Exploring the primitive garage beat sounds on the Voxx Records compilation “Winnipeg 1965-66”

This set features rare single sides and unreleased recordings from another dimension in time.

Featured songs in order of appearance:

• Ban deodorant radio advert
• The Shondels – Every Day Every Night
• The Quid – Crazy Things
• The Chambers Brothers ‘The Time Has Come’ LP promo spot
• The Shondels – Great Balls Of Fire
• Satan & the D-Men – She’ll Lie
• Hendrix / Creedence – Newport ’69 – Northridge, CA concert promo
• The Quid – Catch The Wind
• Mamas & the Papas – Anthology LP promo spot
• The Good Feeling – Tale Of A Man
• The Good Feeling – Like I Love You
• The In-Sound – interview with the Chicago Loop #2
• The Quid – Lindy Lou
• The Quid – Mersey Side
• The Sunrays – Kentucky Fried Chicken radio spot
• The Quid – Wrong Lines
• The Shondels – Don’t Put Me Down
• The Quid – Lover Lover
• The Seekers – ‘Georgie Girl’ LP radio promo spot
• The Shondels – Shake A Tail Feather
• The Quid – She

Winnipeg 1965-66: “Rough Diamonds”

Winnipeg 1966-65 Rough Diamonds | Winnipeg, Manitoba is a city of about a half million people. The musical influences on the city in the fifties and sixties were many with local radio stations CKY, CKRC and even CJOB programming rock music. Unrestricted playlists allowed a wide variety of music to be played and this must have influenced the local scene in a positive way.

Stations could also be picked up on the prairies from such diverse areas as Fargo (KXGO), Oklahoma City (KOMA), Chicago and Little Rock.

British artists Lonnie Donnegan and Cliff Richard and the Shadows had numerous early hits and local groups such as Allan & the Silvertones (Allan Kobel a.k.a. Chad Allan, John Glowa, Brian Donald, Bob Ashley and Jim Kale) and the Vi-Counts (Willie Pavlik, Colin Palmer, Orest Andrew, Micki Allan and Murry Bellavie) featured pre-Beatles British material. The Silvertones and the Vi-Counts evolved into the Guess Who and the Quid respectively.

Initially local artists Ray St. Germain (Chateau), the Angels (Columbia), the Balladeers (Regency) and Portage La Prairie’s Gary Cooper (Quality and Canadian-American, the latter as Gary Andrews) were recorded locally, but later Chad Allan & the Reflections (Canadian-American and Quality) and the Galaxies (Jay-Dee) recorded in Minneapolis at Kay Bank studios.

Winnipeg 1966-65 Rough Diamonds

The Guess Who recorded their big 1965 hit “Shakin’ All Over” at CKY in Winnipeg, and this must have encouraged Winnipeg labels Eagle and Franklin to record local rock musicians in Winnipeg.

Neil Young, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman are the best known names to come out of the local sixties scene, but many artists had local and national success in the sixties. Blackwood Castle, Brother, Donnie Burns, Chopping Block, Deverons, Electric Jug & Blues Band, Eternals, Fifth, 5 A.M. Event (cut in England by Searcher Chris Curtis for Pye), Gettysbyrg Address, Good Fortune, Jamieson Roberts Device, Jury, Justin Tyme, Luvin Kind, Mongrels, Next, Pink Flumm (including Fred Turner of B.T.O.), Spice, Squires (including Neil Young) and Sugar & Spice were recorded.

Eagle Records

Charlie Ward and Wes Nowosad started their Selkirk Avenue record store Country (Music Centre in the early sixties and they expanded their operations in 1964 to include their Eagle record label and Nowar publishing company.

Eagle released country and ethnic material initially, but the Shondels record came out in July 1965 and six more rock-related singles were released.

The still-active label has released thirty singles and six albums to date. Bob Ashley, of the Guess Who, worked for the label in the sixties and the sessions were usually recorded at radio station CKRC or Century 21 Studios in Winnipeg. Harry Taylor engineered most of the sessions.

Eagle Releases

106 The Shondels Shake A Tail Feather /Don’t PutMe Down
112 Satan & The D Men She’Il Lie/Linda
116 The Quid Crazy Things/Mersey Side
119 The Quid Lover Lover/She
122 The Good Feeling Tale Of A Man/Like I Love You
123 The Shags Smiling Fenceposts/Dr. Feel-Good
126 The Trippers The Rains Came/For Your Return

Unissued Eagle Titles
The Quid:
Catch The Wind
Lindy Lou
Wrong Line
The Shondels:
Great Balls Of Fire
Every Day Every Night

Eagle’s Roster

The Good Feeling, from Winnipeg, were lead guitarist Larry Hackie, rhythm guitarist Doug Doherty, bassist Rob Morton, drummer Bernie Smith and vocalist Bruce ‘BC’ Paraschiuk. They formed in 1965 when four of them were in the same room at Miles Macdonell Collegiate—the school Chad Allan and many others of the Winnipeg scene survived. The sides were recorded at CKRC on November 17, 1966. Hackie was guitarist with Petite & Nite People in 1983.

Satan & the D Men, from Kenora, Ontario were lead guitarist Wayne Falconer, bassist Wayne Cardinal, rhythm guitarist Terry Styles, keyboards Russell Percy and drummer John Karwacki—the latter known as Satan John because of his goatee.

Their release was cut at CKRC and produced by Fred Glazerman. Falconer went on to play with Jarvis Street Revue, while Cardinal is presently playing in a country band in Toronto. The group reformed recently to play at Kenora’s centennial celebrations.

The Shondels, from Winnipeg, were vocalist-organist Mike Handford, guitarist Don Thompson, bassist Jackie Wong and drummer Ken Hordichuk. The group, with Bill Wallace and Al Johnson replacing Wong and Hordichuk respectively, went on to record Canadian Top 50 hits for Canadian Columbia in 1966 and 1967.

Winnipeg 1966-65 Rough Diamonds

Handford joined the Gettysbyrg Address (Orest Andreiw, Kurt Winter, Bill Wallace and Craig Hamblin) and they recorded three hit singles for the Franklin label of Winnipeg in 1967 and 1968 — Norman Petty producing their last single in Edmonton.

Handford, who wrote songs for Main Line on Reo, later went to British Columbia, as did Thompson, but has recently returned to play in Winnipeg. Hordichuk played with the Good Fortune previous to their Franklin release. Handford played with the 1984 Guess Who.

The Trippers, from Brandon, Manitoba, were vocalist-guitarist Jack Watkin, bassist Pat Krupa, organist Miles Krauchi and drummer Clancy Solomon. They were together three years and were originally known as Jack & the Rippers, but changed their name when they recorded Sir Douglas Quintet’s “The Rains Came” in 1966.

When the group broke up, Krupa moved to British Columbia where he supposedly worked with Chilliwack in some capacity.

The Shags, from Winnipeg, were lead guitarist Greg Leskiw, vocalist-guitarist Stu Adams, bassist Bill Merritt and drummer Clive Perry. Leskiw’s next stop was with Logan Avenue Comfort Station (Mark Freed, Bill Wallace and Craig Hamblin) and then Jamieson Roberts Device (Bill Merritt, Jamieson Roberts, Andy Pasztor and John Ledgey).

Leskiw and Kurt Winter replaced Randy Bachman in the Guess Who appearing on many hits including “Hand Me Down World”, “Share The Land” and “Rain Dance” as well as the albums “Share The Land”, “So Long Bannatyne” and “Rockin’.”

While with the Guess Who, Leskiw wrote “Herbert’s A Loser” (with Kurt Winter), “Grey Day” and “One Divided”, singing lead on the latter.

Winnipeg 1966-65 Rough Diamonds

Leskiw left the Guess Who and with his group Mood Jga Jga (Gordon Osland, Herman Fruehm and Bill Merritt), they recorded a Phil Ramone produced session in New York. A single “Queen Jealousy” and an album “Mood Jga Jga” were released on Warner Bros, in 1974.

A brief association with Crowcuss on Stony Plain, preceded an album “Be My Champion” on SL Records as LesQ (Gord Osland, Herman Fruehm and lan Gardiner). Leskiw, proving a survivor, had a 1982 Western Canada hit with “Lovers On The Run” and an album “Kilowatt” on Dallcorte with his new group Kilowatt (Bob Brett, Steve Hegyi and Bill Wallace).

Bill Merritt, who contributed songs to Mood Jga Jga, LesQ and Crowcuss, also played bass on the LesO album and more recently has been associated with Rocki Rolletti on A&M. Their Eagle release was cut in October, 1966 at CKRC.

The Quid were formed in Winnipeg by lead guitarist Willard Pavlik and rhythm guitarist Colin Palmer, who had played together previously in the Vi-Counts. The Vi-Counts included Micki Allan, Gary Bachman and Randy Peterson — the latter two the younger brothers of Guess Who members Randy Bachman and Gary Peterson.

Orest Andreiw and Murry Bellavie later replaced Bachman and Peterson respectively with Al Johnson eventually replacing Bellavie.

The Quid

The other Quid members were drummer Lenny Fidkalo, bassist Morley Nickles and singer Ron Rene. Nickles’ compositions ‘’Crazy Things’’ (#100) and ‘‘Lover Lover’’ (#88) were 1966 hits on RPM’s Canadian national charts — U.S. Jubilee showed interest in ‘’Crazy Things’’ but no deal was made.

‘‘Wrong Line’’, ‘’Lindy Lou’’ and Donovan’s ‘‘Catch The Wind” remain unissued as the group broke up when Rene quit them for the Fifth (Melvyn Ksionzek, Richard Owizdak, Jim Grabowski and Vance Masters). Rene was with the Fifth on London and Franklin, the group having national hits on London in 1967.

The Quid’s first session was cut at CKRC in February, 1966.

LP liners: Wayne Russell, 1983.

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