at all. It's a perfect progression and he's a natural fit. In fact, I've known Donnie longer than I've known these guys, since I was about 15, from our days playing in rival bands. On our nights off we'd go and see The Guess Who, because they were always the measuring stick, they were so much better than anybody else at the time.
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Friday, May 5, 2000
The Boys are Back
The Guess Who is shakin' all over & The Sun got the first interview. Here's part one of our exclusive chat with the reunited rock legends
By JOHN KENDLE
Winnipeg Sun
Randy Bachman and Garry Peterson have just stopped off planes from the West Coast and from North Carolina, respectively. Jim Kale has driven himself over from his St. Boniface home. Burton Cummings, who's been in town for the past two weeks, was the first to arrive. It's the Sunday before rehearsals begin in earnest for The Guess Who's Running Back Through Canada tour and the band is at KY58's new studio in Osborne Village to tape some station IDs and conduct an interview. As these four middle-aged guys greet each other, they smile, shake hands and make small talk about drum sets, property sales and kids. Cummings, 52, and Bachman, 56, great each other with a friendly, "Hey, buddy!" Peterson, 54, offers hugs and pats on the back all round. Kale, 56, cracks jokes as they hurry up and wait for a technician to get things ready. Each man looks happy, content. They know they're here to regroup the band which has been one of the biggest influences on their lives.
The business of being The Guess Who is on again ...
Sun: You guys got together last summer for the first time in 16 years to perform four songs at the closing ceremonies of the Pan-American Games in Winnipeg. Can you explain how that came about?
Randy: Well, we heard that the Pan Am Games was going on and waited to see the lineup and got invited to do the show. Quite late, I would say, in the scheme of things. We were all going in different directions, so it took same adjusting to get us all aiming at and moving to the same target but once it started to come together, I think we all felt a genuine desire to do it, this being the home town and the fact that some of us have moved away. Ultimately I think it was just something that was destined to happen. To be asked and to be so far apart at first and then to have it come together like that and for it to be such an incredible experience for us -- and from the feedback I got, also for the audience -- it was just a fantastic experience.
Burton: The whole Pan Am thing was emotional for me, as I'm sure it was for the other three here, because it was hometown night. It was a very, very big event -- internationally it was being covered by every country involved in the Games, so there were about 300 million people watching us that night. So, just the fact that we are a Winnipeg band, that we were all born and raised here, learned how to play here, came up here through the community clubs and schools and churches -- the circuit, you know, from the '60s -- it was a great night for Winnipeg, as it was for the band. I think what's more exciting this time is that we're not underneath the Pan American umbrella. This time the impetus is solely from the band, and so the focus is on the band this time, whereas we were part of a big event before, but I think it went beyond anything any of us expected. When we reconvened in October at the Prairie Music Awards, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, we talked about this again because since Pan Am there had been some offers and suggestions that perhaps we get together and do a bona fide tour. It just kinda happened and just fell into place. Definitely the seed for this current tour and whatever happens now was planted at the Pan Am Games.
Jim: Well, along come the Games, and somebody says we want the hometown boys, and they contacted Marty Kramer, Randy's tour manager, and I think within 30 minutes they had it done. It worked fine for us -- it certainly worked fine for me. It was a very thrilling, very exciting evening, and it was the only time I ever got my picture on the front page of the local press. If you're into synchronicity or fatalism it was in the cards. It was in the cards and our hand came up -- and now we're here.
Garry: I guess somebody had a good idea. 'Wouldn't it be nice to have the original Guess Who play at the Pan Am Games?' I thought it was a stroke of genius, actually. Every guy in this band loves to entertain people, and we've played in so many diverse places in Winnipeg -- from roofs of A&Ws to flatbeds in front of Winnipeg Stadium -- that we really feel this is our home and we'd play here again anytime. I believe spiritually it was a chance for us to come back together and there's definitely a reason for it.
Sun: What did it feel like onstage that night? After a week's rehearsal you came onstage and blew away 40,000 people.
Randy: It seemed to go by in a split-second, but the feelings that I had being onstage then with these guys I can't put into words. And I also can't put into words the feeling that I got not just from us but also the audience. It was just a great feeling. I know that when it was over I said I felt like I was 25 again -- Burton said he felt like he was 18, I didn't feel quite 18, but wow -- it was like a time-travel thing. You can't get the guys who won the Stanley Cup or the Grey Cup or the Rose Bowl back together 20 or 30 years later to play that game. But to get us together to play our game and have the audience there to go hurrah was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. So, that's why I'm here again, searching for this thing that we get when we all get together.
Burton: It was very emotional that night. I remember being overwhelmed when we walked out. Like Randy said, it went by in like a millisecond for me. During one of the songs I leaned over and whispered in Jim's ear, "How about doing this a few times a year for the rest of our lives?" and we had a big laugh right onstage. You can actually see it on camera. I watched the footage later and you see when I go over and whisper to him. We were just having fun. All the old nicknames were resurfacing and all the old shenanigans from when I had just joined first and I was 18 and very green and unaware of what was about to happen to us. All the feelings came back to me of joining a band that was already famous. Those feelings of early 1966 when I had just joined the band -- it was a very Winnipeg evening, I think. You could really feel that buzz coming from the people in the stands, that the boys had come home to play. I mean, Garry's been living in North Carolina, Randy's been out on the West Coast, I've been back and forth between L.A. and here, Jim's been all over North America. The four of us hadn't been here together for years and years -- so it was very emotional. We got that wonderful 20 minutes and before we knew it, it was over and there was a bit of a letdown. The week of rehearsals was great, and then it zoomed by and it was over. I think possibly that has led us to reconvene and do this for real and put a real good two-and-a-half hour show together and go out and do it. Judging by the initial response and the ticket sales I think we've definitely made the correct decision. It's going to be a very exciting summer -- it really is.
Jim: Onstage it was all too quick. But for me it was fun to go out and show people that this is the real deal. This is not the oldtimers' hockey game. Everybody's active, everybody can play, everybody can sing -- this is not the mothball club. One guy said to me, "I didn't think you could pull it off," and I said, "Well hey, everybody's working -- we didn't have to throw away our crutches to get onstage." It worked very, very well. It was a taste and a taste wasn't enough -- so here we are.
Garry: We've played so much music together that only doing three or four numbers would be selfishly cheating ourselves. I kinda wanted to play more that night. For me -- having played with the other Guess Who band that was touring in the States for so many years -- I don't think there was a night that went by onstage where I didn't start thinking "Where's the rest of the band?" It kind of got to be a surreal trip for me. It was a question every night. So, it was special for me to do it again properly.
Sun: So, again, how was it that this feeling prompted you to get together now and do a proper, 77-day, 23-city tour?
Randy: I think we all have -- at least I have -- been playing these songs for 30 years, a couple hundred nights a year, and it's not the same. As good as I felt about the band I had and the band they had and Burton's been playing solo and with different bands -- it's not the same. I remember in rehearsal at the Walker Theatre, somebody -- a monitor guy -- came up to me and said, "Can you hear Garry and Jim?" And I said "No, I don't need to. I know every note they're singing and playing." I knew what they were doing and I don't think they needed to hear me or Burton. It's nice to hear the guys, but you don't need to. I don't need to know the harmony's there -- it's there. There's this relaxed feeling that comes with being with the guys who created the stuff, so to recreate it is easy. To get somebody else to copy a certain part, you're always on the edge. It's like going home. Playing with these guys is like going home for that comfort food.
Burton: I've heard Randy say it in interviews and I've said it in interviews about him ... when Randy's wailing on guitar I always seem to sing a little bit better, and he always says that when I'm there singing with him he always plays a little bit better. Whether it's better or different, I don't know. I had a little taste of it at the flood-relief concert in 1997. Jim and Garry weren't here at that time. I was doing a little bit of a solo set there, and Randy was doing a set with Fred Turner, some old BTO stuff -- and then Randy and I got together and we did Undun and American Woman. But here again, I sing those things differently when Randy's playing guitar and he said to me after that show, "You know, I haven't played American Woman that well for ages. With other guys singing it it's not quite the same." It's the same thing with Jim and Garry, the rhythm section that was in the band when I first joined the band -- there's a feel to that, a sense to that which is almost intangible, but it makes me try a little harder because they were the ones that coaxed me into the band, away from my first band, The Deverons. I had a lot to learn. I was very green, very nervous, very naive. I learned a lot from these guys, from the basic things of Jim Kale taking me to the post office to get my first passport when I was 18. Milestones in your life that can only occur once are what the four of us share. When you've had a No. 1 single on Billboard together, when you've gone on American Bandstand with Dick Clark for the first time together, when you got those first gold records -- those are milestones that will never be recaptured. We may do a new album that could go quadruple zillion platinum but it won't capture the same feeling as getting that gold single for These Eyes from Dick Clark. A lot of firsts for me are involved when I get together with these guys here, and I think reliving some of that is almost like cheating time. There's a comfort zone I have with these guys and, you know, they're all a little older than me and when I joined the band, I did a lot of my growing up with these guys. I hit the road and I hadn't even left home yet -- when I joined this band I was still living at home with my mother and grandmother. So, getting together with these guys is like recapturing some of that, and not enough of us are lucky in life to do that.
Jim: You don't have to sweat what anybody else is doing onstage, because it's there. Because we've all been playing, everybody is a better player now, they're more accomplished, more proficient. When you don't have to worry about or think about or second guess what somebody else is playing when they haven't been involved in the original recording or in the development of it, it's freedom, and you can be what you were, what your are at the moment and what you are capable of being. That's what's great about this business. You don't get worse, you don't atrophy. As long as you're active, you get better. You can be what you were and what you have become.
Garry: We all grew up in this band. Burton and I are only two years apart. We went through divorces, family tragedies, audits, bankruptcies -- this is like being married. We have a great deal of emotion tied up in this band -- all of us -- and that is often reflected in the music. It inspires you. I listen to some of our stuff and I, quite frankly, am ashamed by some of the stuff I played on record. But I was young and that was what I was -- I'm way better now. That's just the way life progresses ...
Quick Note - There's a
U.S. listing for the "Original Guess Who " at "Rockin' In The Hills" in North Central North Dakota, Sunday, July 2, 2000. Tickets for the 4 day event are $80 and some of the first day tickets are only $15. Check out Rockin' The Hills. for more details.Monday, April 3, 2000
Fans go for the real deal
Seats added for Guess Who
By ROBERT WILLIAMS -- Winnipeg Sun
WINNIPEG - Didn't get tickets to The Guess Who concert? Well, don't come "undun," there are still some left. Tickets for the June 30 show at CanWest Global Park sold out in only a few hours after going on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, but another 400 seats were added at about 5 p.m., confirmed Kevin Donnelly, Western vice-president of House of Blues Concerts Canada.
"They're angled seats; if the concert was at the arena we'd say they were side seats," he said, adding people will still be able to see and hear the band. TicketMaster still had some tickets in Section C available late yesterday afternoon. About 10,000 tickets for the reunion concert were eagerly snapped up by Winnipeggers on Saturday in about four hours. There were no other sell-outs in any of the other 22 cities the band is playing, but tickets were selling well across the country, Donnelly said. "I think it will be a point of reality sinking in with people that these are the four original guys," he said.
'ORIGINAL BALL OF WAX'
The cross-country Guess Who tour is different from many reunion tours because it features the original members who have continued to make music, and not a bunch of replacements no one knows, Donnelly said. "This is the original ball of wax and I think what people saw at the Pan Am Games is that Burton Cummings is still as great a singer as he ever was," he said. "I think people recognize these guys are veterans -- they're survivors." The quartet of singer-keyboardist Cummings, guitarist Randy Bachman, bassist Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson -- along with post-Cummings band member Donnie McDougall -- kick off their tour in late May in St. John's Nfld. The band is playing a mixture of hockey arenas in bigger cities, and smaller venues with capacities of about 5,000 people. The band will play Brandon's Keystone Centre on July 14. Rumours of The Guess Who playing a warm-up show at a Winnipeg bar or community centre remain unconfirmed.
Sunday, April 2, 2000
'Peg rocks box office
Guess Who seats sell out in a day
By GREG Di CRESCE -- Winnipeg Sun
WINNIPEG - Mike Lebel was looking at the seats left yesterday in CanWest Global Park for a June 30 concert by The Guess Who -- and the 36-year-old Winnipegger wasn't thrilled. Lebel was at the park's ticket booth just after noon, when tickets had been on sale for just over two hours. "I guess the wives aren't coming," he laughed, ordering six tickets instead of eight in a more expensive section of the park. About two hours later, at 2 p.m., The Guess Who's Winnipeg gig -- "for all intents and purposes" -- slugged a box office grand slam and sold out.
'PRODIGAL SONS'
"We had high expectations for this market and it went just as we hoped. Winnipeg embraced its prodigal sons," said the tour's national promoter Kevin Donnelly, Western vice-president of House of Blues Concerts Canada. "It's been absolutely fantastic," band manager Lorne Saifer said from Los Angeles, where he was monitoring sales by cell phone. Saifer, a former Winnipegger, figured the show would do well in the band's home town. Donnelly said the 1,000 gold circle tickets priced at $79.50 a seat were among the first to sell. With the remaining 9,000 tickets also gobbled up by early afternoon, Donnelly decided at 5 p.m. yesterday to add 200 more seats to the show. Ticket sales in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, which started Friday, have gotten out of the blocks well, Donnelly said.
"In Toronto, we sold 4,000 tickets in the first hour the box office was open, and the response has been similar in the other cities," he said. "All of Canada has a special spot in its heart for this group," Donnelly said. Mitch Brennan, a ticket seller at the CanWest TicketMaster booth, said he can't speak for the rest of the country but Winnipeg is "wild about the Guess Who." Brennan said a lineup for tickets began Friday at 5:30 a.m. and by the time he showed up for work at 10 a.m. yesterday it was at least 200 people strong. "For our first major event other than baseball this was amazing. I even had a guy ask me if he should camp overnight to ensure he'd be at the front of the line to see his heroes rock," Brennan said. Most of those in line were between 35 to 55, Brennan added. The tour will rock 22 other cities across Canada.
-- with files from John Kendle
Wednesday, March 29, 2000
Guess Who box set in works
By PAUL CANTIN
Senior Reporter, JAM! Showbiz
To coincide with their reunion tour, The Guess Who is looking into the possibility of releasing a multi-disc retrospective of the group's career -- including never-before heard material, the group's manager told JAM. Lorne Saifer confirmed Tuesday that The Guess Who is having discussions with their record label BMG about digging into the band's archive for a new career-spanning release. Although the group has been the subject of several anthologies and collections, it would be the first time The Guess Who has received the kind of expansive treatment usually accorded groups of their stature. "I think anthologized is really not the right word. I think The Guess Who have been repackaged," Saifer said in a telephone interview from his Los Angeles office. "I don't think there has been a real true anthology, and we are talking about that now. It is coming together with a four- or five-disc set that would include a lot of things the public has never heard. There is a lot of stuff they have never heard.
"We're talking to BMG about it right now. We're looking to see if we can bring it together." In addition, the entire Canadian tour will be recorded, which leaves open the possibility of a live album, and Saifer -- who has for years handled singer Burton Cummings' career, but will now assume management of the full band -- said they are also talking about filming the tour for a possible documentary. "All of these things aside, what we care about most of all is going out on this tour and having fun and playing."
After the band split in the early-'70s, bassist Jim Kale assumed rights to the group's name and continued to tour with support players as The Guess Who, but without Cummings, guitarist Randy Bachman and drummer Garry Peterson. Saifer said Kale and his version of the band will complete shows booked up until the end of April and then cease "for the next couple of years." From there, the four original members will unite for rehearsals in either Winnipeg or Toronto before kicking off the reunion tour in Newfoundland on May 31, he said. Saifer conceded that since the band's one-off performance together at last summer's Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, it has been a lot of work setting up the reunion ("I know how Henry Kissinger felt going back and forth to China," he joked), but said he felt there was no single issue that helped expedite the reunion.
"I don't think there was any one single element that came together. I just think the gods .... I mean, the Pan Am Games and playing together was important. I think there was the whole issue of ''American Woman' -- the song is in 'American Beauty,' 'Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.' It brought a lot of focus back to this band," he said. "I don't think there was any one particular thing, but a few things came together. Burton and I have been talking about it for awhile. It just came together because it was meant to be."
The tour itinerary has some gaps -- including a hole on Canada Day, which follows the group's performance in their hometown of Winnipeg -- and Saifer said there is a chance other dates might be added. He's also looking into opportunities outside Canada for a world tour. When asked about the possibility of Cummings and Bachman writing some new songs for the tour or for a new studio album, he said: "I think that is really a function of coming together and doing it. I don' think you can orchestrate that or legislate that. What happens is the musicians come together in a room, and all of the sudden, the sparks fly.
Tuesday, March 28, 2000
Guess Who announce Cdn. tour
Guess Who's back?
After months of speculation, concert promoters House Of Blues Canada confirmed today that the original lineup of The Guess Who -- Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson -- will reunite for a cross-Canada reunion tour, kicking off May 31 in Newfoundland and wrapping up after 22 dates July 14 in Brandon, Man. Here's the full itinerary for what has been dubbed the "Running Back Thru Canada" tour:
May 31st St. John's, NFLD Memorial Stadium
June 2nd Halifax, N.S. Metro Centre
June 3rd Saint John, N.B Harbour Station
June 7th Ottawa, ON Wordperfect Theatre
June 9th Montreal, P.Q Molson Centre Theatre
June 10th Kitchener, ON Memorial Auditorium
June 12th Peterborough, ON Memorial Centre
June 13th North Bay, ON Memorial Gardens
June 15th Toronto, ON The Molson Amphitheatre
June 17th Thunder Bay, ON Fort William Gardens
June 19th Saskatoon, SASK Saskatchewan Place
June 21st Prince George, BC Mulitplex
June 22nd Kelowna, BC Skyreach Place
June 24th Vancouver, BC GM Place
June 25th Kamloops, BC Riverside Coliseum
June 27th Calgary, AB Canadian Airlines Saddledome
June 28th Edmonton, AB Skyreach Centre
June 30th Winnipeg, MA Canwest Global Park
July 8th Grande Prairie, AB Canada Games Arena
July 9th Red Deer, AB Centrium
July 11th Lethbridge, AB Sportsplex
July 14th Brandon, MA Keystone Arena
Tickets for the Toronto date go on sale Friday, March 31 at 10 a.m. through all Ticketmaster outlets. They cost $49.50, $39.50 and $29.50. Tickets are also available by calling (416) 870-8000 or online at http://www.ticketmaster.ca.
Tuesday, March 28, 2000
Guess Who to team up at ballpark
Show June 30 at The Forks
By JOHN KENDLE -- Winnipeg Sun
WINNIPEG - It's official.
Winnipeg music's original Fab Four -- The Guess Who -- will play the inaugural concert at CanWest Global Park at The Forks June 30, concert promoter House of Blues Canada confirmed yesterday. The original quartet of singer/keyboardist Burton Cummings, guitarist Randy Bachman, bassist Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson -- aided by post-Cummings bandmember Donnie McDougall -- will play as part of a 23-city Canadian tour which begins in late May in St. John's, Nfld., promoter Kevin Donnelly said.
"It'll be magnificent to see them in that ballpark on the Friday of the Canada Day long weekend," Donnelly said. "Just under 10,000" tickets will be sold for the concert, he said. CanWest Global's listed capacity is 6,266 for baseball. Most tickets will cost $49.50. Fewer than than 1,000 infield seats will be sold at a "gold circle" price of $79.50.
TICKETS ON SALE SATURDAY
A limited number of ducats will be made available for $32.50. Tickets go on sale Saturday and can be purchased at all TicketMaster outlets or by calling 780-3333. The band is set to play Brandon's Keystone Centre on July 14, and in Craven, Sask., on July 17.
Rumours of a May warm-up date at a Winnipeg club or community centre remain unconfirmed.
Tuesday, March 21, 2000
Guess Who going on the road
Winnipeg date planned for June 30
By JOHN KENDLE -- Winnipeg Sun
WINNIPEG - Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman have ironed out many of the details and are taking the The Guess Who on the road this summer, The Sun has learned.
The original lineup of the legendary Winnipeg rock group -- best known for such hits as These Eyes, Undun, No Time, Laughing and American Woman -- will embark on a 20-date Canadian tour in May, ending June 30 in Winnipeg.
"Yes, you will see The Guess Who on the road this summer, barring anything unforeseen" band manager Lorne Saifer said last night from Los Angeles.
HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL
"Those are the dates which have been offered to us, but not everything is completely ironed out. We are looking to play Winnipeg on June 30," he said.
The band, which reunited for a highly successful four-song set during last year's Pan Am Games closing ceremony, is expected to kick off the tour with a club date in Winnipeg in mid-May, sources told Sun Media.
The tour dates, to be sponsored by MuchMoreMusic, will be officially announced March 28, with tickets going on sale April 1. Ticket prices for the shows are expected to be less than $50 each.
Cummings, Bachman, bassist Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson reunited last August for a 20-minute set during the closing ceremonies of the Pan Am Games. It was the first time since 1983 the original quartet had performed together. Cummings and Bachman -- the group's songwriting tandem -- have been reportedly meeting for the past several months to work out the tour's business details.
A Tour Date!
According to the Regina Leader Post (Friday, March 6) the
Guess Who will be performing at the Rock 'n' the Valley at Craven, Sask. on July 15. The 3 day classic rock festival runs July 14-16 and includes such bands as Nazareth, the Georgia Satellites, Prism, Doucette, Chilliwack, Styx, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Doug and the Slugs, Queen City Kids, Harlequin, Men Without Shame, Nick Gilder, Stampeders, and a Randy Bachman-less BTO.
Kale confirms start of tour!
Jim Kale made an appearance on a Winnipeg talk show this morning (Friday)
with his latest project, a three man band called 'Dink Boy.' Here's what
he said about the Guess Who reunion.
Charles Adler (show host): Talk to me about the reunion of The Guess Who,
because people want to know.
Jim Kale: Yeah, it's going on and, yes, I'm in it. There's chatter about
the baseball park in early summer.
CA: Reunion at Canwest Global?
JK: That's one, there will be a national tour.
CA: What about a world tour?
JK: One thing at a time
.And that's all that was said.
The Reunion is unofficially Official!
The latest news from both camps converges -
An actual quote from Burton about the reunion from Thursday's Clubhouse:
Gary MacLean:"Do you have any type of announcement to make yet?"
Burton:"Well, it looks pretty good. It's pretty well official that The Guess Who are going to reunite and do a pretty lengthy tour. The very last details are being ironed out right now. Everybody has spoken to each other. I've spoken to Jim Kale personally in the last few days. Bachman, Peterson, McDougall, Marty Kramer who handles the other guys, Lorne Saifer who handles my affairs. Everyone's talking and it looks great. It looks like we're going to start rehearsing in Winnipeg around the first week of April."
And news from Nancy Steisslinger, who runs the web page for the currently touring Guess Who: "It has not been finally decided yet, but it looks like our Guess Who may be dissolved as of the end of April. The deal for a Bachman/Cummings/Kale/Peterson reunion tour is close to being concluded, and that will apparently mean the end of Dixon/Peterson/Shaw/Russell/Sinnaeve. I didn't want to send this notice out prematurely because anything could still happen, but I want to give you all time to plan trips to see TGW again, if you can."
Kale's Guess Who's current itinerary:
March 10 Grand Casino Avoyelles Marksville LA.
March 18 Vetrock/Coachman's Park Clearwater FL.
March 24 & 25 Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino Maricopa AZ.
March 31 Grand Casino Gulfport MS.
April 1 Grand Casino Robinsonville MS.
April 8 Three Rivers Music Festival Columbia SC.
April 15 Casablanca Resort Casino & Spa Mesquite NV.
April 18 - 23 Cactus Pete's Casino Jackpot NV.
April 29 Featherfest Springdale AR.
May 13 Army Base Willow Grove PA.
No dates yet for the Cummings/Bachman/Kale/Peterson/McDougal grouping.
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