SIDEBAR

Sainted Sound Tech Syndrome: At least two of the first three bands I worked with (professionally) previously had a sound person who, according to them (at least), could do more of everything, better than anyone who’d come along before or since. They could mix better, drive longer, fix anything, go for days without sleep, eat more cheeseburgers…

And in the case of the guy mentioned in this article, he had a string of legendary exploits from the really rough-and-tumble days of Canadian touring in the 1970s, including the hydro pole incident as well as a follow up that involved blacking out the power to half of some small town (the two may have been related). The impact that hearing this had on me, a very young sound person, was that I would always try harder (although not with the dumb and dangerous stuff).

That era came to an end one day, however, when a club manager, who’d been the bass player for a one-hit-wonder band in the 1960s and had known the “saint” when he worked for the same band, said to me, “Are you kidding? You’re doing way more than that guy ever did!” It was at some point soon after that I started looking for a new gig…