# So called Vintage Garage Bands from The Good Old Days



## Richie (Dec 3, 2010)

Back in the days when bands were referred to as ‘groups’, probably in the mid sixties following the British invasion (Beatles, Dave Clark 5, Rolling Stones, Pacemakers and countless more), every neighbourhood and every school had a number of groups that played community centers, school halls, dance clubs and house parties. There were probably more musicians and venues in those days than there had ever been before or since. 

My family moved around quite a bit back then so I was fortunate in a way to have experienced the grass roots music scene in Toronto, Winnipeg and in Montreal. I was in Winnipeg when a band from a local high school called the Devrons featuring an energetic piano player named Burton Cummings played cover tunes to a packed community hall filled with music loving fans. 

I am still in touch with some of the group members of the band I played with (The Tripp) thanks to one of the former band members looking up people in the phone book whenever he travelled to a new city. We correspond regularly and reminisce about the good old days (bands/groups we knew, people we came across, our song lists, old photos, posters, newspaper clippings and even some scratchy home made recordings). 

What is really interesting is that there are quite a few of us who are and have been attempting to reconstruct those time broken links for all using new media, social networks and the web. Links that help us to reconnect with some of our old acquaintances whether they be musicians, songs, etc. 

I thought this Forum might be a great place for members to join the search for some of those missing links. If you have not yet had a chance to look into this, just type something like: ‘Canadian Garage Bands of the 60’s’ into your search engine and see what you come up with. Who knows, maybe this could even become an entire new section for the Forum. 

Any thoughts?

I should have searched the Forums first. May have already been tried? Oops!

Richie


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## Astroman86 (May 6, 2010)

Man! I love 60s garage rock. so hard to find download links though lol. thats why youtube is my friend.

do you know any record shops in southern ontario who sell old records from those kinda groups? plus not knowing very many of the band names doesnt help hahaha.

i check this site sometimes garage hangover | the site for 1960's garage bands i think i saw some canadian ones on there before like Luke and the Apostles. pretty sure they were from TO.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Astroman86 said:


> Man! I love 60s garage rock. so hard to find download links though lol. thats why youtube is my friend.
> 
> do you know any record shops in southern ontario who sell old records from those kinda groups? plus not knowing very many of the band names doesnt help hahaha.
> 
> i check this site sometimes garage hangover | the site for 1960's garage bands i think i saw some canadian ones on there before like Luke and the Apostles. pretty sure they were from TO.


If you like that stuff you should pick up a copy of the Nuggets (4CD) collection

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965


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## Richie (Dec 3, 2010)

Astroman86 said:


> Man! I love 60s garage rock. so hard to find download links though lol. thats why youtube is my friend.
> 
> do you know any record shops in southern ontario who sell old records from those kinda groups? plus not knowing very many of the band names doesnt help hahaha.
> 
> i check this site sometimes garage hangover | the site for 1960's garage bands i think i saw some canadian ones on there before like Luke and the Apostles. pretty sure they were from TO.


Garagehangover is definitely a good place to start. 

There was also a site called SuperOldies.com that played the music on line but they no longer do that. As I recall they had fairly extensive repertoire of garage band recordings. Now they sell compilations on CD. They had many Canadian groups a couple of years ago when I checked them out but they changed their page and I am not sure what is going on there but things do not appear to be going well (Forum not working, featured artists instead of a full list, ???)

If you are looking to buy records you might try this European site that lets you pick a genre, view the disc or jacket and you can even listen to the song before buying the disc: ubupopland Online 60s 70s vinyl record shop,Hear audio clip Psychedelic LSD Sound effects Pop-sike toy town mellow yellow trippy prog singles picture sleeve, listen mp3s Picture sleeve! _*(Quite the URL!)*_
I have not dealt with them and their prices seem a little steep but if you don't mind scrolling through their large collections you might find what you are looking for. 

Hope this helps. 

Richie


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## Richie (Dec 3, 2010)

I joined up with a west island Montreal group when I was in high school back in 1967 if I recall correctly. The band was called *Ashbury District*. 

*Ashbury District Members:* 
Bass guitar: *Jim Miller*
Rhythm guitar: *Doug Teasdale* 
Lead guitar: *Claude Allard*
Keyboard: *Richard Dallaire*
Drummer: myself (I don’t remember the name of the former drummer)
Vocals: *Jacques (Jay) Rochon*

Shortly before the band broke up a second singer named Ronnie joined the group. Following the break up part of the group re-formed. *Gilbert Sauvé* was the new bass player and we had a new lead singer Tristan Phelipe a.k.a *Serge Lalonde*. The band name was abbreviated to *Ashbury*. 

We played mostly night clubs and hotels for a year, two week engagements, six nights a week all over the province of Quebec. In 1969, most of us gave it up and went back to finish high school. With the exception of one or two occasions we did manage to meet but I have since lost touch. All traces of the members seems to have vanished. Claude Allard went on to become a sound engineer for RCA but I was not able to locate him. 

If anyone has heard of the band or if you have any leads to any of the former members I would appreciate hearing from you. 

Richie


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

I was in a 'Group' from 1965-68. Our best gig was at the Minah Byrd for two weeks in October 1966. We weren't much beyond three cord progression, but were really tight and had a good front man. We almost had a girlfriend and parent rebellion about playing in Yorkville, so we had to back out. In retrospect, biggest mistake we ever made.


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## Richie (Dec 3, 2010)

Robert1950 said:


> I was in a 'Group' from 1965-68. Our best gig was at the Minah Byrd for two weeks in October 1966. We weren't much beyond three cord progression, but were really tight and had a good front man. We almost had a girlfriend and parent rebellion about playing in Yorkville, so we had to back out. In retrospect, biggest mistake we ever made.


Would that have perhaps been because of the bad influence hippies who permeated the area at the time might have had on you? My guess is you would have been 16 years old at the time. Depending on how involved the parents were with the band and the whole music thing, it might have been a good decision in a way. What I mean is if the parents encouraged and paid for the instruments and all, they might have had a legitimate say. I know in our case we were tolerated by family but not much enthusiasm or encouragement so the rebelious aspects along with the relative independance was not much of a problem. I don't think it mattered where we played as long as we were out of the garage.


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## Jimmypaz (Sep 15, 2009)

Mike Todd at Speed City is a good source for old vinyl if you are around the London area.SPEED CITY RECORDS


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