"CMCC rocks tonight!"

With those words from the wigged drummer, we did our best to deliver!
We were the final "act" of the evening, and the student body was hopeful to see their beloved teachers on stage, making a mess of it all. But we had the last laugh and rocked the joint instead!

This event was billed as the CMCC "Gong Show", a fun showcasing of student talent, and a bloody good excuse to drink beer!
The hook? Both Glenn and Jim Grilliot were faculty members at the time, and the students were dying to see the old guys play.

We only did 4 songs but they were good ones, and we left 'em wanting more. Which is always a good thing.
The "official" school recording was made on a continuous stationary camera at the rear of the auditorium on a tripod. The sound quality was not too good and the distance from the stage made it difficult to see clearly. BUT, this version is from a 2nd videographer who was around the stage area during the show, and the quality is much better and the feeling more intimate. Keep in mind that the original is over 25 years old and wasn't great quality to begin with.
Here then, the opening song. I hope you enjoy!

The Chiropractic College had a Homecoming later the same year

and we were invited to play for the evening dance.
The original tape was shot by an alleged "professional" using Betamax tape format. Unfortunately, she had never filmed a live musical event before. The result was a jumpy, abrupt cutting in and out of the songs and made for jerky viewing. Extremely frustrating to follow.

Many shots were out of focus or centred on the wrong player during a lead solo. Very disappointing. The bright light from the camcorder kinda ruined the mood a bit too.

The tape sat on the shelf for 25 years before it could be converted thanks to digital transfer technology.
Now it lives! At least, it's a memory.

"Full stage view"

The quality is not the best but you can see that the crowd really seemed to enjoy themselves.

This is another excerpt from the video described in the "You May Be right" video.

Coincidentally, this day also happened to be our lead guitar player's (Glenn's) birthday!

Same place. Same time. Same band. Different guitar!

Cover Me!

We eventually refined this Bruce Springsteen song a few years later, and the 1989 version of the band recorded it.
It was also the inspiration for the title of our demo "album" which you can listen to on this web site.
Click the Album option in the menu above.

"Full stage view"

It's interesting to compare this to the "close up" recording of the same song performed at the April Dance.

Even in this early stage of band development

Glenn and I liked to pick material that you would not normally hear live. This is a somewhat obscure song by Donnie Brooks.

That's young Glenn playing his Hagstrom. He seemed to enjoy himself.

Smile buddy. You had hair then!
note: Something happened in the tape conversion and the opening few seconds are a bit psychedelic! But hang in there, it clears up.

"Full stage view"

This is an alternate audience view of the same performance shown in on-stage version above.
It was taken from a very poor quality video tape mounted on a tripod at the rear of the auditorium during our performance.

What you do get, however, is a better appreciation of what the band members are doing, and of course, the audience reaction.

Still one of my favourite songs to perform

After all these years, nice groove.

note: Something happened in the conversion and the opening few seconds are a bit psychedelic!
Hang in there, it clears up

"Full stage view"

See version 1 of this song too. It's interesting to compare the two, and the crowd reaction here is much more enthusiastic.

More Jumpy than Spooky!

As described elsewhere, the videographer jumped all over the place and arbitrarily cut off up most of the songs in mid play!
Here's a little excerpt of what was actually one of the better songs of the night. Too bad we don't have the whole thing.

please note :Something happened in the conversion and the opening few seconds are a bit psychedelic! Hang in there, it clears up.

GetbacK trio?

Glenn got a call from a chap who had sat in with us earlier that year at a birthday party.
Dan was getting married and wanted to know if we'd play at their reception! We said "sure" and quickly recruited Bill to play bass.

This time out the Band consisted of Glenn Engel, Bill McKinlay, and me.
We heard long after the event that it had actually been taped! A year later Dan (the groom) called to say he had prepared a few clips for us, and in HD too!
He also added some captions which made it more fun to watch.
Thanks Dan!

This old Bobby Darin tune

was always one of the songs we did "back in the day" with the full band, in the first set.
This bouncy, cha-cha-cha piece of musical fluff was always well received and triggered the women folk to grab their man and get him up dancin'!

No dancing here though! But still a great ice breaker tune nonetheless.

Thanks to Dan for putting these videos together for us!

Another song from early on in the evening.

This was always a good tune to play live with the full band.

It may have lost some energy in the transition to this smaller venue but it's still a fun tune to play!

We were recorded by a stationary camera positioned high up in a corner of the room.

It was one of two used to film the actual wedding earlier in the day.
Unfortunately, the only mic was the built-in one on the camera, so the sound, while pretty good, is a bit "hollow" sounding. And there is a lot of background room chatter.

My "PA" was also pointing away from the mic which didn't help. But Glenn and Bill sound good!

Small Room = Lighter Equipment

The reception was held in the family room of a townhouse. Because the room was so small I used lighter equipment than I normally would have. In this case, an acoustic-electric Ovation Elite 1868 and a Parker Hornet PM20 electric guitar.

My "PA" is actually a 40 watt floor monitor sitting on the hearth to my left. The guitar amplifier, was a VOX DA-5 modeling amp, only 5 watts and about the size of a 4 slice toaster!