Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Andy Curran: Toronto Mike'd #857

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

Mike chats with Andy Curran about Coney Hatch, working with Kim Mitchell, going solo, and the new El Mocambo. Banjo Dunc co-hosts!

Welcome to episode 857 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921.

And Mike Majewski, or as I call him, Mimico Mike. He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike. From torontomike.com and joining me this week is Coney Hatch founder, Andy Curran. Welcome. Welcome, Andy. Mike, thank you for having me on your show. And that's quite a catchy little intro jingle there. If I do say so. I was like kind of going, yeah. Get your head going.

So that's an original by a local rapper producer named Ill Vibe. And he put that together for me about nine years ago. And I've been using it for every episode of Toronto Mic'd. I love it. It's very cool, man. And it's very cool to meet you. I mean,

I'm going to read some nice words about you, but just before I do that, I want to welcome my esteemed co-host for this episode. Joining me, Banjo Dunk. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Good to be here. Hello, Banjo Dunk. Nice to see you without your hockey helmet on. Indeed. So Andy, would you describe for the listenership, because 99.9% of people who are listening to us right now will have the podcast going and there's no visual. How would you describe Duncan's get up as he joins us on the Zoom call? You know what? It's reminding me, like he's dressed very in sort of what I would call khaki colors.

He's got a stogie hanging out his mouth. He's got some stubble. It looks like he could be in a Humphrey Bogart movie where he's hanging out at the beach waiting to tell a fine young woman that the relationship is off because he's too cool for school at the moment. He looks very, very comfortable.

I'm glad Dunk's here because although at the beginning, I'm going to kind of read some notes from listeners who wanted me to share with you, Andy, and then we're going to talk about Coney Hatch and then kind of bring us up to speed here. But along the way, if Banjo Dunk has anything he wants to interject, he has my permission to just interrupt and ask. So Dunk, any time throughout this conversation,

if you want to interject, I'm definitely going to pull you into it when we talk about how Andy helped you with the Stompin' Tom Connors work, et cetera. But I'm glad to have you on board, buddy. Yeah, nice to see him there. I love the fact he's going to hijack the show at any given moment i just hope he whips out a banjo

he's thinking about it all right so andy here's a couple this is going to make you feel good so i hope you're uh you're comfortable sitting there okay jake the snake When he found out I had Andy Curran coming on, he wrote me and said, Andy Curran, no questions, but if you could let him know that I'm responsible for almost all his streams on Spotify, that would be great. That album stands

the test of time, big time. Maybe ask him if guitarist Mike Something is still in the biz. We used to go watch him on the bar circuit back in the early 90s. that he's referring to the early coney hatch records when he said it's it stood the test of time so it's a great compliment but he the the gentleman that he is referring to mike something is uh is a very good friend of mine and was in my what i like to call the no tattoos band not my solo band but after i left coney hatch um michael burkoski wasoski was one of the guitar players in the band. Awesome guy. Lives in Guelph. He's played with everybody from Lisa Del Bello to Carol Pope. He's just a great all

around guitarist. And I do believe he is still in the biz producing and working with young indie artists. Awesome. Roddy Comdy colmer now roddy was actually in my backyard i think last week uh he's a good fotm which by the way andy you are now an fotm friend of toronto mic so add that to your business card love the acronym that's awesome fotm okay i can put that on my business card exactly please do please do so roddy just all he wrote me and said, great guy. So I like hearing that. Apparently you're a great guy.

You know, I was accused by Ray Daniels, who is the longtime manager of Rush and founder of Anthem Records. When he offered me a job to come, and that's the transition from when I was like a full-time musician over into what some of us musicians called the dark side. When I went to the industry side and worked with Ray as the A&R guy for Anthem Records and part of the day-to-day management team for SRO. So managing Rush, Ian Thornley, Big Wreck, Molly Johnson, Stephen Page, a great host of amazing musicians.

He said to me, your only downfall, Andy, is you are too nice and you need to learn how to be a prick. And I said, that's not how I operate. That's not how I operate. I get things done differently. And ironically, a very well-known music attorney by the name of Chris Taylor said to me the same thing. He said, you're a nice guy. People are going to walk all over you. He gave me the advice of every now and then, if you can, you need to know how to flip the desk. You don't have to do it. And so he said, if someone sees you kind of lose your marbles once or twice, they'll be like, oh, don't push it. This guy, he could go off the deep end.

Right. But listen, I get I get stuff done the other way. You know, have I had to dig in my heels? Yes. Have I been accused of being too nice? Yes. But I get stuff done my way. It's working for you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to be mean to people, but you can certainly be forceful when you need to. I'm going back to the Jake, the snake question quickly. And then, and again,

we're going to walk through your career with some actual audio and everything. This is going to be fun. But when he mentioned the streaming, I have a quick question about streaming. Like I did you, have you ever received a check from any of these streaming services like is is there any money in it at all for for an artist like yourself um i would have to say if you're asking me specifically yes no there is not

a lot of money um and and i do see them on on some of my royalty statements from the various bands that i've been in and a lot of the the term sort of penny stocks comes to mind you know because even you the articles are well documented online if you look at someone like taylor swift or the weekend or drake or something like that right these artists are generating millions of streams that's when you start getting into some some money but even at that point quite a lot of artists are very outspoken that it is very one-sided i think a lot of the labels and publishers are trying to see if they can get more of a royalty piece for for artists on streaming but it is it is incremental let's just say my last check would probably cover

you know if you and duncan and i went out and grabbed a few beers and some chicken wings we might be covered on that i go i got this from my my streaming royalties oh well listen uh i can't we can we fix that like it doesn't seem fair to me. That model doesn't seem right because it seems like you've got the 1% that are making a lot of money and then you got the 99% that are getting kind of screwed over. Is there a...

Yeah. Listen, I do think that the winds of change are upon us and I do feel that the publishers and the PROs like SoCan and ASCAP and BMI, they're all trying to lobby to go this is not fair um because in the old days and duncan would know this you know when your song got spun on radio you you could you know if you had a number one hit on radio you could see a substantial amount of money and i think of my friends in a Canadian band called Sheriff. They had this big,

they had this big hit when I'm with you. And it became like a wedding anthem, right? And those guys made some serious cash off radio play. On the streaming end, we're not quite there, Mike, but listen, I'm going to be optimistic on it and say, yes, I'm hoping it'll change. The more people, the more platforms that come on board to challenge people like it and say, yes, I'm hoping it'll change. The more people, the more platforms that come on board to challenge people like Spotify and Amazon, the young upstarts, I think it'll force them that they've got to do something about it. In your illustrious musical career, have you ever covered Winds of Change by the Scorpions? No, but let me tell you. So you brought up the Scorpions when Coney Hatch first started. And Duncan can relate to this.

You can't just go into a club and play full original material. So at the time, when before Coney Hatch had a record deal, our set list was it looked like a dog's breakfast. We were playing Cheap Trick. We were playing Rolling Stones. We were playing The Monk's Drugs in My Pocket. We were playing The Clash, brand new Cadillac. But we were playing The Zoo by the Scorpions. Wow.

Okay. Because you said Winds of Change. Flipped that one in. I know. You triggered that whole cue of the, you said Winds of Change. And then it started playing in my head. I did, the Scorpions. Like a jukebox.

I love the Scorpions. They're one of my guilty pleasures. One of the first bands that I got into along with UFO and Aerosmith and Ted Nugent and Cheap Trick and the Scorpions. I pretty much had all of their early albums. Awesome. Now, Midtown Gord, who actually, when I first announced you were coming on, he sent this in. And then I reminded people you were coming on he sent this in and then I reminded people you were coming on and he sent me a whole different thing so I don't know if he thought I lost the first one

but Midtown Gord, big fan of yours he says perfect no questions, I've been a fan since the beginning I've seen Coney Hatch a million times and just waiting for my Live at the Elmo album to arrive a great addition to my birthday entertainment

will be listening to Andy on Toronto Mic'd, almost as good as Carl Dixon serenaded me last year. That's awesome. Well, listen, yeah, there was a sort of a renewed interest and spike in the Coney Hatch project that actually spawned from a very very serious car accident that carl dixon had um he was in australia he was working on um some some music out there finished his session jumped in the car forgot what country he was in middle of the night

jumps on the road wrong side of the road goes goes around a corner, head-on car collision, and had to be airlifted, put back together with a medical team, like literally a $6 million man type of a thing, you know, crushed orbital bone, multiple, like I think might have had a punctured lung. And he should not be alive to this day. It's a miracle that he's alive, right? But where I'm going to tell you about the Coney Hatch live record, none of that would have happened had I not got a call from his family saying, Carl's in an induced coma in a hospital in Australia. The doctors are encouraging us to put on people from his past, his friends, familiar voices, to just keep his, you know, he's cognitive, he's aware, but he's in an induced coma. So they said, familiar voices to just keep his, he, you know, he's cognitive,

he's aware, but he's in an induced coma. So they said, say something to him to pick up his spirits. And I was like, dude, we need, we've got a lot more rock and rolling to do. You got to get better and Coney Hatch are going to get back together and we're going to kick ass, right? We had zero plans, Mike, to play any shows, right? Right. So he comes back. and when he arrives in toronto we have this little sort of reception for him at a at a local pub right around the corner from the airport he's in a wheelchair he's got an eye patch on he's he's got all kinds of bandages on and he looks at me and he says let's have a chat about these coney hatch dates i can't believe the guy remembered it in a coma, right? So that spawned some interest. We played a show opening up for Gord Downie's solo band in Hamilton. That news kind of spread.

Next thing you know, I'm getting emails from labels in Europe saying, hey, we'd like to sign you guys to a record deal. And I'm like, we don't have any new songs. We're just like writing the past glory of our old songs, right? new songs. We're just, we're just like writing the past glory of our old songs. Right. So we decided to go into the, into the studio, put together a record called Coney Hatch 4. It was released in 2016. All of that was on the, on the, in the wake of Carl's accident. And that record was voted in the top 50 hard rock albums of the year by Classic Rock Magazine. So be careful what you wish for.

Then we started going, why don't we record a live show? We did a show in Germany. We did the El Macombo one. Next thing you know, we've got a live record 30 years later. So be careful what you wish for, Mike. Wow. So many thoughts here. Firstly, it sounds like when you went to that restaurant,

when Carl reminds you of what you said to him when he was in a coma, it's quite possible that Carl Dixon said this to you on Dixon. That might have been a restaurant on Dixon, right? Right by the airport? It was on Dixon Road. I love it. I love it, dude. You're definitely on top of the top. I don't miss a beat here. I don't miss a beat here. Uh, ask Dunk. I don't miss a beat, but so, and so I'm so glad Carl survived and that he's, you know, active. And I know he's, and it's amazing that that whole, uh, horrible accident in 2008, uh, in Australia, like that, that sort of this silver lining in that,

that terrible tragedy is that Coney Hatch is back. Yeah, I would agree with you. And Duncan, because he's a musician and played with various combinations of players and incarnations, it's very likely that sometimes when these bands break up, that there's some bad blood in there, you know, and you never want to be on that stage with that guy or girl again, right? With Coney Hatch, despite the numerous breakups and spinal tap reunions where we

said, okay, this is the last one ever. And then we get together again. We, there was never any, like a ton of bad blood between us. Yes, 85, we had had enough of each other. It was like a bad marriage and everybody just parted ways, but we didn't hate each other. And we all kept in touch and we were like brothers. But as Duncan can tell you, sometimes that's not the case. You spend a couple months with somebody on the road and you never want to get back in the van with them again. Right, Duncan? Come on, you can say it. Yeah, I think I'm coming from a different generation and there was never enough money in my uh operation for that to be a particular issue so it was more let's get the

hell out of this because we're getting poor so no we didn't have the the uh the personality conflicts and besides i ran my operation like a dictatorship so I got rid of them before they were trouble. Well, that's, that's, that was very smart and astute of you. When Coney Hatch started, we were, you know, a quarter partners in this thing. And every, it was like everybody had a vote. So it was a little difficult to do that. But like you said, Mike, it's kind of the silver lining on it that we were able to remain friends and put the thing back together again so easily. So let's start there. And then I do have more questions, but I'll just sprinkle them in as we proceed here. But so, Coney, you mentioned it's a foursome. So name check the founders of Coney Hatch. Okay, so myself, Dave Ketchuma. Dave Thumper Ketchum, now living and residing in Nipigon, Ontario.

Dave and I founded the band, I'm going to say like late 1981, maybe. Picked up a few players along the way in the dramatic talent section of the Toronto Star, where you could put in an ad and Duncan will remember that. So we grabbed Steve Shelsky from an ad in the Toronto Star and we were quite impressed with Steve because not only was he an excellent guitar player, he played slide with a wah-wah pedal in the audition and owned a truck with lights and PA. That was very important, right? So triple check marks on that for Steve. The original guitar player, still a good buddy of mine named Paul Van Remortal lives out in Ottawa. And Paul walked away from the band and wanted to go back to school. So we put in an ad and got Carl Dixon, came down from an audition living in Barrie, had played with a band called Firefly. So that's the four original, Steve, Carl, Andy, and Dave. And where does the name Coney Hatch come from?

Oh, now you're kicking it old school. Okay, the story goes, my parents are full-blown teabags. They were born and raised in a suburb just north of London called Muswell Hill. And all of my relatives are either British or of Irish descent. And we went back there for a holiday in 1979. Yours truly was seriously into music at that time. I bought the Sex Pistols record when, nevermind the Bollocks, when I was there. I bought a concert ticket to go see Ian Gillen playing in a club, the lead singer of

Deep Purple. But my parents said, hey, tomorrow we're going to take you guys back to Muswell Hill. We're going to drive you around the neighborhood. And so we're driving around where my parents met, got married, played tennis together. And there's this wall, there's this big giant wall. And I'm like, what is that wall? What's behind that? They said, oh, that's Coney Hatch, the loony bin. That is a psychiatric hospital. And when we were kids, we were always afraid the loonies were going to jump over the fence. And it was spelled C-O-L-N-E-Y, hatch. So I wrote it down, came home. We took the L out of it because I thought it would confuse the hell out of people. But anytime we did an interview in England with Kerrang magazine or sounds, they were like, is this the county hatch in Muswell Hill, the same one, the loony bin? And I was like,

yes, it is. Right. So most of the tea bags know it, but I recently went online and saw Duncan, you'll like this. The real estate agents took over and turned it into amazing condos. So the loony bin is now a condominium development. You know, near where I live, there's a former lunatic asylum that was taken over by Humber College. And the buildings are quite beautiful. And the campus is amazing. But it was the Mimico Lunatic Asylum at some point. Down on Lakeshore, right? Yeah, right. the Mimico Lunatic Asylum at some point. Down on Lakeshore, right? Yeah, right. Not far from Kipling and Lakeshore.

Yeah. So you can do some interesting things with these former institutions. There's some creepy photos online of what that hospital used to look like. And we just liked the association of somebody being out off their rocker and being associated with a rock band.

And everybody kind of liked it. And we just went with it. Nobody ever questioned it. And, you know, here we are 30 plus years later. Well, I'm about to play a jam from the first album, but I'm going to first ask you. So because last summer I had Kim Mitchell on the program. He made his Toronto Mike debut. Oh, nice.

Love Kim. Well, yeah, I want to find out how did your first album end up being produced by Kim Mitchell of Max Webster? I will go on record right now as saying without Kim Mitchell, I highly doubt I would any of us would be in the music industry today. He took us under his wing and the exact story, the breadcrumbs that led to Kim, we were playing, Coney Hatch were playing one of many week long stints at the Gasworks and we became favorites of the Gasworks and of God, it's just a blur, Mike, on how many times I played that club, but we loved it. I remember one of the last times we

played there, I looked out into the audience to see my three brothers fighting the bouncers while I was on stage going, okay. I got home and one of my brothers had a tooth missing. He was like, yeah, rocking good show tonight, man. They, you know, they got in a fight with the bouncers and said, yeah, my brother's in the band. And they said, we don't give a shit.

And they beat him up. Right. But anyway, so one night I look out and there's a guy sitting at a table on Monday or Tuesday night, watching the band and he's writing in a pad. And I thought to myself, okay, this, maybe this is one of the guys from the Toronto star or the Toronto sun. And somebody is doing an article on us. And keep in mind, we did not have a record deal at that time. We finished one of our three sets that we played a night, three sets a night. And I went over, introduced myself. I said, Hey, are you from a

newspaper? Are you doing an article on the band? I wasn't shy. I wanted to go up and see what was going on. He said, no, I'm actually writing lyrics. My name is Pi Dubois. And I write lyrics for a band called Max Webster. Have you ever heard of Max Webster? I was like, Oh my God, are you kidding? I saw them at Massey Hall, open for Rush and all the world's a stage. He said to me, I'm going to tell Kim about your band. Kim has just left Max Webster.

He's showing a desire to produce or get back in the studio. And sure enough, a couple of nights later, he brings Kim down. Kim has a meeting with us, says, I really dig you guys. Let's go into the studio and why don't we do some demos and maybe I'll help you shop them. We signed a promissory note to my dad, God rest his soul, for $2,000. My dad paid for the demo. We did four songs. Kim took it to Capitol Records and he took it to Ray Daniels and Anthem. And we had a little bit of a bidding war where the two companies were going at each other, offering more and more money. So we decided that the option with Ray Daniels was a good one because it also came part and parcel with him managing us.

And it doesn't get any better than that. And at that time in Canada to have an A-level manager. So Kim was instrumental, took us in there, trimmed up our arrangements, taught us a lot about guitar tones. I can't thank the guy enough for what he's done for us. Do you have any idea how Pi Dubois is doing? Yes, I do. I recently spoke to Pi, recently spoke to Pi. And I don't think this is confidential information, but Pi worked with the Addiction Research Foundation and did a lot of counseling on that. So he spent a lot of time in Toronto. And every now and then my cell phone would ring with a blocked number. And it was Pi Dubois calling me from the phone booth. He did not have a cell phone and he would ask me stuff like the last time we spoke was when anthem records um when i was part of parcel of doing the max webster box

set that had all of the vinyl reissues in it and i was trying to get in touch with pie he did have an email but he was he's one of these guys that you know don't hold your breath on a reply because he's a he's a true artist and very very um what's the word uh he's just an artiste with an accent they do on there so just don't expect too much from right but he was very friendly and hey andy what's going on and i was like pie it's impossible to get you dude every time you call me from a phone booth and he goes i know i should get a cell phone one of these days but i think he's living up north and um and he was writing and painting and just keeping busy oh good to hear good to hear and let's hear something from this uh this first album that kim mitchell produced for you so let's let's hear a little hay operator okay Yeah! Yeah!

I paid my money, dealt my numbers, got the upper hand on the line I wanna call long distance, that little girl of mine I know she'll be there, cause she's any night or day I just got to call her And she'll be on her way Ooh, I said Hey, operator Make your telephone talk to me Hey, operator Make your telephone talk to me Don't you rush me Woo!

Kicking it old school. Are you a bass player? Are you a guitar player who became a bass player, Andy? Or are you a bass player? Well, hey, Duncan, that's a great question. Can I tell you that I'm a closet guitar player? I wished I was a guitar player but bass is my main instrument but I've got a whack of guitars at home and if you give me enough if you give me enough tracks I can pretend and put them all together and you could say wow Andy you're not a bad little guitar player but

And you could say, wow, Andy, you're not a bad little guitar player. But it's a bit of a guilty pleasure for me playing guitar. I can't read music. I'm able to sort of read tablature. I certainly know all the notes on my neck. But bass is first and foremost. So bass and there was two lead vocalists in Coney Hatch and I was one of them. And Carl, God bless him, I could sing a telephone book and sound good uh doing it here i'm gonna go i ask because when i go ahead uh banjo dunk no sorry i asked

when i listen to the bass in your uh in those songs and i've listened to a few of these last couple of days it's it's a bass player playing bass because quite often you'll hear the bass. To me, it sounds like more a guitar player playing bass, but it's solid, so solid. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I'm a big believer and you got to be locked in with your drummer. I wouldn't put myself in a classification

with guys like Geddy Lee or Chris Squire or Stanley Clark. I love all of those guys and I've spent years and years learning, you know, some crazy jazz fusion thing. But when it comes to my music, I'm part of the rhythm section. And I serve the song first. And I'm very, very careful not to overplay on my bass stuff. So we're live on Facebook right now.

And I just want to read something that Paul Hockyard just, uh, just messaged right now. So he's listening. He says, this is awesome. He says, honestly,

Mike, they talk about all the time. Uh, they talk all the time about the Troubadour in LA, but in the seventies and eighties, places like the gas works are legendary because we got access to this band and tons of others, epic time in Toronto Music.

So maybe speak to that time. Like, cause I mean, we younger folk like me, we know Gasworks best because Wayne's World honored us. I know. It's funny. I've done a couple interviews lately and especially some guys in the States and they're like, the Gasworks, that's not a real place.

That was in Mike Myers' Wayne's World. And I'm like, no, it was a real place. But you know, there was a stage in our career where, and I think Duncan can relate to this too, where you're not ready for prime time. You got to earn your chops up in Kenora and Cabas casing and North Bay and Kirkland Lake and Val door. And then if you start to show that you've got a

bit of a following, they'll, they'll, they'll open the door a little bit for you to play in a club, um, in Toronto. So our first break was playing the young station, um, which is North of the gas works. And it was a strip club by day rock club by night. night. You had to play a matinee on Saturdays. We had five sets we had to play there, you know, so, and then if you got a good report at the Young Station, then all of a sudden you might be able to play the Knob Hill in Scarborough or the Rondon Tavern over by Roncesvalles or Tony's East and West and the Gasworks. And so I'm not even lying at the point where we sort of were just getting ready to record our record. We could literally play a dozen different venues in the GTA area. And because Toronto was so large, there was another one out at Coxwell and Gerard, I can't

remember the name of it. Maybe you can, Duncan. That was another good, the Shamrock, the new Shamrock. So, you know, on any given month we could play three or four different Toronto clubs, but one was in the West. One was downtown. One was in Scarborough. The Knob Hill was the very, very rough tavern to play in. And we had a show there. You guys will like this. I'll spin a little yarn on it. So the very first time we played there, um, we sold the joint out and, and, and we got a call back from the manager. He said, okay, good news and bad news.

The good news is the club owner loved you. The place was packed. You guys are getting a redate and you're going to get more money. The bad news is Andy, you can't wear spandex pants anymore because the bikers are going to beat the crap out of you. So that was the last gig I wore spandex. Those were gone. So I went to leather pants and parachute pants, anything but the spandex. Wow.

What a time. Okay. And there is an episode of Toronto Mic'd where Johnny Dovercourt walks me through the Toronto streets, like Yonge Street. And we talk about defunct venues and where they were and kind of the history. And it's a really cool episode for anybody who wants to experience this. But I've been hearing these names. Like recently I had Miles Goodwin on from April Wine

and I had Greg Godovitz on from Godo. And it's just, you know, so I'm starting to feel like I was there. But I'm like, oh, no, I wasn't there. I'm starting to feel like I was there, but I got like, I'm like, oh, no, I wasn't there. I just I'm starting to feel like I was there. But it sounded like a great time. It really was. And I have to tell you, like, I never played this venue. And despite the fact of being in a knucklehead rock band and listening to most of the time heavy metal and rock and roll, I was a big alternative new wave music fan.

So there was a club called The Edge or Edgertons as that was known, right? And I saw the police there with about 50 other people in the room, right? And the interesting story behind that was the very last show that Rush played at the LA Forum. And keep in mind, I was working with their management company and label at that time, the after show was held at the Forum Club. And it was a who's who of LA musicians that were in there. You know, like a couple guys from the Foo Fighters, the drummer from the Red Hot Chili Peppers was there. Copeland from the police was there all these drummers came to meet Neil after the show and um Rush's attorney David Steinberg aka David Quinton who played in the Mods

another really cool Toronto band I said to him oh my god that's Stuart Copeland dude I love the police he goes oh come on over I'll introduce you to Stuart so he brings me over into the conversation pit I immediately get the stink eye from Stuart Copeland, like, who is this guy interrupting us talking to Neil Peart? And he said, Hey, Stuart, I'd like you to meet Andy Kern. He works with the band. And I said, dude, I love your band. I saw you at the edge in Toronto. And he looks at me goes, you and 10,000 other people have right, like he'd heard the story, right. so i made a point of posting on my ins my twitter or my instagram my ticket stub and tagged him in it and said see there you go there's

my stub but i saw ultra box at 999 there it was such a small little hole in the wall but they had amazing that's the gary's right the gary's yeah yeah i've had to meet you on i've had to meet you on and it sounds like the way they booked was basically they would, you know, they first of all, they had a lot of imports from the UK, but they had to legitimately like the band to book them. So it was like you had this like curation mechanism in play. Yeah, I think they had the hip meter out too, because if you didn't, if you weren't cool in the two Gary's minds,

you were not playing that club at all. But I have some great memories there. And obviously the Elmo. I saw the Carras at the Elmo Combo. I saw Rory Gallagher play there. Edgar Winter. So there's just such great times in the early days when there were so many clubs.

I want to get to just a few more questions before we get back to that jam I just kicked out there. But Tim says, Tim Langton, actually, he's got a radio station in Sudbury. He works at a radio station in Sudbury. He says, we did a show with Andy. I walked into Andy's dressing room after the set and it was full of cops. I thought, oh, I ask if everything's OK. He says, yes, these are all my buddies.

That's good news. That is 100% a true story. So one of my best buddies, Constable Phil Smythe, is living up in Sudbury. And as Duncan will tell you, when you're on the road, those are pretty boring downtime as you're waiting for the show and the sound check. And I used to bring my tennis racket on the road and we had some road hockey sticks and stuff like that.

But the other thing was having friends in those cities that you could call. Hey, do you want to go out for dinner? Do you want to do this? So anyway, that particular show, Phil showed up with a whole cast of guys. It looked like we could have been in a lot of trouble, but they were all our friends. And the whole dressing room was filled with cops. So here's a fun fact. That Tim, who works at that radio station, he's the public address announcer back when we could see Blue Jays games at the Dome. Oh, wow.

So that's the voice you hear. Hopefully, because he hasn't been able to work in a while because they haven't played at the Dome in quite some time. But hopefully at some point this season, we get to hear his voice. Yeah, good luck getting back to that, Tim. And great story. But that was an outdoor show that we played in Sudbury.

That nice outdoor amphitheater there. Now, Tuesday noon, that's this person's handle on Twitter. Tuesday noonon, that's this person's handle on Twitter. Tuesday Noon says, does Andy know how many times Eddie Trunk name checks him on his podcast? I always feel like a proud Canadian when he does. Okay, so for your listeners who don't know Eddie Trunk, Eddie Trunk had a show called Bat Metal Show on MTV and he's considered, um, quite the connoisseur for hard rock. Um, and God knows why dude, like, I think he actually saw Coney hatch open up for iron maiden. I think he said he saw us at the Nassau County Coliseum. Oh, their world peace tour.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So 1983 apparently eddie was there in the front row saw got his first glimpse of coney hatch and became a fan and then when he launched that metal show i would have all kinds of my buddies going dude eddie just dropped your name again eddie just talked about coney hatch eddie did this eddie did that it wasn't many years until many years later that i actually et and i met ed Eddie when he was interviewing Rush at the Sirius XM building in New York City. And they said, hey, by the way, we think you know this guy. And I said, hey, I'm Andy Kerr. And it was like one of those shut the app up here.

Right. And then he does the Wayne's World. I'm not worthy bowing down and stuff. And he's he's quite the he's been quite the town crier for us. Oh, very cool. But what's that like opening quite the, he's been quite the town crier for us. Oh, very cool. But what's that like opening for Iron Maiden? That's, that's ridiculous. Okay. So I'll tell you that those two back-to-back tours,

opening up for Judas Priest on the Screaming for Vengeance tour and the Peace of Mind tour, 82, 83. So you're talking about guys that are 19 and 20 years old. We had the biggest venue we'd probably played was the Knob Hill Hotel. So you go from that to playing 18,000 seater, like, you know, the San Francisco Cal Palace. Right. But a couple of stories that I'll tell you that I think you'll like in there. Listeners were like, when we walked in to our first Judas Priest show, we were in the dressing room, shitting bricks, waiting to go on in front of

18,000 people. And Rob Halford comes in the dressing room and he's like, okay, where are those Coney hatches? Where are you boys? I want to meet you. And he shakes our hand and he goes, I have to warn you. Our fans hate opening acts. He said, if you can make it through the first three songs, you're going to be okay. And all of us, like, we're like white as a ghost. What do you mean if we can make it through? He said, they're going to throw stuff at you. They're going to be shouting obscenities. They're going to do everything they can to knock you off your game. But if you can make it through the three songs and show that you belong up there, you guys will be okay. So have a great show. And he walks out

the dressing room. We're like, Oh my God, what are we going to do here? Right? So, um, not particularly that first show, but I can tell you, I had M one firecrackers thrown at me that blew up a couple inches away from my head, hockey pucks, tennis balls, cutlery, clothing. Some of the clothing was nice, depending on which, you know, if it was a nice lady that threw her bra and it hit you in the head or ended up on your headstock of your base. I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. There's a G-string on the end of my base there, not the actual G-string.

But that one was eye-opening, but it prepared us for Maiden because we really learned that we had to, to earn our place on the stage. And the Maiden guys were a little bit younger than the Judas Priest guys. So we instantly hit it off with them. I played tennis with Steve Harris during the day. So that was like a little family that, that, that traveled together. Okay. Very cool. Now, so I played Hey Operator there, which sounded great in the cans, man. Like it just sounded fantastic.

And I'm just, could you give us a taste of like, where, where would you hear it? Like, like what kind of level of success did that single have? I guess that's the, is that the first single from the first album? Yeah, it was that, that single got a lot of airplay with Q107 and chum fm i i believe it probably went top 10 we were at a time when there were no videos we were one of the pioneers bands that had a video so we immediately got added to mtv with devil's deck a song called devil's deck

so those the combination of the airplay on on mtv and much music and the radio play across north america was it just toronto we definitely had a nice stronghold in toronto but you know cleveland and pittsburgh and los angeles we had really strong um airplay on the first record um mostly fueled by our video play i would say okay so i gotta play another song from that album uh in fact i'm to kick it right now and then ask you some questions from listeners regarding this song. So here's another Coney Hatch jam. We are playing in the monkey bars

Sitting by the streets just counting the cars Sitting by the streets, just countin' the cars We are running from place to place We're running around like we're in a rat race Monkey bars Swinging stars Counting cars By the monkey bars We've got a job in the amazon

monkey bars okay lots of great stories about monkey bars first of all you brought up kim mitchell so i'm going to tell you kim mitchell was a loud proponent and loud voice that that song needed to be on the record it almost did not make it to the record we recorded a bunch of songs and um the label was very focused on radio hits and that one was a little bit quirky off the like the lyrical content almost comical a little bit nursery rhyme-ish and kim was like this has got a charm to it we it has to be on the record and he would he had before he went into the studio with us, he came out to quite a few shows and he said, people go like,

they lose their shit when they, when they hear this song, this is like, there's an instant reaction live. This song needs to be on the record. I would arguably say not just because I sing it, that has become a staple in our set list. It might be the favorite track and we always end the night with it. And it's autobiographical. The song was, I penned it in 1980 when we were playing out east on the East Coast, and we played this club dunk, and you'll love this.

And we were sitting in the band house looking at the parking lot, and the club owner came by and he said, don't worry, fellas, you boys just, you know, stay in here and count those cars. When the parking lot is full, you'll know that you got a full house. So just, you know, count the cars there and we'll be good. And so we sat and counted the cars in there. And the club was an absolute dump. So we came up with a nickname that we drive into a club and go, oh, my God, it's another monkey bar.

Here we go. And the monkey was in a reference to we're playing to a bunch of monkeys. Like it wasn't very flattering, but I turned it into sort of playing a kid playing on these playgrounds in the monkey bars. And people have been kind of critical. Like a few people on on facebook took a run at my brother and said those might be the worst lyrics your brother has ever written and i said i wasn't trying to win any kind of you know literary prize on that it was just like

it was phonetic steve tyler writes stuff that that just sounds good coming off your tongue so um there's no real deep message with that thing. It's literally a nursery rhyme. And then the cool thing is Kim said to Steve Shelsky, play one of your crazy Humber jazz solos, because Steve was a Humber graduate. So smack in the middle of that song is a very atonal, weird guitar solo that is Donna Lee, which is a classic jazz song. And we popped it in the middle of that track and Kim loved it. People think Kim played the solo on it, but he didn't.

Well, right away, again, when I announced Andy Curran was coming on Toronto Mic, Canada Kev, who listens to every episode of Toronto Mic, is also a big fan of yours. And he wrote me right away and he said, after all these years hanging by the monkey bars, can Andy Curran tell us how many cars they counted? Well, that first night in wherever the hell we were on the East Coast there, I would say it was a pretty good count. I'm going to say we were upwards of 150 cars when we walked into a packed bar, but it got to the point, thank God, for the radio success and having a really good,

like those big tours that you just mentioned, Mike, you know, when you come back home after playing Maple Leaf Gardens twice in one year, all of a sudden your dates are all sold out. So there was no concern about counting cars after that. We didn't have to do that anymore. Sean Nadeau says, when he was, he goes, when I was growing up, all my friends were listening to Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Black Sabbath.

And I was the guy cranking out Coney Hatch, Santers. I actually don't know the band Santers. Three piece band, two brothers. Okay, Santor's and Gato. So he says he loves your solo work as well, which we're going to get to in a moment, particularly No Tattoos. We're going to talk about that.

Sean says he saw you guys in Niagara two years ago, but his big question is hockey related because you're talking to me now I'm speaking i'm a big toronto maple leaf fan as we should be and he wants to know what made you a black hawks fan okay this is where duncan can muscle in on the conversation too because hockey hockey is near and dear to both of our hearts i'm i told this to many people my my dream was to play in the NHL, like a ton of other Canadian boys and

girls, you know, and so I played hockey all the way through, right up into high school, I went to high school at De La Salle, and I played for the junior and senior hockey teams there. By the time I got to the senior leagues, the guys were getting really a lot bigger than me. I'm a skinny little frail guy. I was getting crunched and I was like, okay, this is not happening. I am not going to the show. I think rock and roll is going to, is going to be a better route for me to go. But, um, in growing up with a family of six, my four, there's four boys. We all sort of, my eldest brother was a Leafs fan. And if anybody's grown up in a big family, the last thing you're going to do is copy your brother. I'm like, no, he's a Leafs fan. I'm not choosing

the Leafs. I loved the Hawks uniform. I loved Tony Esposito and Bobby Hall and Stan Mikita. And so I instantly gravitated towards the Hawks and have stayed with them ever since. And my younger brother, Pete is a diehard Boston Bruins fan. My youngest brother, John, is a Leaf fan. So it was just kind of like, don't follow your brothers. But there was something about that Hawk uniform that drew me in. And living in Mississauga, a lot of our teams, like the Dixie Beehives, had the Blackhawks crest on there. So I think that had a lot to do with it, Mike.

Hey, Dunk, you're a Leafs fan, right? Sorry. No, Fred, I'm not. I'm a Ballard. I'm part of the Ballard years. So he kind of put me off a little. Dunk, you there? Yes. Okay. Sorry. You cut out for a minute. What's your team?

Well, I don't, I'm sorry. I've been playing hockey for 65 years. I don't really have a team anymore. Oh, okay. Well, you can jump on the bandwagon. We're going to beat the Habs in five. So you can, there's room for you. I would agree with you.

And I take a lot of chirping from people about being a Torontonian and liking the Blackhawks. I'll go on record as saying I'm fully rooting for the boys now that the Hawks aren't in the playoffs, and I think they're going to win in five. They're pretty exciting to watch right now with some of their, you know, Matthews and Marner and just some old guard in there. It reminds me of the Blackhawks, how they got some really, really great old school guys

like Joe Thornton and Tavares. You know, you need that combination of old and young guys to make a team really click. So I don't know. I've got my fingers crossed for the Leafs this year. It'd be amazing if they went all the way. Oh, I love what I'm hearing here. Not that he's from Toronto because he's from Edmonton,

but I just want to shout out Mo Berg, who's also a big Blackhawks fan. Yes. Mo and I were in touch on emails, and every time something sort of pivotal happens, like when Panarin got traded for a bag of pucks, we immediately were emailing each other going, that might arguably be one of the worst trades in hockey history, getting Andrew Sod back for letting Panarin go. So we, Mo Berg and I constantly go back and do a little Hawk talk.

Well, you had your run there, man. Three and how many years, like five years or something? I don't know. You got three cups in that run, right? Yeah. 2010, 13 and 15. I was at game five of all three of those series in Chicago and saw games at the, at the United center. It's quite an experience.

If you can ever get out there, it's the place is off the hook. Amazing. Like that Taves and Kane combo. Like I keep thinking maybe, maybe Matthews and Marner can kind of be the next, you know, Taves and Kane. Yeah. That's a good analogy. You need, I just think the Leafs really needed to get a lot deeper, and they are this year. So I'm surprised with the goaltending. I thought Freddie was going to be number one,

but it's nice to see Campbell shining right now. Yeah, and he seems so steady back there. I'm like, when did Soupy here become uh carrie price uh what's going on here but uh but that's okay duncan duncan's a hockey fan he doesn't necessarily follow a team right and um if you're old enough to remember the harold ballard days that is enough to to piss you off to never want to be see i was i remember it very well in fact i just recently put an episode of toronto mic debt which was just guests telling Harold Ballard stories. So like the Gord Stelix and the Rick vibes who have come on telling their

Harold Ballard story. So I remember it well, but I was too young to know better. Like it's all I knew. Like I just figured, Oh, it's just, this is, this dysfunction is normal. We just, this is how it is. And then now I look back and it's like, Holy shit. But all right. So go ahead. It should be noted that Andy may not be big enough to play in the NHL, but he does have a rising slap shot. So how do you guys know each other through hockey again?

Like, are you on the same team? No, we only played together once, but we've been, our connection is through the stomp and tom empire okay we'll get to that don't worry i've got a a section here devoted to the stomp and tom empire for sure uh let me just wrap up the coney hatch era here to say that uh jerry the garbage man he writes in coney hatch concert posters still stand at key to bala does he have any memories of this unique cottage country venue oh my god yeah key to bala does he have any memories of this unique cottage country venue oh my god yeah key to bala was one of my favorite spots um when i was growing up my parents used to

take us to uh this really cool resort called cleveland's house so i spent a lot of time up in muskoka but um i'd lost track of how many times we played key to ballad either as the as the headliner or the opening act but one of my fondest memories of playing the key to ballad was um we were the opening act for tim mitchell i went up early um because i think we were playing on a saturday night and i went up on the thursday and we went to a buddy's place that you could only get to by boat so we're partying and what you do in muskoka is you're out on jet skis all day and you're drinking all day and just, you know, total debauchery in the sun. And I'll never forget, we're out on this jet ski and I'm there with the guitar player in the band,

not Michael something, Simon. And one guy says to me, Hey, Andy, what time are you on tonight? And I said, I forget what it was. Let's call it 7 o'clock or 7.30, right? And he goes, you're never going to make it to the key. Like the roads, if you take the roads, you can't get there in time. You're going to miss your show. One guy says, get your bags. We're taking you there via jet ski.

Wow. So I think this was like very early cell phone days. My road manager's going, where the hell are you? The place is packed. And I'm like, I'm coming across Lake Joe, right. As we speak, right. We pull up on the jet ski. I have my stage clothes in a bag. I whip in like Superman right up to the dressing room, get the stage clothes on, hand the guitar on stage. First time I've ever gone to a gig on a jet ski, but I love that spot. What a story. I love it. I love it. Paul. So that's, that's, that's,

of course, key to Bala, of course. And Paul says, the great thing about Knob Hill Hotel, just to go back to the Knob Hill there, Knob Hill Hotel was if you went early to drink and see strippers, they didn't make you pay cover to stay and watch the band. So there was a pro tip from Paul. Wow. Yeah, that sounds about right. Because, yeah, if you just stayed there and don't get kicked out, that's interesting.

Where do you think, Andy, where do you think Coney Hatch uh stands amongst canadian bands as far as legacy goes like from where from your perspective here in 2021 you know um it's funny it's hard to to answer that question because i'm in it you know without sounding arrogant or maybe not even respecting what we've accomplished but um i remember being with ray daniels once and ray um introduced me as um as the bass player from coney hatch and we were what did he he basically said that we were like this underground band that had this legacy of he called us a cult band like a classic hard rock cult band. And I don't think

our sales, like we had one gold record off the, off the first record. Um, the other ones came close or probably, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if they're getting close to being gold at 50,000 right now, but we never really had enough commercial success that I could tell you that we're in the upper tier, but we certainly had a great cult following. And, um, I would say if I was going to be respectful to, to my band members, we were middle of the pack. How's that? It's a fair assessment. It is tough to assess yourself when you're in the band. So that was kind of a loaded question.

Yeah. Uh, not, not quite headline material, but we could headline a 1500 seater you know in our prime and you mentioned the cult really what that means is you may not have uh it may not be a large number but the followers you have are loyalists like they love you passionately and they'll follow you anywhere like eddie trunk eddie trunk is a classic example of that like the guy's you know best friends with the biggest fans in the world he has you know alice cooper on one day and metallica the next day and here he is dropping coney hatch's name and they're like coney who these guys are like who are you talking about

so dunk what year approximately is it where you hook up with andy uh to help with the Stompin' Tom legacy? It must be 2015, 2016, somewhere in there. Okay, that recently. Okay, so what I'm going to do here is I'm going to ask you a question I asked, and I just asked this yesterday, of Art Bergman. So he was my guest yesterday. It's a question that the listeners know why I'm asking it because uh i'm obsessed with lately i've become obsessed with uh tears are not enough the 1985 charity single and sort of the like who got

invited who was snubbed and all this uh did you get invited to participate in tears are not enough no i did not the closest i came was there was a band from west called kick axe and they invited me to sing on with a little help from my friends and they called in lear and and you know the guys from brighton rock and toronto and hollywoods and um that's the closest that I got, which is not even close at all. So Bruce, Bruce Allen, wasn't ringing you up and going, uh, Andy, we need you. We need you in the studio. Uh, no, sir. I was, I was definitely, maybe not even on the farm team at that, at that point. I got to ask the questions. I got to ask the questions. Uh, so why,

what is the official line here? Why did Coney Hatch break up? Okay. There was, there's, there's an interesting story that I could tell you. Well, the last record was called Friction and it was aptly titled because we had changed our original drummer. And as Duncan could probably tell you, when you start messing with the mojo of a band, especially original members, it starts to go, it starts to steer off track. Sadly, much against my better judgment, we decided to go with another producer, not Kim Mitchell, for our second and third records.

He deserved to be the producer and we should have stuck with him. So the sound of the band started drifting very much from my original vision of it. I wasn't happy. The label was telling us that we needed to have one lead singer, not two. So I stepped back and by the time Friction came around, I was just the vocalist on one record. And we were not getting along on the road. We were just like, there was a lot of literally fistfights with the band. Tension was running high. Our U.S. record label dropped us in the middle of the tour.

And that was an interesting story because Ted Mellencamp, the brother of John Cougar Mellencamp, worked at the label, took us out for dinner. At the end of dinner, he said, well, guys, I should get you back to the hotel. You got a show tomorrow, but I'm really sad to hear about what happened at the label and you guys getting dropped. And nobody had told us that. He just laid the bomb on us at a dinner, right? And we're like, what? What are you talking about? He said, oh, you didn't know? Oh, yeah, I guess, you know, things weren't really happening and labels decide to drop you. So the wind was coming out of our sails.

We weren't getting along. The dynamics of the band was changing. We lost our record deal in the U.S. So Carl announced that he was unhappy, and he wanted to leave, and nobody stopped him. Okay, but you kind of don't miss a beat here. Well, you'll tell me, I guess, but you go solo. So tell me, maybe timeline-wise,

I'm about to play No Tattoos. I've got some questions about No Tattoos. But what's the timeline-wise, from the time you break up with Coney Hatch to the time you're putting together your eponymously titled solo album? Yes, I know, that's a mouthful, Mike. I get you nicely said.

Okay, so I'm going to say by the end of Coney Hatch, we're talking about 86, early 87. Okay. Steve and I tried to keep the stitches on the band and tried a couple lead vocalists, notably Kevin Labrie, who sings in Dream Theater. He was from Midland, Ontario, and we brought him in. And the management hated him, said, this is a horrible lineup. You need to find another singer.

So we recruited my dear friend Phil Narrow, who sadly passed away a couple weeks ago from the band Talus. I thought that was a good lineup. The management hated it. So I turned to Steve and I said, here's the deal, Steve. I'm done with Coney Hatch. You can come on the ride with me. I'm putting together a new band. And he said, I got to think about that. He ended up getting an offer from Larry Gowan. He went and played with Larry Gowan. So yours truly was standing all alone. And I called up a couple of old buds and said, let's get into the studio. Did another five song demo, this time financed by myself, not my father, and brought it over to Tom Berry at Alert Records who had released Kim Mitchell. He was the original A&R guy. And Duncan knows this too. It's crazy. Rarely the very first time you play your demos for somebody, do you get signed right away? The very first guy I brought it to, Tom Berry said, I'm in. So lightning struck again for me multiple times in my career. I've had lightning strike. So that would have been 90, 1990 in and around.

Okay. Let's hear some no tattoos. And then I got more questions for you. Here we go. It's a thrill of a lifetime It's like a dream come true. I'm going downtown. I'm going to get a tattoo. And when I fly my colors, it's a rose and a snake. The man said, shit, bellboy, you got a long, long wait. No one ever told me, and no one even tried. And when my mama found out, she broke down and cried.

No tattoos gotta stay cool. found out she broke down and cried no tattoos gotta stay cool my mama never raised no fool devil's own ink under my skin and my mama told me that's where it all began

I dig it man listen to those words kid the devil's own ink under my skin I dig it, man. Listen to those words, kid. The devil's own ink under my skin. Listen, my parents were not happy when I started talking about tattoos. And, you know, growing up as a Roman Catholic and, you know, my parents were fairly religious. It was not a good topic to talk about tattoos. Scarred for life. These were things my parents said fairly religious. It was not a good topic to talk about tattoos. Scarred for life. These were things my parents said to me.

A lot of my lyrics are inspired by stuff I go through day to day. So Mike Mona is a listener of this program. He writes me and says, I still love and listen to the No Tattoos album. One of the best Canadian all killer, no filler, hard rock albums ever released. Every song is a banger. He's using a lot of exclamation marks, too. Let Go with Dalbello and her guest vocal.

I don't know if maybe I didn't catch the rest of that. But bottom line is he loves it. Dalbello loved her. She's great, too, Lisa Dalbello. That's quite the compliment. I thank your too. Lisa Delbello. So yeah, that's, uh, that's quite the compliment. I thank your listener for that. No filler. Listen, that's kind of like the first time ever I got to call the shots and I thought, um, all right, like, you know, I'm going to look in the mirror. The only guy responsible with this thing doesn't go well is I'm looking at them. The label gave me sort of full carte blanche

to write and record where I wanted to, to work with who I wanted to. The drummer on that record is my great pal, Glenn Milcham, who ended up playing drums in Blue Rodeo. He's a really talented drummer. I think Duncan probably knows him. He's such a versatile drummer. But again, we talk about being fortunate

and being in the right place at the right time. So that year, 13 or 18 months on the road, a lot of airplay with much music, a lot of really good radio play and got two Juno Award nominations and went home with one of them. So that was a nice kind of shot in the arm to go. I was the same guy that was asked to take a backseat in Coney Hatch

and then got to go front and center with this project and then earned a couple Juno Awards. So it gave me a lot of confidence to go, I can do this on my own. And that's dumb anyways. A lot of great bands have more than one lead singer. I mean, that was a dumb decision, you know? Like, I'm thinking of Cars or whatever. Like, there's a lot of examples of bands that have a couple of guys who take lead. Yeah, go see Duncan's band. They got a bunch of great lead vocalists in that band. Duncan's band, yes, and this little band known as The Beatles as well.

Yeah, they're not too shabby. They're not too shabby, those guys. But I got a question about your Junos, or at least the nominations. So one of the nominations was Most Promising Male Vocalist. Doesn't that go to like a newcomer? I remember thinking that too, going, well, wait a sec, did anybody know that I would have been in Coney Hatch for like five years here?

Or maybe is it, okay, now he's ready for prime time now but art bergman i think he won this award at some point in the 90s like or something when you know it his band was was kicking ass punk punk in the punk scene in the late 70s like i know it is a strange one and um ironically another funny story is that that award was in Vancouver. And after the after party, Ray Daniels, my previous manager, Coney Hatch, came up to me and he said, congratulations for winning the Kiss of Death. I was like, what a fun sucker you are. What do you mean?

He goes, don't you know, dude, anybody wins that is jinxed. This is really bad. So the next week I lose my record deal oh my gosh with anthem with alert records they were like hey we can't sorry we can't do another record with you so ray wasn't too far off i won a junior award and less than less than a couple weeks later i was out a record deal but um i thought that was funny of ray he's he's definitely a sarcastic pal of mine but i was like that that's not what you say to someone after they win a Juno award. Where is your Juno right now?

Like, where is it physically? Right in my recording studio, right beside mine. Look at that, baby. There you go. Wow. Hey, Dunk, how come you don't have one of those? What's going on? I'm not as good as Andy, I'll tell you.

He's the real deal. This is the real deal. But it's right beside another favorite thing of mine, which is my Jesus pencil holder. It's Buddy Christ, I think. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.

Yeah, come on. It's hard to shake. I was raised Catholic. It took a long time to shake it off. You know, it gets in deep, so it's tough. But so you, so this is when you, uh, when Soho 69, uh, it becomes your new band after this, right? Yeah. And, and to be, to be really, um, candid with you, I was never comfortable with that record being called Andy Kern. I had a,

I had a laundry list of band names. I, I, uh, and the record company was like, no, no, no, it's the Andy Kern. This is you, this is you, this is you. The no tattoos album. Yeah. And, and, um, I, I just, I don't know, Duncan, Duncan knows me well enough to know that I'm, I'm a band guy. I don't operate that way. I don't go, okay, look at me now, you know, it's just's so anyway i reluctantly went along with that but the minute i got to change it the next record i called it soho

69 um got some pushback and they said no no we'll let you call it andy curran and so 69 but i was always i'm a i'm a hockey guy i'm a team guy i'm a player guy i don, I don't see myself as a solo. I like being around a team. You're a Canadian. Yes. Yeah. Hey, on Facebook, Paul's asking, were you a part of the Juno, the Juno's 50? I wasn't, I got snubbed from the Juno cup. I was, I've never been invited to skate with those guys. I guess I have to, I guess I got to send an envelope to Jim Cuddy or something.

But I was told that, you know, no, you have to have won a Juno or I forget what criteria they gave us. But I jokingly said to Duncan when he had asked me if I'd ever played in the Juno Cup, I told him about the story. But we joked that Jim Cuddy had let Barney Bentall play on the team. So it's kind of like, Hey, well, what am I chopped liver? Barney's on the team. How come I can't be on the team? But no, I was not part of the Juno 50. What I was part of down at the horseshoe, which was a lot of fun. Coney hatch played a couple of songs, but I also,

the band that I assembled got to back up rick emmett and we played a bunch of triumph songs down at the horseshoe as part of a juno celebration one year that's very very cool uh barney bento's son is a hell of a hell of a musician dustin i think his name is dustin bento yeah i i've never met barney and um i'd like to congratulate him for being on the juno cup team many years in a row and taking my spot. Fun fact is that Barney Bentle, pre-COVID, you had to actually visit me

to get on Toronto Mic'd. Wow. I know. So I missed out on lots of the people like Bergman who are in rural Alberta or whatever. pre-COVID, you couldn't zoom into this show and I even made Banjo Dunk come into my basement when he came over. But where am I so pre COVID you couldn't zoom into this show. And, uh, I even made Banjo Dunk come into my basement when he came over. So,

but where am I going with this? Oh yeah. Barney Benton was locked and loaded, booked. Like I had, he was coming at 2 PM and he was going to come do thing here. And it was like, uh,

the last second, uh, his publicist sent me a note saying Barney can't make it. And then, uh, and he disappeared. He went out West and it never happened. So I did all my homework and all my research for the Barney Bentle episode

that never happened. There's my story. You got to keep that one in the, in your back pocket. And then you got to have guys like Duncan on speed dial because there was, there was a, there was a period there where John Derringer and Steve Warden had me on speed dial. Whenever anybody on Q10 a seven rock report didn't show up, they'd be like, let's call current. He's at home. We can get them to talk about rock and roll. Right.

Shout out to the rock report. I used to listen. But listen, Art Bergman, I, if I recall one of his records, I think it's called what fresh hell is this? Yeah. So my friend, Chris Wardman, who was the guitar player in blue peter produced that record right yeah and oh wait no i don't well you made did he i thought he he did the one with uh he did an earlier one the one after john kale like the second or maybe right yeah because i just had chris wardman on the show so it's all fresh in my head but and and i loved what what chris did with um with art burman and also with Sons of Freedom. So Chris Wardman produced the Soho 69 record, which is definitely an angry sounding record.

That's amazing because he also, the very first band I ever saw live was Chalk Circle and Chris Wardman produced the Chalk Circle album. He's a super talented dude and very, very funny. And we had a lot of good times in the studio. That was a short-lived chapter with Hypnotic Records. My label mate was Gordie Johnson of Big Sugar fame. And later on, my dearly departed pal, Dan Gallagher, and I co-wrote a song for Gordie called Digging a Hole. That's a great jam. And I had no idea. So Dan Gallagher is a

co-writer of that song? Is that what I'm hearing? Yes. Dan from Much Music VJ. Test Pattern. Test Pattern. Are you kidding me? And he used to do the, he was the, I think he was the Skydome PA announcer for Argo's games for a while. Yes, he was. And Dan and I hit it off when he had me in on the Power Hour. And then we became fast friends and he said, hey, let's put a band together. Duncan, you'll love this story. He said, let's do a bunch of cover, cover songs. And I said, well, Dan, it's kind of a tough to get gigs, you know, like to, as a cover band. And I really didn't want to start all over again at this point, you know? So he goes, Oh, we don't have to worry about that. My mom is hooked up in Collingwood at the Mountain View. She runs the restaurant there and I can get us a gig anytime we want at the Mountain View Hotel.

So we played about 10 gigs as Dan Gallagher's Beat Heathens at the Mountain View Inn. We did a bunch of covers like Van Morrison and Get Ready and Wild Thing and stuff like that. It was a party band. It was so much fun. Dan was the lead vocalist, and he turns to me one day. He goes, dude, we got to cut a record. I go, Dan, we're playing cover material. What do you mean you want to cover a record? He goes, I know, you better start writing some songs, Kern. So he hounded me for quite some time. And eventually I said, okay, come on over, Dan, I got some music for you. He came over, I handed him a CD, off he went, wrote some lyrics to it,

called me back, said, I have a song called Digging a Hole. off he went, wrote some lyrics to it, called me back, said I have a song called Digging a Hole. And he played it to me. Gordy added some, that guitar riff at the end of it, you know, da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. Sure. So yeah, that's a three-way ride with Dan Gallagher, myself, and Gordy Johnson.

That's, you're blowing my mind with that right now. Like, I had no idea. First of all, I love Dan Gallagher, gone way way too soon and he just seemed like uh i met him once like he was literally walking on my street and it was like a hey love your stuff kind of interaction there but he was just seemed like a very like cool cat like i just always he was a lovable huggable big bear of a man not a bad bone in his body and had so much charisma. And Duncan, he would agree with this. As a front man and a vocalist, what he lacked in musicianship,

he excelled in stage presence and command. He could command an audience. And we would joke and he would come off stage and go, Drew, I had them in the palm of my hand. Oh, wow. Okay. So we're almost at the, actually, I'm almost ready to tag in Banjo Dunk to take a segment here. Almost.

So here's, Andy, this is your choice. Okay. So, of course, we talked about Soho 69. I have Kiss My Boots. But then I was also doing my homework and I start reading about Caramel. And I'm like, what's this song? This song, Lucy. Which one would you like me to play before I pass the baton to Banjo-Dunk? You know what? I think I would love you to play a little bit of Lucy because I'm going to kick it old school and tell you guys that the lyrical inspiration

for Lucy was Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. Sure. Of course. So there you go. And that record that was arguably the biggest deal of my life, I got signed to Geffen Worldwide on that one. And that was another like, OK, here comes that lightning again. Looks like it just hit me in the head i just got another record deal and is it fair to say because i'm going to play the jam and it's a great jam and i see okay it had a lot of radio success like it's a top 10 radio hit in the states but i don't like here i am from toronto ontario canada i don't remember this band like was it just that they had more success in the states than in canada yes, we did. You're absolutely right. We played a lot in the U S but we did a small tour with the Connell line crush and stabbing Westward in Canada.

So save your soul. I remember that you have done is to save your soul or whatever. Yeah. So we only had one little short stint in, in Canada, but we played with Creed and brother Kane. Creed was massive. I mean,

we can joke all we want, but they were huge. Yes. And Econoline Crush, of course, named after a Neil Young lyric. Oh, I did not know that, but they're awesome guys, awesome boys from Vancouver. Okay, so before I pass the banjo to Dunk, I'm going to play some of this Lucy. So this is a treat for everybody.

Can't believe you're involved with this jam. Here we go. Thank you. Any place is better than this. Any time is a good time for a kiss. Any place is better than this Thanks for nothing Anyone but you in my face Anywhere but here Anywhere but this place

Lucy, can you? Lucy, can you? Lucy, where you? Lucy, can you? Lucy, why you kick me when I'm down? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Feeling one could be Some old rock. And the bass line was inspired by

Sonny and Cher, The Beat Goes On. Wow. Oh, man, I love it. Okay, fantastic. So, this is like, I guess we're talking early, like, mid-90s? Where are we at this point? Yeah, we're probably around 99 now. Okay, late 90s.

Okay. So, Banjo-Dunk, you with us, buddy? I'm here. I'm here, Mike. Okay. Take over for a moment. This is like when someone has to go get a drink in the backstage or whatever, and then the band just plays Evenflow for the next 10 minutes or whatever. First of all, I'll say that the Canadian music establishment

is probably not unlike many businesses, but there's its layer. There's so many so many different layers all the way from the kid in the basement learning to play the guitar to the big shot in New York City. It runs everything. And I haven't met I don't think I've met anybody else in the music business who's comfortable on in every room. I don't care if it's the executive room or in the dressing room or in the, in the, in the recording studio, whatever. Andy has that way of being able to kind of just blend in and communicate. He sees everybody, he speaks to them, makes them feel important. So I'm pleased that I, I'm, I can call Andy a friend on that level. And I've learned so much from him. I just wish I had met him. It's 45 years ago when I started this crazy game. So having said that, that explains, I think,

to a great extent why Andy is so comfortable in the home of Stompin' Tom Connors. Tom Jr. and Lena made a very lovely comment on Facebook when I said of you, Andy. That's a pretty special thing where you can be that comfortable in, you know, on that level. And if I can just add, there must be a book there, Andy. I've heard you speak. You have a beautiful language. You've got a very colorful, your metaphors are very colorful. There's got to be a book there somewhere.

So I'll just throw that out there. Dude, that's super kind of you to say that. And I, and, and, you know, having met Duncan right around the time when, when I was involved with the Stomp and Tom camp, his, his advice and his insight and his knowledge was invaluable to me because, you know, a very different path that I was on. Certainly, I was aware of Tom and the legacy. But just having Duncan be able to sort of tell me how I should navigate the politics with the family and what was important to Tom, what was important to Tom Jr. and his widow, Lena. Duncan, you were a great help because I kind of went into that with my fingers crossed, knowing that Tom Jr. was going to be a tough guy to win over because he was looking over his dad's

legacy. And that's not something to be taken lightly especially how loved Tom was in this country right I'm talking about Tom senior right um but uh I you know it it's interesting because my my I guess my compass and my where I set the bar in dealing with everybody, especially in the music community is I have to treat this like this is my project. So whether I'm talking to Duncan about his project or I'm talking to Tom Jr., I treat it with the same respect as if I was going to be making my own record. And I think I have a good compass when it comes to that, to know what's important to musicians, because if it doesn't feel right for me I'm not going to suggest that Duncan does that with it with his band Whiskey Jack it's just not right so that very much is sort of the the level in the playing bar

for me but those are kind words Duncan thanks buddy we had some fun working with Tom in the Stompin' Tom camp. Can you describe how the introduction was made, how you came to be connected with the Stompin' Tom Limited? Yes, absolutely, I can. So, Mike, I had told you that I'd sort of transitioned to the dark side, the industry side. The musicians call it the dark side. But I feel pretty fortunate that I was still able to stay in the music business. I had two young daughters at the time when I decided that I should probably get off the road and not spend so much time out there. And there's more important people in the world than me and my music career.

And I wanted to make sure my girls had a real good upbringing and that they had a dad that would be around. So I took the job with Ray Daniels and worked with Rush and SRO management and Anthem Records for approximately 14 or 15 years. And when Robert Ott at Olay bought the Rush catalog, I was brought over as the GM and label manager on that. And one of my very first phone meetings that I had with the CEO, Robert Ott, he said to me, Andy, we need to build

up this label. We need some more iconic Canadian artists. And I said, what are you thinking? Like, are you thinking rock bands? Are you thinking Leona Boyd? What are you thinking? And I just threw out some names because I said there's so many iconic Canadians. And so Burton Cummings was on the list. Can we see what Burton is up to? And I'm a big fan of the Guess Who? And I just threw out on a whim. I said, were you a Stompin' Tom fan?? And he goes, Oh my God, who isn't? That was his reply. And I said, well, I have it on good authority that that deal might be coming up for renewal. Would you like me to reach out and see if there's any interest there? And when I called Tom Jr., it was a flat out no, right out of the gate. No, no, everything's fine.

And I think I remember calling Duncan and telling him, well, that was a quick no. And he said, don't give up, Andy. Don't give up. You know, I think you need to, I think as a hockey guy, Tom would relate to you. Why don't you go break bread with him? Talk hockey with him, you know? And I think getting Tom Jr.'s confidence or letting him get a feel for the type of guy that I am, that I would look over with kid gloves, I would take care of that catalog.

I think that was a big turning point. We met in Roncesvalles at a diner. And I think we spent more time talking about hockey. And next thing you know, he said, I would consider talking to you, Andy. You seem like a good guy. you seem like, you know, and and so I really played the card that I'm going to look after your father's legacy. And I won't let the evil record companies mess with your father's legacy. And I think that was a big thing, Duncan, that might have got us in into the game on there. And then the rest was Robert, Robert put together a really good deal that Tom liked. And one of the interesting things that I was pleased that

Tom and Lena were open to is Robert Ott said to me, you know, Stompen's Tom's, he's kind of got that balladeer old school, could be country, could be folk, you know, he's got an older demographic, we need a bit of a freshen up on that. And maybe you could convince Tom and Lena that maybe we can freshen up the album graphics or give his father an iconic look, but fresh look. And he goes, Andy, go, go. And he just sent me down a rabbit hole on that one. And because we're talking hockey and the Leafs, me down a rabbit hole on that one. And because we're talking hockey and the Leafs, I was downtown on Queen Street and I saw a t-shirt of Austin Matthews and underneath it, I think it might have said savior underneath it. It was just a pixelated, very much like, I don't know, I want to say an Andy Warhol thing. And there was a picture of, of, of Austin Matthews face with savior under

it. And I was like, Oh my God, that's what we got to do with Tom. We got to put Tom's mug front and center. We got to posterize it. We got to make it look cool. And it immediately resonated with Lena and Tom jr. And I think there were just little things like that where they're gone. Okay. This team's going to add something to it. But I was on pins and needles, like dealing with Tom Jr. because he's a tough character to negotiate with. Wow. Awesome. Your pals, you know. Yeah.

The old man was a loyal, if you were his buddy, you were his buddy, close buddy. And Tom Jr. is evenly exactly the same. You're part of the inner circle. You're part of the family. So congratulations on doing that. Thank you. And they had very kind things to say about Duncan. I would say, hey, are you cool if I call Duncan and talk to him?

You know, he's definitely got a lot more more experience and they'd be like, absolutely. He knows his stuff, you know, Duncan's part of the family. So, um, I just, you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Just try to try to work with the team that you have there. And, uh, I had a lot of fun working with Tom jr. Drinking came up a lot of times. He would, he would say to me what you're after two beers, he'd be like, you done? And I'm like, yeah. And he goes, oh, man. My old man would not be happy right now. Did you play hockey with him, Andy?

I eventually got on the ice with Tom Jr. and played about four or five games with him. And for a big guy, he moves pretty fast. Peter Mohavlich. That's what he moves pretty fast. Peter Mohavlich. That's what he reminds me of. Yes, you're right. You're right. And I think he was, he kept saying to me,

oh, Curran, you talk a big game about playing hockey. I'm going to see if, you know, and he invited me out a couple of times. We've had four or five skates under our belt and I enjoyed it. He's a big lumbering and not easy to move off the puck, that boy. Love it. Hey, Dunk, I brought out my copy. You signed this copy of my good times with Stomp and Tom. I've got one too. Can people still get it? If somebody wants a copy of this by Dunk and Fremlin, should they reach out to you directly?

by Duncan Fremlin. Should they reach out to you directly? Self-published, almost sold out. I've sold over a thousand. Wow. I'm very pleased and proud of that. But I do have, I'm on my last box. I have a very few left.

So yes, they can get a hold of me, whiskeyjackmusic.com. Whiskeyjackmusic.com to get a hold of Banjo Dunk and buy a copy of this fantastic book. I want to thank, in addition, I want to thank just a few more partners real quick here. I want to thank StickerU.com for their years of support, helping to fuel the real talk. Go to StickerU.com to order all your, that's where you get your Stompin' Tom stickers. I can see those stickers. Just plaster the city with Tom's face.

I want to thank Ridley Funeral Home. They're our local funeral home here in New Toronto and just family run business and just the greatest people and shout out to FOTM Brad Jones there. So thank you for your support, Ridley Funeral Home and Palma Pasta. If you're looking for authentic Italian food, go to palmapasta.com. Another family run operation, just like Great Lakes Brewery. I love these family-run operations, and they just do great work. And last but not least, if you're looking to buy and or sell

in the next six months, I urge you to have a conversation with Mimico Mike, even if you're not looking to move to Mimico, although that's where all the cool people are moving to. But Mike Majeski, it's realestatelove.ca. Reach out to Mike, let him know Toronto Mike sent you. He'll take care of you. He was in my backyard a couple of weeks ago, kicking out the jams. He's a, he's a good man. So awesome. Now the big question, before I get to status, I need a status on Coney Hatch. Like before I get there,

what's going on with you and the elma combo is there something going on with you andy and the elma combo yeah there there is and there has been uh quite the love in for the last uh two or three years my kid brother john um worked down on bay street and and uh was friends with michael weckerly and mike for those of the listeners that don't know michael bought the elma combo and was responsible for renovating it. And after he bought it, Michael called me and asked me if I might be able to help him with the club and put together a team to help with the renovations and introduce them to people like Live Nation and get the sound and the lighting and all that kind of stuff. So the years that I spent in the business, I was able to connect him with a bunch of great people.

And anybody who hasn't seen what the El Macombo looks like, go to elmacombo.com and just spend some time on the website because what Michael has done with that venue is unbelievable. Pre-COVID, we actually baked in a live streaming format because we thought it might be interesting. We had some artists coming in for two and three nights and said, hey, would you want to live stream one night? And they were like, well, maybe we'll think of it. Well, fast forward now. And they were ready there. And, you know, they've got five 4K cameras down there. They've got a,

we worked with Randy Lennox when Randy was over at Bell and we put in a 10 gigabyte dual core fiber optic hard line cable into the back of the Alma combo. So you can stream in and out of the Alma combo. There isn't a venue in the city that is pimped out like the Alma combo technology. Right. So, um So anyway, and then at one point, Michael said, I'd like to start a record label. And I would say, I don't know if it's such a good idea to start a record label in 2000, whenever it was 2017 or something, right? And he said, No, I've already signed my first band. I said, Wait a second. So you want to start a label, but you've already signed your first band. How did that happen? And who is it? 54 40. He says I've signed 54. I said, well, that is a great signing.

That is a great Canadian band and not too shabby out of the gate. So I talked to the fine folks over at universal. We have distribution through universal. We just signed Kim Mitchell, Kim Mitchell's new album. The big fantasize is out on, on El Macombo records. So I'm helpingael with this very small boutique record company called el macombo records i love it and um and then fast forward to this coney hatch live record because i'm working with him he's like when is coney hatch coming in

i said michael focus on a big band that's going to sell some tickets. Forget about Coney Hatch. We can play there anytime. That means the Rolling Stones when you say that. Right. I go, let's get the Rolling Stones back. Let's give a pitch to U2. Let's get the Foo Fighters here. He's like, no, Coney Hatch has got to come back in. So he convinced us over COVID to come in. We did a live stream on nugs.net. convinced us over COVID to come in. We did a live stream on nugs.net. We took that audio and we pressed 300 bootleg style with a rubber stamp on the front that says Coney Hatch live at the El Macombo. And so there's a bit of a love in. I'm working with Michael, but Coney Hatch also played there and we had played there in 1983. So there was a nice return to that club. I love everything I'm hearing here.

And you're dropping the names of a lot of FOTMs. Neil Osborne's been on, Kim Mitchell's been on. And Michael Weckerle has not been on, but his mom taught at my high school. Sadly, she's passed away, but I went to Michael Power and she was a teacher there at the time. Yeah, was she either the French or the German teacher? I can't remember.

I never had, German or Latin, I can't remember. Yeah, I never had German or Latin. I can't remember. I guess it was German now that you mention it. But he is he's so passionate about that club and getting it back up into its former glory. Carla Collins, who I speak to often, she did some comedy there during the year. She did. Gordon Lightfoot did a live stream from there. We had Big Wreck do a live stream.

There's been a couple of things going on, but now with this sort of lockdown, Mike's got to wait to get out of this sort of freeze zone that we're in, but keep your eye on the Elmo because it's just, you can't keep a good man down. That venue is going to be ripping once the closures start. Just one beef, Andy. It can't all be good, okay?

But just before COVID, when there was that media be good. Okay. But when, uh, just before COVID when there was that media invitation to go check out the new Elma combo, I was checking my inbox, just refreshing my inbox. I didn't see that invitation come into my Toronto Mike's inbox. So. Okay. That's my bad. It wasn't until Duncan introduced me and told me who you were. He said, you know, Duncan goes, you should, you should go on open mic tonight. And I was like, I don't know that. He goes, what rock are you living under? You don't know this guy. So I thank Duncan for introducing.

Remember Duncan knows about me because he was in the hockey dressing room with Tyler Stewart of the bare naked ladies. And I think I got this right, Dunk. But I think Dunk asked Tyler, what's his favorite podcast? And Tyler Stewart said, Toronto Mike. So the rest is history. Listen, maybe there's going to be a second grand opening, Mike, and then you'll get on the list there. I'll make sure that their publicist, Charlotte Thompson knows about it. Go ahead, Dunk. And Dunk wants to be there too. Look, you can't just invite Alan Cross, okay? It's wants to be there too look i can't you can't just invite alan cross okay it's gotta be

message loud and clear mike okay okay so the final uh question uh actually you know what i forgot a question so i'm gonna i feel bad so i'm just gonna bring this up now mike mitchell says he could listen to andy and carl's stories from the Hatch days for hours. Dixon wrote a book that I've enjoyed. He'd love to hear Andy Curran's stories around old Mississauga and Ontario pizza store days. So maybe close with that and then let us know if there's any plans when things open up. Are there any plans for Coney Hatch to hit the road and play live again yeah there there are um much like a ton of other bands and i'm sure duncan's band is included on that we had

some shows um uh booked we had a couple shows in buffalo one of them with kim mitchell we had some shows in belgium and um in germany where there's been some renewed interest in Coney hatch overseas. So, um, once next year, essentially what all the promoters are doing now, they're saying if we booked you in September of this year, it's September of next year. So a lot of our dates have been just pushed back one year. Um, so yeah, the plans for Coney to play some shows we're weekend warriors though. We do six to 12 shows a year is a big

year for us mike um there's just everybody's got other stuff going on um and then and then both you guys asked me about the book i jokingly said to getty lee because i obviously worked with getty i'm not just dropping his name but when getty put out the big book of bass, it's filled with like, you know, 300 beautiful bass guitars and stories and beautiful pictures. And I jokingly said to one of my friends, I could do Andy Kern's little book of basses. I've got 20 basses and 20 guitars and do stories on that. And maybe I'll tie in Mississauga and Ontario pizza and my pizza delivery days back then on how I actually gathered up all my little peanuts to buy my first. What store though? What's the name of the pizza joint you were? Ontario Pizza. We were the only pizza place in Mississauga with a square party size pizza.

And that was one of my first jobs as a was i was um supporting a uh musician habit of buying bass amps and guitars and whatever i could get my hands on do you know what happened to ontario pizza because i don't know that name yeah um i think it closed down their rival marconi pizza was just too much for them to handle and but i haven't had a lot of good times serving up pizza, driving, you know, making a lot of money in tips and spending it all on music. Amazing. Banjo Donk, I want to say thank you sincerely for helping me co-host this episode. You were fantastic as always. Thank you, Mike. A pleasure to be here. And we'll do it again. I think you've earned yourself another opportunity. So we'll do it again. As the co-host. I thought he was quite diplomatic. I thought he

was going to muscle in on your territory, but he was very respectful and picked his moments to come in. Because he didn't spend the time to set up the good microphone where it would be seamless back and forth because he decided he'd save himself 30 seconds so now he can't just interrupt me like that so that's that's what that's what happened there no it's been a pleasure mike i thank you uh for you know we've been talking about this for a long time and and a lot of the guys that you have had guys and girls that you've had on your show um i'm in good company i saw you had ken tizzard on yeah just last week yeah um and obviously, I don't know Art, but I've got a lot of respect for him. And that's cool that you had Neil on. I'm happy to

say that. What did you call me? Friends? FOTM. You are an FOTM. And again, you kind of got ahead of me there. But I want to thank you, man. This was awesome. You gave me an hour 40 minutes. I got to pester you of all these annoying questions and it was awesome. So thanks so much for that. No, my pleasure. And I'm going to plug Duncan's book. It's a really, really good read. Anybody that wants to hear the trials and tribulations of Stompin' Tom, that's a great place to start.

And that brings us to the end of our 857th show you can follow me on twitter I'm at Toronto Mike Banjo Dunk how can we follow you on twitter Banjo Dunk at Banjo Dunk and Andy what's your twitter

handle I knew it and then I forgot to write it down do you know it it's pretty boring. Andy Kern official. Okay, because there's another one that I think is lurking out there that people think is you and that's not you. It might be Andy C60. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, there's a few of them on there.

My daughter's helping me wrangle my social media, so I think she might have changed it recently to Andy Kern official. That might be the Instagram one. Okay, but you have a great website regardless where you can read the bio and find out more. Yes, andykurranmusic.com. That's the place to go. And the Coney Hatch website's pretty cool. There's some good stuff on there too.

Awesome. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. And Mimical Mike, he's not on Twitter. He's on Instagram at Majeski Group Homes. See you all next week.

This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.