Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Bob Roper: Toronto Mike'd #1452

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

In this 1452nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Bob Roper about being Supertramp's tour manager, helping to break Rush in Cleveland, signing such acts as Blue Rodeo, Van Halen's rider, working with Gowan, Rik Emmett, Sharon Lois and Bram, Molly Johnson, Frozen Ghost and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1452 of Toronto Miked, 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. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees. From Palma Pasta, in Mississauga and Oakville. The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, the best baseball in the city, outside the dome, with 8 championships since 1967. Recycle by Electronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling

our electronics of the past. The Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed and focused on long-term success. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto mic debut is Bob Roper. Welcome, Bob. Thank you very much. Nice to meet you. We haven't really talked because I wanted to do it all on the recording, but I have heard from several people who know you when they learned you were coming on that they're super excited They all sent in notes and questions. I even have a recording for you all play in a moment, but I hear good things

So no pressure The bar is high for Bob Roper As high as you want. How nervous are you right now? I wake on your drive here where you thinking oh my Toronto make debut, this is the big leagues, what am I going to do? Well, I've been, for years, people have said to me, you got to write a book, you got a lot of stories. And I would know.

And I've also done, this is my first podcast. Really? I'm honoured. First ever. So it's, yeah, it's a little apprehensive, shall we say. So what was your hesitation? Like for here to be very specific, I'll even drop names here. I like to drop the names. On Friday, Blair Packham was here. Okay. I'm having lunch with him next Friday. Okay, having lunch with him next. But he told me a story

about how he had previously talked to you and suggested, I hope I can say other words properly, but suggested that you come on Toronto Mike and you were hesitant then, right? So this is like what changed between the Blair Packham pitch and the Rob Pruse pitch? Rob is taking credit for this and he deserves it, good guy, but talk about Blair Packham, talk about Rob Pruse and talk about your hesitancy to do something like this. Both those guys I've known forever I guess. When I was doing A&R at Warner in Canada and we talked with both of them potentially about signing because I'd known Rob since the days of Spoons and so on. Same

with Blair and I guess maybe it's mortality. I had a stroke last summer and it just sort of made me think at age 77 maybe it's time to recount some of the things I've done and I trust both these guys I've listened to many of your podcasts and I thought okay time is now so this is it I love it. I love it so much and both great guys, right? Yeah great supporters of this program to Blair Packham and Rob Pruse Blair tells me Checking my notes right here You turned down an opportunity to sign the jitters at Warner. Is that true? Yes

So what was it that the jitters were lacking that you couldn't get him to you know? He didn't sign him up. It just didn't fit what I was looking for at that particular time They were a great pop band of which there are I was looking for something that just had a little more edge I guess if you can put it in that definition and I their music was really good they had some great songs I've always liked Blair's music but it just wasn't what Warner was aiming for at that time. I've turned down a lot of bands, believe me.

What's the most successful band you've turned down? I'm probably Blue Rodeo because in their greatest hits album they put my rejection letter in the centerfold of the gatefold jacket. I you know I only did a little homework because I'm looking to get the stories from you, but I thought you signed Blue Rodeo. I did. Okay. So. A year and a half later. Okay.

All right. So we will jump around. I can't keep it chronological. I will read a note from Rob Pruss and I'll play something by a woman who was here just, I guess, about maybe a week or two ago, very recent visit from this woman. I'm going to play a clip of her so you can

hear it in her voice, but give me the Blue Rodeo, like maybe even a teaser, we can revisit it later. I even pulled a song that I danced with my mom at my wedding too. Okay, but so you had a chance to sign Blue Rodeo, you didn't, but then you made amends like 18 months later? I had been, as an A&R guy, you always have a list of bands that you want to go and see eventually. And they were a group that played endlessly in Toronto. I think the furthest the field they went was Kitchener at that particular time. And it was on my list and I just never got around to it. And one day a woman in our office whose name was Joanne came in and said, Bob, you have to go and see these guys.

You're probably going to hate them because I know you like the haircut kind of 80s rock. Like were they two country? Yeah, were they two country? I hadn't seen them. You hadn't seen them yet, right. So I said to her, OK, I'm going to go and see them. So I went down at, I don't know whether you or anyone remembers, there used to be a club on Queen Street called the Big Bop.

Yeah, I do, yeah. There couldn't have been nine people in the room. And I sat down at a table at the back, and out of the darkness came a guy named John Caton, who was their manager, and he managed a band called the Arrows that I'd really liked a few years before. Is this Hit Me With Your Best Shot arrows or no no different, okay? If you with your best shot was Eddie Schwartz, okay

But there is a cover of there's a song covered by an arrow song that was covered by somebody and it was a hit But I can't get back to them. So I loved them. I thought they were fantastic. They played this great set And even though there was nobody in the room, they played for themselves. And that's always a wonderful thing when you're looking as an A&R guy to know that some nights you're going to play to know people. And a lot of bands don't give a crap when they play to know people. But these guys did. By the way, I love rock and roll. Joan Jett. Ah, there you go. Yeah. So I went back to the company and talked to John and I said to them, what are you looking for?

And they gave me a number and I went, that sounds a little high to me for a Canadian band at that time. And I made it pitch to the record company and the people in the boardroom and they all listened to it and they went, this is not rock, this is not country, this is what the hell are you thinking, why do you want to sign this? Right. So I went back to the band and said we can't do it but I sat kept sitting with Katen and talked more and more I said what if we, little Canadian music industry politics here, what if we started, the band started their own independent record company and I signed

the label to Warner Brothers, therefore you could get government funding because as a multinational label you can't go and get loans and grants to make Canadian recordings. So we started a label, John John did called Risky Disc. I Went back to them and said here you go And they ended up going into a studio with a producer named Terry Brown who'd done Rush another story It's coming. Yeah, we're gonna eventually after the Blue Rodeo. We're gonna go back. That's like a Tarantino movie Okay, and We made a pitch I came back to the label and said, Hey, we've got this Canadian label. We can get factor money and video fact money and so on and so forth. They made the record in the middle of the night and ended up with the deal. And to follow it up just a bit further, the first two singles we put out did absolutely nothing. What were they called?

Rose coloured glasses and I can't remember the other one. Was it called Outskirts? Was there a single called Outskirts? Yes. So we put the record out. It didn't happen. And the band were Queen Street West heroes. They knew a man named John Martin who ran much music

at the time. And Jim Cuddy was a props guy his full-time job for a commercial company called McWaters Van Lint in Toronto. The company paid for the video. All the friends of that company made the video for try. John Martin added it to much music in heavy rotation and within a month we had a gold record. Still sounds great by the way, try. And Michelle McAdory's in that video, she was on recently and she's in this video, she was dating Greg at the time.

Yep. Okay, look at you, right out of the hop here, okay. So the rest is history, this song breaks and you got yourself... And here they are, 40 some odd years later, still selling out out halls and doing exceptional music. Their current keyboardist went to high school with me. There's my connection to Blue Rodeo, of course Jim Cuddy, and he is, Mike Boguski is an FOTM friend of Toronto Mike. Bob, you're now an FOTM friend of Toronto Mike.

Thank you. So better late than never. Thank you, yes. And Jim Cuddy, I've been to the woodshed and had a great conversation with Jim Cuddy about all this and yeah, he talks quite a bit about that Queen Street scene with Handsome Ned and everything and Man, I'd like to go back and kind of see what was cooking there. But so this is the third single try. Yes. That's wild Okay, and rose colored glasses because in nowadays we kind of look at it as one of the

You know a big hit but you're telling me that it came out look at it as one of the, you know, a big hit but you're telling me that it came out, didn't make any noise. Two rock for country, two country for rock, not pop enough. Every excuse in the world that commercial radio will give you. Wow. Okay, so damn they were good live. Oh yeah, they're still good live. You kidding me? Do you, I mean you gotta be careful here but Jim Cuddy or Greg Keeler, whose songs do you prefer? I like both.

It's the yin and yang of the band. One has lovely pop like this, the other has the Bob Dylan artsy edge and I think that's what makes the band so special. I think you're right. I think you're absolutely right. You get a different flavor from each and they complement each other nicely. It's kind of neat to have a band where you have a bunch of Canadian bands like that where you get two different flavors of songs.

Okay, love it so much. And again, my wedding to Monica. This was the song we played when I danced with my mom. She loves this song. It's an amazing wedding song. There's no question. It touches a lot of people. Woo! Quick question about your name, okay?

So this has been a lot of people, like Bob Roper's coming on. I'll bet you don't even recognize this song. How many would? Does this ring a bell at all? No. Okay, you're not alone. Okay, so this was the theme song to the Threes Company spin-off, The Ropers. So you're, you know, you're, we're gonna go back in time now and we got to talk about another band, not a Canadian band, we got to talk

about a band and I got to read a question from Rob Bruce and I got to play you a clip. But when Threes Company breaks in the late 70s and becomes a hit sitcom, do people start having fun with your last name? Like your Mr. Roper? I still get it. Yeah. I always say I wish I had his bank account. Well, he's dead now.

Yeah. Well, his family's bank account. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, right? The Norman Fell. This is the story I understand, and I don't know how much of it is true, but so Three's company is a hit Then they go to you know, the actor that plays mr Roper and the actress who plays I think her name is Audrey Lindley or something

No, please mrs. Roper and they're like we want to spin off your show and they say okay We're gonna have a spin-off called the Ropers Of course, mr Furley comes in and replaces them on threes company the Ropers Didn't get the numbers and it didn't last very long and then it gets canceled. And I understand that Norman Fell went back to like the producers or whatever, or like trying to get his character back

onto Three's Company. Like there must be room for Mr. Roper to come back. Surely there should have been. They didn't bite because Mr. Furley would, they didn't miss a beat with Mr. Furley, Don Knotts. And I guess they liked the idea of that, like less payroll. You know, same numbers, less cost.

You know what that's like? And that was it for I think they did one episode where the Ropers came back to say goodbye. And that was it. No, I still get that every once in a while. It's it's not a very common last name. Yeah, you're the first Roper I think I've met in the wild. There you go

my first Roper. Okay now I want to read a note from Rob Pruse and then I'm gonna play a clip from another FOTM. So Rob Pruse writes in, I'm sure you'll get good stories from Bob Roper about Supertramp. He was their road manager for years including their Breakfast in America tour which I saw at the CNE in the summer of 79. So we're gonna put a pin on He was their road manager for years, including their breakfast in America tour, which I saw at the CNE in the summer of 79. So we're going to put a pin on Supertramp because we're going to come right back to Supertramp. But I do have a clip and you'll recognize the voice right away.

But let's hear from a woman who recently made her Toronto mic debut. Oh, Bob is wonderful. And he says you're a friend of Bob. So maybe if you say anything nice about Bob, I can actually play it for him when he visits. I think he's here next Monday. Oh, Bob is wonderful. And he says you're a friend of Bob. So maybe if you say anything nice about Bob, I can actually play it for him when he visits. I think he's here next Monday. Oh, good. Bob, Bob is, Bob is one of the very special people. He loved the artists he worked with when he was at the label.

He's got great stories. He's he's a such a kind, kind human being. Bob and I are very lucky. We, we go to a, a J's game at early each year. We were given a pair of tickets by, I don't want to say the name because he knows who he is and I appreciate him and Bob appreciates him and we have an afternoon and Bob, it's a mandatory. We take a picture of us with the, with, with the sky

dome or whatever. And, and with the CN tower, usually if it's open, um, Bob is like, he's a do gooder. He cares a lot about, he adored Rob Bennett close with with Bob Rob Bennett and he was a he's a carer he's he's a lovely human being he's got a wonderful wife who he adores and they go on adventures and and I think the world of Bob he's also very strong in his opinions if he gets angry about something, you know it. But that's Bob, you know? Doesn't take it home with him, I think, is what they would say, you know?

All right, then bleeds into the extra. But kind words from Jane Harbury. Yes, we're actually going to a ball game. I think it's the third game this season this year. Oh yeah, and that home opener's delayed, right? Because we're on the road to start for the work they did on realigning those seats and everything.

Three or four weeks from now, or what? I forget what the age is. OK, let's see. We get off to a good start, and then come home. And Joey Votto hits a home run as a pinch hitter in the home opener. And that's what we'll hope for. OK.

Well, he hit one yesterday. Yeah, first pitch. Like, he's got a good sense of timing. Let's hope so. It hope for. Okay. Well you hit one yesterday. Yeah, yeah, first pitch like he's got a good sense of timing Let's hope so. That's wild. Okay now Rob mentioned this band will just It was an early morning yesterday I was up before the dawn And I really have enjoyed my stay But I must be moving on Like a king without a castle

Like a queen without a throne I'm an early morning lover And I must be moving on Like a queen without a throne I'm a dozy morning lover And I must be moving on Now I believe in what you say Is the undisputed truth But I have to have things my own way To keep me in my youth Like a ship without an anchor Like a slave without a chain

Just a thought that'll wish me good later As I ship out through my veins And I'm going shiny Shining like brand new I know I'll look behind me My troubles will be a few All right. How do I get you, Bob, to Supertramp? So I want to understand who are you and how do you end up tour manager of Supertramp and

all that jazz? I was asking Blair about you and he talked about you working for Capitol Records. So where does it begin for you in this business? My first paycheck was when I was 16 years old I DJ'd at a roll it a rink in Scarborough, okay but I had Got into music as a really early kid not as a player

But my parents loved to go to old country dances in the country with their aunts and cousins. So I heard a lot of fiddle music and my father was country and I loved traditional old country, the Johnny Cashes of the world, et cetera. Right. When I went to high school, about grade 12, I guess, I went to WA Porter Collegiate in Scarborough where

Greg Godavitz was also a student at that time. And I ended up doing the school dances, for whatever. A friend of my family who lived a couple of doors away ran dances at my old public school, Danforth Gardens, Birch Mountain Danforth out in that area. And he always came to me and said, Bob, you're into music, you listen to the radio all the time. What singles should I be buying for the dances? Cause I don't know. So I just would go to these dances and sit

beside him when he played them. And I thought, when I go to high school in the days when high schools had dances with bands, and I DJ'd and hired the band. So that was sort of my very first beginning at it. I went to McMaster in Hamilton. I tried to get into radio and television arts at Ryerson, cause I thought I could be a DJ, but I failed my final year in grade 13 and had to repeat it.

So my marks were crap and I couldn't get in there. So McMaster was closest. And that's a, that's a time in history where you could get into McMaster, but So my marks were crap and I couldn't get in there. So my master was closest and That's a time in history where you could get into McMaster, but not Ryerson because he always flipped for me Yeah, it was like it was easier to get into Ryerson than McMaster when I was kind of it was marks This would have been when did I go to university 67? And in my second year, I found out that they had a radio station at the school, which is now was McMaster radio is now CFMU. It's been a great little station.

And I had, I ended up doing the all night show and different shows playing records and getting turned on to it and well, this is kind of interesting. Now, how can I make a living out of this when I graduate? And ended up in my third and fourth years there, I became the entertainment programmer. So I got to do all the club bands in their little, you know, pubs. And we did three or four major concerts a year.

So I jumped in and started calling booking agents and going, gee, who can I, who can I hire? Who can I get? I had a half decent budget. Uh, and the school ended up paying me a salary to be the programmer. Sounds like a dream gig. So I booked everything from Chuck Berry to three dog night to the band. Yeah. It was heady times for a 19 year old. Yeah. Those are three amazing acts right there. Yeah. Why stuff. Okay. First on ever book was Gordon Lightfoot. Who came up in quite detail with Jane Harbury. Cause that's where she introduced to the riverboat.

That's where I first met Jane as a waitress. Right, right. Well, she, I think her first show and she wasn't even sure where she was going. Cause she was, you know, fresh from England was to see Gordon Lightfoot at the riverboat coffee house. Yeah. Wow.

And, uh, yeah. So I did that. I did that. I did that. I did that. I did that. wasn't even sure where she was going because she was, you know, fresh from England was to see Gordon Lightfoot at the riverboat coffee house. Yeah. Wow. And, uh, yeah. So I did that, um, that lasted two or three years and sort of got my feet really wet in the business, understanding how to deal with record companies and agents and bands.

Cause I started at high school and stuff. Right. So it just continued. I went to school to major in geography. I was gonna go into town planning and urban renewal, but it was the traveling I liked more than the actual job of geography. All right, so keep going with this story.

It's very fascinating to me, because it's not like I can go to the Bob Roper Wikipedia page and see all this stuff like this is the moment we're captioning it all. So CFMU that's where you're booking these these bands. Yep and then at the end... Did you ever book Otto? No. They weren't exactly a dance band at the time and so on and that was a couple of years later after I'd sort of moved on from that, um, the time Greg got it going.

Um, the, the, the real start was when I finished school, um, I had been in contact, well, obviously with a lot of other university people and a man named Joe Resha who ran University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Lutheran, all the concerts in Kitchener, um, wanted to start a management company because that was just when Canadian content came in. So he and I had become close friends and he and a lawyer funded me for about a

year and a half, um, bought a house, set up an office and I was going to be a manager. I had no idea, lost a lot of money for him. We did have a hit with a band called Madrigal with a song called I Believe in Sunshine which was a you know a top 10 hit in Canada but it just never worked out. And when he finally decided to not fund it anymore I went oh my god what am I gonna do? Well I had become very good friends with a Hamilton band called Crowbar okay Kelly J and Crowbar oh what a feeling and they were looking for a tour manager and I went

okay I can do that so off I went and that was my introduction to being on the road with bands and learning how to tour manager So we crossed Canada. I don't know how many times Played the whiskey a go-go in LA And just really learned now. I'm learning the live side of the business So I've had the concert side I've had the live side etc and the bit of the radio side I mean that song was so key that when they when the Juno people put out that four disc compilation, it was called Oh, What a Feeling.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I saw a post on Facebook yesterday of the Maple Music Junket when everybody came across the music industry flew a hundred different journalists from the UK and Europe, um, to shows in Montreal and in, in Toronto. Okay. So you're cutting your teeth there with crowbar and you're, you're basically, that's the best education you can get, right? You're on your hands on. Yeah. Yeah. You're learning it. And it's, uh, it's, uh, the tour management job is not an easy one. When I taught for a

few years people always said to me I taught a tour management course and I said how do we get a job? I said well the first thing bands aren't gonna want to do is put anybody in the van or the bus with them they don't know. So you've really just sort of got to go and figure out how you can get a local band and do it for them. That's how I really got into it. I had an old Bell telephone truck. I don't know whether you remember, old enough to remember the green trucks with the big roof racks and stuff like that. I bought one for $100. I used one. And while I was at the radio station and all these musicians started to befriend me.

I thought it was my wonderful personality, but they knew I had a truck and I'd probably lug gear for a case of beer or something. Okay, so one of the sponsors of this fine program, Bob, is Ridley Funeral Home. In fact, that measuring tape, that green measuring tape is for you courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. They just bought a, they're at 14th and Lakeshore right in this neighborhood, and they just bought a new hearse. So a 2020 to be young., 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20 carrying this or that. I think it'd be great for lugging around gear for a band would be this hearse. That's why Neil did it because I have you ever been a pallbearer? Yes. It's stunning how heavy the caskets are even with eight people lifting it up there. So in the days back then you had to carry your own PA. Clubs did not have PAs when bands played. They brought their own PA.

And that stuff is heavy. The old amps were heavy. So Neil would put all the stuff in the back of the hearse on rollers and roll all the heavy gear into the back of the hearse. It makes so much sense. And you can get them for a, you know, I don't know what your funeral home is selling it for. Oh, $25,000 I think for this. Yeah, it's more like a limo than what they were in those days. Right. Is this the automobile, I believe you tell, you'll know. Was this in Blind River died? Like, is this the car that Neil lost in Blind River?

I don't know whether that story, but I do know that when they went to LA, because Neil was living in Winnipeg, a lot of American bands would come through and play there and those are the days where you played either a full week or three nights and Stephen Stills came through, they befriended each other and then lost touch with each other and when Neil and his band went to LA apparently Stills pulled up at a stoplight and on the other side the road with this old black hearse with Ontario plates that was all smoking because the engine was all burning out and he said that has to be Neil Young and did a u-turn and Jay sit down and next thing you know

they have a band together. Buffalo Springfield was born. Absolutely love that story. Now just to let you know so live.torontomike.com There's actually a live stream and there's a few comments I just want to read before we get back to that story. One is from Sharon Taylor. Sharon Taylor was the program director at CFTR before it went news and then at Kiss the country station as well and a long time radio She goes by the Handel radio lady. She just says rest in peace Rob Bennett Do you want to take a moment and just talk about Rob? Just as a backstory when I was teaching at a place called Harris Institute yes Rob and I had known each other since he's a

concert promoter was a concert promoter he got his start at U of T doing shows at convocation hall during the time I was at McMaster doing shows We lost touch with each other I go to A Lyle Lovett show at Roy Thompson Hall and bump into him Rob. How you doing? I'm seeing you're not a he said listen. I'm really nuts and busy. I'll call you next week And sure enough next week. He called me up and he said I'm I can you get me one of your students

My runner his gopher for the day. Hey couldn't make it and he said I have a show I need somebody to help me for the day. I said I'll do it He said Bob you're too qualified for what I need I said Rob when the bus pulls up and the tour manager gets off, I can go to him and say, what do you need? I know exactly. You don't have to teach a student. He said, okay. Turned out to be a Pat Matheny concert. The two of us hit it off and up until the day he died, I was his guy doing all his shows. So again, you'd have to be there at six in the morning when the union guys are getting ready and the band pulls up And we did everything from again Diana crawl to Van Morrison

and it was quite the run and then he got sick he got ALS and passed away very quickly and unfortunately and I Missed doing my shows. No, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry for your loss. Lovely man. Thank you, Sharon, for prompting that. Yeah, sure. Those memories. Now, Jeremy Hopkins, the, the, the official, I was going to say the unofficial, but I can make it official cause I own this show, the official Toronto historian of the Toronto mic program who will be on soon to talk about Toronto buildings that are, that no longer exist, but we all wished still existed, like sort of like the

top 10 buildings we miss that have been torn down. So when Jane Harboury was here, I played Neil Young's Ambulance Blues and he there's that great, you know, Isabella, Isabella, they tore you down. So we're going to talk about these things. OK, Jeremy Hopkins writes in, I used to see Greg Godfrey all the time at my old workplace in Scarborough. His girlfriend worked there, too. So shadow to God of it's all the time at my old workplace in Scarborough. His girlfriend worked there too. So shadow to God, who's an FOTM like in service says, wait, does

he know Sonny Bernardi from crowbar? Absolutely. So, and of course, he does, of course he does. Ian wants us to know that he's an excellent drummer and shuttle bus driver for our trade shows. So Ian who attends these trade shows, I guess Sonny does some of the driving there. So great drummer, great shuttle bus driver. Amazing, what a small world we live in. Okay, so to get you back now.

His daughter lives in the Burlington area and I ran into him at a little small indie coffee shop. I hadn't seen him for years, so we're back in touch. Look at that, okay, Burlington. It comes back to the spoons essentially. so shout out again to Rob Pruss. How do we get you with Super Tramp? Over the years, I worked at different record companies after Crowbar. I started at Capitol.

Like a promo guy? Yeah, Ontario promotion. So my job was to go around all the radio stations with all of our current records and try and get them to play them. Or whenever a capital act came in and toured through Ontario, I'd be on the road with them and do all that stuff. Like what might be the funny cause Kevin Shea is in the program to revisit. He's been here before but he'll be back. And I think one of the singles he was pushing, hopefully maybe I get my blue rodeo. Oh yes, for sure, I get my Kevin Shea story sometimes mixed up with my Ivor

Hamilton story. Sure. Sure. So this might be an Ivor Hamilton story now that I think about it, but I think it's a Kevin Shea story, but smells like teen spirit by Nirvana. I think he dressed up in a diaper and chained himself to the radio station, front door or something. There you go.

Okay. Got to get all my promo guys. Can't get them all confused like that. And I hope I don't start confusing you with these guys But what might be one of some of the biggest singles that you were pushing for capital? Oh Pretty much everything that they had I got I guess the biggest act I had that I worked with them and it involves a man Named David Marsden was Dark Side of the Moon the Pink Floyd of course, of course it was on a Friday afternoon

We would get advanced copies in those days, test pressings, right? And we got this record from Pink Floyd and it was given to me by the head of promotion and said, take it home over the weekend, listen to it. It's coming out in a week. You're going to promote it. You know, so I'll take it. So I listened to it and this is hard to say, but I couldn't decide whether it was one of the best records I've ever heard or one of the worst.

So on Monday morning Marsden at the time was one of the top DJs in Toronto. And I trusted him implicitly. So I went down, said, David, Pink Floyd's coming out, his eyes lit up. I said, would you mind if, would you take this home and listen to it today and let me know tomorrow? So I go home that night, got the radio on and on the air comes Marsden and he played the damn record back and forth twice that night. It wasn't due out until the next week. So we got the world exclusive and I basically damn near got fired. I'll bet. Wow.

Nobody told me that it was, I wasn't embargoed or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they got the, he got the world debut. I'll, I'll say this. I never had your job and I would probably be smarter in that situation, but I'm often sent things until they're embargoed and I like ignore that word embargoed. Like once you send it to me to share, I don't have this, I can't set a calendar invite and say, Oh, I have to share at 5 PM Friday.

No, I'm sorry. Like it's out there now and I'm going to share it because you sent it to me to share it. That's the job. They tell you that these are, you know, we're, it's going to be a worldwide exclusive. This is where it is. You have to do it.

So what's your relationship like with David Marsden you still in touch with David online yes he he has an online radio show that he does it's sort of like speaking of Iver Hamilton yes on that he's on and why the spirit duck yep see a comet yeah and he both guys are great music guys you know they just have impeccable taste and and has the both have introduced me to music that I would never have been introduced to and now I realize a Teaser for later because I know the the rush heads are listening. So there will be a rush anniversary today Which anniversary of what of brush very first album was released on this day 50 years ago get out of here okay that albums older than me but not by much okay so we're gonna do a rush

segment this is my pleasure but and then I always think Russian I think a spirit of radio and then I think of David Marston and it all comes full circle here like I said it's a small world after all so we're on our way to so you're at capital you're pushing these I'm at go, but we're circling back to supertramp again How did I get there? How did you get the supertran? I worked at? Capital for about a year and a half At the time it was a very everybody was in shirts and ties very straight very sales oriented And I had known some guys that I shared a house with in the beach that worked at A&M records

So after I finished my job some guys that I shared a house with in the beach that worked at A&M Records. So after I finished my job at Capital at suppertime, I would go over to A&M because they put out a weekly newsletter. It was all store, and it was six or seven of us sitting around having a smoke or two and et cetera and just having a gig. And their Ontario job came up and I thought I'm gonna move I'm gonna go across A&M because it's much more artist driven not as sales driven so I went over there and one of the guys who worked there who was the head publicist was a guy named Charlie Prevel P-R-E-V-O-S-T lovely guy we we shared a house together and he was a fan of the first two supertramp

albums that I think only ten people owned. Indelibly stamped you know and we played these records over and over and over again and lo and behold no difference in Pink Floyd in comes a test pressing of Crime of the Century. Well, we just lost our minds. It was so good. I became, I was the Ontario promo guy through all of that and we did our best. We got them to Canada.

Now the record broke out of Quebec, out of Chaume, out of Montreal. Quebec has always been known for loving progressive music. And we just befriended the band when they came over. Montreal, Quebec has always been known for loving progressive music. And we just befriended the band when they came over. We were with them 24-7, Charlie and I, and another guy named Colin McDonald who was the artistic director. And Charlie was the best man at my wedding.

So fast forward a few years, out comes Breakfast in America. And Charlie at that time had left A&M and had moved to California to be co-manager and publicist for Supertramp worldwide. So he called me up and he said, you've heard the record, we're looking for a tour manager, do you wanna come? Now I'm the national promotion guy. I have a staff of 11 at Capitol Records.

I said yes instantly. I quit my job at Capitol. I moved to LA with two suitcases and went, here we go. Wow. And on this past Sunday, no, this past Saturday was the opening night of the Super Tramp Breakfast in America tour. So we're 1979. How many years is that? Yeah, that's a 45, 45 years ago. And

that, of course, as we mentioned off the top, a young Rob Bruce is a witness to the Breakfast in America tour from Super Tramp and the rest is history. Yeah, yeah. You went to that show, huh? He was there. Yeah. Yeah. 104,000 people over three nights at the C&E Stadium. Wow. I mean, what a monster album. I mean, well, so huge. I don't know what you mean. Yeah. Um, I mean, other than the fact it sounds, it would probably be a blur to you, but were there any standout memories or supertramp stories out of that? First night we did was in a 4500 seat venue at the University of Colorado in Boulder. We spent three days rehearsing and off we went. Show was

audience didn't know any different but there were a lot of mistakes and technical glitches but the audience loved it. The next night was in St. Louis. We had 36 people on the road and we got to the airport. The baggage didn't come down the lines. So I said to her, you guys go ahead. I'll get the luggage. No worry. It's all good. Well, two suitcases come down the line. Everything had gone to Dallas because the flight was you know Denver so there I am. What do I do now? So all the luggage finally showed up at 7 o'clock

in the morning the next day so we had no stage clothes, no toothbrushes, no none so it was my first night as tour manager and all hell broke loose Right. It's called baptism. Yeah. Yeah exactly Amazing so you're with this tour. How long is this tour you have super champ like what North America I did. Okay. Yeah, it was 70 some odd shows a big tour that would have been holy smoke Yeah, and in those days no tour buses buses. We flew everywhere and rented cars. We even lost a car in Detroit. Some of the crew guys had went out for drinks

and other entertainment and were late getting to the pl... I said, did you guys... Yeah, yeah, everything's okay. Well, about four months later, the office got a bill for $17,000 for the car. Oh my God, a lot of money back then.. Oh my god. They didn't drive home. They'd left it in a parking garage and it was still there. Well at least they didn't drive home and that's the good news there. That's best practice. It's

better to lose the car. Yes exactly. To lose your life or someone else's life. Yeah okay so I'm gonna catch my breath there. This is actually amazing these stories but I'm actually you're gonna catch your breath because I'm going to catch my breath or this is actually amazing these stories, but I'm actually you're going to catch your breath because I'm going to be giving you some, some swag, some gifts for making the track. Are you a big, oh, we know this off the top. Jane harbury goes to the blue J games of you. So you're a baseball fan. Yes. Have you been a Jays fan since their inception and 77? Yes. Did you go to opening a game at exhibition stadium? No. So you're not one of the half a million people who

were there? I was on the road. Not available. Okay that that's one of those stories I feel like I've talked personally to 50,000 people who were there but I mean only 45,000 people were at Exhibition Stadium. Okay so the Dome, the Jays they're great you know Joey Votto hit that home run in the first pitch lots of fun happening there but the best baseball in the city outside that dome is at Christie pits. That's what the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. So I'm giving you this, uh, hardcover book that illustrates. It's a fantastic, lots of trivia in there too. It is, uh,

the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. Went to many games to see them at Christie pits. I also used to go to the old stadium, Toronto Maple Leafs stadium. When I was a kid, Yeah, by the Tip Top Tamers. Yes. Sure. My mother was absolutely in love with Sparky Anderson and he played for Detroit, so we would go down and see the Maple Leafs. That might, you know, I mentioned earlier that Jeremy Hopkin is going to come on and we're going to talk about buildings that don't exist.

That, you know, that's one of those great Toronto buildings. I've only known it from photos. I don't remember this building. I guess it was gone before I was alive. But what a building they call Stadium Road for a reason. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for that. How do I get you back? I would love to get you back to Christie Pitts.

I've been talking, I guess I can say this now. I won't fix this in post, but I've been talking, I guess I can say this now, I won't fix this in post, but I've been talking to people like Rick Emmett for example, and Rick Emmett was a great slow pitch player, and he played in the slow pitch leagues, and we're going to celebrate Rick Emmett on May 12th, that's the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team opener at Christie Pitts. I managed Rick for a year. I think Rick is a I I'm a big Rick Emmett fan. Did you have a good experience with him?

It's only a year though. What's going on there? Yeah, sounds like a short. Well, my my missus went into this wonderfully bad disease called MS. And as a manager I was doing Larry Gowan, Rick Emmett and Molly Johnson. It was it was wonderful. I got to collect myself here There's a those are those are all FOTM by the way, but I'm gonna ask you about all those people

But sorry to hear about your wife there. That's so I couldn't go on the road anymore So I said to Rick I can't do this anymore. So I stayed home for a year. Well, we're working on Celebrating him on so if anybody wants to meet Rick Emmett because I'm gonna be recording live from Christie Pitts on the 12th night and we're gonna as many FOTMs as we can get we're gonna get out to this game May 12th May 12 2 p.m. Christie Pitts. I've been talking to the new owner. His name is Keith Stein I've been like I said today. I'm texting Keith. I could show you I'm like We got to get Rick Emmett, a Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team jacket.

We gotta get him a hat, like he's all in. Blair Packham's gonna pick him up and drop him off, bring him to Christie Pitts. We're gonna, you know, we're gonna put Rick Emmett on the microphone and celebrate him. And if anybody wants to meet Rick Emmett, there's another reason to come to Toronto Maple Leafs baseball game on May 12th.

But more on this with Rod Black on Friday. He lives inlington now, too. Yeah, so that's yes, so you're all moving out the Burlington That's where it to be. Oh god. Okay, so we're gonna get back to Gowan and we're gonna get back to Molly Johnson So you got the book for the trauma? Yes, you're baseball. Do you enjoy Italian food? Oh, absolutely I have for you Bob. I have a frozen lasagna in my freezer upstairs So that box will be full of delicious palma pasta lasagna when you leave here today dinner tonight. Yeah, it's frozen solid. So okay Delicious we actually just had it my daughter's birthday party She just turned eight and we had it and I'm telling you Peter Gross will tell you it's the best lasagna He's had in his entire life. He's a

73 years old he loves his lasagna. He says there's no best lasagna he's had in his entire life. He's 73 years old, he loves his lasagna. He says there's no better lasagna than pome pasta. I'm also sending some fresh craft beer home with you Bob Roper. That's courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery and everybody knows what they think of Great Lakes and they're gonna host us at TMLX 15 on June 27th. So June 27th is a Thursday night from 6 to 9 p.m. We're all gonna collect at Great Lakes Brewery's Southern Etobicoke location and Palma Pasta will feed us and Great Lakes will host us and buy us our first beer and we're gonna have our 15th Toronto Mike listener experience and Bob, Rob's

gonna make the trip from New York for this. He'd love to see you there June 27th. Yes. We're gonna make that there. June 27th. Yes. I'm going to make that happen. Lots going on here, Bob. Holy smokes. Okay. Two more dates to add to my calendar now. Two dates and more to come. Okay.

Lots, lots going on here. If you need any investment advice, whether you manage your own, you know, financial investments, or if you have a person, uh, regardless, the advantaged investor podcast from Raymond James Canada has the perspective and insight from analysts that you need subscribe the Advantage Investor podcast hosted by Chris Cook see great insight great Information there that's from Raymond James, Canada and last but not least Bob

Recycle my electronics dot see a that's where you go. If you have any old I don't know you have old Devices or old electronics or old cables collecting dust at home Don't throw that in the garbage because the chemicals end up in our landfill go to recycle my electronics dot see a Stick in your poster code and they'll be like hey You can drop it off three blocks away and then be properly recycled so good for them good for everybody good for everybody Okay, so thank you to recycle my electronics on see a three blocks away and then be properly recycled. So good for them. Good for everybody. Good for everybody. Okay. So thank you to recycle my electronics.ca. All right. What happens to you, Bob Roper post super tramp?

I come back off the road at the end of the tour, which was the end of the summer of 79. Uh, and, um, trying to figure out what I want to do. Not necessarily wanting to go back to record company life, but I had known through my concert years and things, a man named Michael Cole, who owned a company at the time called CPI, Concert Productions, the biggest promoter,

and he'd obviously done the Supertramp tour across Canada. So I called him up and I said, he said, you know what, I'm looking for somebody, I'm going into management, I have some friends of mine in the band that are called Private Eye, which were two brothers, Huey Leggett and Gordy Leggett. Huey had been in a foot in cold water, so he'd been around for a while, and he said I need somebody to take care of them. He said, it's not super tramp, but their first singles coming out, a song called your place or mine, and would you take them on the road? We're going to have them open for trooper across Canada.

I said, sure. So I went from airplanes and five star hotels to, to a van and I, you know, five guys with all the gear in the back of the van and shitty motels and off we went. And when that ran its course across Canada, Michael brought me in of the runs at the C&E plus all the other shows. U2's first gig ever in Toronto at the Maple Leaf Ballroom. And so yeah, I know. How many people attended that show? Maybe 150, 200, if you're lucky. Wow.

Yeah, in a bingo hall. Right out in front of the stage is a giant disco glow ball that flopped around when the lights went on. It's kind of like, so I've had the Gary's on the program and they talk about bringing the police to the horseshoe tavern and like you mentioned earlier, eight people were at the show. I was supposed to go that night and didn't. I was working A&M. We were told not to go. Really?

Well, the band wanted tour support and the A&M wouldn't give it to them. So they came and did the tour on their own anyway. So because there was sort of a fight between management and the head office at A&M, I didn't go that night. So I can be one of the 10,000 who said they were there that weren't. Right, well I think only 10 people were there. I'm not sure. But, uh, wow. That's one of those shows you hear about because it's pre Roxanne, I guess. And then when Roxanne breaks, everything

changes, everything changes. Okay. Uh, so back to you though. Okay. Um, so where are we now? You're working at for CPI? Yes. Um, so I did all that for two or three years, all the shows and concerts. Um, and again, I'm on the other side of it now. So I'm as the promoter again I'm on the other side of it now so I'm as

the promoter I'm still dealing with media I'm dealing with the band and dealing with the tour manager and so on. What are riders like at this point? I'm always interested. Still pretty quiet I think the whole thing of riders is very overdone it's always the you know the extravagant stuff. I did get beat up, not physically beat up, but dealing with a writer with Van Halen. We've all heard the story of a- Well, that's the most famous writer's story. Brown M&Ms.

Right. And we did them in the old London Gardens. That's a building that's also now been torn down. But we did the show. The band I never really met, but their staff, their tour manager was, I won't use a word, but very unpleasant. Tough to deal with. But I mean, when you hear David Lee Roth talk about the writer, it almost makes sense.

Like that, well, the Brown M&Ms. Everything in it is what really mostly the band needs. They really do. There's many pages of, of technical stuff. The amount of food that they want is ludicrous because half of it is thrown out or donated or whatever. Right. Um, but they wanted Brown M&Ms taken out. Right. And I said, screw this. I am not going to do that. Sit there and count them out the hell with it. Um,

so I left it alone and it never hurt anything. And at the end of the night we were getting ready to leave and the building manager came to me and said, you better come with me into the dressing room. We have a problem. So I went into Van Halen dresser and it's a hockey dressing room. You've been in hockey dressing rooms, concrete walls and benches and you know, but they had taken the toilet paper and stuffed it in a toilet and flushed it. So it flooded.

There was mayonnaise and mustard and relish all over The walls and it was just you know a high school food fight mess right so the next morning at the next gig Excuse me in Ottawa. I went up on the stage and confronted the guy I said what's the matter with you guys so you didn't take the brown M&Ms out. I said no I didn't that's that's ludicrous I said it cost me seven hundred dollars to have the dressing and clean. He said out. I said, no, I didn't. That's, that's ludicrous. I said, it cost me $700 to have the dressing and clean. He said, how much? I said, 700. And he pulled a wad of a hundred dollar bills

out of his pocket, peeled them off, threw them in my face. And he said, make sure you take them out tonight. That was their red flag. Yep. Red flag. If you didn't take that, that meant you hadn't

read the writer. So for all my life, I didn't understand this whole story. It just sounded like they were being dicks. And then I heard David Lee Roth talk about it. And then when he, he pointed out the fact that if we saw brown M and M in that bowl or whatever, we knew we had to go line by line because they had, yeah. And it made such sense. So it's, uh, it's, I've never talked to anyone who had been on your side

through the brown M&M Rider experience. It's wild to hear your account of it. So that night there were no Brown M&Ms in that bowl for the next day? Next day I took them out. Okay. Because I didn't want to throw me another, because I had another six dates to do and you don't want to anger people. Can I give you another writer story? Of course, I love writer stories. Yeah. When I'm at McMaster, this is my first run of a writer. I had Chuck Berry in. Now Chuck Berry is as a legendary dick, if you want to use that word. So I had Lighthouse open the show. We'd sold it out, 3,800 people, great night. And Lighthouse is about halfway through their set.

And all of a sudden, one of my security guys comes in and he says, you better come with me, Bob, Chuck Berry's in his car, he's leaving. So I go running out to the parking lot and there's those concrete little bumpers around the parking lot. Chuck is trying to drive over them to get out because the sound truck is blocking the little

parking area. So I bang on the window. I said, where are you going? You got it. You're on stage. He said, you got your contract and rider with you? I said, yeah. He said, let me have a look at it. So he pulls it out and he says, what time does it say I'm on? It says one show eight thirty. He said, what time is it? I said, it's five after nine. He said, my show was supposed to start 35 minutes ago. I have an airplane back to St. Louis at 1130. I gotta be out before midnight,

because that's the curfew. Wow. I said, well, I'll get the band, I'll get Lighthouse off and get you on stage. He said, okay, go do it. So I had to go up to Skip Prokop and tell him his set was over and get out. And he lost his mind.

Right. And then. Wow. Chuck. So he gets back in the dressing room and he said, uh, where's my payment? And they pulled out a check. It was for us 3,500. And he said, you got the contract again, kid says 3,500 us cash.

Okay. He says, I don't take cash only. So you'd stick it under his mattress, I guess. I don't know. Love you. I said, I sorry, this is a school. I have to give you a certified check. They won't let me pay cash, etc, etc. So he took it. He put his arm around my shoulder and he said, listen, white boy, let that be a lesson to you. Always read your contract. He's read the contract from that day that day on, up until Brown Infinite, I did everything they wanted to do. That was good advice. By the way, you mentioned Skip Pro Cup.

So we can all bring it back to David Marsden and Ivor Hamilton, because Skip worked at CFNY. Yes. And I know I produce a show today for Humble and Fred. And Fred was there at the time and he's told me some great stories about working with Skip at CFNY in Brampton, God, they were a good band back in the day. Wow. Okay. Skip broke up now. Okay. So we're

flipping all over the place. I love it. No, it's kind of chronic to me. It's, it feels very chronological at this point. So super tramp. And then what you're up to now, I did want the rider story. So, uh, well, you know, so I'm working at CP stories. So, well, you know. So I'm working at CPI. Yes. So I come back after that. Right?

Right. So is that, where are you when you work with people like Lawrence Gowen and Molly Johnson? That's next. Okay. So let's get there because then I have a questions about these fine people. And of course the great Molly Johnson.

So I come off the tour. I work with Michael Cole for a year and a half and I'm sharing my life with a woman who finally says to me, it's the road or me. Okay. Make a decision. He said, you're going, you're on the road 200 days a year. Uh, I was living, you know, in a little apartment in Toronto. And she said, I, I just don't, you know, this isn't what I thought my life was going to be with you. So I went because I'd been through all the run and various other things.

I said, okay, fine. I'll go back to doing record company life and really where it was. And at the end of super tramp, I called up Ray Daniels who was managing rush and said, I'm looking and he said I'm looking too because the guy who was here helping me has gone to New York I need somebody to come in and help my management company he said you won't be doing Rush but I have this guy named Gowan and I'd like you to take care of Gowan and see if we can find any other acts and do other things. So at the time I've told Larry this I wasn't the

biggest fan of Gowan and the music it was just a little over the top for me and what it was but we said and his career was I don't want to say it was on a downhill slide but he'd gone from Criminal 9 and Double Platinum to his third album, which was like 35 or 40,000. It wasn't gold. We had to do something. So that was the start. We made him, gave him his real name back, Lawrence Gallin, and we took him back to singer-songwriter Gallin and started over again.

And that lasted about a year and a half. And I decided to step out on my own and start the Bob Rober Company was management. So Larry and I continued on. I then ended up working with Rick Emmett and Molly Johnson and doing management. And I just, I skipped a step I realized when I came out of all of that I had a call from a lawyer I had a call from Sam Feldman actually who managed trooper and was Bruce Allen's partner in Vancouver and

he said I have a lawyer that wants to talk to you I know you're you're interested in doing management So he called me up and they were headhunting looking for somebody to handle Sharon Lawson Bram And I thought okay Why not so I went and met them And ended up becoming their general manager of managing them. And there, so I was introduced now to children's music. Okay. I'm glad you brought up Sharon, Lewis and Brom. I was a big fan. I've had two of them on this program. I love you. Skinnamorinky dinky dink, skinnamorinky doo.

I love you. I love you in the morning and in the afternoon. I love you in the evening and underneath the moon. Skinnamorinky dinky dink, skinnamorinky doo. I love you. I love you singing. I love you. You are terrific. I love you. We'll see you next time. I love you too. Boo boo be do.

Wow. So what was it like? Do you know, kid children's entertainers and yeah, what was that like? They were like, oh, I love you. I love you. Wow. Oh, so how, what was it like? Do you know, kid, children's entertainers and yeah, what was that like? They were looking for a manager and didn't know who, and they invited me out to see one of their shows at Stratford at the festival theater. And I got there and the woman who was running their company at the time was retiring and I thought,

gee, I'm the only guy they're asking. I got there was 11 other managers in the hall beside me. We're all sitting together watching the show. And it was sold out, just a million little kids, obviously. And at the end of the first song, Honest to God, about a quarter of the audience got up and left. They all start out the aisles and all they go up and I tap the woman on the shoulder and say, what's going on? She said, oh, the kids get so excited after the first song they see elephant, they have to have a pee.

So the moms are taking all the little kids out to have a pee. And I was like, I thought that I didn't know what to do. Tiny bladders. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Of course. So I worked with him for a couple of years.

Um, I had changed my entire wardrobe because you're dealing with parents. So I'm now in suit jackets and ties and with promoters. And it was an astounding run, just beautiful people. And they played with great session people in their band. And we went from doing thousand to 2,000 seat theaters. Sometimes I think the record was 11 shows at Massey hall. And early you would do an afternoon matinee at four o'clock.

And then you do an evening show at seven. It had to be done by 8.15 because the kids had to go home to bed. Of course, yeah. And we took it from the Gottenham American agent and we ended up doing big state fairs. We did the New York state fair in front of 18,000 people in the afternoon, and the evening show was Little Feet and John Hyatt. And in between shows, they came and wanted all of Sharon Lawson Brown's merchandise for the kids and we all wanted little feet

t-shirts and so we all traded merch. And make sure you don't call them Bram. This was like the orders I got from him when I had him on the show. And I don't it's Brom. Don't say Bram. This was very important. I know I've done that forever. He used to yell. Well, I thought I had a nail and he was Brom, don't say Bram. This was very important to him. I know, I've done that forever.

He used to yell. Well, I thought I had a nail and I knew it was Brom. I've known that forever, but then him putting it in my head to be very careful of it made me kind of turn me around. I might've called him Bram just because he had told me not to call him Bram, like it was implanted somewhere. It's like, if he didn't say anything, I wouldn't have called him Bram, but Brom.

And yes, still, He's still with us. And yeah, just as a Sharon. Yeah. As a Sharon, of course. Yeah. So two out of three still with us. And we finally got them on Toronto mic'd a couple of years back. And it was great to do that.

Wonderful people. They were so good with the kids. They would literally grandparents, they would get down on their hands and knees and talk to these little kids and, you know, just hugs and kisses and kisses and and of course the kids would just totally lose their minds over elephant Or and so on so yeah tour bus first first date we did with them I crossed the border of Buffalo and the first thing we wanted to do was go to a grocery store and They made sure I got some dry ice and we probably bought 24 pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream

Because you couldn't get Ben and Jerry's in Canada that time. I thought you guys were all gonna have heart attacks I was gone in two days. It was crazy That's good stuff. Okay. Now I've got just a bunch of random questions here gonna bounce around a little bit What was your relationship like with Bruce Allen? Highly respectful. When I first met him, I had just gone out to Vancouver. I left A&M and went back to work for Capital. That woman I told you about that I lived with, we'd broken up. I just thought it was time for me to change. A&M didn't want me to go out west because they didn't think that was a great

career move. In hindsight now I'm glad I did because it introduced me to guys like Bruce Allen and Sam Feldman and got to know the West Coast music scene. He was an intimidator, he still is. But if you gave it back to him, he respected you So he would loudly yell scream anger and then if you went no That's not the way it's gonna be. Here's what I think and should do. I did I think just last month I was reading that he had parted ways with Bryan Adams after all these years. That's quite a long relationship there now I recently we lost Hal Harbor. Did you know Hal Harbour from CFY? I guess we're now... I knew the name.

Early 90s maybe, but a friend of Hal Harbour who worked at CFNY in addition to Danny Elwell was Joe Faluna, who happens to be working very closely for many years now with Bruce Allen. And I got Joe to kind of ask Bruce Allen if he would do like a Zoom with me, because I have all these questions, particularly I have like tears are not enough questions. Yeah. Were you at you? Did you have questions, particularly I have like tears are not enough questions. Were you, did you have any involvement with the recording of tears are not enough? No, I didn't.

I didn't have any acts that were on it. We tried to get honeymoon suite or at least Johnny D the singer on the- Which would make sense in 1985. But they were in Texas on tour. And the only way we could do it was to try and get an overnight flight And he had to show the next day and it just it just didn't work out

I feel like Rick Emmett wasn't there because he was in Texas at a show Yeah, I feel like he was a triumph at a show in Texas or something at the time But okay, so speaking of Honeymoon suite again bounce around so so the Bruce Allen I wanted to find out if you had any By lying bottom line. Oh, yeah, that's where I wanted to tell you is that Bruce Allen, uh, didn't want to talk about his career with Toronto Mike. So I'm glad you're here, Bob Roper, cause Bruce Allen, how dare you turn down these invitations to talk about your, how dare you? All right, you never know. Yeah, I just, I got along with them really well.

Cause I think I sort of threw it back at him when he, you know, tried to put me in my place early on and it worked very well. Yeah. I've seen the documentary, The Making of Tears are Not Enough. He's barking on the phone and you know, trying to get everybody to that studio on that Sunday. I used that video and I taught a course at Harrison's Stu called O Canada, which is a history of the Canadian music business. And I always ended it with that video. That's I would show them that. I, uh, I recently revisited it because there's been a lot of noise lately

about we are the world and they have a new documentary on Netflix. Oh really? Yeah. Like new and Lionel Richie is kind of talking about, you know, going to Michael Jackson's house and writing the song and all this stuff and Stevie Wonder was supposed to be there and he didn't show up. And then there's like fun facts. You learn like Waylon Jennings walking out.

When Stevie's speaking in Swahili and just interesting to kind of see that interesting to see what was going on that night. But then I, so I revisited Tears Are Not Enough, which I'm mildly fascinated with anyways. And I, I, I am very biased, but I think Tears Are Not Enough is a better song than We Are the World. That's another great building that's gone, that old studio. Are you taking notes, Jeremy? We've got to take notes here. And that's a great footage of, who is it, Mark Holmes from Platinum Blonde showed up in a limousine. Yes. Who is this?

It's like, oh yeah, we're going to record a charity single for Fam and Relief. The other great clip is Bruce Allen yelling at some manager on the phone from can we get a limo? He said no take a cab. It's only cost ten bucks Yeah, there's a lot of good limo And then of course I learned from Terry David Mulligan that they were trying they had Buffy st. Marie committed to Play that and then at the last minute she bailed for unknown reasons. I don't have the reasons right now, but And then at the last minute she bailed for unknown reasons. I don't have the reasons right now, but There's a Bruce Allen gets a call and then he looks at Terry David Mulligan and says Buffy bailed and that's become a part Of the lexicon buffy bailed when somebody cancels at the last minute here. So Buffy bailed. Okay. All right again I'm bouncing around here, but you mentioned Honeymoon Suite

Yes, and of course there is a short period of time where they're a keyboardist with some guy named Rob Proust Yes, and of course there is a short period of time where they're a keyboardist with some guy named Rob Proust But what can you tell me about like is so Honeymoon Suite did these q107 contest? I did the q107 contest and When all the tapes were in and they cut it down to like the final 30 They would invite different A&R and publishing managers in to be judges And I guess it was about two-thirds of the way through listening to everything on comes a song called New Girl Now and I thought it was wonderful. I just really liked the song. So I got a hold of their manager Steve Prendergast the next day and said I'd like to come and see the band. He said

oh fantastic and they were playing some outdoor festival. I can't remember the name of it in Brampton. So I went up to see them and, um, eight or nine songs in the original keyboard player, Ray Coburn, who's living in Montreal now and plays with Kim Mitchell a lot through an angry fit on Stan Wachtoff. And I went, Oh, this is not a band. I sort of think I want to be around if this is happening when an A&R guy is watching. So as it turned out, Ray had decided to leave the band because he was a really good songwriter and he couldn't get any songs on the next album.

So it was a sort of a writing issue, a scenario. And they were looking for somebody and Rob Peruse was the guy. So he got hired in and, you know, went out on the road with them and was with them till it sort of fell apart and then re-emerged and so on. So you know, Rob's not going to have any temper tantrums back there. No, he's a sweetheart. until it sort of fell apart and then re-emerged and so on. And you know Rob's not gonna have any temper tantrums back there. No. He's a sweetheart. He is.

Sometimes, because he's here once a month, so I spend a lot of time with Rob Proust. Sometimes I kind of want a little temper tantrum, like, you know, get angry here. Let's see what it looks like. Another good Burlington guy. We had lunch about a month ago. I'm at the point in my life, I think I said I'm I'm doing really lunches. I am I've done So Blair Packham got a lunch or is getting a lunch and then Rob Prue's got a lunch Jane Harbree I ran into a guy yesterday. I'm doing record shows now. I'm selling my vinyl collection off really at one point I had 18,000

I'm now down to about 3500 I'm now down to about 3500 And I just because why because you're in your 70s now and it's time to shed this weight. Yeah, we're we're Not downsizing, but let me say in quote decluttering. Okay, well, that's a lot That's a lot of vinyl and if I wanted to take the vinyl and sell it to Dealers you get 40 cents on the dollar you go and do a show you get full price if not more That's good to know have you consulted Alan's why get he's always looking to buy vinyl On what it's worth I'm gonna connect you to Alan's why and you know the one of the CF and why stories that we've told often on this program is when they got rid of all the vinyl at CF and

Why and then Ivor Hamilton and Alan Cross rented a some kind of a some truck I don't know rider truck or something filled it up and they they split it like 50-50 and they have their in their wills the first one who dies the other guy gets the other half of the vinyl collection so there's the only problem with a lot of radio station copies is they're all stickered. Oh Yeah, they have catalog numbers and stuff on them and people that are Interesting collectors. Remember the old days used to write your name on an album jacket when you went to a party, right? People won't buy those Depends whose name was yeah, exactly

And you saying you mentioned that the the keyboard is the original is for Honeymoon Suite, having that moment when you're there. And then I was thinking of lowest of the low, who close every episode of Toronto Mike with a song from Shakespeare, my butt and they had a there was a they were doing some showcase for people like yourself, I suppose, and they were wearing like corporate rock sucks t shirts or something like they did everything they could to sabotage it. Yeah, of course, because that's the punk way, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then with Honeymoon Suite, I saw them. We signed them. And the way it worked, it was we, and not Warner, Warner Electric Atlanta. That was a company up here. We would sign and develop our own acts. And my mandate was to only sign Canadian because that was the tax reasons and stuff for the company

And then we would take the finished records And send them to Warner Elector Atlantic and those three Companies would sort of argue fight say yes or no over which company got the particular record say yes or no over which company got the particular record. So with Honeymoon Suite we had two of the three both Warner and an Electra wanted to sign them. So we did a showcase with them that night and of course I had a lengthy guest list with all the A&R people and people that were coming up. We didn't tell the band that anybody was coming because we didn't want them to freak out and get overly nervous. But it turned out that about a half an hour before the show, Derry Grant, the guitar player, wanted to put a

couple of names on the guest list. So we went out to the front door and he said can I add a couple of names to the guest list and he sees Roy Thomas Baker from Electra, the producer of Queen and he just had a heart attack Yeah but they did they did really well when we ended up signing and New girl now went through the roof. Yeah Like you still a jam now. Here's one. I got to play this song and ask you a question regarding this. I've got no time for living, yes I'm working all the time

It seems to me I could live my life I'm not the better man I think I am I guess that's why they call me They call me the working man They call me the working man, okay. Did you play any role at all in Breaking Rush? I'll talk about it and show you that meme while I'm doing it. I've been saying meme.

Is it meme or meme? Either one. Okay, okay. It's like Bram or Brom. Okay, so this is the story I'm hearing, but you're here now in my basement and I can totally get the real story. This is the story I heard. I was living in a house in the beach on Waverly. It was a five bedroom house and there were six guys living in the house.

And two of us were promo guys at different record companies. So you can imagine the amount of music. But I had been going to see Rush since they were playing at the Gasworks and various other things. And the guy who was the landlord of the house, the main guy, was helping them lug some gear and friends. Guy named Glenn McLaren. And he came home one day with a half a dozen copies of that debut record

and said, listen, the guys in the band want to know if you're going out and running around to radio stations, if you drop this off for us, and you just put in a word I said sure no problem and Out of the blue at my little office I didn't one day and the phone rings And it's a woman named Donna helper and Donna helper was the music director at the monsterly large influential WMMS in Cleveland and She said hello. My name is and you don't know me but I have heard of you I'm I have a Sunday night import radio show remember those 100% yes and she said I'm looking for acts have you got any artists on A&M that you

could send me a copy of the record I could play it in the import show I said I'm sorry Donna A&M in Canada doesn't even have an A&R department. We're strictly a distributor. We don't, we, they weren't at that point yet. But some friends of mine called Rush have this record that just came out a couple of weeks ago. Would you be okay if I sent you a copy of that? Sure, I sent her two copies. and lo and behold that song you just played Working Man is the one that she put on and literally in two or three days it was the number one phone request. It went

through the roof. So this story's giving me goosebumps here like think of what a monster global success Rush became and it started in Cleveland and now I'm gonna play a sound bite because people are thinking about it right now as they listen. This is Michael Williams. No Cleveland, no Bowie. We all know the importance of Cleveland to rock and roll back then. Wow. I'm just processing this whole thing. So yeah, Work A Man becomes a radio hit in Cleveland and then boom. Donna Helper and I are still good friends. We talk pretty regularly. She, God bless her has given me that credit every

time people talk about it and where it goes. It's out there. Like, like, one of the things you will discover by googling Bob Roper is that you helped break Working Man in Cleveland for Rush. Yeah, yeah. I've always said I it they would have made it they were such a great band but it would have taken longer. That's all it is. It's just one of those lucky quirks and sometimes things happen. I think one of the famous stories that goes around, if you ever have other promo record guys on is,

what record did you or what artist did you dislike most or which one did you break, et cetera, et cetera, either or. And my dislike was anything ever done by Barry Manilow. Okay, well you're not alone, yeah, okay. And I've got three or four bands that are in my heart that are, you know, I felt sort of important part of

in the early days and things. Well, shout out those, what are those bands? Little River Band was one that became huge. When I went out to Vancouver, again, got a test pressing and heard it. And at that time, music in the late 70s was very sort of country rock, soft pop kind of thing, the successful Eagles and things like that. And the record had been produced by John Boylan.

And a couple of the DJs from Toronto at Chum FM had moved to Vancouver. John Donobie was one. FOTM John Donahby yeah yeah and Mulligan at the time out there and so on so yeah no there's a few of those that you're you're sort of fond of that that worked now you know I mentioned Sharon Taylor's on the live stream so she points out that that when Honeymoon Suite won that Q107 contest you know who the the runners up were? I don't. The jitters. Were they really?

This is the accordion. And sure we know because- That's surely the same time. Yes. Yeah, of course. Good friends of Blair Packham. I won't call you, Sharon, I won't call you Blair Packham's driver.

I don't think you like that very much. I jokingly call that because she drove Pete, I thought, and I think I was wrong about this the whole time, but I thought she drove Blair Packham to an event during COVID times and we couldn't see any live music. Pete Fowler, who's with the OPP now, but he was a DJ on CFNY in the nineties, but Pete Fowler hosted some musical acts in his backyard. And I was invited to see live music and Blair Packham performed that night. It was wild actually to see, to see Blair and I met Blair that night and I met Sharon that night. So that's a fun fact. Okay. Again, I'm going to ask you about some

of these names you dropped with the Bob. Is it called the Bob Roper company? It was. Yes. Okay. It doesn't exist anymore. But so when I left SRO in management, when I worked at Russia's office with gallon and stuff, I started my own little company just to be a management company. Yeah. a management company. Yeah, smart. The old tax reasons, you know. Of course. I've done the same, but I don't have any Gowans in my life. Actually, I do. My cousin's name is Gowan. So shout out to my cousin, Mark.

Good Scottish name. First name or last name? Last name. Last name. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny, Mark Gowan, shout out to Canada Kev because Mark Gowan was a OHL Goaltender and he does Goaltending training. And I know Canada Kev's son has taken the goaltender school that my cousin Mark Gowan and Mark Gowan shares a birthday March 15th with my youngest.

And that was when Blair was here and we sang happy birthday to my youngest who popped on this mic here. And we sang happy birthday to her. And that was also Mark Gowan's birthday. Okay. So first, I think it was- Larry Gowan's a great hockey player too. Larry Gen's a great hockey player, big Leafs fan.

He's probably in the Scarborough Bluffs area right now. Okay, so tell me. Yeah, so we talked about Larry Gowen, but there's another FOTM who happened to be, happens to be one of the most referenced guests in the history of this program. What was it like working with Molly Johnson? What was it like working with Molly Johnson? Really interesting She I tried for the longest time to get her to not read lyrics when she sings And she said well Ella Fitzgerald did it or Billy Holliday did it and I said yeah, but you're Molly Johnson Just because one does it but she just you know for whatever reason could not remember lyrics even songs that she had been involved in creating and

writing but I was just astounded by her performances every night her voice and her demeanor her presentation I absolutely. But she was a she was a wife and a mother. She liked to be at home. The days of you know from infidels and playing a lot of crappy rooms and in a van and stuff I think were over for her at that time. And one of the big regrets I have is not being able to continue doing the management company with the three of them. But it was, I'd lost a wife and two children because I was on the road for the longest time. Um, and I wasn't going to lose the one I'm with now, which is 28 years. So I think this is the Dan Schulman story. Like, yeah, he renegotiated where

he'd be for marriage. Number two, he was going to be home more essentially. And that's why he's so being with Molly. I remember we went up and did a show in Collingwood, and we're coming home in a really bad snowstorm, and I critiqued her show. I said, you know, in this particular song, can I suggest you do this and try this? And she looked at me, she said, you're the first time any manager, anybody in the business has ever critiqued me good, bad, and otherwise. I just sort of went, well, isn't that kind of part of the job?

I'm getting secondhand PTSD right here. I feel like I know the look you got. I feel like I got it maybe when she was in my basement here. By the way, did you ever hear Molly Johnson on Toronto, Mike? No, I have not. OK, there's your whole I will. Yes. OK. I'm assigning you. You have a lot of episodes. But I would, but when guests are people you manage, that's different, right?

Yeah. They got to like the, they got to rise to the top here. Okay. So your homework is to listen to the Molly Johnson. Okay. Did you also manage Atlanta miles? No, but again, another responsible signing. So you, you were, I knew Christopher Ward from Much Music. He and I had gone back forever and ever. And during my in our time at Warner's,

he came to me with her record and we, and I never would listen to music when somebody was with me because they would sit and stare at you and see if you're nodding your head and tapping. I always say, leave it with me. I don't know about you, but sometimes I listen to a record and go, this sucks. I go back a week later and go, this is amazing. How did I miss this? So I took it home. I listened to it. I went, this is, and it was the finished record. It was that debut record. And I called him up and I said, this is fantastic. And then when people come that like Blue Rodeo I say what are you looking for and he was looking for a very high number and I

went this is a great record but she hasn't toured she doesn't tour there's no band this is a record that needs to be toured and performed I said I can't do it there's no way with a Canadian budget that I can big six figures. But I said, let me take it around. Let me go to record companies. And I did. I went and the first guy that bit,

literally 24 hours after I sent it to him was a man, a Turkish guy named Tunc Erum, who was a senior VP at Atlantic. And he called me up and he said, I want this record. Who do I talk to? And of course, Atlantic records has the budgets. Right. And in a very short time, Atlanta had gotten this deal. And of course, black velvet, black velvet. Yeah.

Wow. Okay. I think Christopher Ward is still living off those black velvet. I think so because he co-wrote that with Dave Tyson. Dave Tyson was in the arrows, which goes back to blue rodeo, which is how I knew John Keaton. And that's okay. And that's a, I love rock and roll. Yeah. Don't you love how this all comes? It does. I would sign off there, except I'm not done with you yet. People think the business is huge.

It's not. It's a pretty small community at the end of the day. I'm not, that's why I'm doing this. All the pieces matter. They all fit together. It's wild actually. And I'm so glad, by the way, in case I forget to say this at the end,

I'm glad you made your podcast debut, not just Toronto Mic debut, but your podcast debut because you've got great stories and you were there to quote the great brother, Bill, you were there. I was. You were there. Okay. Were you there for frozen ghost?

Yes. Okay. I just want to talk a little bit about frozen ghost. Sure. Because the, and I've written about this, this is a pre podcast. I had a blog.

Okay. So write about things. And I remember being very interested in the whole sheriff alias, frozen ghost trifecta and how it all fit here. So Arnold Lanny was with sheriff. Yes. Okay. And they had the big us hit when I'm with you, but that came out after they broke up. And then Sheriff becomes two different bands, basically, Alias, which is like Sheriff minus Arnold Lanny. And then of course, Frozen Ghost, which was Arnold Lanny's band with Wolf Hassle here. So Sheriff, as it happens, has a massive hit, sort of as big a hit as when I'm with you by Sheriff, because more than words can say was a massive hit for Alias.

And Alias, there's no Arnold Lanny on that. But you signed Frozen Ghost and I was a big, at the time I was a big Q107 listener and there was a lot of Frozen, like Popper in Paradise and Should I See? There was a lot of big Frozen Ghost. Should I See was the first single. Right big Frozen Ghost jams. Should I See was the first single. Right. And big jams on Canadian Rio. So what can you tell us about Frozen Ghost Arnold Lanny, who I've been trying to get on Toronto Mike. I almost had him a few years ago and then the email address now bounces back. So I guess he cancelled that.

He's living in Arizona, pretty much retired. Well, well, let me go back. I'll just start the story. Give me the frozen ghost story. When I was doing A&R at WIA, I would be an early guy into the office. I would get in it for an A&R guy. 8.39 o'clock was very early because you're usually out till two or three in the morning at bars. And so you usually come in at 11, but I would always go in early.

And in that first couple of hours, because no managers would call you to 11 either so it was quiet I would listen to demos and The I think the most I ever got in one year was about 1700 applications Of which you'd signed three or four So most of the time you're saying no, but this I had this huge box demos that my assistant did by date And I opened up this one brown envelope tape

No picture just a little letter dear Bob Here's a tape from a band called frozen ghost from a guy named Rob Lanny, which is Arnold's brother, right? I put the tape on and from a band called Frozen Ghost from a guy named Rob Lanny, which was Arnold's brother. Right. I put the tape on and Should I See was the first song on it and I went, holy crap, this is a great single. I like it. And I walked down to the corner where my president sat and I played it for him and he said, chase it.

Let's go see what it is. So I called up Rob and I said, what's going on? And he came in to see me and it turned out that Arnold had done the entire record in his basement in a little home studio. That he had to not record when the wife was using the washer and dryer or the microwave because it would bugger up the sound.

And there was four songs and I went, this is great. microphone or the microwave because it would bugger up the sound. Right. And there was four songs. I went, this is great. Let's do it. And it was against my better judgment because I rarely would sign anything that wasn't already touring and head management. But this was one guy in a studio with a bass player. So we decided to do it and we ended up and he said to me instead of a big advance for me to you know spend money on shitty stuff how

about you give me enough money to build me a studio. So he went and rented a little place in an industrial mall up in northwest end of the city and he finished the record and we took it to England and mixed it there at Rupert Heinz studio And lo and behold we had a top two and the same guy Tun Jerem Signed frozen ghost for America and we had to put a band together because the thing was it went top five in album radio in America And away it went so it was and watching them try and put a band together Arnold was the goofiest looking dressing guy you'd ever seen in your life

We had to turn him into what looked like a bit of a rock guy And they put a nice band together and then they did the first tour they did was opening for Howard Jones. And I went to, I think it was Ithaca, New York or something for the first date. And they were awful, because they hadn't done it ever. But eventually it came together.

And then we were making the next record with Frozen Ghost. We went back to England and Arnold got a call from his business manager saying the record is the sheriff record when I'm with you is taking off and I can't I can't New Mexico or Arizona some radio station and damned of the thing and literally three weeks later it was number one. Is that wild? Isn't that a wild story? Unbelievable. Like a band's disbanded, everybody's gone

separate ways and some DJ probably, like back when DJs could probably do that. Like they just can't even do that anymore. No, no, no, no. And he ended up, and the strange thing was, Arnold described it as buying a lottery ticket, I guess with the guys in Sheriff, who were, because the band was broken, couple with the guys in Sheriff who were,

cause the band was broken, a couple of the guys financially weren't in great shape. Arnold said he ended up buying the publishing off the other guys for the cost of a good used car. Wow. Wow. So he owned the publishing outright. And this is the number one hit on the billboard hot 100, you know, the big U S charts. So, okay, so that happens, which is wild, but then I'm just, do you happen to know, uh, it ended the friendship between Wolf Hassle and Arnold because Wolf and the rest of the guys wanted to put, go out as sheriff or whatever.

But I guess Arnold is Arnold. He sits inside his own little particular box and does it. And he just wasn't willing to go back and do what he did last time. And Sheriff, sorry, Frozen Ghost sort of hit the wall with Atlantic. Can I curse? Yeah. We went down to New York to see about doing the second record and sent demos to the same guy, Tun Jerem,

that had signed Atlanta. And he looked at Arnold in the eye, said, I've listened to these songs. Why don't you guys write any more fuck songs? You don't write fuck songs. And he wanted another When I'm With You. He wanted another ballad. And, you know, Should I See was the furthest thing from that.

It was all anti- yeah and I just looked at Tunge and I went okay this is the big American record company just thinking about hits because I always thought Arnold and where the band was could have developed into something really unique I always know whenever you had a big rock band it was always the ballad that was a big hit that's why we never put triode early because blue rodeo didn't want to be known as a ballad band Because if we to put that single out and it hit that that would have been Yet you couldn't have done Greg Keeler songs after that Right no diamond mine. Okay. Well, okay. So back to sheriff for a moment

So so what's it like with frozen ghost and Arnold Lanny when Sheriff, like to me, this story is wild because the rest of, sorry, it ended the friendship between Arnold and Wolf. Right. Actually I meant alias. Okay. So I know it's so confusing, right?

So Sheriff breaks up. We talked about that, the friendship, everything, but then out of the ashes of Sheriff, uh, excluding, I guess, Arnold and Wolf, there is, um, is alias. But when alias, when more than words, cause I believe more than words can say went to number one, this is another number one billboard hot 100 hit, I believe that alias has there. Do you have any insight into how, uh,

how Arnold's taken that because it's one thing when sheriff goes number one, but then when he sees the rest of the guys do it again, that's why. I haven't talked to Arnold in years and I still talk, I don't talk. We, we message on Facebook with Arnold's wife. Um, Arnold is, you know, Arnold's Arnold, Arnold Arnold, he, you know, wonderful guy, but just very much a loner and does what he does and very family oriented. They moved to Arizona because of his health. He needed cleaner air and you know and so on. But yeah, no they could have, as Wolf said, they could have put the band together and gone out as

sheriff or alias or frozen alias or whatever the hell you want and everybody could have made a nice payday. Right. Wow. Okay and of course Arnold has Our Lady Peace money. Yep. So that doesn't hurt That doesn't hurt either. No, no. I mean, he was a great producer considering that thing was done in a basement on a, you know, overdubbing and. Right. Okay. Well, we're in a basement right now. No, no overdubbing required. Now we're done. You've been amazing. You've been an amazing. So you'll have an opportunity if there was any story that on your drive here you wanted to share but didn't get extracted. Now's the time. But I'll just

read one last sentence from Rob Bruce before I start playing some lowest of the low here. Corporate rock sucks. Okay. Rob Bruce says, uh, Bob Roper inspired and mentored new generations of music industry people while teaching at the Harris Institute. So I thought we just close it out there that this Harris Institute, which I don't know much about Harris Institute, but it sounds like you know you were doing important work for the next gen. It's a private post secondary school located on Sherbourne and Queen in downtown Toronto. It is a school that teaches either the music business because it is the business of

music. Too many musicians are focused on the music and not the business. Right. And they also do producing and engineering which is the other half. So when I was at Warner doing A and R, my friend, John Harris, who I'd known from the days, I don't know whether you remember this tranquility base and Ian Thomas, I, well only cause I've had Ian on twice and we talked about tranquil. I played some tranquil. I knew them in high school or in university because Ian's from Hamilton. So John, I said that to him and he got upset because he says it's not Hamilton. He says he's from Dundas. Dundas. Sorry. He still lives in Dundas. Yeah. Yeah. Although they've merged apparently.

Yes. Back then they weren't. They were separate. They'll be Toronto's in 10 years. So he, John called me and said, I'm teaching at a school called Trebis. Would you come down and teach a course in A&R? Cause I was doing A&R at Warner. So I did and really liked it. Um, and I taught an hour a week and that was it, the course. He eventually left Trevis and started his own school, um, and called me up and said, would you come with me to teach over here? So that was, I don't know, 30 years ago and taught.

over here. So that was, I don't know, 30 years ago and taught. I ended up after I came off the road and management, John hired me full time to run the business program at the school. So the school has 63 instructors, none of them full time other than the directors and each expert comes in and teaches an hour. Jane Harbory and so on. Blair taught for a while. So that all came together in teaching. So a lot of the students have gone on to have really interesting careers in the business. And the funny thing is when I taught there in the first two weeks, I could tell which students were going to be the ones that made it and which were their dream that would never come

together. Very interesting. So you find out there's always the outlier. I didn't think they'd make it and look at them now. It's one of those outliers. I did a record show in London yesterday and one of my grad students from 15 years ago came in, a man named Justin Coombs. He's now married, got two kids and he's the head marketing booking guy for the Western Ontario Fair in London. How you doing? How you doing?

What's going on? Yeah so it's kind of full circle, it's nice. I miss the teaching. I miss the students. I just don't miss commuting to Toronto three or four days from Berlin A couple of days you get stranded at Union Station because the go-chain trains You can't get to Burlington on your own unless you take the train to Hamilton and take a cab back to No, I hear you. I hear you. That's that's it. It'll be worth the drive here for the lasagna. Yeah. But is there is there almost the best of the rest?

Like what is in and what is the best story that didn't get told yet on this episode? I my favorite concert of all time would have been Pink Floyd, the Dark Side of the Moon tour at the Montreal Forum and the year it came out. When the record came out

I told you the story about Marsden. Everybody at the record company at Capitol said Roper you're the guy that probably will fit best with Pink Floyd. You take care of them, you go on the road with them. So when they came through they played Detroit, Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal. So I met up with them in Detroit and just hung out with them for the four days and sat in a little English pub in Montreal, and this is a spinal tap story almost,

Waters and Gilmore sat over a beer with napkins drawing out stage plots and what they were going to do with their lighting rig as it evolved and did. I wish I still had those napkins, but it was kind of like the stonehenge thing dropping down. Of course. Mix that with the other one. When Supertramp played Jerry Park in Montreal, it was the baseball. You ever been to Jerry Park? No. Okay.

So on either side of the first base and third base line outside the park are soccer fields. So the gates were going to open at noon and 30,000 people are lined up to get in because on the field it's general admission The band and the crew went out into a soccer pitch and played soccer for an hour and a half beside all the fans Not one person recognized Wow Wow not one not one Bob Roper I think we could have done four hours five hours easy I'll come back if you want me to have to have to do a sequel. We'll have to do a sequel. So your podcast debut went an hour and 40 minutes. Did it feel like an hour and 40 minutes? No, no, not at all. It was a great pleasure for me. I got to thank a couple of people. I got to

thank Blair Packham for trying to make this happen. He wanted this to happen. And I got to thank Rob Proust. So I think finally made it happen. And I got to thank them too. And I'm thinking Bob Roper. We won't call them Mr. Roper. What was Mr. Roper's first name? And why don't I remember it right now? Uh, goodness. Great. It wasn't Bob that much. I know, but, uh, Norman fell was the actor. Shout out to Ridley funeral home there, but, uh, thanks for doing this. We'll get you to Christie pits. Uh. Maybe you can come out and see Rick Emmett at Christie Pitts and that

Brings us to the end of our 1450 second show you can follow me on Twitter and blue sky. I'm at Toronto Mike Hey, are you anywhere Bob? Is there any social media you maintain? Yeah, just Bob Roper on Facebook on same thing on Twitter Okay, I'll find you I'm gonna tag you when I post this, which will be in like 10 minutes. So before you get home, much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, don't leave without your lasagna. No. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Raymond James Canada, subscribe to The Advantage Investor, the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, and Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow. It's the return, this should be exciting, the return of Dan O'Toole. We have a few things to catch up on. I'm looking forward to chatting

with Dan tomorrow. See you all then. Oh, you know that's true because everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold with the smell of snow, won't speed a day And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away Because everything is rolling in gray Well I've been told that there's a soccer ball on every day But I wonder who, yeah I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize there's a...