I can remember driving to Salmon Arm for a noon dance at the local school. Despite calculating how much money we would lose by making the journey just for one show, and how long it would take to get there, Mountain Productions (a fast-talking promoter if there ever was one) talked us into making the trek. Speaking of fast-talking promoters (just kidding, Harvey, if you're reading this!), we had experience with the legendary Harvey Borley, the inspiration behind Nazareth’s "Vancouver Shakedown" (see http://astrorecords.blogspot.com/). The Scottish rock band Nazareth had shipped their gear to the local venue, but failed to show up for their concert -- so rather than lose a wad of cash because of a no-show, Mr. Borley confiscated all of Nazareth's equipment until they posted a bond for its return. Nazareth countered by releasing an album track called "Vancouver Shakedown". Not to be outdone, local band Twitch (managed, co-incidentally, by Harvey Borley) put out a single, "Messin' With the Bull Gets the Horns", which of course maligned Nazareth mercilessly. Sparkling Apple's experience with Harvey was limited to a noon-hour concert at New Westminster High School (once known as Vincent Massey), as well as a potential backing gig with Bo Diddley. No, not as an opening act, but as Bo's actual onstage BAND! This thankfully never materialized beyond yours truly buying the Bo Diddley Greatest Hits album as research material. However, our other encounter with Harvey was his insistence that a friend of his (Brian Medway, formerly of Meddy's People) could play guitar in our band. We actually rehearsed a few songs, and Brian turned out to be a very nice gentleman, but our reaction was, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", and we remained a trio.
There weren't too many sweaty gymnasiums that we DIDN'T play, and schools like Centennial, Banting and Best in Coquitlam, Newton Junior in Surrey , Gladstone and Lord Byng in Vancouver were all band favourites. Vancouver Tech, Queen Elizabeth in Surrey, South Delta High School, the list goes forever on. One time we played at Mary Jane Shannon (now Guildford Park) in Surrey, where one of the teachers happened to be one of the local hellraisers that I used to play with when we were kids. An ex- next-door-neighbour as it turns out. We enthralled the kids with tales about their teacher Mr. Maxon, or should we say 'Billy’! Here’s to you, Bill, wherever you may be.
I recall one of our first road trips with Buzz Constantly in the band was a trip to Rycroft, Alberta, just 64 km north of Grande Prairie (Middle of Nowhere, Canada). We were booked into a decrepit old dance hall in Rycroft, Alberta for the Spirit River High School Grad (the hall itself could have been part of the set in "The Last Picture Show"). The parking lot was chock a block with pickup trucks, and the audience was comprised of junior versions of "good old boys" and tractor jockeys -- diehard rockers!