THEY TOOK CARE OF BUSINESS — "I saw very tough Harley biker guys and girls literally in tears. It was incredibly moving," says manager Gilles Paquin who watched the crowd as Bachman & Turner performed House of the Rising Sun at the Sturgis Rally 2011. That's the North American motorcycle rally, just held in Sturgis, S.D.
"And this time we weren't forced!" laughs Fred Turner. He and Randy Bachman were last in Sturgis in 1990 as Bachman-Turner Overdrive. "Eric Burdon played there in the afternoon — and DIDN'T do theHouse of the Rising Sun."
The song about gambling, bad fathers, jail and misery is a huge biker anthem. "We were the last band on, and one of the big security guys came up — bikers do their own security — and said: 'Our favourite song didn't get played today, and you may not get home if you don't do it.' "
Says Turner: "Well, we got through it, and they loved it, and later we recorded it in Denmark. So, we're back in Sturgis last week, and it's going really well, and I say to Randy: 'Why don't we do House of the Rising Sun again?' I said to the crowd, 'In 1990 we were kind of pushed into doing this song onstage for you, but it brought us a lot of good fortune so tonight we thought we'd do it again.'" Turner started playing bass and growling, "There is a house in New Orleans," and the stadium went quiet.
Then Bachman and the rest of the band joined in — Mick Dalla-Vee, Marc LaFrance and Brent Howard Knudsen. "We went right into Let It Ride and they started cranking up their hogs (the biker way to cheer). We finished off with Taking Care of Business."
Bachman & Turner play the MTS Centre on Saturday, Sept. 24 with Paul Rodgers (formerly of Bad Company) and Blue Oyster Cult.
BONNIE AND CLYDE WARNING! — You need to get tickets fast if you want to get robbed at Grosse Isle on the Prairie Dog Central train this Sunday. It chugs out of the station at 11 a.m. at Inkster Junction. According to station insiders, the famous robbers "are on the loose again. Local enforcement has warned us that their stolen 1933 vintage automobile was sighted near Grosse Isle." The inside scoop? Bonnie and Clyde will be boarding Steam Locomotive No. 3 holding everybody up for donations to Winnipeg Harvest and the Christmas Cheer Board. While in Grosse Isle, Fire and Ice entertain onstage, with food kiosks and a tiny farmers market outside. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
BABY-MAKING TALES — Well-known Winnipeg sax player Paul Balcain nervously went to play a fancy wedding at the Manitoba Club on Saturday night, with his pregnant wife two days overdue. Wedding organizers were informed he might jump offstage and leave the band at any time and run to take his wife to the hospital. Balcain had his phone set up beside him. Every time something squeaked — the PA system or a guitar — he'd grab his phone and call home. Balcain made it through the gig and wife Holly's contractions started during the night. He's known to be a funny guy, and his wife was even funnier during labour. With Holly, he says, "The party never stops. When delivering our first child, Linus, she laughed on the last push. I had to console the physician, who was in shock, standing there repeating, 'No one has ever done that, no one has ever done that.' " This time they said to Holly, "One more big push." Suddenly, the room went silent as she looked her husband in the eye and said quite calmly: "We are never doing this again," — and then screamed. New baby Hazel Margaret Marie Balcain is here, their second child.
LITTLE-KNOWN FACT — Winnipegger James Struthers, 22, whose CD release party was held at The Academy on Saturday night, placed a song in a Keeping Up with the Kardashians episode that airs Sunday. "My manager and producer, Arun Chaturvedi, has been writing music for them for six or seven months. The two of us co-wrote One Track Mind, a ukelele-based song. "It's about summertime and being a bachelor and having a drink outside. He sees a girl and falls for her right away and lets her know it." Make sure you visit www.jamestruthers.com