Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Craig Halket: Toronto Mike'd #1201

Episode Date: February 9, 2023

In this 1201st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with former MuchMusic VJ Craig Halket about his 25 years at the station, his post-Much journey and what he's up to now. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1201 of Toronto Mic'd. 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. Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Ridley Funeral Home.

Pillars of the community since 1921 and Canna Cabana the lowest prices on cannabis guaranteed learn more at canna cabana dot com joining me today making his Toronto Mike debut is Craig

Halkett how you doing Mike? Craig looking good looking sharp do you dress like that all the time? Toronto Mike debut is Craig Halkett. How you doing, Mike? Craig, looking good, looking sharp. Do you dress like that all the time? I try to dress up a lot more now. I mean, the hoodies and sweatpants were the COVID era. I would like to call that.

So, yeah, I like to try to look nice again. You look sharp. It's great to meet you. Thank you. How is your dog doing? My dog's good. My youngest child, Marley, is watching the dog right now and taking good care of him. And yeah, my dog's name is Truman. And he did have some stomach issues a couple of last week or earlier this week.

And now he's doing well. Marley named after Bob Marley, I'm going to guess. No, actually, it's named after Marley Road in Toronto. Okay, okay. Good shot by me there. Okay. We've never met, but I follow you on Instagram and I sense you're on a journey of rediscovery.

It's like watching the Craig Elkett journey is interesting. Well, you know what? I'm glad that you noticed that and recognize it because, I mean, certainly there have been a lot of changes in my life I mean since uh I mean I'd worked at Much Music for so long and to be honest when you work at some place for as long as I did 25 years you it becomes your identity and and really that was just something I didn't let go of because three weeks after I left Much Music my father passed away so So it was just a one-two punch that really kind of knocked me on my butt. So I really needed to sort of explore other things to try to change me.

But it was still, it was a real struggle. I ended up at Chorus Entertainment for a while, and things were really good. I mean, I really, I was doing okay, but there were so many things, little elements missing. You know, for 25 years, I went, I was wined and dined at much music and, you know, went out and, you know, I paid the rent at some of the pubs in the neighborhood of much music. And, and it just got to the point where that, that was one part of it was that I really had to address how much I'd been drinking and, and to just really try to get myself into a healthier place. And that's been a struggle as well.

And then about five years ago, my wife and I separated. And we had a real, you know, we tried to make it work again. And twice we tried to reconcile, but it just wasn't meant to be. And we'd grown apart. And really, it was sort of a difficult thing. So there was a lot of things that were happening. And then, of course covet hit so for me i really had to focus on making myself the best person i could be and that's really what my journey is all about is being the best person i can be well like i follow it like uh intently like you're it definitely seems to be a journey

and you you have inspiring like quotes and stuff and kind of on your journey and again again, I actually always open up, like you have a question for Craig and I have some great questions, but a few came in and I realize you are separated from your wife and I nixed these questions, but since you disclosed that, I know, for example, Brian Dunn was excited to talk about Walt Disney World, but I'm guessing this is going to be a sore spot for you. It's not a sore spot. I mean, I still love Disney. And once again, it's something that I've had all my life.

I took my kids there hundreds of times over the years, my ex, Andy, and I. And we had a really great time. So it's not an issue at all because I still do wear Mickey Mouse sweatshirts. And I do intend on going to Disney World. But right now, like as part of what I'm you know through reinventing myself I guess or just trying to rediscover who I am yeah or as David Bowie would say the beautiful thing about aging is that you become the person you were always supposed to be so for me that's what I'm trying to do so ultimately Disney's still a part of me I can't

I can't discard that I really just want to embrace more positive things, positive energy, positive thinking, and just, you know, just being thankful and grateful for every day. So can I ask you, this is a pretty innocuous question, but it's about Walt Disney World. So Brian was going to have me ask you what your favorite meal is on the Walt Disney World property. Wow, that can be really difficult,

but ultimately I think it's Ohana at the Polynesian Village Resort. It's just something that, as a family, we always loved. And I've gone there by myself and enjoyed it. It's a lot of food, but it's a lot of protein. And it's just a nice place. And my favorite resort and our family's favorite resort was always the Polynesian, so that's where we really loved to go. If anyone was going to go, I'd suggest they go there.

Brian's connection to all of this is he worked with your wife at Disney. Yes, he did. He's the world's biggest Barenaked Ladies fan. Okay, that's cool. I like that. I'm a Barenaked Ladies fan, i wish steven was still in the band we all do to be honest yeah uh absolutely because i i saw them last summer i saw bare naked ladies and they're especially when they play uh songs like brian wilson like brian wilson's a song it's

tough to listen to brian wilson without hearing steven page's voice on that jam because it's so closely associated with the man but i know why they do it and i get it in his business whatever but yeah yeah for us if we had our way we'd stick steven yeah for me jane is one of my is probably my favorite uh bare naked lady song and it's it's steven's voice that really sells it but i love that and the rest of the yeah i know it he came up with that big bang theory song in the shower one day or something. Yeah, and he's paying for a new shower every day. What is his line? He says, it paid for a few mortgages. And the drummer, Tyler, who's

an FOTM. By the way, Craig, you're now an FOTM, friend of Toronto Mike. Welcome to the family. I like being here. Tyler says he did not want to go, he didn't want to come back to the city from the cottage to record that Big Bang Theory. He said it was a waste of time, like this is going to be nothing. Like he really fought it hard and I think Ed called in like a personal favor and said

this might be something, like this guy Chuck Lorre might actually be like a talented producer of television. And like he said, it paid for the cottage, so there you go. That's perfect much music what now we're going to get into much music obviously and then uh i'm curious about your journey but what year did you start at much music 85 i did an i started an internship in 85 and basically worked with the vjs and at that point it was jd roberts uh christopher ward erica m and michael williams and i got to meet all of them and and they invited me to come in and start up the

internship and i worked with a producer named morgan who taught me how the much music programming works so that first few weeks i kind of learned everything that i ended up embracing in my my time there so yeah in 85 then I was officially hired in 86. But that's early days, because what does much hit the airways? 84, is it? 84. So yeah, it was just over a year after much had hit the air. And so it was still, it was at 99 Queen Street East, which was a beautiful building.

So much history in that building. And it was just a really beautiful place to work. I mean, it was sort of broken down and and it was a little bit you know homemade you know let's put on a show on the fourth floor and that's what we did and it was always fun to to do and i i was just really lucky and blessed to be able to be a part of that era like amazing i can't wait to get into this with you but i'm going to ask a question from steve leggett here and then i'm going to play a song and talk about something that happened today. But Steve Leggett writes in,

you have to ask him if he was called Craig F. Helkett because his middle name starts with an F, or if it's because he's a freaking big deal. And he says it's a great get. He's looking forward to your much story. I use that. Yeah, no, I mean, it's my middle name, Francis, which was my grandfather's name.

But yeah, I just, I don't know what it was. And maybe it was just moving from a smaller town into Toronto. Right. And thinking that, you know, if Michael J. Fox can do it, let's throw that middle initial in and just separate myself. I was Craig Francis Helkett for a brief period, but then it became Craig F. Helkett. And lately I've kind of dropped the F,

although people keep saying I should put it back. I like the, you know, I mean, that was me, Craig F. Helkett. It rolls off the tongue more than Craig Helkett. It's like you have to pause in between. And it does, you know, you're dressed all snazzy. Like, I feel like you need the F in there. Like F. Scott Fitzgerald or whatever, except you stick it in the middle.

I think you need it now. I would add it back. Okay, I'll do it. Okay. You'll see it on all my socials tonight. Toronto Mike says the F is back. F this. Okay, we got news today.

I want to ask you about a song here. Before you got too much, I guess. This is like 83 or so. We'll listen to it for a bit, and then we'll see if you can guess where I'm going with this. I walk along the city streets You used to walk along with me And every step I take

Reminds me of just how we used to be Well, how can I forget you, girl? There is always something there to remind me. Always something there to remind me. Okay, who do you think wrote this song? Oh my gosh. I'm putting you on the spot here. The clue I'll give you is it has to do with current events.

There's a reason I'm asking you this. Oh, that's right. Of course, it's Burt Bacharach. Right, yeah. But that was Naked Eyes, though. Right, this is Naked Eyes, the cover from this. I guess a 60s song that was covered by Naked Eyes. But this is a Burt Bacharach jam.

Yes. And that's really sad because, I mean, on my socials, I did post something about it. I mean, it's something that his songs are just so timeless. And for my love of music, my love of music doesn't embrace just certain types. I suppose when I was on air and I'd grown my hair long, I got associated with rock and metal. But ultimately, I've always loved all kinds of music.

And I think that's still what it is today. When people ask me what my favorite album is, it's impossible. Right. Well, when you come back to kick out the jams, we'll see how you do. like if you just you walk through uh walk on by you walk through like uh the discography of songs written by burt backrag and you're like oh my goodness that's a burt backrag jam like that's like this man was prolific and so many hits and you know from

raindrops keep falling on my head you know we could keep going all the Dionne Warwick stuff and just prolific. Yeah, absolutely. Say a Little Prayer. I mean, a lot of these songs had resurgences because I think Say a Little Prayer appeared in My Best Friend's Wedding with Julia Roberts. Right.

And then Mike Myers, certainly with the Austin Powers films, always embraced Burt Bacharach and Burt Bacharach was always there and actually in the films. certainly with the Austin Powers films, always embraced Burt Bacharach, and Burt Bacharach was always there, and actually in the films. And I just think, yeah, the Dan Warwick period was great, but also the B.J. Thomas raindrops keep falling on my head. It's just such a great song.

I mean, they're all great, and those versions are sort of definitive. We could spend the hour talking about this, because The Carpenter's close to you. Yep. Like, just, you know, anyways, the number of big jams that this man wrote or co-wrote, it's just very lengthy.

So we lost Burt Bacharach, and I thought... It's really sad, yeah. I feel like that's one of those songs we know as a 60s cover, sort of like... Tainted Love. Like, Tainted Love was like an early... Soft Cell.

Like an early 80s jam that's a cover of like a 60s song or whatever but yes that's true and also they it was mixed with where did our love go by the supreme right that's right that's the the 12-inch single love it okay so when you're at much music in 85 and i'm just because i mentioned the bare naked ladies off the top so i'm curious uh you're in the building when the Barenaked Ladies do their Speaker's Corner Yoko Ono, and that's a big part of breaking that band, like when they do Yoko Ono and Speaker's Corner. So what's it like being in the building when BNL starts to break?

You know, it was incredibly exciting because for me, the guys are, you know, they were sort of a similar age group, and they, you know, just to see them come out of a, you know, come out of Scarborough, basically, you know, and, you know, they'd done a, they had, I guess they did have a video for the Bruce Coburn, like where they covered Lovers in a Dangerous Time. And that video was just kind of fun and shot, I think,

at A&A Records in Scarborough. And there was all of this really great stuff in that video. But ultimately, yeah, they were, and I became kind of close to them in that period. And especially when they started doing our spring breaks and things like that within a couple of years. Were you ever on any of those ships and dips cruises that they would, legendary cruises

that Barenaked Ladies would have? No, I didn't do that, no. No, sometimes I wouldn't leave the house. All right, so now we're going back here. tell me about craig f helcate before much music like like did you always want to be in front of the camera did you want to be behind the camera what was your dreams before you got to much well you know what i always wanted to be somewhat of a performer or appear on camera on stage uh drama club in high school i was always in in the in the plays and musicals i sang and i danced uh but the the main thing that wanted to put me in front of an audience was when i was 12 i met my friend ron and i became a magician when i was 12 years old

and me and ron sort of traveled all over ontario doing big big shows illusions you know disappearing things song a woman in half all of that kind of stuff. So I was a magician basically right up until and shortly after I started at Much Music. I'd done it with my friend and then got it on my own. So that was the big thing. Going to Ryerson was key because I really wanted to go to Ryerson because my dream was to be an anchorman on the CBC.

That's what I wanted to be. I wanted to do news. And I really focused more on journalism when I was going to Ryerson, but I became this guy that was sort of infatuated with music. And I, and somebody had said, well, why don't you, why don't you apply to much music and that kind of thing. And I never really actually applied. I just, I had to write an essay on a production process and then wrote the, and decided to write the essay on Much Music, called up. I came in, I met all the VJs and they brought me in as an intern. So, but basically it was always something I wanted to do. And I did local cable shows and things like that, doing high school news. And it's something I always wanted to do. I'm, you know, sort of, I'm a, I like to be in front of people performing, I guess. I had no, so I had no idea

about the magician thing, which is amazing. What's Ron's last name? Stefanik. Did he go on to do anything with regards to media? Yes. He actually has a special effects company called Steph FX, and it does special effects. He builds monsters, and he builds animatronic animals

and things like that. There was a CIBC commercial a few years ago with a manatee. He built the manatee. And on the show, The Boys, he built a huge whale that the boat goes into. Wow. Okay, look what happened to you guys. Do you guys have a name when you were the duo?

Yes, we were Magic Incorporated. Magic Incorporated, okay. And we had long silver jumpsuits. It was the Doug Henning era, so we were influenced by that. Amazing. So you were. It was the Doug Henning era, so we were influenced by that. Amazing. So you were on your way to Doug Henning, Bill. Oh, the late great Doug Henning.

Yes. We miss that guy. But he did a stunt with the CN Tower. I got my story right. Did he jump off the CN Tower? No, I think that was David Copperfield. That was Copperfield? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was.

Yeah, I don't think, you know, Doug Henning became more about transcendental meditation in the latter years and did more about, I went to see a show where he tried to levitate off the stage himself and I don't recall it working. Well, maybe during the, when you're talking about something else, I'm going to Google Doug Henning CN Tower.

Where's that receded memory coming from? Who knows? I could be conflating my magicians here. But so who, like, do you even remember, like, who invited you into 99 Queen East for that interview? Do you remember, like, who? It was, there were two people. I love the details.

It was Michael Hayden, who was the head producer, one of the head producers then. And Morgan Flurry, who were, who was sort of working that weekend when i came in and she's the one that sort of showed me the ropes in terms of programming very quickly uh so they just brought me in and but then i i really became connected helping out uh with everybody that when i was writing the essay i didn't really do much research to be absolutely honest i made it all up but um and i got a good grade but we um i

you know like i mean i got along really well with christopher and and erica and jd and michael all of them uh i was extremely keen and extremely hyper and um lots of energy yeah well they you know as i because i've had to interview all those people everyone but michael williams who very nicely says he's too busy maybe one day but he's been kind of teasing me for 10 years, Michael Williams. Is that his M.O.? Yeah, I would say so. He's a bit elusive, but he's a passionate guy. Come on, Mike. He loves music.

He loves music, and if you got him talking about music, he wouldn't stop. You know who... Go ahead. He loves all kinds of music, and he's passionate about Canadian music, certainly. Lately, he's embraced stuff, like he's embraced stuff, like he was involved with the Doug and the Slugs documentary

that came out recently. I saw him on that, yeah. And he does a lot of stuff with the spoons and making personal appearances. So he's really passionate about what he does. I saw him introduce the spoons at an event several years back. Yeah, he seems to be in tight with them. They're FOTMs as well.

And the original keyboardist, not the original keyboardist, he came in just before the heyday for Spoons. It's Rob Pruce. He's the keyboardist. He'll be here for Toast. I'm just teasing it for the listenership. He'll be here, I think it's two weeks, two Tuesdays from now is the next episode of Toast.

And I got Bob Ouellette in the basement with the great Rob Pruce. So just to let people know, that's coming up in a couple of weeks. Rob's a sweetheart, by the way. I love Rob. And Rob and I met, I was a bit of a Spoons fanatic

back in the early 80s before I started at Ryerson. And I met and hung out with those guys a lot when they would play the Ontario Place Forum. Oh my goodness. Did you have a crush on Sandy Horn? Yes, I did. Yeah, I did.

But I really, really enjoyed Rob's hair. Yeah? Yeah. And you know, he was 15 when he joined the Spoons. I know. I know. But I really, really enjoyed Rob's hair. And you know, he was 15 when he joined the SPIG. I know. We communicate still right now. Through social media, we talk.

He made a comment when I posted about Burt Bacharach today. The world's too small, Craig. It's all way too small. I was talking to Rob today. Oh, do you want a keyboard in the basement when you come over? Anyway, so you're at MuchMusic.

These VJs, so again, although I've met Michael Williams, he has yet to come on Toronto Mic. But I mean, Christopher, oh, I should point out, J.D. Roberts has never come on Toronto Mic, and I don't think he's coming on Toronto Mic because now he's a big American news star. Yeah. When was the last time you talked to him?

Oh, it's got to be about 10 years ago at, I think Triumph was involved. Excuse me. Triumph was involved in Canadian Music Week at the time, sort of when they were first starting to kind of put themselves back together. And John was there. I think he was inducting them into the Canadian Music Week Hall of Fame. I like Triumph. You know, maybe they got kind of lost because there's rush, right?

There's huge rush. But I feel Triumph, Rick Emmett's an FOTM. But great band, like great, great champs. They're all great. I mean, every one of them, you know, and I've hung out quite a bit over the years with Mike Levine primarily and his wife Rosie. Sure.

Yeah, so, I mean, those people, they're salt of the earth great people. And that doc is pretty good too. It is a great doc. I've watched it twice. It's just kind of, it's really cool to hear Gil tell the stories. Love Triumph. Okay, so shout out to Triumph here. Okay, so we have you just setting the table here thinking about that cast.

So Christopher Ward, of course, who prior to his Much Music, so he was, I guess the test bed for Much Music was, is it City Limits? City Limits. Yeah, so he's there. You mentioned Mike Myers like 10 minutes ago. Mike Myers was a character that would come on

as Wayne Campbell. And his, by the the way shout out to paul myers his brother who's an fotm from the gravel berries i love paul yeah he's a great guy this is fun so christopher ward uh was a like a yacht rocker before much music like he i call him a yacht rocker he doesn't argue that's pretty much the genre but he was a musician and then eventually of course with alana miles he strikes it big with black velvet yeah christopher was always you know i mean at the time he was actually dating alana miles uh back then so right but ultimately i mean i i just really always picked his brain about music and and his knowledge of music and then found out more

about his his uh musicianship uh sort of growing up and But he just, all the VJs back then, I mean, they did their research. I mean, they just, they were ready to make sure. And I mean, for me, they really inspired me to learn as much about music as possible. And Christopher was one of those people. But I love the idea that these are not just talking heads or like attractive people for the camera. These are bonafide, legitimate music fanatics. That's important. That's what it was all about.

I mean, it wasn't really about appearance. And everyone had their own passion. I mean, certainly, I guess when Erica came on, her passion was being more of a fan of music. And so, I mean, she took a lot of bad swipes back then, but she was just always so passionate about music and learning more about music and learning more about everything.

She's just so bright. And just, she and I really hit it off really well from the beginning. And within a year, I remember the, I'll tell a little Erica story. Yeah, I love it. We were doing, we had a Halloween party at Much Music in probably 86 or 87.

Yeah, it must have been 87. And I wanted to dress up as Erica. So she actually let me in. I was way skinnier then. I went to her home and she let me go to her closet. And I picked out all of some of the classic early Erica M outfits, bright pastel colors. And I got to wear the bone in my hair and I had a wig. It was fabulous.

It was just, no, it was really good. It was a lot of fun. And I have a picture somewhere of me and her, me dressed as Erica with Erica. Are you ready for a little trivia? Yep. Who's the first female VJ in Much Music History? Catherine McClanahan.

Good for you. Okay, because of course you were there, you know this, but the average Joe or Jane will tell you it's Eric M and that is just not correct. Yeah. And Catherine of course is married to Patrick from SpongeBob. That's right.

Yeah. Which is amazing. Yeah. And he was in a coach. Yes, he was. Yeah. Blonde guy.

Yeah. He's a, and I met him. I met them when, when SpongeBob and, and. And I met him. I met him when SpongeBob and Patrick came in to MuchMusic. I met both of them. So they were, yeah, and we talked, I talked to him a lot about Catherine being there back in the day. Yeah, you got to drop these fun facts whenever they strike.

Honestly, I love that. I always remember that Patrick fun fact. That's just great. Okay. So, yeah, so Christopher Ward, Erica M., are you at all involved with the documentary that is screening at South by Southeast? This is called 299 Queen Street West.

Yeah, I mean, not necessarily on camera or anything like that, but I had several, a couple of interviews with Sean Menard, who's produced. The director, right? Yeah, the director. Yeah, so, I mean, we did have a conversation, so he's giving me the heads up. Have you seen it? No, I haven't

seen it yet, no. I guess I'll probably just see it with most other people. I don't know who's going down to South by Southwest for the premiere. I'm going to assume Erica is, because she's more involved on an executive producer level, but I know everyone's involved in it,

so everyone's kind of excited. But that's exciting. Yeah, it is exciting, because if it's good, and it should be good, this will be a nostalgic resurgence, and you'll be so in demand, you won't have time for Toronto Mike anymore. You'll be like, give me Craig F. Halkett.

Well, you know what? For me, it is, but it's also very difficult because the concept of much music has been, the perception of it differs from era to era because, you know, for a lot of people, the George years are the years that they remember or the Bradford Howe years. Well, it depends on your age, right?

That's right. So this sort of encapsulates, I guess, from my understanding, that prime 80s, nineties era, um, when things were still kind of flying by the seat of their pants, we were still doing lots of live TV. Um, and then in the two thousands that kind of started going away just because of

corporate restructuring for possible sale, which eventually happened. But, uh, we had, we had so much fun back then. So I can't wait to see it and, and see if they remember it the way I do. And is is it i'm not going to put words in your mouth i want

to hear what you think about this but is it possible that you know they say uh necessity is the mother of invention but the fact you had no budget and i feel like the questions like i have so many of your colleagues have been over like from ziggy to you name it they and it sounds like that environment at the time was sort of like if you wanted to do something you could pitch it you might even get into moses's office i'm gonna ask you now whether you can just walk right in there and pitch an idea but the first question would be like can you do it cheap or whatever and then if you could do it cheap you might be just able to go do it what do you say about that a couple of things yeah let's go in the 90s i did a an 80s weekend and uh this was before

we started making weekend specialty weekends a thing when you would have a budget we didn't i didn't have a budget i just pitched it and i went and did it and so i basically it focused on the programming but then as we started talking about people started calling in about the 80s and and it was an 80s weekend in 95 and so people came in with 80s memorabilia like and so we we did the set design for free and basically had the these fans these much music fans come in and actually be commentators uh with the other vjs with uh rick and bill at the time it was just it was a lot of fun. That's one thing where there was no budget. We just did it.

It was programming. And that's what actually turned into the other specialty weekends we used to do was because the ratings were so through the roof for the 80s weekend. Wow. So that was good. The other thing is it's a more personal story. I hosted Combat Day Clip from 91 to 97. personal story um i hosted combat day clip from 91 to 97 and i went into um it was basically i was doing electric circus and i was doing some stuff on air i was mc you were mc craig i was mc craig

after i would walk in at the beginning with the long hair and i remember chris shepherd once saying because he and i were friends back then he said I always know what you went up to the night before if you're wearing sunglasses on the Saturday. That's when we used to shoot on Saturday. So I was, you know, sunglasses meant hangover. But we, I, one, anyways, one Friday night, I've been at X-Rays, which was a bar just down the street from Much Music. Yeah. And I was sitting there drinking and drinking and and went and then i just walked back to the station and i was uh near moses's office and the door was open

so i said what the heck i'm gonna go in and see if moses wants to talk so i just you know i had a little bit of liquid courage i walked in and uh and said moses you know can i talk to you for a minute yeah um there's this show, Combat Eclipse. It's nine o'clock on Friday nights. The VJs don't want to stick around for an hour being here till nine because the day ended at six. So they'd have to wait around for three hours. Why don't you just give me the show? You've already approved me for Electric Circus. I program the show. I produce the show. I floor direct the show. Why don't you give it to me and basically that's how i got it i never auditioned i just basically was was given the show and here's another side note before i did combat day clip my test run was to host a new concept for a show where we took at

that point faxes and phone calls and had an artist perform and the first show was Mendelssohn Joe Says What. So Mendelssohn Joe, I mean, who just passed away, what, yesterday or the day before? The day before yesterday, assisted suicide. Yes. So that's, you know, the fact that he, yeah. I'm glad you're bringing this up, Craig, because when I learned the news,

the sad news that Joe Mendelssohn had decided to end his life, he had been battling Parkinson's, and very civil that he was able to do it though. I really think that's a, such a wonderful thing that he was able to decide how he would exit and when in that nature. But I started thinking about this magic time. Like I am a guy pushing 50 here and I grew up with much music and the way that somebody like an artist like Mendelssohn Joe was presented on Much Music, he was right there, like alongside like Prince or Bruce Springsteen. Like there's Mendelssohn Joe.

So I always grew up, I still remember like in my early 20s, I'd be biking on Davenport and I'd see Mendelssohn Joe walking. And I'd go, Joe! And he'd wave back. And I'm like,

this guy was famous to me. And he was, I respected him because of all the times I saw him on Much Music. Like I don't even think today somebody like a Mendelssohn Joe could ever get the time of day on a station like that. No, I mean for us, we embraced everything because when Much Music first went on the air, you know, I mean we did. We played everything. We played country, we played metal, we played jazz. We played all kinds of music, and it was great. And also, we had a requirement for French content, so we were playing regular French videos. That's how Mitsu basically sort of got exposed across Canada

was through that, which was great. And I had a great relationship with Mitsu, and she was one of those stars that broke out of that. But ultimately, we played lots of music. And then things started changing, because the CRTC asked for other licenses. We applied for country. It went to, I think, whatever was called NCN

or whatever the first country station was in Canada. And things changed. And then when we introduced much more music, suddenly we weren't playing everything. We were putting stuff over there right nobody wanted their video played on much more music at the beginning because it was like well we want to be on much music that's a cool place much more music is grown up it's you know that so um it it created a lot of problems when we launched much more music because it took away from the broadness of it. And certainly corporately, we wanted to become more targeted. Why do things have to change, Craig?

Why can't things just stay the same the way we like them? Well, you know what? I've learned to accept change. But yeah, certainly at that time, I didn't necessarily like it. And a lot of things have happened, but you just have to realize that that's just the way it evolves. You can be bitter at the time, but I'm not, I'm certainly not angry about it. Well, we'll kind of dive into that a little more, but I'm still back in these early days.

So, for example, I'm curious what your relationship was like with John Martin. Great. John and I had a very good relationship. Yeah, he, you know, we spoke all the time. You know, he was a wonderful guy. Um, and we, you know, I mean, once again, it was more, it was, it was a work relationship. It's not like I hung out with him or anything like that. But you must have been at the bar with him, right?

Cause I'd be at the bar. Yeah. But he kind of sat with his, his group of sort of, uh, industry cronies and things like that. And I'd be with, with my people and, uh, but yeah, he, he liked, he did, he did like to spend a lot of time at the bar and he was, well, I heard he got his calls there. Like, uh, yeah, they would be redirected there, but, um, yeah. Uh, yeah. I mean,

that, that kind of happens, but you know, I mean, sometimes, uh, through the week when we were doing live TV, uh, and maybe we were hung over, there was one VJ who shall remain nameless steve anthony that um then i would go over to the beverly tavern with a pitcher of beer on the table and a walkie talkie and then the pa at the station would go uh we're uh we're one minute two minutes to the floor you better come come back across and so we go across we do that and uh and then run back to our beer so are you sure it was beer only because he's been on this program a couple of times and he owns it uh he was doing

a lot of coke back then yeah well i mean it was beer at that point yeah it was beer then it was just uh who i don't know about the rest of it you know that's like i said he's he's pretty open about it i produced a show for uh John Gallagher and Peter Gross, and the stories they were telling, I just now imagine that in the 80s, well, when they moved the 299 Queen, that mounds of coke all over the place. This is how I envision it now.

It sounds like, but what is your experience with cocaine? It wasn't that. I indulged. It was the late 80s, early 90s, and it was around. But you didn't need the energy boost you had the natural energy but i think and and and so did steve but i mean i just think that it was something that that um that happened it was it was a period in time and you know you you lived a i guess everyone at much music was sort of living a rock and roll lifestyle and wanted to continue to live that rock and roll lifestyle.

So it was around. And luckily, it eventually went away. I mean, it was just kind of fun at the time. But we had, like I said, I had lots of good times staying up way too late. And there's actually one story, which Steve may have told it, but with regards to John Gallagher in the late 80s, John and Steve were roommates. I don't know whether you're aware of that. You probably are.

Well, there's a Mitsu story, but I'll save that one for later. But at about, oh, I guess probably 4 or 5 in the morning, Steve and I went into John's room. John wasn't there. And searched his floor and found, cause he always had some bottle of rum or something in his room. So we, we stole the rum at about five in the morning. That's a story.

He owns that too, by the way, I, I recently, you know, cause we all have our vices and we're all battling something and you mentioned you stopped drinking. So no gray legs for you. No, no, I do not. Yeah. I gave up drinking. I drank well i you know and as i've always said i mean i think that i drank so much free alcohol that it became hard to pay for it but yeah so i i kind of feel like in my life i ran out of drink tickets you filled your

quota yes i did yeah i ran out of drink tickets and but i mean yeah and it's just for me it's not something i need and um you know and, and it did become a problem. I just needed to stop. I needed to stop because it just wasn't, it wasn't me anymore. I loved it. Like, I mean, I think I was good up until the end of working at Much Music when it was a social thing. But then all of a sudden you just, when you start to feel like,

oh, I could use a drink, that's when it becomes a problem. So, you know, it's been a struggle, but, you know, I've been sober for a while and I like it. And once again, it's not just about not drinking, but it's about everything I put into my body in terms of healthier eating and everything. And, you know, I mean, I just, you know, just making sure you're on the right path. Well, it's all part of this journey we talked about off the top. You're just trying to be the best version of yourself. Yes, absolutely. Okay, good.

Now, I do hope that this new diet of yours allows you to eat lasagna. Be honest if you can't eat lasagna, but can you still enjoy lasagna? I do eat lasagna. I am. I've cut back on my carbs, but, yeah, yes, I do love lasagna. You're leaving here, Craig. I feel I need some sound effect for this, but I am giving you a large lasagna

from Palma Pasta. Oh, that's great. I love it. Is that what's sitting in front of me here? Well, that's empty, but I'm going to have it full because it's in the freezer. But when you leave today,

that will be full frozen lasagna. I love it. That's good. They're in Mississauga and Oakville and it's delicious. Everyone I've given a lasagna to has written me to say that was the best lasagna I ever had. Well, I can't wait because, you know, I'm sure it's nice. I wish I'd gone there for lunch today.

Well, you're going to have it tomorrow, that's for sure. So you're taking home the lasagna. The good people at Ridley Funeral Home, they don't want to see you too soon, Craig. It sounds like these changes in your lifestyle mean it's going to be a while. But there's a measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home. You never know when you need to measure something. You know what? Interesting story. Just a brief story.

My father, who passed away in 2010, starting in 1983, took over the publishing of a magazine called the Canadian Funeral Director Magazine for the funeral industry. So I may very well with him gone to Ridley Funeral Home. The interesting funeral industry. So I may very well, with him, gone to Ridley Funeral Home. The interesting thing about, because I'm pretty close

with Brad Jones, the funeral director, he's got six kids, which is amazing in its own right. I'm like, oh yeah, you got six kids. But they all live on site. They're the only GTA funeral home where the family lives above the funeral home, like you'd see in Six Feet Under, for example. Yeah, I get that, yeah.

Yeah. I did not know that. Yeah, Yeah. I did not know that. Yeah, yeah, I did not know that. So that's 14th and Lakeshore are good people. If you require such services, you just talk to Brad and the people at Ridley Funeral Home. Okay. Hopefully not too soon.

And again, personal question, but do you smoke a little weed? Is this a... No. No weed for you? I don't, but certainly members of my family who will remain nameless, but it's legal. So yeah, my children indulge and that's fine because, you know, I mean, it's legal and it's, you know,

I think that it's something that I probably would have embraced more in my other days, but I just find that I don't need anything anymore. You don't need anything. But for your loved ones who want to save some money and have great selection, Canada Cabana will not be undersold on cannabis or cannabis accessories. So over 150 locations across the country.

I'm taking you back in time, Craig, because I've still got more and more music questions than you can imagine. But let's go back. This is about 90 seconds, and then we'll talk about it. Here we go. Okay, hey, we're off to a good start.

So let's go. Email? Do about 90 seconds, and then we'll talk about it. Here we go. Okay, hey, we're off to a good start. So let's go. Email? Do you want to go to the email? I'm going to walk over here to Marnie, who's floor directing tonight. And I don't have a clue about the email, but you've got a question? What's the question? Okay, the question. Me and my roommate have noticed a striking resemblance of Steve Anthony to Robert Plant

and Craig Helget to Jimmy Page. If those two guys took the stage on Monday night, no one would probably notice. Oh, sorry, that's an observation. That's an observation. Let's find a question. Okay, hello, Much. I'm wondering if you could tell me who is singing back up on the original release

of Thank You, Led Zeppelin 2. My friends and I have bets as to who it was and now I think I can finally get an answer. That's from Peter. Okay, so let's go back over to the panel, because I don't know. Let's go back over here. So, Robert?

I'm going to Sam. I think it was Jimmy Page at the backup. So he also does it in the live show as well. So it was Jimmy Page. Okay, there you go. It was Jimmy Page, and that was for Peter. Thank you for your email, Peter. Do we have a

we have joe from calgary on the phone let's uh let's uh hello joe so that's early days of email yes it was yeah i mean i remember when we first got it i mean like on combat day clip it was all faxes and so i'd you know i'd stand at the fax machine and take faxes off and read who people were voting for or whatever but it was it was pretty exciting when we started using it yeah so did you have all surviving members of led zeppelin there who did we have on that special i hear robert plant no that you know that that particular special was more uh primarily led zeppelin specialists we kind of came in and did that and we used and we used uh and we had interviews with robert and at that point jimmy and uh and john paul jones was yeah so i mean we had those interviews

um and and did that but i mean it was it was just sort of like robert at that point um it was a it was a page plant era so um you know jimmy page and robert plant had kind of sort of returned together um and that's when that was what the excitement was. Sorry, I know that's OK. I keep backing off from the mic because I'm always afraid I'm going to be so loud. Don't worry, I've got you covered here. OK, good, good, good. Yeah.

So, I mean, it was it was just I was I loved Led Zeppelin. I still love Led Zeppelin. So it was just great. I love Robert Plant. I loved Led Zeppelin. I still love Led Zeppelin. So it was just great. I love Robert Plant.

And, you know, having met them a number of times, it's pretty exciting to know that, you know, the heroes that I've met that, you know, and they were two of them. I'll bet you met some pretty damn big stars crossing through 99 and then 299 Queen. I did. Yes, I did meet a lot of people. Yes.

Did you ever have any of those, oh my God, I can't believe I'm meeting, like maybe that was an example, but you want to shout out some of the people that meant a great deal for you to meet? You know what? It's interesting. I mean, it was a lot of those classic artists. Conway Twitty, when he came into MuchMusic, because my mom had loved Conway Twitty, and I went up to him and told him,

because my mother passed away in 1985, right before I started at MuchMusic. So it was interesting to up to him and told him because my mother passed away in 1985 right before I started up Much Music so it was interesting to talk to him uh but George Harrison when he came in certainly David Bowie was another one that was just a big deal and and obviously um those those are sort of the key ones the ones the more of the historical ones um when people came in I think like Buddy Guy came in there were a lot a lot of like he's still touring yeah so and you know but i mean like uh who was it janet janet lee came in um so you know just from psycho yeah so okay a lot of like we had a lot of really interesting uh people come in harrison ford was kind of cool because he came in promoting a movie. I can't remember what it was called, but yeah, he was, he was in just promoting a movie. And, and so he came

in on our board where it said what bands were coming in. It said the hand solos were in it. So, and it was live of course. So a lot of people swarmed him when he came in, but yeah, that's kind of cool. Those, those kinds of were just you know and that that was one of the perks of the job was just being able to meet these people but ultimately i mean for me it was as much about the friendships i struck up and and continue to have like i mean canadian artists i mean i'm still you know i'm still talking with like i said the spoons and platinum blonde and honeymoon suite and and and and so many and the grapes of wrath and Northern pikes, all of these artists, glass tiger, like so many artists that I've, I've,

you know, just, you know, I continue to have a relationship with because, you know, we were all part of this big, you know, Canadian scene and I really liked being a part of embracing it. I love, I love hearing you name check those great bands, man. Yeah, I love these artists too. Some are no longer with us. I'm thinking of like Jeff Healy.

Yeah, absolutely. Man, but many are still with us. And yeah, they were tremendous. So can you get Mark Holmes on this show? Because I'm trying to get Mark Holmes to come on. I could try. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, he's a little more reserved and quiet now than he was.

So I think he's going to slow down his lifestyle as well. Well, tell him, I just want to talk about tears are not enough. Okay. Just tell him that'll be the subject. All right. That sounds like a great plan. Okay. I will. Can you compare and contrast for me? So we talked about John Martin and sounds like some people loved him and some people, I know Ziggy was less excited about his style and, and how he operated, but can you compare and contrast much music under, you was less excited about his style and and how he operated but can

you compare and contrast much music under uh you know john martin's uh guys and uh denise donlan who by the way is also uh heavily featured in the uh doug and the slugs documentary you're talking about well she'd worked with them before she was that much music but um john martin was a part of that that early explosion of of just you know fly by the seat of your pants completely live tv where you know you just did it and he he i had so much faith in the things that the people that he hired and the hosts that he hired because he was hiring people with a passion for music and a passion for speaking to people and and and being able to share information and basically turning much music into what you know which the new music originally was which sort of the the rolling stone on television um and so that's what he did i mean obviously i

things were changing things were evolving the television landscape was growing and I just think that much music perhaps was just you know so much of what used to be like Moses's theory was flow over show we there was more appointment tuning so you had to have more shows so I just think that there was that and also we had to start having some relevance because there were so many entertainment shows and things like that so ultimately that when Denise came in everybody everybody talks about, and I mean, I'm sure other people have used the term, the drive for relevance. Or we would sometimes just say the drive for elephants.

But the drive for relevance where we wanted to, you know, just be able to speak to people on a different level. I mean, music had been political, and, you know, certainly with bands like U2. And at a time when MTV. Peter Gabriel? Yes, of course, yeah. So there were so, and Bruce Springsteen, you know. with bands like you too and and at a time when peter gabriel yes of course yeah so there were so and remember springsteen you know i mean but when you when you looked at at that time um we just you know i mean mtv had sort of done start launch rock the vote so

you know we sort of decided that uh uh we would do you know vote with a vengeance. I mean, we just, we introduced these concepts of doing things like that. And that was Denise. I mean, she just really wanted to embrace, because, I mean, of her history with the new music, there was a little more depth to what was going on. So just ensuring that there was a little more depth, a little more context.

I mean, we introduced more soundbites because we had this huge archive of interviews that wasn't being used so we started doing a lot of that stuff um and so it was you know that's really where where the differences you know lay because uh you know john was about that live fly by the cedar pants creative juices flowing that kinetic energy there's but but i which has influenced me quite a bit, like this sort of this vision that he had with Moses there, this like kinetic live

environment and as it happens kind of flow, you know, warts and all. It's kind of like, it's authentic. Yeah. I dig it. Absolutely. And it was live and there were mistakes made sometimes.

I mean, luckily there wasn't that much swearing, but I mean, I know, I remember the first time I heard a VJ swear. Who and what did they say? Okay. Do you remember? Can I say the swear words? Yeah, you can swear on this show.

Okay, fine. It was Angela Dorman. Okay. Who of course went on to- Seinfeld. For Seinfeld, yeah, Donna Chang. She was sitting there and she was telling a story the night before.

She was out at a club and there's Gilbert Gottfried. Donna Chang. She was sitting there and she was telling a story the night before. She was out at a club. There's Gilbert Gottfried. She goes, Oh, fuck! You're Gilbert Gottfried! Man! Oh, man! I just realized what I said! That was the first time I sat there. The phone started ringing.

CRTC was a little pretty hardcore on much music at the time. Someone complained? Because I know there's been some swears dropped on CFNY, and I've had people talk about it. And if no one complains, you're okay? Is that the deal?

Generally, yeah. If you're not caught, you know, so just don't make a big deal out of it. And then after that, we didn't draw any attention to it. But you do re-rolls, right? Do you get rid of it? You censor it for the re-roll? We can, yeah.

We did. And I believe we did for that one, yeah. I think I talked, I think at that point it was, I don't know whether it was Denise, but yeah, somebody, I was in touch with somebody because I was producing the show at the time. And I just said, yeah, this happened. And they said, okay, well, I mean, ultimately,

if the repeat were four in the morning, we wouldn't worry about it too much. What about the Kumbaya Festival? Like, did you have any role with that? I know that was a Molly Johnson initiative, but that was under the Denise Donlan watch. Yes, absolutely. And that was all part of what was going on with this drive for relevance and just doing more things that had meaning and, you know, just sort of gave back. It wasn't just frivolous rock and roll.

Certainly the era was different. It had gone from the hair metal to the grunge. There was a little more, a little deeper, darker lyrics in music. And then with that, Kumbaya was just, you know, just sort of creating this community of musicians to do that. So, yeah, I was involved a little bit. Now, ultimately, i guess a couple of years in i had to miss one because i got married during on the weekend of of kumbaya uh yeah sandy

and i got married that weekend and um so we did miss it right and uh and you know denise never forgave me um i'm kidding oh shut, Denny's been here as well. Yeah. And she's an FOTM. I have to tell you who the FOTMs are. So can I ask you about a few FOTMs

you worked with? Yeah. Then I'll find out why it all ends for you there and how, I don't know, YouTube killed the video star. Is that a song?

Yes, it is. Yeah. Master T. Yeah. So I still remember there's a video Master T made about the move from 99 Queen East to 299 Queen West.

But what can you tell me about Tony Young? Tony is, you know, he is just incredibly passionate about, you know, his culture, about music in general. Like he likes all music, but I mean, he certainly embraces his culture and he continues to do to this day, where he just really embraces that and tries to present a great role model.

He lives a very, very healthy lifestyle, and I just think that he's always wanted to be that role model. And he's really bright, and he asks good questions when he does interviews. He's just really bright. And the voice of Roxy was his, I guess, I don't know if it was his wife at the time, but she became his yeah yeah which is a fun fact yes no it is yeah and so yeah which was fun and you know and and all of the shows that did extend to mix to mix rap city were all uh you

know really really wonderful shows and i worked with him but my ex-wife actually worked with him more she became a producer of raphapsody in the Mix in the late 90s. So all of us got to go to St. Kitts. Wow. Not too shabby. No, not too shabby. I hear his brother's still at City. Is that right? Yeah. Basil's a very busy

cameraman and a super nice guy too. Okay, shout out. So I'm only asking you what FOTM, so I can punish those who have not come on the program. But I'm going to ask you, Bill Wilichka. Oh, he's a jerk. No, I'm kidding. Bill and I love each other and I haven't seen him for a couple of years. He's in Kingston now. He's in Kingston and the last time I saw him was when I went to Kingston with a job and I went and hung out with him at his station

and then a couple of years ago when my daughter, uh, she released some music. And so he was interviewed, she was interviewed. Spoiler alert. Yeah. Um, so yeah, so he was out, um, he was, we went out there and did a, an appearance on his morning show. Um, he's a, he's a, he's a great guy. I mean, he's just one of those guys that we spent a lot of time together.

And certainly, we did some drinking together. A little more low-key. We'd listen to country music. Yeah, at Laws and Heroes. That's right, yeah. But he's great. And just an overall good interviewer and editor. I mean, he was the all-encompassing guy.

He had it all going on. And I love him. He was like a Swiss Army knife. Yes, he was the all-encompassing guy. He had it all going on, and I love him. He was like a Swiss Army knife. Yes, he was, yeah. And he loves his wrestling. Yes, he does. You know what? I don't get that. I don't ask him about that.

I don't ask him about his politics either, but that's life. Well, you know, country's fans. You know how that works. Okay. Of course. Talk to me about one of the, I'm trying to think of all the VJs who made it big. There's obviously J.D. Roberts' next level you mentioned, country's fans you know how that works okay of course talk to me about uh one of them well i'm

trying to think of all the vjs uh who made it big there's obviously jd roberts is you know next level you mentioned fox news and before that cnn and cbs but tell me about strombo strombo once again we connected so well because i recognized how how good he was um as an interviewer and just his love of music it's just this passion is undying and i just i always loved him and when we sat together like i was heading up the music committee starting in 2000 i'd been on the committee for a while but uh and when he joined the team it was just incredible and and to me there have been a couple of times like when people say when did you think much music was over or started the downhill slide there were a couple of times first was when much more music

launched which i already mentioned that we were sort of suddenly there was a place to put stuff and and artists hated it because it's like well i've i've been retired to much more music so that was an unfortunate thing but then it was also when uh george left in i think it was 2003 to go to the cbc right where we kind of you know we we didn't really have a star player to fill in you know and i think it was you know our uh you know our our kawaii leonard had it was was there for a while and then he's gone now and now we're back to what we had good analogy on trade trade deadline yeah that's right yes of course yeah well i think it's past now right is it oh yeah well what time is it yeah i wonder if what we did okay i heard og ananobi was going to be a golden

state warrior but it was unconfirmed at the time of recording so future mike tell me if that happened okay uh what about and i don't know how much uh interaction you had with him because he was based in vancouver but uh fotm terry david mulligan terry again is one of those guys that i've always respected we've kept in touch from time to time he's just you know i mean when i started there it's like he was the old guy because he was in his late 30s early 40s so right um you know and i just kind of felt like but but I remembered him because I'm old. Good rocking tonight. Yeah. No, but I mean, no, he was.

CBC? No, but before that, in the 70s, when I would watch hockey, because I'm old, he was the star of the Molson Golden commercials. And it was him with a bunch of future Second City actors. But he was the star. Oh, like Andrea Martin and people actors. But he was the star. He was the guy. Oh, like Andrea Martin and people like, is this Ilk? Sure. Yeah.

So he was the star of those commercials. I can't remember them really because I was probably eight years old or something like that or nine years old. But I do remember him because I realized I remembered him when I saw him at Much Music and when he was doing Much West. And all of those things and going coastal, all of those things that he was doing. But yeah, he's just so great. And my favorite Terry David Mulligan story, sorry. No, no, no, I'm sorry.

I was pointing at you because I'm excited for the story. Okay, sorry, I keep leaning back. Well, you've got a lot of energy. I relate. It's hard to stay still when you're full of natural energy. Yeah, that's right, yeah. Terry, so we went and did our first snow job out in Whistler. And so we're going to Whistler, but we're also going up Grouse Mountain, up the cable car thing up, and going up to like a lodge at the top of Grouse Mountain.

And so we're going up. And, you know, I said, I'm in Vancouver. It's the first time I've been in Vancouver ever. So I'm there. I'm in Vancouver. I'm going up. And I said, I'm in Vancouver. It's the first time I've been in Vancouver ever. So I'm there. I'm in Vancouver. I'm going up Grouse Mountain. And then as I get to the top, on the patio of the chalet that's at the top, is sitting in a reclining sort of chair, yard chair,

is Terry David Mulligan smoking a cigar and drinking something. I'm not sure. It might have been a glass of wine. It might have been a pint. But he's sitting there smoking. smoking a cigar and drinking something. I'm not sure. It might have been a glass of wine. It might have been a pint. Wow. But he's sitting there smoking. And I said, I'm now in Vancouver because there's Terry David Mulligan.

The mayor. And then we came up and then we embraced each other. And yeah, he was just always a great guy. And I just really enjoyed picking his brain and just, you know, I was always fascinated by the people that just knew. It just, it was all up there. And I always wanted to try to be that way. So, you know, I was always fascinated by the people that just knew. It was all up there, and I always wanted to try to be that way, so. You know, yeah, he

was there in the mix. We talked earlier that when Mark Holmes comes on Trunel Mike, we'll just talk about Tears Are Not Enough, but he was right there in the room with, like, David Foster and Bruce Allen, like, that whole, like, Vancouver brain trust

that was putting it together. Terry David Mulligan's just sitting right there in the documentaries. He's right in the mix. Yeah, well, he's a legend. He is a legend. He's a West Coast legend. Once again, I don't know how old he is.

I think he's like 83 or something. I would say he probably is because I just turned 60. Well, he's young at heart, but yeah, you know, like he's only got, what, 25 years left? Yeah, well, yeah, exactly. Yeah, we all look at that, but I won't be visiting Ridley anytime soon. Well, that's the plan here. Yeah.

That's the plan. Okay. Oh, gosh, I know. I hope you canceled your next appointment. I know I'm taking a long time here. Don't worry about it. I have no rush. I'm here.

Like, come on, I gotta take advantage of this. What about, oh, I love this woman. Great FOTM, Ziggy Lawrence. I,

again, I love Ziggy. We interact on social more now that she's, she's moved out of the city. Right. Um, I, you know,

I think she, she posts quite clearly that she moved to Port Hope and she's in a beautiful house out there. And Ziggy and I got along really, really well when she was doing Mush Music and things like that. She is just so genuine. Again, one of those people that, you know, like Erica, that got the people saying that she was a ditz or whatever.

Well, the knock on Erica, and Erica, I love my chat with her and I have a lot of respect for her. But as I remember growing up was that her mom and Moses were, Moses' wife, oh, Marilyn? Anyway, the connection was really close. Like as a child, she was close with Moses. So there was like, it wasn't like by definition nepotism. She's not a nepo baby, but it's similar.

I think there was a lot of people like that. But ultimately, I never saw that. nepo baby but it's similar i i think there was a lot of people like that but ultimately i never saw that i didn't recognize that what i saw was somebody who really loved music was very passionate she was fangirlish back then and you know certainly you too was uh her favorite um and she just embraced it and that's how she was good yeah so she talked about passion she didn't talk about who produced the album she said so what do you think of the fans she was just really into being a fan she she obviously evolved and and and became more and more you know uh well-spoken uh perception wise she was always very well-spoken but perception was that she was more you know better well more well-spoken she did songwriting too

much like christopher ward she did some great songwriting. Yeah, she did some stuff with Tim Thorny, the late Tim Thorny, and she worked with an artist named Cassandra Vasek, who's a country singer. Right, right. So she's very talented

and of course she parlayed all this much music fame into the Yummy Mummy Club and all that and good for her. But Ed the Sock. You can't knock Ed. Ed is,

and you know, I mean, have you, he's been. So what I had was, let me tell you what I did here, because producer Mike, I like authenticity, but I wanted to talk to Ed. I didn't want to talk to Steve Kersner. Okay, right, okay. But we did it, so I talked to Ed, and then Ed had to go move the car, and then I talked to Steve when Ed came back.

So I got them both on. Yeah, I liked them both. Certainly, you know, Ed DeSoc you know, not everyone agrees with his politics, but you know, or the things that he says sometimes but I just think that he's just he's got such a great

heart again. Him and his wife just have such great hearts. Leanna Kay. Yes, that's right. Also an FOTM. Yeah, okay, good. So they're all great, but Ed, you know. Yes, that's right. Also on FOTM. Yeah, okay, good. Yeah, so they're all great. But Ed, you know, I mean, Ed's right there where he is, and he's had a history beyond much music, and certainly the people that he worked with over the years, I think Harlan Williams, I think, was one of his first.

That's my favorite iteration of Ed's night party was on cable 10 of Harlan Williams. Yeah, that's right. And then the first, when he moved to City TV, the first host is a client of mine. I produced the and fred show now and it was a humble howard glassman well there you go small world story it was a fun yeah it was fun to watch that show and then certainly when he came over i just think that on much he he was muted a little bit or he he had he couldn't get away was he neutered i would say that that yeah he was he was darned um if that's a way to put it.

I don't know. It was too much for much. That's right. Yeah, exactly. I had the best conversation with this man, and I'm so glad because I think he said it was his first interview since he lost his ability to speak through his vocal cords. But Kim Clark Champness.

Again, one of these just incredible guys, just so intelligent, so passionate. Like, he's just, he wears his heart on his sleeve sometimes. He's just so, like I said, the passion that comes out of Kim. And, you know, he had struggles. And I always, you know, and when he first was diagnosed and, you know, seeing him at things and and you know and then you know like all of us i mean i really related to him when he you know a lot of people that had left much music and all of a sudden it's like when you've been at a place for you know more than 10 years you're associated

with it and i just think that you know kim had that and he kind of moved around doing a lot of entertainment shows and things like that but he is But he is just such a genuinely nice guy. And I just love the way he's living his life right now. And he's just so passionate about everything he sees, the music he hears, and everything that he's passionate about he expresses himself about. What about Rick the Temp?

Rick is one of the sweetest guys in the world. Rick and I, again, keep in touch. He reached out to me today. He's just somebody. How's he doing? Because he was doing a morning show, and then he's not doing the morning show, and I never did get an answer,

but it sounds like maybe he didn't want to do a morning show anymore. I don't know. You know what? I don't know either because, once again, we haven't talked about that. There's a lot of things that we've both gone through over the last few years, but I like that't talked about that. There's a lot of things that we've both gone through over the last few years, but I liked that he was doing that.

But I mean, he's, again, it's the same thing, but he always lands on his feet, and he's very active because, you know, ultimately when you have a number of followers on the socials, you can turn that into something and create your own personal advertising dollars. So certainly, you know. um well you just reminded me the very first because i had rick on it was amazing actually but for no just to chat with rick the way i'm having you on just to chat with you but

originally rick was pitched to me by a pasta sauce maker and i got a note like would you have rick and his wife on and they'll talk about this pasta sauce and i'm like well this is toronto mic uh i'm gonna spend like 90 minutes on much music and then you can do five minutes on the pasta sauce anyways we just we decided not to do it like i didn't want to play the pasta sauce game or whatever but eventually he came on it was and he loved it and it was great but uh yeah so he's like an influencer now. Yes, he is. Yeah. I mean, but you know, I'll be honest with you.

That's something that, I mean, I think that Rick does it well. I mean, there are other people that I know in the industry that do that where it's all of a sudden it's like, you know, when I'm together with my family, we love popcorn. So Orville Redenbacher is always a part of our Friday night, you know, those kinds of things. Those are the things that kind of go, okay, what you you've you fished me in and now you're just gonna sell me try to sell me something although i did try to sell you palma pasta yeah yeah so cool it is palma's kitchen uh you can uh look them up at palmapasta.com on a friday night

i got four kids and when everyone's home and we're hungry, it's Palma pasta all the way. Shout out to Palma pasta here. Okay. Lori Brown. Lori. Once again, I know that she's been, again, so much of my connection to these people from,

from the past are, it's through social. And I mean, I know she just recently posted, she was, you know, very upset about the passing of Mendelssohn Joe. And,

and, but yeah, I mean, I, I, I really enjoyed working with her. I haven't kept too much in touch with her, but I have run into her over the years at different events and things like that.

But now that I haven't been at much, and I haven't been out to as much of the events that I used to be, yeah, exactly, I've sort of lost touch with her. But once again, we do communicate from time to time on social media. Okay, almost done. Again, I'm only doing FOTMs. You can do whatever you want. Jeannie Becker.

Yep. Never really had a relationship with her. She was at the point when I started, she was still doing new music, but she was really moving over to fashion television. So I met her a number of times, but ultimately, yeah, I didn't really develop much of a relationship with her. She was with J.D. Roberts in the heyday there. Yeah.

Papa's got a brand new pig bank. Okay. Yep. Glenn Baxter. Mm-hmm. Did you, what say you about Glenn? I love Glenn. I call him Ted.

That's right. Yeah, he's Ted Baxter. I get that. I'm old enough to get that right. Yeah, that's right, yeah. So, yeah, Glenn is a great guy. I mean, he kind of came in. He had really bad hair like I did.

And not to speak to my hair now, but he was just bilingual, so he was hosting French Kiss, doing a lot of things like that. But, I mean, he was always a bit of a fashion plate. He was just somebody that looked good in clothes, and I think he's embraced that. And so, you know, I'm really impressed by how far he's gone and his success in that fat on the fashion side now i did say i was only going to ask about fl teams but i'm actually going to break that rule because the great uh dan gallagher passed away before i started this podcast but

please share any memories of the the late great dan gallagher well dan was one of my best friends there uh during that period and he you know he and um and i you know we spent a lot of time together and you know we talked we'd have serious conversations um he used to refer to me as his favorite vj uh sarcastically but i mean i we just, we just had a really great relationship and going on the road. I mean, ultimately, I spent most of my time, in terms of with VJs, I spent a lot of time with Steve. Steve and I were sort of inseparable in the late 80s, early 90s. But Dan was just, you know, he was just grounded

and had so much heart and passion for music, and he was genuine. He was just, you know, when he was doing metal, he meant it. And everybody recognized it. And it was never about, you know, his size. It was about his heart. And he was just such a, he was just, he was such a great guy. And I still keep in touch with his brother, Brett. And he's, you know, I mean, he's just, you know, they were, they were a great couple of guys.

And I couldn't believe it when he passed away. And I went to his funeral and it was just very sad. I used to watch Test Pattern. Yep. When you look at it now, you go, wow, is that the 50s? Because the colors, the everything is just, but you know what? It's just so classic, but also because of the camera quality. It does.

It looks like it's tube cameras, but it's tube cameras from the the camera quality it's just it does it looks like it's it's like it's tube cameras but it's two cameras from the 50s it seems like so okay so i was showing you i have this old much music thing because uh i guess we're going back about a month now i received these two boxes they were sent to me these two boxes and they were from uh david kines yeah actually maybe take a moment uh what was what it was like working with david you know again i hate him too no um is he listening right now yeah david i you know david it's funny he was my boss and he he was a tough boss on me um and you know and sometimes i was i felt like i was walking on eggshells around him i I'll be honest with you, but ultimately I respected him so much because he knew he had a job and he did it and he continues to do it now working at Hollywood Suite. He's just a really bright television guy. And, you know, I guess in the mix of me being the guy

that was out drinking and partying and having a good time and him being the guy that was, you know, keeping the four walls up around 299 Queen Street West west i respected what he was doing is that he that wasn't his style that was he was something else and i think that it took other people a while to respect that despite my partying um that i was also very passionate and and dedicated to my role of what i had to do. So David is a incredible guy. And it's just so funny because when he left in the late 2000s, a couple of years before I did, he came up to me and said, Craig, I just wanted to tell you that I really respect you. And I said, David, why didn't you tell me that five years ago?

But I mean, and it's a joke. And you know what? We've gone out probably as much as I've gone out with anyone over the last few years and, and connected. So he sent me these two boxes and I actually, uh, shot video of myself opening the box.

It was kind of exciting. I didn't know what was in these boxes. It's like, what's in the box. So there's like an unboxing video I have on my, I think I have it on torontomic.com and it's on my YouTube channel. And then I've been, I've been giving this bunch of DVDs and,

uh, some CDs and I've been giving these bunch of DVDs and some CDs, and I've been giving these away to FOTMs who tell me, like, somebody says, hey, I want that Rush DVD. I'll find a way to, like, bike it to them. Like, I've been doing this over the last several weeks. So shout out to David Kynes,

and he's been, you know, basically, I guess they were cleaning out an office or something at Hollywood Suite. Yeah, okay. Well, you know what? There's a lot of stuff that, you know, but it's funny, when. Well, you know what? There's a lot of stuff. But it's funny. When much music was getting cleared out,

there was a lot of stuff that disappeared that shouldn't have disappeared. The Master T video, the one where we came, it disappeared from the library one night. We don't know who did it. We're not sure. But it all of a sudden vanished from there. The other thing that vanished too was the Alanis performance on the Electric Circus.

Oh, too hard. Have you heard this story? No, tell me. Okay, well, I mean, what happened was she had her manager, John Alexander, but the record rep at the time, I won't tell this person out, but her name's Andrea,

but she and Alanis, before her performance on Electric Circus, went out shopping. And she bought this really tight red jumper and apparently decided to go braless. So when she's dancing, if I may say this, her boobs are just flipping and flopping all over the place. And so the manager freaked out and kind of wanted it pulled,

but it was never pulled. And then, you know, we re-aired the show. We re-aired the show. It's like it was used a lot. But then suddenly one day I went looking for it in the mid-2000s, and it was gone. Wow. And that's one of the great mysteries of the Much Music Library.

You know what? I like hearing about these mysteries because I'm friendly with FOTM Hall of Famer Ed Conroy, who's pretty good at tracking this missing video down. Shout out to Retro Ontario. Okay, yeah. We'll see if you can dig that one up. I feel like he was able to recover

the Master T video, I feel. Yeah, I have seen the Master T video and I've seen a snippet of the Atlis thing. So this is Electric Circus. Just the interest. Yeah. So I was,

yeah. So, okay. A couple of quick Electric Circus. And then I have to ask you about a, actually in these Kynes boxes. That's why I brought the Kynes boxes. Cause they were full of big shiny tunes and much dance compilation.

So I'm going to find out your role in it, but you're MC Craig F on Electric Circus. Is this, this is with monica deal and uh leg of lagoganis yeah george lagogan right although he was booked on toronto mic'd like he was in to come on he had his farewell tour at cp24 and then i got like a nice enough note but it was a nice note to say he's decided to lay low for a while like it was like a i've changed my mind kind of a note where he wants to lay low for a little

bit here. So anyway, so he, so if I did promote, he was, his appearance was imminent. I would like to retract that statement. It's not as imminent as I thought it was.

I mean, you know, I can understand that because, you know, I mean, every, you know, every media company frames the departure of somebody that's been around for a

while in a different way. For me, I decided to go in a different way for me i decided to go in a different direction and that direction was that i was leaving because my role no longer but did you uh make that choice on your own or did somebody tap you on the shoulders and say it might be when i left much music right yeah i i was sitting at my desk and i got a call um just on a july monday. I just got back from vacation and I got a call at around 12.30 in the afternoon

and it was HR and they said, Craig, can you pop over to my office for a minute? And I walked over and Brad Schwartz, Bradley Schwartz, who was the head of Much Music at the time and the head of HR was sitting at the desk and I walked in and he had paper in his hand and he said, Craig, I feel really bad about this, but your role is now, we're changing the way the station is programmed.

We are, your role no longer exists, so we'd like to offer you this to leave. And that was basically it. They offered me a package. I asked for more. I got more. But they did that, and basically that was it. I just had to sign that. And then they said, well, because of your years of dedication,

you can go back to your desk and clean out your desk if you want. I said, you know what? I think I'll just get my friend Darren to clear out my desk or to just take a few things and just put it all in a box, and I'll pick it up from him. And he can meet me over at the parking garage. And that's's what it was I walked out I phoned my dad at the time this was three weeks before he died and then I phoned well I phoned my my wife at the time Sandy and I just said this is it I saw an era I will I mean I thought of it as a real opportunity but

then my dad died but that's when i really you know the it's been a 13 year process since i left in 2010 to really distance myself from being with much music because i was craig from much music it's a high profile job yeah and for five years like five years later i'm at a job and i would pick up the phone and say craig much music and realize no i don't work at much music anymore but it was still it was just something that you know psychologically is tough and so you know the reason I'm bringing this up is because you know if regardless of how George left sometimes it's best if you just kind of process what you've just gone through what it means and be able to accept it because he was there for a long time um he disappeared for a little while and came back healthier and happier.

And I think he's got great stories to tell when he eventually comes back. When he's ready. The mics are open when he's ready. Yeah, it takes some time, process, everything. But, you know, you did 25 years at Much Music. But before we get you out of Much Music, you mentioned Chris Shepard, Electric Circus. And I just had Alan Crossover last week. So they're making a CFNY documentary. Yeah, I saw that, yeah.

Alan Crossover last week. So they're making a CFNY documentary. Yeah, I saw that, yeah. And they're running into the same problem I had when I made my little episode 1021. And I've been trying to find Chris Shepard and I have been unable to locate him. And Alan can't locate him. Do you have any idea where Chris Shepard is?

No, I don't. I mean, I know a couple of people that might know, but I would not. This should be a documentary, Craig. You want to make one? Well, I just think, yeah, whatever happened to Chris Shepard. And I think a lot of people do that, yeah.

The last time I saw him, and it had been a while, was at a cult show at Massey Hall. And so this has got to be about, oh, it's got to be 10, oh, it's got to be 15 years ago. So, okay. The last time I have a record of him making anything public appearance

was because I produce Humble and Fred, and I can say in 2014, Shep talked to Humble and Fred on their podcast, 2014. Okay. So that's the last record I have of a public Chris Shepard appearance. Yeah. I mean, when I last spoke to him, it was like he'd become a doctor or something or a nuclear physicist.

This is the stories I got from him. And so I didn't really know what was going on. He looked the same. It's not like he'd become a hunter. Was he still putting on his affected voice there? Yeah, he was still, yeah. It was a little toned down, but we always had a really great time together. So it was really nice to see him. But, you know, again, he just, I just think that, you know, maybe for his health to just,

you know, remove himself completely. I can see that, you know, and then, you know, he might just enjoy not. Well, he must enjoy it because, you know, he's hiding out somewhere and he, you know, a lot of people want to talk to him. So he must want to lay low. So he doesn't want to be found, in other words. No, exactly. And that's, you know, sometimes...

As is his right. Yes, exactly. All right, so when you were at MuchMusic before you departed, though, I'm curious, what role did you play in the determination of what videos would get in high rotation? And I'll just preface this to say,

like when Moe Berg was over here, he was talking about how, like, they filmed the video from an adult now at the parking lot at Queen and Spadina, which is now a mech by the way, but he, uh, he's VHS.

He drops it off at like wherever, I guess, two 99 queen. And, uh, lo and behold, it's in high rotation, like shortly thereafter.

I'm an adult now. Like, like, like, were you on a crew, like a team that would review everything that came in and say, this is high rotation. This is medium. this is low?

What was your role in all that? Yeah, there was a music committee, and it was formed from the beginning. And at the beginning, it was like, I think, Christopher Ward, John Martin, Nancy Oliver, some of the early days people. I think J.D. Roberts was on it. And then it evolved to the producers, a couple of producers, Morgan and Simon Evans. And a lot of those producers were on it. And then I got put on it, I guess, in the early 90s,

around the time Nirvana came out, which we happily added to Light Rotation. And for Smells Like Teen Spirit, oops. And then, but I mean, after that, you know, I had a fairly dominant position on the committee. At that point, I, along with John Jones, I don't know whether you know John Jones or heard of him. He was a CFNY and CHFI program director. And then he became head music director at Much Music. And I was his associate music programmer.

And then he left in 2000. And so I basically, after about six months of just kind of filling in, took over the role in September of 2000. And so it's the music committee makes the decisions about the videos. I mean, it's a little different from radio where if we get something, we want to add it. It's important in the visual. For radio, sometimes they go, well, we would love i mean it's a little different from radio where you know if we get something we want

to add it it's it's important to the visual for radio sometimes they go well we would love to have it at it but we don't have room for me for us we would make room because the timeliness and the urgency of getting it on the air was more important so you know we'd get the new video by nirvana and we'd want to put it right onto into heavy rotation so So that's what we did. And then in 2000, I took over as the head of that committee where decisions were made based on what I liked and what I, what I saw, but it was a committee. And George was on there. Jennifer Hollett was on. And then the other producers, again, Morgan and Simon and Sherry were the, were sort of much music producers.

And we all sat on the committee and it was, it was uh it was fun i mean i loved it it was every tuesday we'd start at 10 o'clock and go through until we were finished and then you know we'd send out the rotationalists and you know people would complain and monday was a busy day because that's when all the record companies came in and you know tried to work us on which videos should get added or took us out for beers or whatever. And that's what we did. So I did that for, I was the head of that for 10 years. So it was always a great process. It was my favorite day of the week, just sitting with those people

and just talking, you know, completely politically incorrect and just having a lot of fun. Well, I love hearing this story, Craig, because this is like human beings listening and watching. And unlike radio you have a visual component like i'm always curious like ideally like smells like teen spirit would be like a big jam great video slam dunk like high rotation whatever but then you might you must have a great video and the song's not so good or tremendous song oh the video sucks like i just always wonder like what wins out well i mean sometimes i mean it was always a combination um you know like a lot of people like i remember when we added push by moist it was it was naked in that video you bumped into my wife at the

grocery store two days ago no really there you go yes fun facts okay i'd love this naked although it might be the silver i get my my push in my silver mixed up by moist so i hope i'm not getting the wrong voice but i have a feeling it might be silver yeah it's silver i think she's in it's a black and white and she's in a like a bar city it might be okay it might be silver it might be push uh because i think silver has some might be in color but uh push was like an 897 video right and so they shot it and it was mainly the the bulk of it was the interaction between mark and and david uh in the band just you know sort of like oh yeah they're almost kissing right yeah that's right i think that's the bit naked one okay yeah so it is okay but that was the one

that really kind of stood out for us where the video we knew it was cheap but there was a there was an energy to it and the song was great they didn't went into heavy rotation so that was a great that was a great, that was a great time when we did that. So can I shut up? I just saw them in the tea party at history, like last summer, I think it was. And,

uh, I still love push. Like when they break into push, I'm like, I love it. That's a great song. Yeah, it really is.

And so those, that, that era of stuff was, uh, was great. And I mean, once again, it was,

you know i mean sometimes that happens and then sometimes you you like i mean in the last my last 10 years um i guess around 2003 there was um this little band uh from i think saint catherine's uh yes sir yeah where they they put out the video pulmonary artery and it came in and it was such a great looking video but the song wasn't necessary it wasn't a hit at all but we decided to add it and because i just felt like it's canadian and i had a passion for canadian not because of a crtc mandate although we did have that right it was just something that i really embraced it and loved it and so we we embraced it and it went into heavy rotation.

Did everybody agree that we should be playing that in heavy rotation? Especially we were at a time when it was Backstreet Boys, Britney, Christina, and a lot more, you know, starting to get into the Hilary Duff's and the Miley Cyrus's that why would we do that? But that was what was still, we're trying to retain that, that element of, okay, here's much music. This is much music and it's not much more music.

This is much music. Nobody else owns this, you know, because everything started crossing over. So it was just really exciting to do that. And I love, I wish I could cite more situations like that, but certainly in the 2000 2000s there was a lot less opportunity to discover artists by going out to see them and then have them having a video in the early 90s i went out every single night in late 80s early 90s i was at every single night

to see a show and that's when you would discover bands and and realize you couldn't wait to get the video i love it so much i wish i wish lowest of the low were more proactive in producing videos for much i agree it was one of those bands that you just wanted to embrace but when they made a video it was just not good and um you know i mean they were too punk for their own good like their mentality anyways and in the first in the first couple of tragically hip videos were really mediocre um when they were before they got signed to Universal or I guess MCA. They were on RCA before that. And, you know, they were just,

the videos weren't that good. The songs are great. Small Down Brinktown. Yeah, that EP before Up To Here. By the way, before I go any further in this conversation, I just need to, then right back to you, but I just need to point out, it is actually the video for Silver

that features Biffnick, not Push. But they're both great songs. Yeah, because I think Push was primarily just Mark and David. Both great songs, we agree. Yes, they are, yep. Shout out to David Usher. He's listening right now.

Oh, I interrupted you, though. You were in the middle of a sentence? What a rude host. But I've got to correct the record, because somebody's screaming at their iP ipod or whatever on their smartphone right now and like mike it's silver it's not okay all right um you know what i've been on such a role like all right no okay then let me take over to ask you uh i love those stories like when you have an artist i'm thinking there was a period of time i guess it was the late 80s because again i

watched a lot of much music so i was that guy watching like every day but all of a sudden stomping tom connors is on uh pretty high rotation like i'm thinking like margo's got the cargo reggie's got the rig so like what how does that happen in hindsight like much like i mentioned earlier where mendelssohn joe was a big big deal to me because i used to see him on much music and see his videos there like you can't imagine that today but same thing is like the fact that there's Stomp and Tom and Margo's Got the Cargo. Kind of amazing that you could see that so often on Much Music. I think that certainly something that both John and Denise embraced was honoring our Canadian artists always, and especially historic

Canadian artists. If they were making a video, we wanted to embrace them. And I think it's something that continued and that's that's part of the reason why much more music was created because there was a place there wasn't a place for Jan Arden and Mark Jordan and artists like Leonard Cohen or Leonard Cohen that could get played and so that's what much more music was going to be created for and so but back then yeah Stomp and tom had made a very fun video um certainly retail embraced stomp and tom i remember the big stomp and tom signed by sam the record man um you know there was just so much hype about it and it made us embrace some of his older stuff like we had all these old footage from him performing at the horseshoe yeah you know the ttc skedaddler gonna rock to my big

red rambler like yeah there was all of these great you know bud the subway saturday night all this yeah he had like he had a moment there when i was like all of a sudden he was like stomping tom was cool no it was and and he was great and then he came in he brought his plank of wood and he performed on much music so i mean and we were all in awe of getting our pictures taken. At that point, it wasn't smartphones. It was like people had to bring their cameras in. Well, John Gallagher always had one there because he's got photos of everybody.

Yes, he does. He's got a few smartphones. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So another artist that we're interestingly rediscovered sort of is Tom Jones, and I can't remember the name of the song except I can kind of see the video in my head. He's on this truck, and it's like but there was like a there was a new tom jones song that got a lot of video he did the cover i and i'm trying to think i think

there were two but he did the cover of kiss by prince yeah that one too yeah that one too and then there's another one after but but interesting to bring him up only because what's new pussycat of course is a bird backer act song it's a bird again yes absolutely yeah tom jones had i mean there were a lot of artists like that you know and then certainly it was you know share with believe but it became a worldwide smash number one yeah so but i mean yeah there was there was uh maybe a lot less ageism that eventually happened um going on because a good song was a good song and it was a hit. So I think that's what we always felt.

Well, we like this. It's interesting. It's interesting visuals like Stompin' Tom. It only worked when you had a VJ that could contextualize it, and that was the beauty of it because you could play Stompin' Tom beside Mitsu, but you had to contextualize it, you know, because, like, why are we playing Mitsu? Well, I mean, we're not going to say this because we have to play French music, but you know what? This is a great little pop song

and look at her. She's huge in Quebec. That's right, that's right, and she's selling records, so, and the same thing with Stompin' Tom. This guy is an icon, and so you'd have VJs talk about the icon and what he'd done and how big he was and all of those things things but you just can't throw a stomp tom video on without any context or people are gonna go what the hell is this another great example okay uh i learned about tammy freaking winette because of the klf yep like that's like 3am eternal yeah yeah well it was a justified and ancient was the oh justified with tammy but i i mean i didn't listen to country music. I didn't know the only country music.

And I was Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash and Kenny Rogers. Like, anyways, it's sort of like your gateway. And Dusty Springfield's another one with the Pet Shop Boys. Yes, yeah. Kind of a gateway. So kind of neat when you guys would play the old artists. Well, no, I mean, that's something that, again, and it was all about creating context for what it is, who it was, you know.

I mean, and, you know, even something like you played Naked Eyes, you know. I mean, that's something that could have been contextualized. You know this as a techno band from the early 80s, but did you know, and that's the kind of thing that was always great about being live,

and I really embraced it when I was on my show. I loved to find, to do the little facts and do the behind the scenes research. And I loved it. I loved it when you would do it too. How else is it? Especially pre-internet. How the hell were we supposed to learn? That's right. Now you're watching a movie and you spend what else was he in?

It's like you miss the movie because you're just googling everything. Well now we're in a land where Burt Bacharach died and next thing you know you're literally walking through every song he ever wrote. And it's like that. We didn't have that in the 80s, which is pretty cool. You had to go to this thing called the library, Craig. I'll teach you that thing.

Yeah, no, I know the library. I'm an old guy. The Dewey Decimal System. I know everything. Where's the microfiche? I need to find this old Toronto Star article. All right. You've been amazing.

I actually have a song I want to play and talk about before we find out what you're up to these days. But Big Shiny Tunes. I was a big, well, at least the earlier editions I was a big fan

because when David Kine sent me the box, I realized, oh, I didn't know it went up to like 10, 11, 12. They lost me by then. But I really love those early Big Shiny Tunes

and I just need to know because you were the music supervisor of Big Shiny T tunes and the much dance compilations and those things sold millions of units. Like how did you decide what would make it like, did it depend? Cause a lot of interesting Canadian acts were like missing in action,

like, like the tragically hip and others. And I'm just curious how you determine what got onto a big shiny tunes. Well, I mean, I don't know how many other people have mentioned this, but ultimately, the major labels in Canada used to take turns releasing it. And so each of those labels would focus

on putting their artists onto Big Shiny Tunes. They would share because they were swapping back and forth. But ultimately, if it came down to, do we add this Universal Act or do we add this Warner Act, Universal would say we're adding the Universal Act. So that's where, you know, maybe with the tragedy hip, it might have been Warner's year. And so...

Well, they never appeared. Like, there was never a hit. Like, just seeing there's some acts, you'd be like, oh, it's interesting that you never get this act in a big, shiny suit. So I always assumed, as I got older and wiser, that it was something to do with the label, not playing ball with this.

It was sort of, yeah, it was that. I mean, for us, we really wanted to play, we were more insistent on the independence and making sure that there was a fair share of Canadian artists on there. So that's where, you know, Alexis on Fire would end up on the compilation or something like that. So that's what our contribution was it was sort of like but the record companies were the one that were clearing all the songs dealing with the you know just making sure that uh you know that they they would

be embraced but i mean they would come in with their priorities okay red hot chili peppers have agreed to this and and and whatever so it was negotiating with management and the points that they would get off the record. And so, but for us, it was like we had to, you know, I would make contributions from the independent side, like I said, Alexis on Fire, and then I'd have to sign off on it. I'd have to say, I don't like that. I don't think that should be there.

And I really want this to be on there. Like one year it was, you know, I mean, we had Billy Talent, but I really wanted the Killers on that year. So I think Billy Talent was Warner, and then the Killers, somebody told me, I think, had come out, and we'd really embraced it early, that I really thought that it was important from a much music perspective that it be on there. So that ended up on there.

So, yeah, there were particular songs but certainly in the early days um you know the the first compilation that sold the most i think yeah or it was i think it was big shiny tunes two two that was the biggest um he had song two on that one there you go yeah so i mean there were just so many great that was just great and it was at a time before you know there was any other place to go to find these songs i mean i grew up with it you know you wanted to buy you wanted a song you had to buy the album so now it was just great there was this but now that's done i mean for me you know i'm in the car of spotify and i'm just that's it if i'm in the mood for anything i say

hey siri play this and it and they play it like big the key to big shiny tunes was we're pre-napster right so it's not like yeah so if you wanted and and it's because i'm just looking at the playlist right now so you got your blur and you got your prodigy and you got your uh sugar ray and your but then you also have a song i still throw on the mix drinking in la by brand van 3000 montreal band and uh not only that but you've got holly mcnarland's numb another song i throw in the mix all the time these are kind of smaller canadian bands kind of so it's like a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down okay yeah you might yay snow stone temple pilots and radiohead but here is what you really

need which is brand and priority for i mean certainly labels like holly mcgarland was a big priority for the label when it came out and and i loved it and embraced it i mean a lot of people cast it off as like you know the you know a lot of people would call a lot of female canadian artists came out as atlantis wannabes but she had a very distinct style and sound and great and she was amazing and i i loved her um and i and I think that that's another one of those ones where we pushed to get it because we embraced it. I mean, if it's something that we're playing all the time, I didn't want to

put songs on there that we only had in light rotation, even if they were hits. Because there were some times the video wasn't that good. I wanted it to be a reflection for the most part of songs we played a lot. This is why we never got any lowest of the low on those. That's correct.

That would be correct, yeah. But I will close this episode with a song. But first, I want to play another song for you. Before I play this, we've been talking about, we used to consume, you see I got a cassette player here because I happen to be ripping some cassettes to MP3s. And we all have old tech that becomes obsolete or it breaks and it's got to be junked.

But you don't throw your old tech in the garbage, Craig. This is important. There's like a lot of chemicals in there. You need to safely recycle your old technology. And you need to go to recyclemyelectronics.ca and find out an approved location near you to drop that off. It's very important for the environment. You don't want that stuff in the landfill. So shout out to EPRA who are behind that initiative,

the Electronic Products Recycling Association. I like the sound of that. Maybe I'll bring my 8-tracks. Yeah. Well, you probably have a Burt Bacharach 8-track or two. I probably do. I definitely have a CD. Well, there's a CD built into this cassette here.

Thankfully, I have a lot because David Kynes sent me a lot of CDs that I don't play. Okay, so enough of David Kynes. He's a good FOTM. But this is somebody I want to play for you and I want you to tell me about this artist. Are you ready? Yes. Let her breathe a little bit here. Back where I was again I really thought that I was finally over you

But you cleaned up your act And now I want you back in my life And yes, I know I'm getting myself into another mess But this time it just feels right. Cause I don't know why I can't get you off my mind, but you keep reeling me in every once in a while. And I sit here alone with the words I don't want you to know And now I know for sure I'm completely hopeless Completely hopeless Who are we listening to, Craig?

That is Alexi Helkett. That is my eldest daughter. And she did release music and she's going to be working on releasing more music very soon. But that song, Hopeless, is available right now for download and streaming on Spotify and other music services. It sounds great in the cans. It sounds great. Yeah, it does. It's a great song. I mean, the production is really good. Yeah, no, it's very good. And it was produced, I don't know whether you know Rob Wells at all.

He's actually good, yeah. No, it's very good. And it was produced, I don't know whether you know Rob Wells at all. He's actually in a movie. Yeah. He's in a movie called Vandits, which is financed by David Kynes and the Hollywood Sweep. That's what a small world is. But the director of Vandits is in the FOTM Hall of Fame. His name is Stu Stone. Oh, okay. Well, there you go.

And he's a trailer park boy, of course. Yeah. Yeah, Rob Wells produced this. And it's, you know, I mean, Rob I met through when I worked on The Next Star at YTV. Yeah, you know what? Great jam here, and I was going to play some Lois Lois plays out, but no, I want to find out, post much music, give me the highlights. Like, what are you up to these days, Craig? Well, I took a year off, basically, after my dad died, but I did do some work with Slate Music and the Juno Awards.

Then I just got introduced to Ted Ellis at Chorus Entertainment, and their music director for CMT and YTV was going on mat leave. So I filled in and I became the the program director at uh at cmt and so i really embraced country went to nashville a bunch of times and uh and also ytv uh one of my big first things that i did was uh and it wasn't sour grapes or anything like that but i had uh we got one direction to do a performance on ytv ahead of much music so that was a very good score for me and uh i got you know my kids got to meet one direction in the early days and so i mean that was that was just really great so we i did that for about a year and but then i started working with the next star and doing a bunch of other things within uh and doing more live events uh

taylor swift and uh and country stuff uh so that that was great to do but i also did uh alicia moffitt and uh brooklyn roebuck and darren espanto from uh from the next star i helped with with rob wells i sort of executive produced their singles that were produced by Rob Wells after the, after the show. Um, and then I left there, um, and, uh, I worked at World Vision. I went and worked at World Vision for a year doing, uh, you know, charity work, traveling across the country with different artists that would go on stage and, and, uh, really advocate for, for, uh, that would go on stage and really advocate for sponsoring children. So Big Sugar, The Trues, Tom Wilson and Junk House.

So I did that. Love Tom Wilson. Yes, yeah, great guy. Well, the other guy's a great too, but he's an FOTM. Yeah, and then I did that. And then after that, I kind of went freelance, but things kind of slowed down. And so I kind of considered myself semi-retired um and but now i'm just uh

i'm i'm i've just decided to do other things and the the main thing i'm doing i'm working in a movie theater and i know um i'm working at cineplex as a manager um just embracing people and talking to people every day and cool and uh regaling the this theyear-old, 19-year-old staff with my stories of debauchery and stupidity and fun. I would work at the movie theater if you were my boss, like get the good stories that you wouldn't put on the recording here. Yep. Okay, it sounds like you're doing well. Amazing.

We look forward to new music from your daughter, Alexi, right? Yep, Alexi Halkett. Alexi Halkett, and she sounded great in that jam, so. Yep, I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, it's all good. And this was great, man. I really appreciate

you coming over here. You know, you mentioned it's a small world and everything's connected, but that, where YTV, do you know who's broadcasting

out of that YTV building right now in Liberty Village? No. That's the, is that the Zoomerplex? That's the Zoomerplex, yes, yeah, it is there, yeah, that's where's where Moses is hanging out

Moses is there yeah I haven't seen Moses for a few years did you have a decent relationship with Moses excellent relationship I think he respected me because I wouldn't just say yes to him I would make a valid argument for something that I disagreed with and I think he respected that

so yeah that was our relationship. We had a good relationship. Good to hear it. Were you friendly with Joel Goldberg? Yes. Joel and I worked on Electric Circus for years, and I haven't seen him for a while, but he was always a great guy, yeah.

He's a sweetheart. He's the one who promised me he would deliver fellow Clevelander Michael Williams, and he has yet to deliver. I got to get him. I'm going to text him later. But that was awesome. Craig F. Halkett. Don't forget the F.

I'm going to re-add the F tonight. All right. And that brings us to the end of our 1,201st show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Remind me of the handles on social media where we can follow you, Craig. Well, it's Facebook. It's just Craig Helkett right now.

And I'm at Craig Helkett. One word. Fine, Craig, there. Okay. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH.

And Canada Cabana are at Canada Cabana underscore. See you all next week. And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you. But I'm a much better man for having known you. Oh, you know that's true because everything is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow won't stay today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and gray.

Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day. But I wonder who, yeah, I wonder who. Maybe the one who doesn't realize there's a thousand shades of gray. Cause I know that's true, yes I do. I know it's true, yeah. I know it's true. How about you? All that picking up trash and then putting down ropes.

And they're brokering stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn because Everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms me today And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine And it won't go away

Because everything is rosy and gray Well, I've kissed you in France, and I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Sacré-Cœur But I like it much better

going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Warms us today And your smile is fine

And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy now Everything is rosy and Everything is rosy and gray Thank you.