Transcript
Speaker: Hi it's Stan here for Dutchey Disc Radio and this is the podcast liner notes revealing chats with candidates retro music makers. Today I'm very honored to have as my special guest George Belanger. We'll be talking about music and travels and the ups and downs of being a career entertainer and we'll get some other insights as well about recording and working on hit albums and much more as we get a perspective about the Canadian music scene from someone who's been there for many decades.
Speaker: George Belanger is best known as lead singer for the iconic 80s band Harlequin. Their albums and radio hits are an essential part of the Canadian musical landscape, so I look forward to what he has to share about his musical journey. So thanks for joining me today, George. It's cool for me. I'm a big Harlequin fan, so this is a treat for me, and it was an easy one because I usually do a lot of research when I do my interviews, and this one was easy because I knew lots already. Oh, that's good.
Speaker: Yeah. So very cool. So, you know, I like to start at the beginning, like what was your history with music and stuff? You got into voice and guitar and training and stuff from Winnipeg and you just decided to play music. Is that the deal?
Speaker: Well, I've always, you know, I love music as a child, you know, and I grew up in a home where my father was always either whistling or singing. And of course, being a Catholic, I went to church. And of course, it was mandatory to join the choir and be a choir boy and an alder boy and all that stuff. So I liked music and I liked my father, ironically, listened to
Speaker: You know, Matt King Cole and a lot of the black artists, Louis Armstrong, that is a great vocalist, but he sure played the trumpet well. But, you know, he was always, he liked Roots music, you know, and really caught my attention because he was listening to stuff that wasn't quite very common on the radio at the time. So I loved that and eventually it led me to rock and roll. And I just, I fell in love with, you know,
Speaker: British Invasion and all that. But prior to that, I was really into R &B because my father had kind of pushed me in that direction, not purposely, just from what he was listening to. And I liked to hear that soul music and gospel and that kind of thing.
Speaker: Absolutely. Well, good music draws you to it, right? And it's funny you should mention Nat King Cole because somebody asked me one time who's my favorite singer of all time and his name actually popped into my head because he was so good. Like his control and his tone and it was just unbelievable. Really good. Really good. So you were a good Catholic boy. You came from a big Catholic family and music was just part of it, I guess.
Speaker: Yes, and you know at Christmas time, you know, my father would go and buy five newspapers because they they publish all the carols and things in the paper right and because we had so many children he had to go buy the papers and We would sing around sit around singing these songs You know in Latin and French and in English Too funny
Speaker: Yeah, so singing was just something we did quite naturally at home. Yeah, and then so you were in Winnipeg, so you were in the Winnipeg music scene right when that buzz was happening, I guess just after the Guess Who, but lots of musicians, lots of bands, lots of stuff going on. Yes, well even while before the Guess Who actually, that's how old I am. But Burton was in a band, first time I saw Burton Cummings was in a band called the Devrons.
Speaker: They had, uh, uh, I really, I never got to see them live, but, uh, I heard their recordings. They put out a few 45s and I thought they were the cats.
Speaker: Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was inspiring to you. And then you hooked up with the local musicians. I guess everybody was vying for the band and doing church dances and stuff like, uh, like my buddy Marty Kramer from back there. He, uh, yeah, he said they put on dances and stuff, him and Burton were buddies and they would just, you could just go and rent the church hall and put on a dance. Did you ever do any of that? Oh yes. Well, my first actual gig
Speaker: One of my uncles was a pastor at a church. As luck would have it, I started playing in a band in grade eight. A guy sitting next to me said, hey, I'm starting a band. And I said, when are you playing? He said, I'm a keyboard player. I said, oh, really? And the guy next to me pipes up and he said, well, I play the bass. And I said, well, great. I've got a guitar and I sing. And all we need is a drummer. And the bass player says, well, I know a drummer.
Speaker: Then he lives in Windsor Park, which is a bit away, but he's got drums set up there. So next thing you know, we gather at this guy's place. He's got a set of drums.
Speaker: Very cool. The guy said he was a keyboard player, showed up at the accordion. Oh, yeah. Now that's a trick. I'm waiting for my, I ordered a Yamaha keyboard, but it hasn't arrived yet. So they had a singer and all that. So I started playing guitar. And the first song we learned, I was struggling with because I'd just bought the guitar. And the singer looks over to me, says, oh, George, that's a C chord. It goes like this.
Speaker: and he picks it up the guitar he plays it and I said okay you play the guitar he said yeah okay I said I'm just learning you can't sing so give me the microphone and that's how my my thing started so one of the guys the drummer was a parishioner of my uncle's no
Speaker: And once he told my uncle that, you know, formed a band with me and my uncle said, well, you can use the church basement, have a dance. So we had our first dance and you know, the kids showed up, the girls were screaming and we knew like five songs, we played them over and over again at the end of it.
Speaker: I made as much money in one night as I did delivering three routes and newspapers in a week. There you go. I thought, there you go. And it was exciting too. That's how it all started. But also it was an exciting time for music in general, right? There was a real buzz around the radio and music and it was something to do and it was exciting.
Speaker: live, you were a God back in those days. Yeah, that's great. Absolutely. Well, that's the thing I think that the young people miss now is that how important it was. And I bring that out quite often when I talk to people that, you know, the radio and the music and waiting for the new albums to come out, that was a big deal. I mean, that was, you know, you'd wait all weekend, you'd save your money so you could buy the next album and listen to it. And it was just thrilling. So you must have done that where you listen to the radio and trying to write down the words to the songs.
Speaker: Well, that's how I learned all the you know, used to covers and you sit there with the needle over the perched over it I remember listening to songs over and over again. I tried dragging that needle back. Oh, yeah. What's he saying? You know, you couldn't google lyrics Well, eventually magazines came where they published the lyrics of that. Yeah, but you know, you have to buy those too You know the internet's a wonderful thing, but the same time it turns me crazy
Speaker: Well, that's right. That's another story. I remember trying to learn the words to Green River. You listen to the last verse in Green River and tell me if you can figure that out. There's just no possible way. I mean, I listened to it a hundred times. I just couldn't do it. So I got it later, years later I got it, but you're right. It was the internet and the magazines. If you could buy the magazine, what was it? I forget the names of them. Tiger Beat or something. Oh, Teen Beat. Tiger Beat. Oh, yeah. That's great.
Speaker: That was a good time, man. You know, that was a good time in life. I would never want to miss. Somebody asked me once, would you like to be younger? And I said, well, no, because I would never trade back the years that I had grown up in the 70s. Yeah. I have, uh, you know, my daughter's 30 and, uh, she told me that, uh, she was very envious for the period of time that I, that I experienced, you know, my, my, I went through the fifties and sixties and she says, those are probably the best, you know, decades and
Speaker: in life so far. It's all going for shit now. Yeah, that's right. And you'd never trade those back. I mean, I wouldn't ever want to miss what I experienced in the sixties and seventies, but it was just such a cool time. Well, cool. And then so in the mid seventies, you ended up, you know, I guess you were playing in club bands and stuff and you ended up joining Harlequin. How did that happen? Because you were in Winnipeg and you ended up in Toronto somehow.
Speaker: Well, I had just, uh, we had just broken up my band. Uh, we had recorded an album actually with, we were the first band to sign to Warner brothers, Canada. Oh, cool. It was a band called next. And, um, we had, we slugged it out in the trenches for a little while and things weren't quite happening. We've got a governor general general's award here in Manitoba for, you know, having been this unprecedented, the first band.
Speaker: to sign with Warner Rose Canada, that had something to do with it. But then we, you know, we did some touring and we toured with the Downchild Blues Band, as a matter of fact. It was our first tour all over, you know, Ontario and the Maritimes and that. And it was difficult. You know, things weren't as sophisticated as they are now, you know, agents and that weren't communicating that well.
Speaker: The venues weren't as developed as they are now. So there was a lot of driving and a lot of distance between gigs. And it was very hard and from the prairies, you know, you know, in Toronto, Vancouver, these other places, you know, they had, uh, it was, you know, you could find places to, you know, I remember guys telling me that they, they hardly ever drove more than, you know, 25 miles all around Toronto. And that was, yeah, for sure. And Vancouver was a little, little different, but, uh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, it was tough. And so we, we, we kind of broke up because it was getting hard and I was actually on my way. I was going to fly to England with my guitar player at the time, Bob White. And we were going to go and, you know, see her fame and fortune when the phone rang was my agent from Hungary agencies, Frank Weiner. And he said, George is a band that wants you to audition for them. I said, well, okay, from where? He says, well, they're in Toronto.
Speaker: I said, okay, what do they call me? He says Harlequin. Never heard of him. Okay. So I flew out to Toronto and they told me that someone would meet me. And as I was standing there with my luggage waiting at the airport and this guy approached me and he was about, oh, I want to say six feet tall, probably about 350 pounds. He had long hair. He had a goatee.
Speaker: And, uh, he was Japanese and he held out his hand to me. He says, great George. And I said, yes. Hi, my name's Gaylord. Wow. Japanese guy and Gaylord. You passed on the joke there. I'm sure. Okay. This is, this is something. And he, uh, and he, so he grabs my bags as follow me. So I follow him to get a 15 passenger van there.
Speaker: I jump into the shotgun seat and we start driving around and he's telling me all about the band and this and that. And I noticed forgetting further and further down the road and I'd been to Toronto before and I said, hey, it looks like we're leaving town. He said, well, we are. I said, where are we going? He says, Kirkland Lake. What? That wasn't exactly Toronto. No, no. So we showed up in Kirkland Lake.
Speaker: It was, you know, a picture, I'm sure if you've played in hotels, you know, the old hotels that were built in the 30s and 40s, you know, it was one of those hotels, you know, the Alconic one in every little town. Many, many times. You know, with the rooms above it, you know, the crummy rooms, you know, where they have the, you know, anyways. So I show up and I meet the boys and right away though, I knew,
Speaker: the bass player was named Ralph James. And Ralph James is now a big shot in the industry. He's an agent, an APA. But I caught on right away that he was driven and he had a plan. And he had lots of energy and a gift of the gap. And he sucked me right in. Because I was ready to go. I went, I don't need this. Here we are in Kirkland Lake.
Speaker: Staying in a crummy hotel room. And so I said, well, here, do you have any original material? And they said, yes, we do. So I said, okay, I want to hear that first because we had the run of the place. There was nobody, you know, it was in October.
Speaker: And, uh, you know, the playoffs are starting to get hockey. Everybody was at home. Nobody came to the bar. So in the afternoon, we did some rehearsing and that in the evening, no one showed up. So we had the place to ourselves and they, they had a song, a couple of original songs and I, we kind of ran them over, so to speak. Uh, and, uh, it sounded pretty good. And I thought, well, what the hell we took a break. We went out to the, uh,
Speaker: where the TV was because the TV was up on the wall, a little small, a little monitor. And this fella came walking in the room and he's dressed in his fatigues, you know, like he had, he was duck hunting. So he had all this stuff on and he sat down at the table, watched the game with us and he said, you know, I was listening to you guys from outside and the Ralph says, okay, what'd you think? He says, you guys, these guys sound pretty good. And he says, okay, are you, uh,
Speaker: you know, what qualifies you to make a judgment. He says, well, my name's Ralph Jovat. I own an agency in Toronto. So it was just like, you fell right out of the sky, you know. That's rather fortuitous. Yeah. Yeah. And Ralph started schmoozing him and one thing led to another and I joined the band.
Speaker: Well, it's neat because what strikes me is that you wanted to join a serious band, like he wasn't a party band, because most of the bands, we've talked about this before, but the bands that were in Vancouver, the club bands, very few of them actually rose above that. There was a few, but most of them were party bands and they just were having the fun in their hoot and they would sleep all day and play all night and do whatever else they would do.
Speaker: and they weren't a serious band. So it speaks well of you to ask that question right up front and say, like, are you guys motivated to go somewhere or are you just going to party it out? Well, I had been in, I always wanted to write music. And in the other bands, like I say, I had a band called Next who did a whole album and subsequently other bands too. And I always, we were always trying to write and always wanted to write, just know
Speaker: pointers. It's fun to play other people's material, but you sure you're not going to get anywhere doing that. You may. No, I totally understand. I had been running the bands from the time I started. I was the guy that was trying to motivate guys because I was with a lot of party guys.
Speaker: You know, we'd go and play and then they'd stay up all night and they'd do drugs and whatever. You know, you would get up in the morning and say, okay guys, we're rehearsing at 10 o 'clock. You get out of your mind, you know. I said, okay, 11 o 'clock in the noon. And it was so hard on me because I used to internalize, I wanted to yell on screen, but I know that in a creative situation,
Speaker: you have to cooperate and you can't start on a bad foot. So I would always bite my tongue, instead of calling them what they were, gentlemen, we're going to rehearse now. They were going to write a song. But I started getting migraine headaches and I suffered migraine headaches for a long time. And then
Speaker: when Ralph came along, I saw that he could take that role on. And I could just lay back and do some writing. Because he knew how to motivate people. And I thought I did, but he's way better at it than I would. Well, no, that's good. And that's important, too. I've been a bad leader my whole life. And the main thing I do is make sure we're all on the same page. So if you've got two guys that are motivated, and the other guys are party guys,
Speaker: Well, that's just not going to work because you're not on the same page. So I would just kind of approach it like, you know, we need to be sort of thinking the same way here. And if your motivation is to make records and write songs and stuff, then you've got to focus on that, right? And make sure it happens.
Speaker: You know, so it speaks well of you that you did that because like I said, that's the exception, not the rule. Most guys were just sort of did exactly what you said, partied all night and slept all day and trying to rehearse. And then they dragged themselves to rehearsal looking like a, you know, bag of bones. And you don't really get anything done anyways. I had lots of rehearsals where you, you know, he kind of had a rehearsal, but you didn't really do anything because the guys, you know, stopping to throw up or whatever. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, so we're cool and then you and then you landed a record deal like like Obviously harlequin was a motivated band and you had some tunes and stuff and but you slogged it out You kept just pounding away at that, but he in and landed a record deal with CBS epic
Speaker: Yes. Well, we were grinding and grinding and we decided to, Mo Ralph had the idea of hitting the Toronto area because that's where everything was. That was the hub. So we played all over the place and trying to get ourselves recognized. And it was tough because just getting into the clubs, right? So the way we did get,
Speaker: recognized, you know, this is a fame story in the Harlequin camp is that we were playing what used to be on Yonge Street.
Speaker: Uh, we were playing upstairs at the chimney and downstairs was the gas works. I don't know if you're old enough to know that. Yeah, I'm familiar. I've never been there, but, uh, Oh, it was quite the place. It was, uh, everybody played there, you know, and, uh, of course it was a band at the time, uh, that was very, very big, uh, called Godo. Greg Godom is the, uh, bass player and singer and they were hot. They were just happening. So, uh, it was packed down there.
Speaker: And we were playing upstairs in the chimney to the bartender and two waitresses. And these two guys came wandering in and they sat down and we were playing our stuff. What the hell, we're going to rehearse. So we were playing all our own material. Because at the time, people would say, play the hits, don't bother with that original crap. Nobody wants to hear that. So I would always lie. Here's a song.
Speaker: What's that? They haven't released it yet. I happen to hear this on the radio or somehow and we played song, right? We always bullshit our way through stuff. So we're playing all the stuff and the guy pulls me aside after the show and he says, was that all original material? I said, yeah. And he goes, you guys are pretty good. He says, well, I happen to be working with Jack Douglas.
Speaker: waterfront productions. We're starting a Canadian subsidiary and be very interested in hearing your material on tape. Do you have any tapes? So that's how it went. And then he tells me the only reason we're here
Speaker: as we were trying to get into the Godot show downstairs, and we couldn't get in. We just happened to wander up here and that's how it happened. So you had another stroke of luck, but the thing is too, again, you know, you have to be there. Well, that's right. And the old saying, like the harder I work, the luckier I get, because I know a few other bands that were coming up in the 70s and 80s that tried that trick, but the songs weren't that good.
Speaker: So you can get away with it if you've got good songs and you're a good band. But if you try it and your songs are kind of low rent, then you don't get away with that. So again, it speaks well of you to do that. And then you got lucky, again, from working hard, being in the right place at the right time. So then how quickly did that go from that to you got your victim of a song album coming out? Well, that's another story. Okay, so we're grinding it out with them and we ran into a fellow,
Speaker: I guess if I was going to use his name. No, maybe a little bit. But he had a recording studio. He had a recording label and he had a pressing plant. Gary Salter was his name. It was called Global Music. One of the guys that was working with Jack decided to talk to this guy and let him hear our stuff.
Speaker: And so, which he did. So we met him in his office and I'll never forget when he said, you guys, I think you've got some stuff here. I'm going to record it and we're going to give you a deal. I'm going to give you a deal. But this is how it's going to work. And he took out a piece of paper and full -scap and he real quickly wrote something on it. He turned around and I looked down and said, I get everything.
Speaker: So your basic standard record deal, I guess, at that time, right? Well, yeah, at least he was honest about it. That's what I said. You know, he was... Yeah, exactly. Bend over. So I hear, here's a document on 45 pages, you know, like, you know, then we're going to do this, we're going to do that. But anyway, so...
Speaker: you know, we knew what we were walking into and we discussed it amongst ourselves and we said, well, you know, we've been slogging it out here. Well, it seemed like a long time then, you know, you're younger, you know, two years seems like an eternity, right? So we've been slogging it out for about that length of time and nothing was happening. And here's this guy offering us an album. So we did it and we were half, we were about, well, more than halfway through or three quarters of the way through the process. Cause now we're going down to mastering and all that stuff.
Speaker: And I was sharing a room with Ralph at downtown Toronto and the phone rang and it was his secretary called and she said, you guys better get down here because they're foreclosing on this place and they're going to lock the doors and all our gear was in there too, right? So now you can't open the doors. We've got to play, you know, we've got to sustain life. So, you know, we ran down there and we got the truck and we got all our stuff.
Speaker: The guy's telling us here, take this, take that. You know, you try to get your masters out, get your masters out. So we grabbed our masters and grabbed all our crap and went back to the hotel and parked there. And a couple of days later, the phone rang and it was somebody from CBS saying, Hey, you have some of our property. And they went, what do you mean?
Speaker: I said, well, you know, he defaulted to us. And as it turns out, good old Gary, he was actually bootlegging, making copies in his pressing plant of, you know, oh, okay, albums that were in his Michael Jackson or whatever. Oh, wow. Because he had a pressing plant. So why not? Oh, he was a deep doodle too. So now we were basically their channel, you know. And so they said, he said, how does this work?
Speaker: It's going to work the same way as it did with Gary Salter. Okay, so basically everything that he owned, now they owned. That's right, including us. Oh, I got you. We did the first album and that was basically all done already. We just finished it up, do some mastering, and put it out there. And once you know it, it went gold. Well, there you go. So where was that recorded, the first album?
Speaker: Well, geez, I can't even remember the name of the studio. Global Music was the name of that. But then we did some stuff all over the place. And who was the producer on that? Did you guys have a producer on the first album? Well, Locke McFadden. As a matter of fact, he was starting a subsidiary of Jack Doug's company in Canada. He had played
Speaker: And the drummer, he was with the drummer, his name is Casey Nell, we'll come back in a minute. I'm getting old. There's too much junk up here in my head. And so they had started this thing and Jack actually heard the first album, you know, as it was done. He got even more interested and offered to fly us into New York to record, lo and behold, at the record plant.
Speaker: Yeah, iconic. But that wasn't the first album though, right? No. The reason I ask is because when the first album came out, I was a teenager, I was a musician, I played music and stuff, but when I heard Sweet Things in Life, I was an instant fan.
Speaker: Like that was an awesome career defining song for you guys. I mean you were instantly and permanently like an important part of the Canadian musical landscape. No lie. I mean it was a great, great song. Perfect mix of keys and guitars and it was heavy but melodic and super cool. We loved it. Like it was just instant. So I just wondered what the production was and how it ended up being so cool and then You Are The Light came out. We learned that right away in my cover band. We played it for quite a few years actually. So it was...
Speaker: Well, actually, Survive was the first single because that's right. When CBS took it over, they said, well, and we had to record some rarely heavy stuff. In actuality, only last year or a couple of years ago, a lot of fans and son, who was a producer, gave me an email and said he had these tapes of stuff that we'd done.
Speaker: and we had all this material. We had some pretty heavy stuff back then, because we were playing, not necessarily metal music, but it was heavier, you know, like Zeppelin and that, because, you know, so it was, you know, a lot of drumming, you know, and heavy guitar, sort of arena rock kind of stuff. Yeah, a lot of screaming and stuff. And so he said, I've got all these tapes that my dad had, you know, I'm going to send them to you. So he sent me these things and I went,
Speaker: I'd forgotten some of these songs and lo and behold, God, they were, well, I thought, those were pretty good. So we may release some of that stuff yet. We're just in the first stages of re -releasing the first album back on file, can you believe it? They've lost the masters and they found them and they're gonna, there's not too many pressing plants around anymore, apparently. And so it's not that easy to get things out in any kind of quantity.
Speaker: Yeah. No, it was cool. They had a, it had a big impact. I mean, every, every band wants that career defining song. And for me, it was for you guys, it was sweet things in life. And then, but the one thing I wanted to ask you about that, it was like four, four minutes and 30 seconds. Did you have a radio edit of that song? Me probably. Cause it was a bit long for radio, right? Yeah, but we had, you know, I didn't have the mandatory, you know,
Speaker: It was great because you do the back and forth leads on it and stuff too in the off -time drum fills and you got the synth, but it's super cool. That's why I said I was happy to have you on because I'm a big fan and it was for me being a guitar player, a long haired skinny guitar player in my teens and listening to this stuff, it was pretty cool experience for me.
Speaker: And then within a couple years, Love Crimes came out, right? 1980? Yeah. So that was recorded in New York then? Did you go to the record plant for that? Yes. Yes. That was with Jack Douglas too. He started taking the reins and we did that. Then we came back to Toronto actually. We did some stuff at
Speaker: with the boys from Triumph. What's the name of your studio? Well, Metalworks, Gilmore. Metalworks, yes, of course. A couple other places. I recorded so many places. Yeah. Just a blur, man. It's a giant Spinal Tap episode, right? We were brewing the candle with both hands at that point. I was never
Speaker: Big drinker drug user. Yeah, I spoke pot. Yeah. All right. Just way back when you avoided the whole rock and roll train wreck lifestyle Yeah, I shouldn't have spoke pot either because I'm a singer but yeah, yes, I quit that My first band one of my first bands of calls it was called the nickels and dimes and I'd refer to the quantities of marijuana first at the time nickel bags and dime bags and
Speaker: Well, it sounds like you avoided the train wreck, though, because I know we all know people who didn't and didn't go well, so good for you. But then, so the cool thing about it is, so you've got sweet things in life, that's kind of a defining song, but then you back that up. Like, it's got to be a combination punch, right? Then next thing you've got innocence and thinking of you, which were both fantastic. So you've got the combination punch, right?
Speaker: Innocence was all over the place I remember hearing that song like over and over and over and over because and all the bands learned all the cover bands Learned it every club you went into they'd play Innocence Yeah, I hear it sometimes when I'm shopping
Speaker: Oh yeah, that's right. And then the cool thing about it is thinking of you was heavy again, right? It wasn't the poppy, so you stayed true to the heavier roots, but melodic heavy with the harmonies, you got the synths, you got the cool guitar parts. So you didn't just go straight kind of ra ra ra heavy, it's melodic heavy.
Speaker: Yeah, well, we were still being, you know, at the time, you know, the record industry, we always dictated which way to go with the music. And they're always trying to force you into a corner. As a matter of fact, the first album, the first single was survived and we didn't have that written. And they said, you know, you know, we like this album. That's what CBS took over. We like the sound, but we don't hear a single. Okay. But what are you looking for? Something light and bouncy was a positive message. So I went into the other room when I got walked out after a while and I
Speaker: I had survive and I ran it by Glenn and then we finished it off and played it for him. They said, okay, well, that'll be the first single. But they were sort of telling us what they wanted. And we just wanted to make a living and work. Because at that time, I'm starting to have kids and stuff like that.
Speaker: Yeah, but they didn't think Sweet Things in Life was a single. Good Lord. That's a single and then some. No, no, no. That's why they really survived first. Too funny. So the one thing that struck me about you when I was doing my research for this interview and stuff is that you didn't have a lot of videos. Like you were just right before the much music sort of thing. That's right. I couldn't find any actual videos attached to the songs. Is there any out there? Between the eight track and
Speaker: Yeah. We have stuff on 8 -track. But you were too early for the much music, right? Pretty much, yeah. We were just on the, you know, we're probably at that time, you know, getting into our late 20s and they're kind of old.
Speaker: Yeah, well, it's funny because Bob Seeger one time in an interview, they asked him, how come you don't have any videos on MTV and stuff? He said, well, we were stars before videos were important. Like Night Moves was in 76. He said, so they did, I think Making Thunderbirds was 82 or 83. They had to do a video for...
Speaker: for MTV, but I couldn't find any. So all your record deals, it was never attached to that, a video for a single that you did that you shot? Well, we did Take This Heart on the third album, and that was a video. We shot it at the Don Jail in Toronto. Oh, wow. Yeah, we had a bunch of people there, and it was a real mess because
Speaker: We had a gig the next day and we had to get things done I was schlepping stuff around moving staging and doing stuff and then it put the my red Jacket on and and do a take and then that the move stuff back and forth. Oh, it was crazy It's not very glamorous. Yeah. Yeah. Well
Speaker: I don't even know how we got through this thing, but even talking to the people who put it together, champagne projections, it wasn't quite a champagne budget. Yeah. Well, there you go. But you know, again, when you're working in a rock and roll band behind the scenes, like, you know, the glamorous lifestyle is all sort of a facade, right? I mean, you're working, you're schlepping, you're loading gear, you're driving all night, you're doing all the things that you got to do.
Speaker: It's not, you're not riving up in a limo with your nails done and stuff. You're basically getting out of the back of a truck. Well, back in those days, we see a few limos now. It's a lot better it used to be. We don't have to schlep anymore because back lines are all provided. We stay in five -star hotels. You fly there, you fly back. It's totally different now. I'm so grateful for it.
Speaker: Not that it was horrible, but it took its toll on you doing that stuff.
Speaker: You know, but it's a job I'm grateful. Yeah. So then, so then with the combination punch, then you got one false move comes out. And again, I was in a club band at the time, so did it for love came out. All the club bands learned it. Everybody loved it. Everybody danced to it. I played that song hundreds of times because we, we played six nighters and we played it all the time and we thought it was great. So it was just one of those tunes. So then you had superstitious feeling too, which is, so now you got the real combo punches going cause you bam, bam, bam.
Speaker: Because a lot of bands, as you know, they'll come out with a good song and then maybe the second song is kind of okay and then that they kind of fade off after that. So you were able to do that and have the next album being, you know, reasonably successful. I don't know if in terms of sales or whatever, but it was the same as the last two, but it certainly made an impact. Well, you know, I think the longevity of those songs speaks for themselves.
Speaker: As far as the sales go, it's all smoke and mirrors. I have no idea how much money they made. We didn't see hardly any of it. I know that whoever owns the publishing makes most of the money. We never made large amounts of money, unfortunately. So you got shafted on your record deals, eh? Oh, absolutely. I'm no different than anybody else with that era. We all got shafted.
Speaker: I remember a quote from Joni Mitchell. At least back in our day, the people who ran the industry, well, certainly everyone's taken your money, but at least in the old days,
Speaker: Though you're dealing with people who actually like music. Well, the old saying, the suits are the ones that wreck the music business, right? Because you're young guys and you're trying to make your deals. And it was based on exploitation. I mean, the whole sort of model was one of exploitation. You're my boy. You're my meat puppet. You're going to get out there and do your dog and pony show. I don't care what you do. And I'm going to take almost all the money or all the money. And that's a good business day for me.
Speaker: Yeah, that's how it goes. But like I say, I don't have any regrets. I mean, you know, I'm actually grateful that I never achieved that stardom that's, you know, your own job, the Beatles or whatever, that kind of thing. Because that life, I don't think I could live it, you know, where you have to live in seclusion basically, because everybody's following you around or wants to hound you or no one, you know, asking for something. You know, I can walk down the street with impunity, no
Speaker: Well, the odd time people do recognize you, but I don't think I could handle that.
Speaker: Well, you make a good point, because it's a blessing and a curse. And for some people it's mostly a curse, because when your life is completely turned inside out in your Elvis or somebody where you're just completely isolated and living in an alternate reality, that's not life. No, I wouldn't want that. And to be somewhere in the middle and have some success and still know who you are as yourself and be able to live your life like a normal person, that says something, right?
Speaker: Well, I don't know. I mean, when I look at myself, we used to talk about making it. What does it mean to make it? Well, making it, you have to redefine that through your life. Making it for me is having a successful life. My wife loves me. My kids respect me. I get to play music for a living. I'm the happiest guy in the world. Did I make it? For me personally, I did. For sure, I did.
Speaker: If you can say that at the end of the day, because a lot of the guys like Elvis was 42 years old when he died. He was worshiped to death probably. So your record deals and the pressure and the expectation, I mean I've heard it over and over again because you're right, it's a common story. But you had a difficult situation where you had a financial burden and then you ended up in bankruptcy, is that correct?
Speaker: Oh yeah, it all happened. Because back in those days, you know, we were, well, here's what happened, you know, we were trying to go, you know, we wanted to be international. And we had a manager who, you know, he had grandiose ideas and, well, you know, we went to the bank and he got some money and, you know, we bought trucks and rented buses and got production and got on these tours.
Speaker: going through the states. We went through the states with triumph, with John Waite, you know, the guys, tons of tourists. And, you know, you're doing the warm up set and you're traveling every day, grinding it out, sleeping probably four hours a day for months at a time. And, you know,
Speaker: those two semi trailers, you're just hauling around and the bus and two buses and all the production because you have to haul all that crap around. Yeah, that's enormously expensive. Oh, it was outrageously expensive. And then, lo and behold, I found out we actually hired some, what were they called? Guys influencers, you know, although the independent record that day, but guys that would go to the radio stations and deal with a bag of cocaine and a lot of cash. I don't know.
Speaker: But so yeah, we dug a big hole. I wasn't quite aware of all the things that were going on because I was in the creative part of it. And I was busy writing songs and staying up at night doing that and then trying to get some sleep and then doing shows that I just, the business I've let go, I've let go of that completely.
Speaker: Yeah. You wouldn't learn. Well, it's funny because I read the book Hitman and stuff, right? And they said so when Paola went away, it just went one step removed. You had to have an independent record promoter, right? And those are the guys that they did the Paola, but they did it one step removed. So it wasn't the record company doing it. It wasn't the band doing it. It was these other sharks that were around and they were the guys with the bag of Coke and the girls and whatever it took.
Speaker: These are my boys. You're going to play their record. Here's what do you need? Right. And so, you know, I was going to ask you about that. You're foray into the US. Did you get a lot of action down there? Did you get some radio play and stuff, but you got to pay to get it. Right. You know, frankly, I don't, I don't even know because, uh, you know, we, uh, we're so busy at the time, uh, you know, going from one gig to the next. And we always had a good reaction to the music. Right. And, uh, that's all we cared about, you know, unfortunately, you know, what's the, uh, you know,
Speaker: once the dust cleared, realized, oh, how much? And we had declared bankruptcy. And so anyways, the band in the early 80s kind of disbanded where everybody wanted to go there, give up on it. I was not going to do that. I bought everybody else.
Speaker: I'd take out a loan, but it wasn't much money really for what was left. You're splitting up the debt, I guess. I decided I didn't want to throw that away. I decided to keep it going. I started another business with my wife at the time. I started having kids.
Speaker: And I would play festivals in the summertime when the kids were off to school, whatever, and go back at it, you know, later on. And now I've sold a bit, the business is gone. And I started, that was about, you know, quite a few years ago, and started playing again. And, you know, I still, you know, love it and really appreciate the fact that people still show up and tell me how much, you know, I love the songs, I love it as well.
Speaker: You know, there's nothing like that. That's my opiate.
Speaker: Well, no, I appreciate that, George, because the thing is, you know, you reached a level that most people would like to and don't, and then you had songs that, you know, what's the old saying, right? Songs are hooks that we hang memories on. And, you know, you got some songs that are hooks that, for me too, personally, because I was, you know, I'm a little younger than you, but I was a rock and roll guy, and I love those tunes, and I still do, so I'm a big Harlequin fan. Well, you just said something there that, you know, people ask me, why did you keep doing it?
Speaker: And I'm a fan, too. I'm a huge fan of music and all these players. And I know that my father was, too. And when I had to make that decision, I thought back to my father. And my father, you know, he listened to all that music. And, you know, if Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole would have come to town, he'd have been there like a, you know,
Speaker: He would have been there and he would still support them. He still loved them in spite of all those decades that had gone by. And I thought, he's no different than anyone else. You know, you love what you love and how do you stop loving something? It's like stopping to love your child. You never stop loving your child. Even if they do things that are perhaps not right or might offend you sometimes, you still love your children.
Speaker: I decided I'm going to keep going at it because I love this and I continue doing it. I'm very, very happy that you have that view. And it's funny, I think it was Ray Charles one time they asked me if he ever gets tired of playing music. Are you familiar with that? And he said, well, music to me is like breathing. I don't get tired of breathing. Oh, it's so true. And I thought, well, bingo. I mean, that's it right there. Like you sing because you have to, like Tom Jackson says. Musicians that have it in their blood, they do it because they have to do it.
Speaker: Well, you know, you want to give, you know, I've always wanted to give and you know, and sometimes, you know, I said to someone, someone asked me once, how do you go and play the same song all the time? Doesn't it bother you? Well, sometimes you're looking at that prospect, you know, and I have to be frank. Sometimes you go, oh, here we go. And I'm going to go up there again. But you look at that sea of faces, they're smiling, they're loving it.
Speaker: And they're singing along and there's something that happens, man. It's just, you're just floating on a cloud and you're, you're higher than the kite without doing any drugs. You know, it's, it's awesome. I can't, I can't put it in.
Speaker: They tell you how great you are, and then they gave you some money. That's right. How fad can it be? It's still cool to be paid for playing and singing. Well, again, you're bringing joy. There was one guru, I forget his name, but he said, find what it is that your gift is and share it with the world.
Speaker: If you want to have a happy life, find your gift and share it with the world. That's the way I kind of look at it. You're right. It's altering to people's lives. It's making them happy. You can sing it again for the first time. Why not? Because you're in a new crowd. You're in that moment. If you're truly in the moment, then sing it again for the first time and make them happy. That's well said.
Speaker: Yeah, so then it's funny because so you kept the band going and I saw the whole thing about the business thing and the record company thing and some people that I've talked to became very jaded and even bitter about that stuff, right? And it sounds like you were able to rise above that and just kind of put it where it needs to be put and move forward. Well, you know, I always knew I was getting screwed.
Speaker: Yeah. And you accept it or you walk away. And I wasn't about to walk away from something that I actually loved. It's just because of money. Because money isn't everything. You learn that really quick. Some of the best times I've had was I didn't have any money at all. Not that I hate money. Don't get me wrong. Money is nice to have.
Speaker: But it's not going to make you happy. It's not what makes you happy. Well, for sure. You know, it makes things easier sometimes, but no. That's not what brings you happiness.
Speaker: But the, I guess the other rub is that, you know, people have the perception, well, you've had, you know, six, eight, 10 hit songs, you know, you should be sitting on millions of dollars, but that's not the way the business works. You've got to, you know, make sure that you get past that point and get your publishing back and get everything else back. Um, good luck with that. Well, you know what? I just, um, uh, Silicon, you know, if you're really familiar with Silicon. Yeah, of course. Yeah. I'm a member. Yeah. Well, they sent out a missive to, uh, I guess all their members and, uh, asking, uh,
Speaker: You know to write your part member a pearl that so that we can try to devise some way to get some money out of Realtes cuz I didn't see that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I know that you know you go on Spotify I Buy Spotify, you know, I pay for the premium version. I love it. Yeah, you know, but I don't like what they're doing, you know Yeah, cuz it you know, they've got a they've got stuff on there that you know, it's it's it says verified by band
Speaker: That's bullshit. I never verified that, or anybody in my band, verified stuff. But they tell you, they play all these songs, and you're getting 0 .00043 cents. You're fractious. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Yeah. And to try to communicate with those people, you can't reach those big companies. You can't approach them. You have to have some kind of secret way to get in there. Anyways, the government's going to do that, I hope.
Speaker: I know that a long time ago, even Peter Frampton went to Congress. I did see that, yep. Yeah. And he was saying, you know, they saw 25 million copies here. How much did he make? He says, well, $1 ,300. Yeah, it was ridiculous. I know it was just on its face. It was ridiculous. He said, like, yeah, no, I remember seeing that. I watched him testify. I did see that.
Speaker: Yeah, it really bothers me with Spotify though is paying Joe Rogan $200 million a year
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. They were getting 0 .000 points. Well, that's the other thing. Like I read that book, the future of music, and there was a band on there and they were asking him about, well, what about people downloading your songs illegally and stuff? And his answer was really curious. Cause he said, well, we love it when people download our songs because they're fans of our band and they come to our live shows. And that's where we make money. We make zero off of the downloads and off the sales. We get zero. Yeah. But it's a lunch or property is not, is not, uh, not what it used to be.
Speaker: Well, plus the record deals, they weren't past their recoupable point, right? You got to sell a half a million albums before you get dime one from them. And then the expenses are all padded and you name it and all the rest of it. So they said, we make money from our live shows. Yeah. Well, that's the way to go. But I mean, still, it'd be nice to be earning the money for your intellectual rights.
Speaker: But nobody wants to pay for music anymore. I couldn't mike the part with my money to go down to the record store like we were talking about earlier. I'd run down there and buy an album.
Speaker: Well, that's what that book says too in Future of Music. It says that music will be everywhere and it will be free. It's like water. If you want a glass of water, it's everywhere and it's free. And that's what music will be like. And it's like, well, how do you monetize that? How does George Belanger make a living off of that? Well, you have to do concerts and hope people show up.
Speaker: yes well so then i have to ask you about to awaken the gesture that was 2007 right that you recorded that and i must say like it's hard for for retro bands i guess for you when you had your your meteoric rise and you were at your peak and then when retro bands come and put out other albums it's hard to get a lot of um
Speaker: recognition or notice in that. And so I'd never actually listened to it. And then when I was doing the research for this, I went and listened to it. And I must say, man, like I'm not I'm not blowing smoke, but I was just blown away how good it is. Like, it's great. Really, really good. Well, you know, it's funny because I was, you know, I just did it because I enjoyed it. You know, I knew I enjoyed the process. I enjoyed it's cathartic to doing that stuff and actually having no one to tell me what to play. Yeah.
Speaker: So, uh, uh, or what to, what to write about. And I would just, we just had, uh, fun making it and did stuff that we thought were, you know, that just came out. Uh, we just, it just surfaced and we put it on, you know, put it down and that's what happened. Uh, whereas it was no manufacturer or, or, you know, squeezed into something that we didn't want to do. This is actually stuff that we wanted to play.
Speaker: Well, and Shine On is super cool, like smoking guitar player. It's kind of funky for Harlequin, but it's super cool, nice production. Where was that recorded? In a garage. Oh, yeah, because the production is great. It's good, really good. Well, there you go. See? Yeah. No, we did that in the keyboard player's garage, and actually we converted it into a studio. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, it was all done at home.
Speaker: Interesting, because it's hard to get noticed. I have a buddy who's a record producer and he goes, you know, in the last 10 years, Heart put out an album, ZZ Top put out another album, and you're lucky to sell 30 ,000, 40 ,000 copies of it. People just want to hear the whole stuff.
Speaker: Well, yeah, there's that. But then they want to hear the retro stuff, right? When they come, it's easy top. They want the techno talk. Oh, they want the 70s hits, you know, the new stuff. Yeah. OK, I'll listen to one or two. But but Shine On and Rise and Hell in High Water, great songs. Like I would just advise and encourage our listeners, if you never listen to Waking the Jester, to have a listen to it and take it and leave it. Super cool. Straight ahead. Excellent harmonies. Great drummer.
Speaker: great guitar fan and I don't blow smoke man I mean there's a lot of mediocre stuff out there and I'm I just don't say anything if I don't think it's it's cool so well that was music that we just wanted to do you know it just came out yeah well good for you so it's all over the place too I mean there's there's no heavy stuff there's you know
Speaker: Yeah, you can't go back. That's the ballot on there, right? Got the Beatles kind of intro, the keyboard intro. Very cool. Yeah. No, I thought it was great. I was pleasantly surprised. I was smiling when I was listening to it. I thought, well, how come I've never heard this? Like, what did you do for promo? Like, did you promo it or just put it out? Well, you know, you try, you know, but it's pretty hard without the big machine behind you. Of course. Yeah. We were just happy to do it and to get it out. We did it on a pretty good budget. Yeah. Yeah. Good.
Speaker: It didn't cut, you know, well, we didn't charge anything. We didn't charge ourselves anything. Yes. There you go. The music was, the musicians were free, right? Yeah. So it was the engineer and so it was the computer, you know, just the only thing was the mastering is really, and then of course the heart, you know, putting together the, uh, we had someone do the covers and that.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, you do Shine On Live, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think I saw you. Gene Greenwood did a thing for you guys when you did Canafest. I watched that because I know Gene. Oh, yeah. He lives out here. He lives in, I think, just about 20 minutes from where I live. So when you come out to do Canafest, he came up and filmed it.
Speaker: Yeah. Okay. You did live in Surrey. You did Surrey. Was it Canada day? I think you did live in Surrey, BC. Cause that's where I live. I can actually hear that from the park, from where I live. Oh really? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: trooper right yeah that was quite a while ago yeah it was probably I can't remember what year it was but maybe ten years ago something like that yeah no very cool and then you've had a lot of member changes over the years too right because you bought the name out so you basically just keep the band rolling with with the people that you can the people that play with you and well yeah actually the version of Harlequin right now as it stands is well I don't you know
Speaker: Disparage anybody that played in Harlequin before but it's probably the best version of that you've ever had Or a recent while my last bass player went off to sing for Streetheart, right? Well Paul did right and Paul. How did you feel about that? Are you guys we okay with that? Go for it, you know, yeah, I mean Yeah, why shouldn't he? Yeah, no, it's Going you know, I tell people all my guys, you know Hey, if you get a better offer if you want something do something, you know
Speaker: I'm not going to hold you to anything. He's, you know, it's a great offer. And there he is singing for Streetheart. Yeah, good for him. So now we have Chris Burgaffney, who is a singer songwriter for Orphan and the Pumps. And we're doing a couple of his songs, you know, in the show. And he was, I was a fan of his from before, before he was even known, you know,
Speaker: And he's kind of a shot producer. I saw Orphan, I think, in about 1983 in the 9 -1, they were opening up for Toronto, because Toronto was on a big tour. And I think Orphan was the opening band. They were from Winnipeg, right? Yeah. Yeah, that was it. They're a good band, really good. The drummer was a singer, too. Well, he sang, yeah. Well, he did some songs, but Chris, the bass player, did most of the writing and the singing, too. Cool. And then who's playing guitar now?
Speaker: Uh, Derek Godfrey, that's the guy you heard in the gesture. Yeah. See, he's great. Like really, he's awesome. I mean, I'm an awesome person. Yeah. Cool. No, I'm a guitar player. So I listened to that right away and it was just smoking. Well, good for you. Cause you've, you've switched around, but obviously you've got a settled one now and you're touring again, right? You got some dates this year. Yeah. Oh yeah. Good. No, we love it. I mean, the guys that I have right now, I mean, we love to play and, uh,
Speaker: We look forward just to doing it and it's amazing that after all this time that these guys are still enjoying it and we have a great time.
Speaker: It's really enjoyable. You've sort of paid your dues and at this point in life, it's not the pressure and the finances and the record company. You get to just enjoy yourself, which is good. I'm happy about that. Yeah, we do it because we love it. And how are the pipes these days? How's the throat? Well, frankly, I was away for quite a while. I haven't sung in some time and I have to get on it. As you know, it's an instrument and I'm going to have to start vocalizing quite a bit.
Speaker: You know, you know, if you don't use it, you lose it. Well, yeah, I always looked at it like being an athlete, right? You got to, you got to do your practices and then you got to be in game shape when you get out there and do it. And you got some challenging tunes to sing, right? You're not, you're not singing all the baritone stuff. You're singing some cool stuff. Well, I know that sometimes, like you talked about that, you saw Shine On in CataFest. We had, before that show, I was really tired.
Speaker: I bet you I'd slept eight hours in two days. Yeah, cuz we were traveling and doing stuff Yeah, so when I when I got on the stage, I know oh my god, you know, yeah, can I can I get through this? You know you have those moments I know you sing so I you know if you're you know It's one thing to be you know to go down the street and sing here But when you're traveling and going from different environments, you know Air -conditioning. Yeah a room then you go to a soul keeper or whatever, you know
Speaker: and lack of sleep and all that. It's tough on me. Well it's funny because I watched that and I've been a lead singer my whole life and I do a Bob Seger show and a John Fogarty show so I've been through all of that for many years and I know exactly and I could tell you weren't fresh. I could tell you pulled it off and you did a great job I think for being where you're at but I'm a singer I know exactly where you were at. I was watching you
Speaker: And I thought, it's good. You wish that you were just fresh. You know how you do the percentage, right? I'm 90%. Like right now I'm about 70 % because I've got a little tightness in my throat and you're kind of feeling it. And I read Slash's book and he talked about Axel. And Axel was really freaked out about his voice and he would sit in the van for like two hours and he wouldn't come out of the van and the crowd was waiting. They'd have tens of thousands of people waiting for the band to take the stage and Axel wouldn't come out of the van.
Speaker: because he was freaked out about his voice, right? Because he had to be Axel. Everyone else is all partying. They've been up all night. They're playing guitar. Yeah, and he's got to come out and be, yeah. And they want the money notes. They're waiting for the money notes, right? And he knows he can't do them every night. Nobody could. Well, I will tell you, back in the day, I had no falsetto for about a year and a half. Yeah, there you go. I could not hit a falsetto note. They saved my life because we were working so hard and traveling and all that. And every day,
Speaker: I would get up on stage and go, oh my God, how am I going to do this? I thought it was going to be a possibility. And the adrenaline kicks in when you're on stage, but still that if you take care of yourself and if you pace yourself, you can pretty much like anything, you can get through it.
Speaker: So we just did a big show at Casino Regina and I had to do the Fogarty and the Seager and I just wasn't there, you know? I mean, it was okay. I just had to shave off the high notes and kind of get through it and stuff. But as singers, we don't want to do that, right? I want to sing my guts out every night, you know? Right. And I try. But no, it's good. It came across well. So I was happy for it. Well, it's also, you know, people are always all washed up, you know? You can't do it anymore, you know?
Speaker: Well, look at Tony Bennett. He was a 90 -something. He just quit. He hit the notes. Well, years ago we were playing a big club and I had a cold and I shouldn't even have been there. I should have been at home. And this woman came up to the stage and she goes, what happened to you? You used to be so good.
Speaker: I know, doesn't that just stab you? I was just crushed, man. I'm like, I have a cold. I cannot sing tonight. Yeah, but they don't understand. They don't understand. No, they don't. And of course they talk about lead singer syndrome, but the fact is it's the singer that's always thinking about it. It's like Phil Collins said when he went on tour, he never wanted to go out anywhere, touch anything, do anything. I was too freaked out about getting a cold or getting sick. You're Phil Collins. Like, what are you going to do?
Speaker: Well, the whole show and the whole thing came in if you don't play. And I know that Ralph James used to always say to me, and he's told my daughter this, and it's the proudest moment of my life telling the truth. He met my daughter not too long ago, and he said to her, your dad's the most reliable man. I remember that. Wow!
Speaker: I went, wow, that blew me away. And just to have someone actually notice that. I always tried to be there and I'd go, I'd do it no matter what, broken ankle, laryngitis. I'd show up and try and do as best I could. And you know what's funny too, because I know some guys, you do a lousy job and say, man, you were great.
Speaker: So there you go. You know, it's true. Yeah. Don't take it too personally. Just if somebody tells you you're bad. Well, I know some guys that aren't that great, but they get up there and act like they are. And people, my old manager, Jesus, they, people listen with their eyes. They look up there and they go, ah, guys, great. And it's like, no, he's, he's terrible. Keep smiling and do that. So, yeah. So looking back, what would you, what would you change if you could go back and do it again? And what would you do differently?
Speaker: You know, I'm quite happy with the way I am. I don't think I changed anything to tell you the truth. You know, I mean, you know, you could talk about, you know, uh, could I have made more money? Yes. But you know, like I say, money's not everything. You know, I've never, even when I was broke, I was never starving. You know, managed to get a meal somehow back in the old days when I was homeless. It was, uh, it was difficult, but, uh, you always managed to make it through.
Speaker: And you learn great lessons when you're distressed and there's pressure on you. There's some great stuff that you can take with you and help you carry on with the rest of your life. Yeah, I guess that's a good point because people often say, well, I wish I knew then what I know now, but then you wouldn't have been who you were then.
Speaker: That's right. You would have been a different person, right? So I guess it's part of the journey and you get shafted a few times and you get beat up and kicked around a little bit. Then you come out of it and go, you know what? I'm okay. This is good. Speaking of Slash and his singer, I was playing at Edmonton once and they were just starting out, I think. And we were playing a club in Edmonton and this guy's dancing around the front of me, you know, and he's leaving his arms and that.
Speaker: And all of a sudden, and I've had this happen before, you know, back in the old days where people used to want to get up on the stage and grab the microphone and sing. And I had one guy, you know, when I was very young, jumped on the stage in a pub when I was playing, and he grabbed the mic and I went to grab it back off him. And he sucker punched me in the gut. And you know, you lose your, you know, you lost your breath, you can't breathe.
Speaker: You can't do anything, right? You're just locked in there. And I thought to myself, I'm never going to let this happen again. So back to this moment when I'm playing in Edmonton and this guy all of a sudden jumps up on the stage and he tries to grab the mic and I throw him off the stage. And my bass player comes winding up to me, George, George, you know who that is? I said, I'll give him. That's Axel Rose.
Speaker: Well, you know, they were just burgeoning, I guess, but I guess they... Oh, wow. That's too funny. So this would have been mid -80s, probably, right? Oh, yeah. Well, some of these guys get a little carried away. I mean, reading Slash's book is just nauseating for the stuff that went on, those guys. I mean, they lived the rock and roll life, and so he was probably caught up in that at that time.
Speaker: I've had that happen a few times too where guys jump up on the stage and one time it was a semi -famous person and I did a similar thing because I didn't know who it was and he was drunk of course, you know, hey, I can sing that song. And I'm like, yeah, except I'm in the middle of singing it. So maybe I'll just finish it.
Speaker: Oh, good. Well, it's funny. We've never met over the years. We have lots of mutual friends, of course, but I'm out in the West Coast. So I was born in Guelph and then I moved out here with my parents when I was a kid. So I've been out here mostly, but I've been able to make a living out here for many decades. So I'm thankful for that. And I just didn't want to travel. Like you traveled a lot, right? How much touring did you do back in the day? You must have been... Oh God. Well, I remember one December, Ralph James always brings it up
Speaker: We had 28 dates in the month of December. So we were doing, you know, bars, we were doing universities, we do something in the afternoon, like at a high school or a university. And then, you know, we played the school to death, you know, we had all kinds of stuff. But yeah, 28 dates in one month. So did you like touring back then or did it get too much?
Speaker: You never looked at it like, do I like it or not? It's a matter of something you have to do. Certainly I like going to San Francisco and Los Angeles and Toronto and New York and all those places. It's great, but you don't get to see much because you're working. You see the inside of the arena, you see the inside of the hotel, you see the inside of the bus, and the rest of the time your eyes are closed trying to get some sleep. You're telling the other guys to shut up.
Speaker: Yeah. During that music, Don brought us later. We're going to sing tomorrow. It's funny, I talked to a bus driver one time and he said, I've driven millions of miles and I haven't seen anything. That's the way he put it. Well, because he said you're working and you're loading baggage. You're just focused on your customers and whatever. So very similar things. He said, I've been everywhere. I've seen nothing because I wasn't there as a tourist.
Speaker: Well, yeah, like me too. I've been to all these places, but you know, you don't get to spend any time there to do anything relaxing. So what about Europe and stuff? Did Haruka make a splash in Europe or any of that? Well, oddly enough, we sold records in London and England and Germany and Japan, but never got to play there.
Speaker: I know that Germany, somebody just sent me some record, got a collector sent me, you know, he gave me a single. It was innocence on one side and I forgot that it was Sweet Things Life on the other one, I'm not sure. But yeah, it was all in German and you know, it had the 45 and it had a sleeve, a nice sleeve with a write up in German in the back, you know. Nice. They called us, if you translate it, prairie landers.
Speaker: No. But you never got to tour over there. No. And we also have some of our stuff was released in Japan and I have one now. You can just got the lyric sheets both in English and in Japanese. Interesting. I love crimes, right? Yeah. So I don't know where that money goes or how many they sold or you know nothing. Right. Yeah. Well, who owns the publishing now? Is it still
Speaker: Oh, still the same guys that ever had their events on before. Yeah. It's all CVS or Sony Music. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, cool. Well, I really appreciate you taking the time here. We've been a little bit over time, but super cool. You can edit it. You're going to take a lot of that stuff on, I'm sure. Yeah, I know. I was interested in all of it and it was really a treat and a thrill to talk to you today. Okay. Well, I want to thank you first for saying you liked Waking the Gesture.
Speaker: because not too many people have actually heard it or listened to it. Yes. And I hope that people do, you know, maybe I'll share a link on there and just let people know and I'll share it on my Facebook and stuff too, because it's super cool and well worth listening to. Yeah. Well, I enjoy too. Cause I, you know, I go back and listen to it, you know, after you've been closely associated with something like that, after a few years ago, I put it on and they're like, you know what? It wasn't too bad. I kind of like it. Absolutely.
Speaker: Many thanks to George Belanger for being part of the Line of Notes podcast and sharing some insights from his incredible experiences in the music biz and more information is available at harlequintheband .com and they're active on Facebook as well, Harlequin the Band, check it out. We hope you enjoyed the podcast and invite you to subscribe to it and share it on social media so others can enjoy it as well. We also invite you to listen to Dusty Discs Radio to hear music from the Canadian artists you're hearing on this show. So until next time, I'm Dan Herron.
