Posts by mheff

Hi EveryoneI’ve lived in Mississauga, Ontario, most of my life. Even as recently as last year all I had was a vague notion that there was a music scene developing in an area of this city called Port Credit. I’d heard that a few bars sporadically featured live bands, and of course there was the…

THE SHRINE Prior to last week’s show, I’d only been to Midland twice. Once in 1965 and again in 1966. Both times it was because of a school field trip. The Church of Saint Joseph, Martyr’s Shrine, is located in Midland. This is a Catholic church dedicated to the memory of eight French missionaries who…

Hi everyone! I hope you aren’t getting bored with this series. I had no idea when I started this that it would go on so long. My brother Pat and I have the type of memory called “episodic”. Given a cue, such as a date (particularly a special occasion), an incident, a song, a TV…

After Montreal, we worked a week in Richibucto, NB, two weeks in Moncton, NB, two weeks in Bathurst, NB and part of a week (?) in Charlottetown, PEI. There were five sets each night from 9 pm until 2 am. In some places, you work all week without a day off. It really separated the…

The fourteen-hour drive to Montreal was uneventful. It was, however, more comfortable than the one to Halifax. I rode with Marty, which freed up some room in the Walkers Road van. It’s worth noting that this was a return gig of sorts for some of the band members. Actually, four of them. Helen, Art, Jim…

Hi everyone!Let’s recap a little. Walkers Road was my first full-time band. It had existed in another form for a few years previously, but had been dormant for about twelve to sixteen months. It re-formed in February 1974 to back up  Canadian celeb, Dini Petty. After a month of rehearsals, Dini and the band parted ways…

My Last (Only) Real Job “Mr. Heffernan, a word.”“Does it have to be now? It’s time to go home.”“Please step into the office.”It was 8:00 am, and I had just finished my shift.“I hear you’re leaving us.”“Yes, I gave my notice at the beginning of last week. I only have a few days left here.””Why?…

Fatty Joins WeightWatchers Things changed drastically during the next month after the escape from Windsor. Terry quit, likely because he was broke; the keyboard player was fired, there was no clue what happened to Glen, and we got booted out of the warehouse because we always left it in a mess.  Butch had a friend…

A Classic Tale In late spring of 1970, I was looking to either join or start a band. I was a guitar player, with the switch to playing keyboards still far from my mind.  A drummer friend of mine named Jonas Mayer (we called him Joe in those days) asked if I was interested in…

Hi folksAs you’ve observed, I wasn’t able to follow through on my promise to write about each stop on the mini-tour of Southern Ontario. There wasn’t enough time. During the last two trips, I wasn’t doing any driving. It was while riding in Rick’s truck or the big SUV  that wrote most of the posts. New…