The Bucks, 1960
Growing up on the east Mountain my young teenage friends and I would often wander along East 25th St. between Queensdale and Fennel where hopefully we could hear The Bucks practising. They were the Holland Bros, Doug and ?, a standup bass player possibly Roger Pinney and a unknown drummer. They had a single out on the Reo label in 1960. Holy shit they were the big time! Wow! Maybe one day we could have a band and make a record too!
My Bonnie
The Whistling Stroll
Jerry Warren and the Tremblers, 1960
Jerry Warren was born James R. Jordan in Stayner, Ontario. After moving to Niagara Falls he started his first band, Tremble, in Hamilton and based there began playing the Southwest Ontario club circuit. In 1960, Jerry released a single on Dorset Records using the group’s name “Tremble” as the title of the single, with the song “Rompin” on the flip-side – both tunes written by Jerry Warren.
Rompin’
https://youtu.be/Gfhpb-rIl2I?si=Ks58k8tGTAr2D3n
Tremble
https://youtu.be/mP_GgbjtsnY?si=mx5t7TZyysf3PXAX
Frank Rondell and the Chancellors, 1963
Frank Rondell, another Mountain lad, actual last name Chiarelli. How do I know? In 1962 our guitar plaer Steve Caskenette left Son Richard and the Chessmen to join Frank’s band so he could play full time on the bar circuit. A couple of us went up to Kitchener to check out Steve at the bar he was playing at with the Chancellors and Frank lent me his I.D. as I was and looked underaged and oh yeah, he was born in Rome. Frank’s guitar player Rick Golka who had gone to Central High School’s art program with Rich, joined the Chessmen replacing Steve. Rick played guitar and sang background on Someone Like You and Your True Love. Rick was playing Telecaster at that time which back then which gave the Chessmen a very comtemorary sound when he came aboard. Some Like You was one of two Robbie Robertson compositions that started his song writing career although there are 2 more names in the writing credits on the Rondell version. Rondell also had singles on Golden Triangle records and on Hamilton’s Roto Noto records.
Someone Like You
Your True Love
Ain’t Goin Home (no flip side available a this time)
Richard Newell, 1966
Introduced to the Blues by American radio programs, Richard Newell began playing the harmonica in 1956. He performed from 1961 to 1965 in the Hamilton area with Son Richard and the Chessmen and in Germany and England and the Netherlands in 1965 but as Son Richard and The Gooduns as the Chessmen name was already taken by an English recording band. Back in Canada in 1966, Rich and I formed a blues band, Young Fashion Ways, with Ron Copple and Babe Myles and got a two week gig at a coffee house in Toronto’s trendy Yorkville Village. At the end of the two weeks Rich announced he was joining The Mid-Knights to replace their departed singer Richie Knight and Newell left to sing and play harmonica with them from 1966 to 1968. He recorded the single “Soul Man” with them for Warner Bros..
Soul Man
Richard Newell aka King Biscuit Boy, 1970
From 1968 to 1970, Newell joined rocker Ronnie Hawkins‘ band. In the summer of 1969 he helped to form And Many Others which became Ronnie Hawkins‘s backing band.[6After one cutting one album and after several U.S. appearances Hawkins fired the entire band in early 1970] upon which the members, including Newell, formed their own band, which they named Crowbar. Newell recorded an album with Crowbar, called Official Music, on Love Production’s Daffodil Records and two 45 rpm singles were released to promote the album. Newell was a frequent guest performer with Crowbar from 1970 to 1971. His song “Biscuit’s Boogie” was a crowd favourite.
Corrina, Corrina
Cookin’ Little Baby
Badly Bent
Biscuit’s Boogie
In 1971 Rich formed The Real Gooduns as his backup band. Babe Myles again on drums, Garnett Zimmerman on keyboards, Earl Johnson guitar and myself on bass. We went on tour behind his 2nd Daffodil album Gooduns and were told to start writing songs. I came up with a bunch of lyrics and Rich turned them into songs. We went in the studio and recorded a albums worth of tunes, 6 originals and 4 covers. It never came out. Frank Davies’ Daffodil Records went bankrupt preventing the album from being released in late 1972. Rich next signed a record deal with Paramount/Epic. In 1974 a single, Toussaints’ Mind Over Matter. was released as a promo for his Epic album “King Biscuit Boy”. The flip side was Rich and myself’s Deaf, Dumb, Crippled and Blind (with the fabulous funky arrangemnt by Toussaint) from our recording sessions for Daffidol. The album was recorded in New Orleans with Allen Toussaint at Allen’s New Orleans’ studio.
Here’s Mind Over Matter from YouTube
https://youtu.be/DSIhlkGry_k?si=USDGeBOnpxoCABe7
and Deaf, Dumb, Crippled and Blind
https://youtu.be/Qf0LFAjeurQ?si=7YVYgpCcWU7P1M4Q
In 1978 another single, “New Orleans” (Epic 8–50129), was released which reached No. 68 in Canada in September 1975. audio for both sides complliments of John LaRocca
New Orleans
I’m Writing You A Letter
Teenage Head, 1978
Teenage Head was one of the most popular Canadian new wave/punk rock bands during the early 1980s. There first record, a 7″ 45 rpm two sided single, came out in 1978 on the Epic label. The group was formed by Frankie Venom, Gord Lewis, Steve Mahon and Nick Stipanitz. Mahon credits Lewis with creating Teenage Head’s first original song. “The music comes out of the guitar a lot easier than it does drums or bass,” he said. “Gord would show up with riffs — and his first one was ‘You’re Tearin’ Me Apari
Picture My Face
Tearin’ Me Apart
The Shakers, 1979
Dave Rave and Rick Andrew met while in a band called Madonna Inc. in 1972. In this band, a future member of Teenage Head, Frankie Venom, was also present. However, this version of the band didn’t last a year. Nevertheless, Rick and Dave soon formed a partnership and began writing songs influenced by artists like Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds. By 1978, they had been captivated by the punk rock and new wave music that was reshaping the musical landscape. So they decided to record some of their tunes and form a new band, The Shakers. They then added Claude DesRoches (who had already been playing with Rick and Dave for years) and borrowed Gord Lewis from Teenage Head, as well as Bill Dillon (known for working with Robbie Robertson, The Pretenders, Sarah McLachlan) as guitar players for the recording session and came up with this single.
Till I’m Gone
Out The Door
The Product, ca. 1983
Two old friends and colleagues from the Bishops, Harrison Kennedy and Bobby Washington, got together and created this 45. It’s on Randall Cousin’s Roto-Noto Interplanetary Records out of Hamilton’s Bill Powell’s Creative Arts around 1983. Harry was famous for his role in the chart topping group Chairmen of the Board of which he was a member from 1967 to around 1975. Bobby was known for his role in Lucifer as bass player and back-up singer. Bobby was a member of Hamilton’s musical family the Washingtons.
Eden’s Landing, Harrison Kennedy
Another Dance, Bobby Washington (the hum is on the vinyl)
Jackie Washington and the Mystery Band, ca 1983
Is You Is or Is You Ain’t (M Baby)
.Day and Night Blues
Harrison Kennedy
Give Me Just A Little More Time
Flaming Embers
Benzene Jag
The indie rock group Benzene Jag was formed in 1982. Its music is a well-stirred mixture of punk and progressive rock. Members of Jag were many. This is the lineup that played on the 45: Bob Bryden (vocals, lyrics), Ken (bass), Dave Jones (drums), Rob Fisher (rhythm guitar) and Rick Crowley (lead guitar). Benzene Jag were a curious’,’group, a fish-out-of-water in the hard rock, punk town Hamilton, Ontario from 1981-1985. They were too ‘rocky’ for the punkers and too ‘punky’ for the rockers.Their particular brand of relentless social commentary /protest music was not popular in a factory town. People didn’t particularly want to listen to us telling them how bad things were after their hard week at the steel mill. They much preferred Teenage Head or The Forgotten Rebels. Still the Jag plowed on relentless, writing and playing all the time. At first there was just Ken Blair with Bob Bryden writing songs in his living room. Then Dave Jones joined after being introduced to Benzene Jag at Hamilton’s Star Records and then Dave Moses, a local musician of some renown, joined in as did Richard Keelan a founder of Perth County Conspiracy.
Blues Rockin' Hamilton 
