Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Keith Hampshire: Toronto Mike'd #367

Episode Date: August 15, 2018

Mike chats with Keith Hampshire about his successful recording career, his work in TV and radio, and most importantly, his performance on OK Blue Jays.

Welcome to episode 367 of Toronto Mike's, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. Did you know that 99.99% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario? GLB, brewed for you, Ontario. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. And our newest sponsor, Census Design and Build,

providing architectural design, interior design, and turnkey construction services across the GTA. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is singer and broadcaster, well heck, this man has many talents.

Keith Hampshire. Welcome, Keith. Hello, hello. Thank you for having me. What a pleasure this is for me. Let me just tell everyone how this came to be. So I was invited, John Donabee invited me to this radio function at Roy Thompson Hall.

What is that, about, I don't know, six weeks ago or something like that? Yeah, I guess so. And I'm there, and Evelyn Macko is pointing out who is who in the crowd, because I know a lot of the voices and names, but I don't know a lot of the faces. So Evelyn's kind of helping me out.

And then she says, there's Keith Hampshire. And just the day before I was at this event at Roy Thompson Hall, I recorded here in the basement with Mark Hebbshire and we did our 10 favorite sports jams of all time. And number one on the list, and this is before I knew I would meet you the next day. Number one on the list, I made sure it was number one, was OK Blue Jays. I put that at number one. And the very next day, I'm at this event, and there you are. You're the voice of OK Blue Jays. I am, yeah.

Still, when they remix this and everything. To this very moment. And hopefully forever. But we're going to get into that later. So I think it was kismet that I met you, and I'm so grateful that you took time from your busy life to visit me. Oh, boy,

is it busy this summer, I'll tell you. Yeah. It's a hot one, too, because I went out to meet you in the car there, and I was sweating up a storm after like 10 seconds out there. Yeah, it's a hot one today. Hot one. Now, your voice, I don't hear any accent,

but you're from London, right? Well, I was born in London, England, in Dulwich, East End. And when I was five, six years old, for some strange reason, my father and mother decided to emigrate to Canada. So we got on a boat called the Georgic, I believe it was a Cunard line. And we sailed from South Hampton to New York City, spent the day in New

York City, and then boarded a train and came by train from New York to Toronto overnight. And then stayed in Toronto with friends for a week, bought an old Plymouth or Dodge. I think it was a Plymouth, probably a 48 or a 49, and proceeded to drive across Canada and eventually ended up in Calgary, Alberta with $12 in my dad's jeans. Oh, wow. And the rest is history. Well, I don't know. So I was brought up in Calgary. And was Calgary just chosen, was there a reason for Calgary? Well, for some reason, I think my

father, or let me put it this way, I think Edmonton had done some sort of advertising campaign in London. They had some billboards up, this, that, and the other. Go West, young man. You know, the great outdoors, yada, yada, yada. And my father bought it, obviously. And we were headed to Edmonton until we got to Saskatoon where my mother had some cousins. And they said, no, no, no, no. You don't want to go to Edmonton. You do not want to go. You want to go to edmonton you do you want to go to calgary so we went to calgary instead so and i'm glad we did because edmonton is freaking cold well listen my wife is from edmonton oh is that right yes and i the one time i went to edmonton was for her sister's you know her brother's wedding but we flew to calgary and i drove from calgary to edmonton

200 miles and beautiful because we went we checked out Lake Louise there in Banff. We took the scenic route, I suppose. Wow. That is out of the way. Yeah, but I wanted to check that out. And yeah, I think you were wise to choose Calgary. Let's put it that way. I think your dad made the right choice.

But some great musicians came out of Edmonton, so that's good. Can you name one? I'm curious now. Okay. Barry Allen, West Acres and the Rebels. Barry Allen won Juno Award for Male Vocalist of the Year. West Acres and the Rebels won a Juno, I think, for Instrumental Artists of the Year.

That's, they were Edmonton. Who else? That's all I can think of. That's enough. Hey, you exceeded my expectations. Now, right off the top, I want to give you something for making the trip here. Now, and also I want to give a shout out.

So you're from England. Yesterday I had a great conversation with Alistair. Alistair works at Great Lakes Brewery. My wife and I went for a pint on the patio and we peppered him with questions about England and I only caught half of it because he's got a very heavy accent. He just came here from England.

Where's he from in England? You know, York. Oh, Yorkshire? Yeah, maybe Yorkshire. I know. And I was really interested, but I only caught half of it and it's at that point where it's like,

I think I caught the good half. It is English though. Yes. You've got to remember that. Right. No, it is English. It's their language or our language, whatever. Yeah, we'll give them.

They're the reason we keep O-U-R in words like color. Exactly. And labor. Right. Neighbor. And I think we spell, what is it? Some words like pediatrician, for example. P-A-E-D.

Like that's for England, right? Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. I guess so. Kept some of that going. So shout out to Alistair. And I want to give you, Keith, a six-pack of beer you can take with you. That's courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery.

I thought it was kind of obviously sitting here in front of me, and I thought, what the heck is this all about? And you thought it was a prop. Well, I didn't know. I thought it might be a gift, but that's lovely. Wonderful. Thank you. So enjoy that.

I will. Please enjoy that. You can be sure I will. And a quick shout out to everybody listening to remind them that on September 12th, from six to nine, there's another Toronto Mic'd listener experience at the Great Lakes Brewery Patio.

And again, we'll be hearing from the Royal Pains. And if you are in the market, if anyone out there needs a good live band for their event, I don't know, a holiday event or any event, the Royal Pains are tremendous. So come check them out on September 12th because there's no cover.

Just come, enjoy a free beer and enjoy the Royal Pains. And if you like what you see, please contact Al at the Royal Pains. They're for hire. Did you know bands, they want to be paid? This is something I didn't realize. It's ludicrous, ludicrous. I mean, they do it because they love it.

So what the hell, they should get paid too? I don't know. They expect to eat and pay rent and all these things. It doesn'ticrous. Ludicrous. I mean, they do it because they love it. So what the hell? They should get paid, too. I don't know. They expect to eat and pay rent and all these things? Come on. It doesn't make sense. Ridiculous. So please, theroyalpainsband.com is their... How is it spelled?

P-A-Y-N-E-S? No, actually, P-A-I-N-S, actually. Oh. I know. They went with the traditional stuff. It's not as ostentatious as I thought. But they're a great band. Come see them on July, sorry, what is it again?

September. September 12th. Yeah, thank you. I have no idea what day we're at here. It's all a blur to me now. So please do that. Enjoy that beer. Now tell me about this.

At 17 years old, you played at this, it's called the Depression Coffee House. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Folk music was really big back in those days. I'm very old, you know. And anyway, folk music was the big thing. So it was the Kingston Trio, it was the Brothers Four, it was the High Women, the Four, whatever. And anyway, folk music was the way to go. And my voice had just broken. I was a late bloomer, I suppose. And a bunch of guys and I went down to this folk music club,

which was called the Depression Coffee House in Calgary. And it happened to be, I think it was a Sunday night or something. And so it was amateur night. It was, you know, people from the audience get up and perform. Yeah, open mic or whatever they call it. So the guys said, why don't you get up and sing a bunch of songs and he says come on come on come on come on these guys are you know they play zithers and harps and guitars and ukuleles and i don't play a damn thing they said but you know you know you like to sing and i said yeah i like to sing well go ahead so anyway i talked to the owner, John Uren, and he said, sure, sure, kid. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll call you up.

And he says, this is how it works. He says, you sing three songs, and if the audience seems to like you, then you sing three more. I said, okay, I can do that. Anyway, I got up, and I just kind of ad-libbed and told some stupid stories and then sang Four Strong Winds or something and everybody clapped. And then I sang Tom Dooley or something and everybody clapped. And then at the end of three songs, he said, go on, do three more. So I racked my brains trying to

think of three more songs that I actually knew the words to. And that's how I started singing folk songs. So then I became known as the a cappella singer because I didn't play guitar. I just sat on the stage and shot my face off and sang songs a cappella. And this Depression Coffeehouse gave birth to some big-time careers, right? Well, there were some pretty famous people

who came through there. Joni Mitchell was one. David Whiffen was another. Will Miller of the Irish Rovers, he went through there. I'm missing some, I'm sure. But I mean, it doesn't get any bigger than Joni Mitchell.

You had me right there. That's incredible. That's big time. Donna Warner of Three's a Crowd, she sang there. so you're the acapella singer i was you do that i guess you do that you're at high school at the time i guess so i'm in high school and uh all of a sudden the phone starts ringing and and different colleges like mount royal college and the university of calgary started phoning me up and saying hey we're having a hoot nanny they were hootenannies in those days,

where they got all kinds of different performers up on stage and they sang their songs. And let's say the acapella singer. So I started doing these hootenannies and they started giving me money for doing it. And I thought, hey, wait a minute, this is kind of neat. I'm doing something I love to do, which is sing, and they're paying me money.

So, okay. So I started, I got pretty serious then. I found myself a guitar player, and he came along, and he played guitar. And I think I even did a gig at the high school where I had a kid sitting in on bongo drums while we did our thing. while we did our thing. And anyway, that's how I first became professional, realizing that I could actually get paid for doing something I love to do. Not too shabby.

No. Now tell me about CFCN TV and radio. So this is like your first foray, I guess, into mainstream media. Yeah, well, I was a terrible student. Well, I had a hell of a time with math and French. And because of that, I went to summer school every year of high school. So I'd go to grade 10, then grade 10 summer school, then grade 11, then grade 11 summer school to pick up my mark so I

could go on to the next grade, you see. I had trouble with grade 12. It took me two years to get out of grade 12, because it was the French and the bonjour, hello stuff, and the math. And my parents really wanted me to go to university, so I humored them by going to school and going to... Anyway, after my second foray into summer school, grade 12. They don't have grade 13 out in Alberta. They realized I still didn't have the marks to get into university or the, yeah, the average. So my father said, well, that's it. You're going in the Navy. And I went, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'll tell you what I'll do. I said, I'll get a job, and I'll go to night school, and I'll pick up my marks. Honest I will, Dad, honest I will.

He said, okay, this is your last chance. So I went down to the unemployment office. It was called the unemployment office at that time, not the employment office. And I filled out the form, unnecessary, and this lady started interviewing me. And she said, so it says here that you're a singer. I said, yeah, yeah. I just do it on the weekends. Got a little band together. And she said, what would you think about a job at the local television and radio station as a television apprentice cameraman. I'd say, oh, terrific.

I'd do that in a heartbeat. So I went up to the radio station, or the television station, I should say. It was both. It was a combination. Anyway, did my interview with the guy. He seemed to think I was quirky or something. And next thing you know, I'm this television cameraman.

But I wasn't very good at it. I had trouble focusing and dollying and trucking and all that other stuff. But I had sort of ingratiated myself to the other staff members, the on-air staff members and the behind-the-scenes staff members. And they kept finding other things for me to do. I remember singing a song for the Calgary Stampeters football club, like Go Go Stamps or something. I can't remember what it was. Anyway, when they realized I was a lousy cameraman,

they said, well, gee, you know, this really isn't working. Perhaps we should find something else for you to do. Do you know how to push buttons? And I said, yeah. So they made me an engineer on the radio side of things. So then I was working, pushing buttons, spinning records, and behind the scenes on the radio station. And then they came to me and they said,

listen, we need somebody to push buttons on the all night show on the weekends. Can you do that? Yeah, yeah, sure. So I was singing in a, I was singing in a band at that time. And so we'd play from like eight o'clock until quarter to 12. Then I'd get in the car and drive like hell up to the radio station, which was on a hill overlooking Calgary. And I'd go on the air at midnight, but I wouldn't be vocalizing. I would just be pushing buttons. And there was the all night, the guy who did the all night show during the week, what he'd do is he'd pre-record his blurb and I would just sort – it was on tape. I wonder how many of our listeners know what tape is.

Anyway. A lot of them do. Oh, good. So anyway, so he'd sit in the studio one day during the week, and he'd say, you're listening to The Barry Young Show here on CFCN in Calgary, and now here's Peggy Lee with Is That All There Is. That was Peggy Lee with Is That All There Is. And now it's time for Tony Bennett, Left My Heart in San Francisco.

You know, this voice tracking is the future of radio from what I hear. Well, exactly. Exactly. So anyway, he was voice tracking, but he hated to do it because it was six hours of mindless pap. And so anyway, he came to me after the first couple of weekends and he said, listen, he said, I'm not going to do six hours anymore. He says, I'm just going to go from midnight until two. two and then you can you can do whatever you want between two and four and then i'll go back on the air between four and six and then after a while it was um i'll go until one and then you go from five until six and then after a while he didn't even bother doing it so um i guess a month or two later i uh happened to be in the radio station and uh the program director the big boss uh the manager or whatever met me in the hallway and he said hey hampshire yeah yeah yeah he said um i guess you think that i don't know that you've been uh haven't been using that voice

track for the last week well hell it had been like a month or two. So, yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir. It's just that, no, no, you sound fine. Go ahead. So I managed to. You know, Mike, I consider myself probably the luckiest guy in the world because I have fallen into piles of poop all my life and come out with a mouthful of roses, you know. Same with this radio station.

life and come out with a mouthful of roses, you know? Same with this radio station. I mean, what are the chances I'm going to get a job at the local radio and television station? What are the chances that, you know, things like that are going to happen? What are the chances that Roy Orbison is going to come to Calgary, play the Stampede Chorale, which at the time was the biggest venue in town, and me and my band would be the opening act. That's incredible.

At 18 years old. I mean, just one thing after another. I mean, as we go on here and I answer your questions and tell you stories, you're going to realize I am probably the luckiest guy in the world. The luckiest son of a bitch around. That's it, yeah. Now, you're

at the station which is like you mentioned peggy lee like this is a middle of the road oh yeah oh yeah but you you start pro you become an i i think this is correct but one of the first canadian djs to regularly play like uh the kind of the fresh new music from england right you were playing like the animals and oh yeah well the thing was that all these records would come in. I mean, like I said, I was singing in a band at the time. And to be popular, you had to play the music of the day. So even though the radio station I was working at wasn't playing this stuff, the record companies were still sending the records to...

Do people know what records are nowadays? They made a comeback, you know. They're those black round things. Anyway, they would send the records to this radio station, and they'd just get filed in the round bin, you know. And I would say to the librarian, I'd say, hey, is it okay, can I have those? Oh yeah, sure. So I take them home, put them on my little Seabreeze record player, and learn all the lyrics to all these new up and coming tunes that the rock stations in town were playing. So, yeah, then I started playing pretty well all the British stuff all night long. You know, it was terrific.

No, that's very cool. And I mean, this opening for Roy Orbison at the Stampede Chorale, that's a massive deal for a teenager. You're telling me. In 1966. I didn't sing any of his songs, by the way. Okay, good. We used to do a couple of his,

you know, like Pretty Woman. Only the Lonely. And Leah, and only the, yeah, yeah. But did you, so to me, it sounds like you're a teenager, you're in Calgary, you're programming a graveyard shift, I guess, on the local radio station, and you're playing what you want.

It sounds like you get to play what you want. Pretty much. You don't get that anymore. And then you're opening up, your band's opening up, Roy Orbison. Everything's coming up roses, like you said. But why do you go back to England? One of my buddies that I went to school with was English. And I ran into him one day and he said, I'm going back to England. I said, oh, how come? He said, well, my family's

moving back and I have to go back with them. I said, oh, yeah. He said, now they've already gone, he said, but I need somebody to go with. He said said you wouldn't consider going to england with me would you i said well and i think how old was i i guess i was about 19 or 20 i'd been at the radio and television station for a year or two um i was still doing the all-night show on the weekends i wasn't getting famous there the band i was playing in were getting old and jaded well not old but we were getting um we'd pretty well gone as far as we could go because the uh that's uh we there were no recording facilities in calgary so if you wanted to make a record, you couldn't. And even Westacus and the Rebels from Edmonton and Barry Allen, they all went to Clovis, New Mexico to record with Norm Petty down in his studio, which is the home of, again, Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly and so many others who recorded at Norm Petty's studio in Clovis,

New Mexico in the middle of nowhere. So there was no, there was not much, the band was getting tired and old and we didn't, they didn't want to rehearse anymore. So that, the band was sort of going downhill. I think we'd gone to like number two in the province and that was as far as we could go. So you had to either change provinces or mix it up a bit and you decided to go take a break. So the band thing was sort of going downhill. I had a girlfriend that I'd been dating for a couple of years and she wanted to get married. She was 18 and I was 20 and I thought, no, no, there's more to life than, I mean, I really loved her, but you know.

And her father said, why don't you quit the radio station, come and work for me and my oil company? You know, you can make big bucks. And so there was that thing, and then there was the other thing was that in Alberta at the time, you were allowed three speeding tickets before they came and took your license away. Okay.

I had five. Oh, wow. It was a matter of time before there was a knock at the door asking for their precious license back. So I agreed to go to England with my friend Tony. Nice. So that was all set up. I bought my ticket on this ship, the Mosdam, I think, Holland America.

And Tony and I were supposed to go back to England. So I guess it was about a month or more in advance. And then a week or two later, I ran into another old friend of mine. I said, so did you hear I'm going to England? And he said, oh, yeah, how come? I said, well, you know, Tony Yurt. He says, so, did you hear I'm going to England? And he said, oh yeah, how come? I said, well, you know Tony Ert? He says, yeah, I know Tony. He says, well, Tony's asked me to go to England with him, so I'm going to England with him. He said, Tony Ert? I said, yeah, yeah. He said, he's already gone. I said, what do you mean he's already gone? He's already gone. He's there.

So I checked it out, and sure enough, Tony buggered off without me. So I thought, oh great, now I'm going to England by myself. Okay, well, it just so happened I ran into another old friend of mine and we're sitting around having a coffee and I said, so Tony buggered off to England and I'm going to England in a month's time and I got nobody to go with. He said, well, I'll go with you. I said, really? I said, but you're in university. You're in your first year. You're going to leave in the middle of your first year university and go to England? I don't think your parents are going to allow that. He said, oh, no, I think they'll be cool with it. So sure

enough, he went home and he told his parents he was going to England with me. And so he ended up coming to England with me. And he is now a very prominent lawyer in Victoria, British Columbia. Cool. Very cool. Now, this is remarkable, this part of the story here. And please tell, I don't think many listeners are that familiar with the floating pirate radio stations that you had in england at this time so tell me i guess this becomes keithers uprising but keithers commotion at first tell me how this came to be and what exactly this is a literally a pirate ship right well they called it pirate radio and and what it was was um it's hard to it's really hard

to explain to north americans because it was as if okay let's put it Americans because it was as if, okay, let's put it this way. It was as if in Canada, the only radio, try and get your head around this, the only radio station you could listen to was the CBC radio station. That was all there was. So here's a country of how many millions and millions and millions of people, the only radio station, they had three, maybe four different channels. One was called the BBC Light Program. One was called the BBC Home Service. And I can't remember the name of the other two. But anyway, that was it as far as radio was concerned for the entire country. There was no rock and roll. There was no pop. They tried to be everything to everybody.

And if you wanted to listen to the top 10 records of the day, there was a 45-minute segment during the week that you could actually listen to the top music of the day. 45 minutes a week. I mean, it was criminal. It was freaking criminal. And, of course, the country was starved for popular music. I mean, they were hearing the BBC Orchestra play the hits of the Beatles and things like that.

It was just ludicrous. And they wanted to hear the Beatles sing the hits of the Beatles. You got it. So anyway, this enterprising Irishman, he'd been over to North America, made friends with John F. Kennedy and his family, and listened to North American radio and said, hey, we should have this in Britain.

So he went to the British government and said, listen, I'm ready to set up a radio station like they have in in in north america and uh you know we'll sell advertising and things like oh no no no no can't do that my son no sorry we've got the bbc and they're doing a lovely job yes they're providing the service to the people so um he said well bugger you and off he went he went back to ireland his father owned a shipyard and he um fitted up an old an old ship with radio transmitters built a big honking mast 185 feet high sailed this ship around the bottom of um uh to just offshore, international waters now. You've got to remember that the international coastline is three miles. That's the three-mile limit.

If you were beyond the three-mile limit, you were considered in international waters. And really, there's not a whole lot of regulation out in that no man's land, if you want to call it. So he sailed this boat around. He anchored it three and a half miles off the coast of Britain. Fascinating. And started broadcasting from this ship and playing the music of the day. because of this Radio Caroline, it was called, groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, the Kinks, you name it,

Jerry and the Pacemakers, Billy, the whole British invasion thing that we got into here in North America, it started with this guy and this boat in the English Channel. was that's how powerful they were well these numbers are staggering like uh average listenership would be about two million I believe two million people but you'd have peak periods where Radio Caroline would have eight million people listening like that's uh that's a pirate radio show. That's frightening, isn't it? It's massive. Here I am doing the all-night show on the weekends in Calgary,

and I'm lucky, lucky, lucky if I had 8,000 listeners. The day I started on Radio Caroline after spinning a fine yarn, I was going to say BS, but after spinning a fine yarn, they hired me. I went out to the ship, and I was used to working in a modern, up-to-date radio station, and here I am working on this Mickey Mouse, rinky-dink little board that was so archaic

and so involved, I was scared spitless having to use this thing. So I spent the first day when I was scared spitless having to use this thing. So I spent the first day when I was on board trying to figure out how to work this board because you had to play your own records, you had to spin your own commercials, you had to read your own, you know, everything was operated by the disc jockey, you see.

So I'm sitting there in the studio trying to learn this stuff. Meanwhile, the guy who is on the air is going, yes, we've got a brand new disc jockey on board today on Radio Caroline. His name's Keith Hampshire. He's from Canada. Say hello, Keith. Hello. Yes, tomorrow afternoon, don't forget to tune in to Keith Hampshire on Caroline,

3 o'clock in the afternoon. It's going to be fabulous, isn't it, Keith? Yeah. So come on, tomorrow afternoon. It's going to be fabulous, isn't it, Keith? Yeah. So come on, tomorrow afternoon, they're talking me up, talking me up. Meanwhile, I'm getting more and more nervous, more and more nervous. And so anyway, the next afternoon at three o'clock,

just before I'm about to go on the air, all the guys come shake my hand. Don't worry, mate, you're going to be all right. And the guy who hired me, a fellow by the name of Tom Lodge, may he rest in peace, put his arms around my shoulder and he said, Keith, he said, there's 8 million people out there and they're going to love you. So apparently, from what I understand, those that remember,

those that are still alive, say that they've never heard anybody talk so fast in their entire life. All I wanted to do was shut that damn mic off and figure out where i was going to go next that sounds like uh like dave mickey right yeah yeah it was along the lines of dave mickey oh that's great and then what is this he had a novelty hit like and from what i've read because of course you're right it is tough for us you know if you're born and raised in canada it's tough to kind of understand this whole pirate radio it almost sounds like a uh a ham radio or like a today's modern podcast like this is almost sort of like a similar equivalent but um you had a you were like a celebrity right like if you were a big dj like keith hampshire on radio caroline uh with eight million people who could tune in that's's celebrity status. You were a big deal.

You had a novelty hit. Is that right? Well, it wasn't. No. Okay, you're going to tone that down. You're going to tone that down. It was not a hit. It was a novelty record that I recorded

when I was in England, and it wasn't even supposed to be released. But that's neither here nor there. The thing that is amazing is that the celebrity status that we disc jockeys um uh were rewarded with let's put it that way because we well let me put it okay first of all i go on the air i'm fresh and whatever yeah and i call myself keith hampshire because that's my name and at the end of my first week on board, I get deluged with like 500 letters from people saying,

oh, I remember you. You were in the West End production of Oliver. You were fabulous. I remember you. You were great. And then somebody else writes in and says, oh, yeah, I saw you in that movie with Hayley Mills in Search of the Castaways. oh, yeah, I saw you in that movie with Hayley Mills in Search of the Castaways.

Oh, yes, I remember you. You know, and I'm going, wait a second. That's not me. So I do the research. And sure enough, there was a kid who was a child actor named Keith Hamshear, H-A-M-S-H-E-R-E. S-H-E-R-E. And he was, you know, I guess famous in Britain. Sure, Hayley Mills movies were popular.

That would get you on the map, sure. You know, Disney movies. So anyway, I thought, wait a second, I can't be stealing his thunder. So I assumed a nickname that I had been given in high school called Keefers. And so I became Keefers. And that's how I show Keefers Uprising. I did the morning show and then I did the afternoon show. It was Keefers Commotion. And I stole all sorts of things from disc jockeys that I'd heard in Calgary.

For example, there was a disc jockey who did country music in the afternoons, and his name was Darcy Scott, great guy. Anyway, Darcy used to say, well, he used to start his show with this same sort of spiel every day, and he'd start and end his show with this spiel, and I sort of adapted it end his show with this this spiel and i sort of adapted it to um my show and i'd uh i'd do something like um morning you're listening to keefer's uprising where we've got three solid hours of finger snapping toe tapping knee knocking thigh slapping knuckle cracking finger popping leg pulling wrist twisting tongue tangling foot stomping rock and roll music and excuse me so that's how i started and ended every show. And that sort of became my signature.

And then there was another disc jockey in Calgary. His name was Cam McCubbin, who's now out in British Columbia somewhere. And he used to call his sure shot or his pick to click or whatever you want to call it. It was Cam's carefully calculated contention. Well, I called mine Kiefer's carefully calculated. So you steal stuff from here, you steal stuff from there, and you try and think original thoughts every so often. But that's sort of how my Caroline thing happened. Now, you thought you were dodging the law in Calgary

because of the driving the speed infractions. Well, now you're on a pirate ship, essentially. Let's call it a pirate ship. That's cool, man. A pirate radio pirate ship, which I guess at some point you realize maybe you better start dodging the law there too, right? Because they cracked down on this. Well, there was no law at the time.

And the British government were, they were getting awful silly about the fact that here they were supporting the BBC and trying to, you know, pretend that the BBC was the be-all and the end-all for the British public. But 55 million people were listening to pirate radio ships because, yes, Caroline was probably the first and the biggest. was probably the first and the biggest. But in the end, there were about 10 or 12 boats and forts and whatever around the British Isles. There was Radio Scotland, Radio 390, Britain Radio, Radio London, Radio England.

There were all these different radio stations. So it was really snowballing. And the British government decided that they had to put a stop to it somehow. So they eventually put a bill through Parliament called the Marine Broadcast Offenses Act. And if you were a British subject, you were liable to either six, well, minimum six months in jail and a 500 pound fine. And also you would, oh, I don't know if there's anything to do with your passport or anything, but that was the minimum penalty. And if you worked on the ships, if you provided the ships with anything like food, water, what have you, and if you advertised on the ships.

So they sort of made a real blanket to shut these guys down. And sure enough, they shut everybody down but Radio Caroline. And Radio Caroline stayed on the air after August 15, 1967. And they stayed on the air, and they operated out of Holland. and they stayed on the air and they operated out of Holland. So instead of taking an hour to get from shore to the ship, which is what we normally did, these guys had to go 16 hours across the North Sea from Amsterdam to the ships.

It was, boy, oh boy, they were real pioneers, I'll tell you. Well, luckily for us Jays fanatics, you came back to Canada. Now, before we get you back to Canada here, this is a great opportunity for me to give you another gift. So I gave you the six-pack from Great Lakes Brewery. Beautiful. You're going to enjoy that. You're going to need a pint glass to pour that beer into.

I think they call this style of glass a billy. This is what I was told. A billy? This? Yeah, that's yours This? Is this your particular? Yeah, that's yours. To which you are referring? That is yours. That is courtesy of Brian Gerstein, who is with propertyinthesix.com. He's a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. And Brian's got a great question for you that

really brings you back, literally brings you back to Canada here in 1967. Thank you, Brian. So let's hear from Brian. Hi, Keith. Brian Gerstein here, a sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Might. 416-873- 2 9 2 is the number to call or text me for any of your real estate

needs. Keith, we have something in common. We both went to expo 67. I happen to be three years old and my claim to fame was getting lost and my mother finding me on the back of a policeman's scooter. What memories do you have of Expo 67? Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye. Come on, that's 1967. Lord have mercy. Well, let me first preface this by saying the British government had not only closed down the pirate ships, but they had also limited the amount of cash flow

out of the British Isles. So if you were to go on holidays, for example, and you wanted to take cash money, this was before credit card and the debit card and whatever became so big. If you wanted to go on holidays outside of Britain, you were allowed to take the maximum of 50 pounds cash with you. So the money you could actually carry with you was 50 pounds, which in those days was about 125 bucks. Which is not very much. Which is not very much. Which is not very much.

But in those days, $125 bought you a hell of a lot more than you buy today. Oh, sure. So anyway, here it was time for me to come back to Canada because I wasn't working on Caroline anymore. The BBC had instigated, sure, whatever, or introduced their own idea of pirate radio, and they hired a whole lot of the pirate disc jockeys,

and they started something called BBC Radio 1. I listened to BBC Radio 1, and I didn't particularly like it, so I thought, I'm going back to Canada to hell with this. Excuse me. particularly like it so i thought i'm going back to canada to hell with this excuse me so um anyway uh i went to the bank and i hadn't made a whole lot of money because i the funny thing was that i made 25 pounds a week for working on the ship which you know you do the math it's two times two and a half times and so i make it me 65, 70 bucks a week on the ships. But the other thing was there was no place to spend it. I was on a boat in the middle of the

North Sea. So for two weeks I'm getting paid. So there's 130 bucks, let's say. And then I also get paid for my week off, which is terrific. Now, you've got to remember, there's no income tax. There's no taxes involved at all because I'm working in international waters. Right. So my money's going straight into the bank account. But I mean, I was there for 13 months, I think. So I hadn't accumulated a shitload of money, but I did have some money stacked away that I wanted to get out of the country. So I went to the bank and at the time, I think the largest note you could get was a 10 pound note. So I took all my money out of my bank account in 10 pound notes. And when I decided to come back to Canada, I shoved them all in the sleeves of this jacket I had. So when I'm carrying my suitcases,

my arms are straight and there's the money not making big bulges at all because it's shoved into these. So that's how I got my money out of Britain. You really were a pirate. Oh yeah, a crook. So I landed in Montreal for the last week of Expo 67. so I you really were a pirate oh yeah crook so I I landed in Montreal

for the last week of Expo 67 I stayed at a kind of a hostel group house sort of thing and I'm trying to get back to the question

the question was what did I think of Expo 67 so just some prefaces Brian's from Montreal so he's a he oh dear

so he was born and raised in Montreal oh dear I'm about to... No, let's get some real talk here. Let's get the real talk on Montreal. Okay, well, I landed in Montreal. I went to

Expo 67 every day. I thought it was fabulous. I thought, wow, Canada's really arrived. I'm glad to be... Oh, I'm so glad to be back in this country. And I listened to Montreal radio and it sucked. I thought, I can't, I can't work here. It was, it was so regulated. It was so stilted. It was so unnatural. I mean, first of all, I, you know, my, my original experience with radio was this middle of the road station in Calgary where everything was, now here's Terry Brown from the top of the town here in Calgary.

You know, really deep, rich, mellow voices. And I go to England and I listen to, good afternoon, you're listening to Radio Caroline, baby. We got the Beatles. We got the Beatles. We got the Stones. We got them all, darling. Here we go. You know, I mean, it was vibrant. It was alive.

It was happening. And I come back to Montreal and I'm back to, no, here's CGA FM here in Montreal. And I'm thinking, no, no, no, no, no. What a contrast. Yeah. So I decided to pass on Montreal and came to Toronto. And you got a job at CHUM, is that right? Well, as a matter of fact, a lot of people think I did work at CHUM, but I didn't.

I had a choice when I came back because I had a, you know, everybody sort of thought, oh, pirate, pirate, everybody wants a pirate. We should have a pirate on our staff. So there were two rock and roll stations in Toronto at the time. One was Chum, of course, and the other was an upstart radio station owned by Foster Hewitt called CKFH, which prided itself on being the second greatest radio station in the world. And John Donabee, that's where I met John Donabee, as a matter of fact. Of course, of course.

So John and I became close, close friends. And anyway, did he ever sing the jingle for you? The Donabees at Conabees? No, no. It went, this is the second greatest radio station in the world. It must be, because all the other radio stations are number one. Ba-dum.

So, yeah. He did? He did sing that. That's fantastic. And by the way, did you ever listen to the John Donabee appearance on Toronto Mic? No, I'm sorry.

That's no apology necessary. It's something to look forward to later this summer. I will, yes, I will. And I knew that. Yes, you got an offer, though, from Chum, right? But you turned it down for C&C. Yeah, well, I came back and I had a job offer from Chum and they wanted me to start as a swing shift announcer

and they wanted me to start in like November or December and then I had a job offer from CKFH and they were going to give me the full-time afternoon show from three until six and I could start in October and here I am in the middle of September and I'm thinking oh god what am I going to do I'm going to sit here until November and wait to start on Chum or am I going to start a month earlier at CKFH? So I went to a fellow that I had met in, I came to Radio Caroline and became the program director and power that be, let's put it that way. And his name was Alan Slate. Alan Slate, I went and saw Alan. At the time, he'd just come back from England as well, and he was working for a company named Stevens & Townrow that were radio station representatives.

So what they do is they go around to different advertisers and try and sell them on advertising on certain radio stations and things. So anyway, Alan was running this company, Stevens & Townrow, and I went to see Alan, and I said, listen, Al, I don't know what the hell to do here. Do I go with Chum or do I go with CKFH? And he said, well, how old are you, Keith? I said, well, I'm 20, almost 21. Sorry about popping the mic there. He said, well, Keith, he says, you know, you got your whole life ahead of you. And he said, you go to Chum, you'll be working with guys that have been in the business for 10, 20, 15, long time. And Chum is the pinnacle. Chum is as good as it's going to get in rock radio in Canada. And so you'll be the kid and you'll probably, you know, do the swing shift and you'll be doing it for the next 10 years until one of the guys either retires

or dies so he said you can do that or you can go to ckfh they're young they're vibrant they're up and coming they're they're trying real hard to uh to kick chum's ass so um uh i i recommend you go to CKFH. And I found out later that his company was representing CKFH, so he sort of had a vested interest. But anyway, that's how I ended up going to CKFH. I have a great question from Terry. Terry, by the way, is the first person this year who sponsored my Terry Fox run. So if anybody wants to sponsor my Terry Fox Run,

which is in mid-September, I think it's September 16th, go to torontomike.com and I put a link at the top that just says Terry Fox Run. Click through and then you get a tax receipt right away and PDF and all that good stuff. Beauty.

Thank you, Terry. But Terry is a great question. I'm going to read it in its entirety here. Terry says, I have a silly question for Keith, but it's about something that I've wondered about for years. When he worked at CKFH, the competition between them and Chum, them, Chum, and CKEY was absolutely fierce. Is it true CKFH tweaked the turntables to be a wee bit faster? The race for the title, You're Much More Music Station, was allegedly taken quite seriously. As I recall, CKFH even told you

how many songs they had played after every hour. Or maybe the great turntable controversy was just rumor. So can we let Terry know once and for all, he's probably held on to this question for decades. Yeah, he certainly has. Were the turntables at CKFH tweaked to be a wee bit faster?

Yes, they were. They were tweaked to be a wee bit faster to make the record sound just that little bit more exciting. And yeah, we used to you know, we'd say at the top of the hour, you just heard 19 greatest hits this last

hour, or 22, or we tried to cram in as many as we could. And, of course, there was a song by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs called Stay that is the shortest number one record in the world, and it's a minute and 45 seconds long. You know, and if your mama don't mind, that one. Stay just a little bit longer.

Of course. One minute, 45 seconds. So we'd always cram that one in because then you can get more records in the hour. This is quite the revelation. Is this common knowledge that the turntables were tweaked to be a bit faster at CKFH? I don't think so, no. So this is a breaking news. Oh, perhaps.

Headline. I could get sued for this. Stop the presses, everybody. That's huge. So Terry, that was a great question, and that was a great answer, because now Terry knows. He can sleep soundly tonight.

That's exactly right. Finally, a good night's sleep after how many decades? It's been bugging him, bugging him, bugging him. Wow. Now, Wayne and Schuster, I'm old enough that I do remember the Wayne and Schuster. I remember them doing specials on CBC and stuff when I was a kid. Wayne and Schuster were kind of like a big deal. They were.

And so tell me how you end up, what happens in your career at this point? I guess, is this after you leave the station? Yeah. Okay. So maybe. Okay. point, I guess, is this after you leave the station? Yeah. Okay, what happened at CKFH was they were so

anxious is a good word, I suppose. They were so anxious to kick Chum's butt that they decided that the most successful format for radio in North America was originated by a guy named Bill Drake, and it was called the Drake format. And he had a whole bunch of different do's and don'ts and different quirky little things to make radio supposedly more exciting. And so CKFH decided to explore this Drake format, but they couldn't hire, or they didn't want to pay the money to Bill Drake for his format. So they hired a guy who supposedly was Bill Drake's right-hand man, a guy from

Arizona named Gary Pallant. So Gary Pallant came up to Toronto and basically took over the station and he was the program director. And Gary Pallant decided that he had, well, he had full range of whatever he wanted to do at the station. And so consequently, he started firing on-air performers. He fired Don Daynard. He fired John Donabee. He fired Tom Fulton. He fired Kenny Wells. He fired everybody.

He fired me. I think he fired 10 guys in the space of 10 months. I was number 10. He was number 11. They finally, after they fired me, they- You were the last straw. I guess I was the last straw. John was just before me. John Donabee was just before me. I think he was number nine. I think I was number 10. This other guy, this Gary Palin guy was number 11. And then the radio station came to John and myself and said, listen, do you want your job back? We'd really love to have you back. By this time, I had gotten married to my beautiful wife, my first wife,

my second wife, my third wife, same wife. Anyway- One wife. Yeah, one wife. Again, luckiest guy in the world. I got it right the first time. Yeah. So anyway, John went back to CKFH briefly. And I decided, my wife said, listen, if they fire you once, they'll fire you again, which made a lot of sense. And also she said, listen, you've got so many other things you like to do. Why don't you try freelancing? So I did. I started freelancing. I got a resume and I took some, had some pictures taken and got some

tapes of commercials that I'd done on CKFH and put them together. And then I started hitting the advertising agencies and what have you. And the next thing you know, I start doing a, just down the street, I was living in Cabbage Town at the time, and just down the street on Parliament Street is a CBC theater. And every Sunday afternoon, they would have an improv session at this CBC theater. And up-and-coming comedic performers or whatever would go to this theater and just hang out. And there was a guy, actually there were two guys there that used to run this improv session.

One's name was Hart Pomerantz, who is now a lawyer, and the other was Lorne Michaels, who was his partner. Now, Hart and Lorne used to run these improv sessions, and he'd say, okay, you, you, you, and you, come on up on the stage, and he'd say, okay, you and you come on up on the stage and he'd say okay you're in a bus shelter and the bus is 20 minutes late and you are um uh late for your appointment and you are this and you and he'd sort of set up the premise and then off you go you'd improvise something you see so anyway um a lot of um uh movers and shakers in the theater scene in Ontario or Toronto would come to these improvs at the St. Lawrence Center, which I believe is now the Jane Madden Theater.

Yeah, I think so. Anyway, and they hired, I auditioned, they hired me, and I worked with the fabulous Jack Duffy. I worked with Julia Motto, and I worked with a beautiful lady from Montreal named Almeda Speaks. And we put together this comedy review that started at like 10 o'clock at night and went till midnight or something. This is You Better Believe It. You Better Believe It. Yes, you're darn right. Anyway, we did that for a few months, and it sort of, I learned from only doing commercials, but I was doing theater. And Jack Duffy, of course, was one of the regulars on Wayne and Schuster. So who should be in the

audience one night but Wayne and Schuster. They come backstage after the show and they say, hey, kid, we need a kid like you on our show. Come to our next taping. So that's how I got to start doing Wayne and Schuster. And I did them for three or four years, I suppose. I was one of the cast of regulars. We called ourselves the flunkies or the lackeys. We're the lackeys or the flunkies. You were one or the other. I'm going to play a jam.

I know there's probably a lot of great story that gets us to this song, but let me just start playing a Keith Hampshire song here. Uh-oh. And I believe this is 1973. 72. 72. I'm glad you're here.

Fall of 72. Fall of 72. She can't do without my love each and every day. It looks good, feels good. Walking down the street, everyone we meet says we should go a long, long way. We should always stay in love each and every day. Got a feeling going for each other. I could never leave her for another girl. Always miles away, we're in another world. And I love her. Yes, I love her. Keith, there's a jam right there.

Are you kidding me? Is that your first hit? Yes. Yeah. That was the first one that made any noise. That's daytime, nighttime. Yeah. I renamed it, as a matter of fact.

It was originally called Each and Every Day. And I thought, uh. Now you're a good move on your part. I thought so. That's a good move. I thought so. You know, I like to use the story about Bob Dylan wrote a song. I mean, all of his songs had peculiar titles.

But, you know, he had the song, Everybody Must Get Stoned. Oh, the stone you in, they're trying to be so good. Of course. And everybody called it the stoner song, you know, but it was really called Rainy Day Women, number 12 and 35. Yes, it was. So if you went to the record store and said, have you got that new stoner song? They wouldn't know what the hell you were talking about. So the title of a song is really quite important it's almost like that's the first

seo like name it what it is because that's what people will search for when they're looking for it yes don't be too cool for school that's right yeah that bob dylan moe he's too cool for school oh yeah positively fourth street now you're singing style in this song um like i hear i hear a little neil diamond going on there. I hear a few different... Is this your natural singing style, or was this adopted for... I guess it is. I mean, I've been

compared many, many times to David Clayton. David Clayton Thomas, yes. I'm very grateful for that. I mean, he's a fabulous, fabulous singer. I was just listening to it and trying to hear David Clayton Thomas in there. No, I don't hear it too much. I mean, he's a fabulous, fabulous singer. I was just listening to it and trying to hear David Clayton Thomas in there. No, I don't hear too much. I hear Michael Diamond. And I really don't. But hey, okay. I mean, if I'm going to be compared to anybody, I'd

rather be compared to David Clayton Thomas than, you know, Fred Bloggs or whatever, or the guy who's saying, I've got drugs in my pocket and I don't know what to do with it. Right. You know, so, no, no, I guess that's me. What a great, great band track that was. It's big, yeah, it's big and it's... Enormous. And for 1972, and the fact is that, you know, if it hadn't been for Pierre Junot putting through the Canadian content regulations,

A, we would not have had recording studios of that quality in Canada, and we would not have had work for our great talented musicians that we have here in Canada. I mean, Pierre Jouly really put Canada on the international map as far as music and recording are concerned. Because

previous to him, there were hardly any recording studios in Canada, none of any really international renown. And if you wanted to hit record, you did what Paul Anka did. You went to New York and sang Diana. And there was just no recording scene in Canada at all. Yeah, we didn't have the infrastructure to, what do you call it, nurture talent. Exactly. I mean, you were beating your head against the wall with a Canadian record company until, you know, the regulations came through that the radio stations had to play 30% Canadian content. And that was Canadian content because it was recorded here in Canada and I'm a singer and I sang it in Canadian.

And even though the music and the lyrics were written by an Englishman. Very, very interesting. Now that did, I believe, it reached number five in Canada? Yeah, I think so. And got picked up for some airplay in Detroit. Yeah. Well, see, it was CKLW,

which was considered a Detroit radio station because they beamed into Detroit, but it was really a Windsor radio station. And they were called the Big Eight, and they were one of the stations that was actually doing the Drake format thing. So they were huge. They were monsters.

So if you had a record that did well at CKLW in Detroit or Windsor, wherever you want to call it, the other radio stations, major market radio stations in the United States would consider getting on that record because it was such a you know a big record in that particular market so you would I think it was sort of considered an upper medium size radio market now not necessarily New York but not necessarily New York, but not necessarily Chicago, not necessarily Los Angeles would get on it. But you'd get other, you know, St. Louis, Missouri, Charlotte, North Carolina, you know, all sorts of other stations would get on it because it was considered a medium market station.

market station. So you could get AirPlay, and then if it kept on building and building and building, then you'd get the real major markets on it, and then it would be a big hit. So daytime, nighttime, in the U.S. billboard charts, hit number 51. That's right. And it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I was talking to somebody in the States, and I said, yeah, yeah, I had a record on Billboard and Cashbox. It got to number 51. He said, oh, you didn't pay the money, eh? I went, what do you mean? He said, to get from number 50 into the top 50, money has to change hands.

You've got to pay the right people to get your record played. I said, no. He said, yeah, I'm sorry. They said that Paola was dead, but it wasn't. hands you got to pay the right people to get your record played on the i said no he said yeah i'm sorry they they said that payola was dead but it wasn't no uh you're friendly with uh bill king right yeah yeah okay so funny i he was just here last a couple weeks ago and he had a band uh called china yeah and they had some you know kind of chicago sounding kind of jazz rock sound like sounded like the band chicago not the city chicago but they had some uh hits radio hits and they were like it was the story

bill told me is like some some guy was like we need thirty thousand dollars for the djs to keep playing it or something and then they they they said well you know they thought like peole is dead like that's a joke like we're not paying thirty thousand dollars like they're playing a song because it's good or whatever anyway they didn't pay the thirty thousand and the song was pulled and then basically bill said that's when he saw what a what a grossly corrupt industry it was at least back at that time like so hearing that story you share now from the uh there are early 70s i'm backing it up oh it's awful and we're about to play speaking of monster j And we're about to play, speaking of Monster Jams, we're about to play, I think we'll say this is your biggest hit, but just before we play that song.

You didn't record this, right? This is Pearl Jam. You're not in Pearl Jam, just for the record. Not me. No. Never heard this before. Never heard it before in my life. He's from Chicago, speaking of Chicago.

Oh, yeah? Just playing it for Census Design and Build. Census Design and Build provide architectural design, interior design, and turnkey construction services across the GTA. So I play the fixer by Pearl Jam. Fix your home. Contact them today.

Tell them Toronto Mike sent you. 416-931-1422. Or go to censusdesignbuild.ca for contact information. Schedule your zoning and cost project feasibility study. Census, design, and build. And from Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam to this jam. Something completely different. I would have given you all of my heart.

But there's someone who's torn it apart And she's taken almost all that I've got But if you want I'll try to love again Baby, I'll try to love again But I know The first cut is the deepest Baby, I know

The first cut is the deepest But when it comes to being lucky, she's cursed When it comes to loving me, she's the worst But when it comes to being loved, she's first That's how I know the first cut is the deepest Baby, I know the first cut is the deepest Number one with a bullet. Five weeks at number one in Canada.

It's top ten in Australia, released all over the world. I'll bet you, to this day, I bet you people think that this is your song. This is a Keith, that you wrote this song. This is a Keith Hampshire song. And it's not true. Not true. People delete that. No, Cat Stevens, of course, is the first cut of The Deepest.

But tell me what it's like to have a massive, massive hit. It was freaky. It was, you know, when you go in the studio and you are creating music and you are putting things together and you are building something and you finish it and you listen to it, and you go, holy crap, that is enormous. That is so good. It's big.

Because you've lived it for so long yourself, you sort of think, well, but is anybody else going to salute sort of thing? Yeah, you're too close to it. Yeah, and then when it actually happens, for example, when I first, just before I did Daytime Nighttime, I was working with

a fellow by the name of Bill Meisner, may he rest in peace. He was one of the original poppers with Skip Prokop and the guys. Anyway, Billy was my record producer and he was the one that came up with all these great arrangements and and musicians and what have you and um anyway my very first record that i made with him was on rca and um he wrote it and he sang it or

he sang background he played guitar on it. He arranged the vocal parts. He arranged this. He arranged that. He produced it. I mean, he did basically everything but sing lead on it. And it sort of made people think that, oh, maybe Keith Hampshire can sing sort of thing. And thank God he believed I could. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that After RCA passed on

After the first, my year had expired My contract I thought that was it for my recording career And Billy came to me and he said We should do some more tunes And I said, but Billy, we don't have a contract anymore He said, don't worry about that Don't worry about that

Let's do some more I got some more songs you should hear And I said, well, Billy Nothing personal personal. I love you, man. And I love your tunes. I said, but you know, when I was in England working on Radio Caroline, I heard so many great, great tunes that were hits that never saw the light of day here in North America, either through record company hassles or labels, didn't have American distribution or something. And these are hit songs. And he said, well, give me a for instance. So the first for instance I gave him was Daytime Nighttime. And he believed in it. And the rest,

as they say, is history. And then the record company, which was A&M at the time, A&M Records, they say, we need an album. We got to have an album. So Billy and I sat down and we went through all these different songs. And First Cut is the Deepest was one of the songs that I came up with because it had been a medium-sized hit in England for a girl by the name of P.P. Arnold. Cat Stevens sold her the song for 30 pounds and said, if you want to record this and release it, that's fine. He said, I'm going to put it on my next album, but if you give me 30 pounds, I won't release my album until your record has done what it's going to do. So Cat Stevens wrote First Cut is the Deepest. He was 16 years old.

And so anyway, the song had been a hit in Britain, but it was on an independent record label. And I suppose they did not have North American distribution or something because it never did Bupkis over here. And so when I went in and did it, I mean, Billy decided we're going to do the wall. We're going to do that Phil Spector wall of sound production. We're going to use every instrument known to man in that song. And thank God we had the great engineer George Semkew put everything down on tape.

And I mean, you listen. I mean, I haven't heard that for a while and i listened to it and i think my god what an incredible production sounds so good in the headphones does doesn't it so when you when you you know you were so close to it when it was being uh developed and recorded created produced uh did you play it for your wife and uh have like did you play for your wife and i but then did she tell you uh Keith, that's going to be a hit? No, no, no. She said, I like that one. She's been a really good sounding board. You know, the funny thing is that the song after this,

that A&M released as a single after First Cut is the deepest, she hated it. And she still does to this day. And whenever I have to perform it, she almost covers her ears. Well, let's play, I think this, I hope I got the right one here, but let me play it. I'll tell you in a minute. Yeah, that's it. I started off a newsboy on a paper For a time I worked in an elevator

But all the time I knew that later I would be a higher Raider Finally a big time operator For a while I drove an excavator

Yes I did Then I became For a while I drove an excavator Yes I did Then I became a wine and brandy waiter Yeah A builder then a decorator Later on an estimator I'm gonna be a big time operator So your wife didn't love this? She hates it. She absolutely hates it. And I'm not saying I hate it. I don't hate it.

I just wish I could remember the lyrics. Excavator is in there, which is great. Yeah, I know. It's just a convoluted mess as far as I'm concerned, lyric-wise. And I still perform occasionally, and I perform with Robbie Lane and the Disciples. What a great, great band. And I almost have to have it written on my hand to get the lyrics in the right order.

I can never remember it. And this was, I mean, it peaked at number five in Canada. It's another top 100 hit in the USA and in other countries as well. Yeah, I mean, you know what they say. Once you got like three hits or whatever, now you can tour forever, right? Supposedly. That's all you need. This is great.

It didn't really happen in my case, but no, that was a wonderful experience making this record because I got to go to A&R Studios in New York to mix it with the great Phil Ramone.

It was a magical experience. And he saved the record, as a matter of fact. It's kind of interesting. As a Jays fan who has heard another song you've sung, I've heard it a million times, I'll guesstimate. And it's kind of that voice I'm hearing from you there, which is that big voice.

I always say it reminds me a little bit of the Neil Diamond delivery, but a bit more gravelly. Like if Neil Diamond and David Clayton Thomas kind of had a baby, right? It's Keith Hampshire. Big fat boy at the end of the table. Yeah. And it's really great and big and it doesn't sound anything

like OK Blue Jays, but we'll get to that in a little bit. In fact, I'm glad I mentioned Bill King in that story earlier because I'm about to play the same clip I played for Bill King when he was on a show called Music Machine.

And I'm going to play that in a moment here. But first, I need to talk about my friends at PayTM Canada. Keith, this is the best. This is an app where you pay all of your bills. Paying bills stinks, but we all have to do it. You pay it all in one spot. You can pay with your credit card. I use my MasterCard.

You can pay with your bank account or your PayTM Cash. And you get points for paying your bills. But here's the call to action, what everybody should do. When you download the app from paytm.ca and you set it up, when you make your first bill payment, there's, I think they call it a promo code or referral code. I think it's a promo code. You click that button and put in Toronto Mike, all one word, Toronto Mike, and they give you $10 towards your next bill payment. So it's like a free money just sitting there, 10 bucks for using the promo code Toronto Mike. So go to paytm.ca and download the app today.

So this is the same clip. This is from 1974 and And I'll play it here, and then we'll talk about the show. Keith Hatcher's Music Machine with Eric Robinson and Local 149. Liberation. Our special guest tonight, Bill King. And now, here's Keith. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks, and welcome once again to this little musical get-together

that we celebrate each and every week. Nice to have you here. You're going to hear some of the great music from Eric Robertson, Local 149, and Liberation a little later on in the show. But right now, let's listen to the music of our multi-talented special guest, Bill King. I'll fade it down while we talk about it, but Bill King was fantastic. He tells me this was his first national televised performance.

Is that right? Yeah. It's interesting how these guests have converged here, but that's Bill King on Music Machine. What exactly was Music Machine? Well, the original concept was put together by Gary Ferrier, who was an ex- chum disc jockey, and his partner, Aubrey Tadman, and they had been in Los Angeles, and they had been doing, producing musical variety shows,

one of them being the Johnny Cash Show. And anyway, they came back to Canada because I guess they got homesick or whatever, and they talked CBC into doing a similar sort of musical variety show along the lines of the Andy Williams Show, the Glenn Campbell Show, the Sonny and Cher. I mean, sort of everybody...

They were a big deal back then, these variety shows. Yeah, these variety shows were the way to go, you see. And what they did was they had a musical host who could sing and carry a tune who could also relate to the audience in an acting comedic sort of role.

And so they decided to do the same. They sold CBC on this idea and they came up to Canada to produce this show. And they auditioned all kinds of people. And because I had my Wayne and Schuster comedy experience and because my records were doing fairly well on the charts, they decided that I was the ideal host. So the original show was comedy and music. And so the first four installments were with Doug Riley and Dr. Music as the house band. And again, great singers and, you know,

a terrific, terrific cast. But they also hired a troupe of comedic performers. And we did comedy sketches that Gary and Aubrey wrote. Well, we did four shows with this format. And the head of CBC Variety, his name was Jim Guthrie, he made his kids watch it. And so at the end of the first or second show, he said, So, kids, what do you think? And the kids said, The music is fabulous. The comedy sucks. So he said, Really?

Oh, the comedy is terrible. So they scrapped the comedy altogether, and we considered it just strictly a music show. And so what we did was we played the hits of the day and we tried to feature up-and-coming Canadian recording artists. So we had Rush. Well, slow down. That Rush is... Sorry?

No, it's okay, but that's the first televised performance by Rush is on your show. That's right. Rush. Rush. Wow. Yeah. That's even bigger than Bill King.

With all due respect to Bill. Well, that was close. He dodged a bullet there. Yeah, we had Lighthouse, Copper Penny, Ian Thomas. I mean, there were just... anybody who was making...

Yeah, there was a free ad there. On gallery, a free ad there. I love these old ads, eh? It's like a nostalgic time. CBC. I'll bring her down. I could listen to that all day. By the way, I'm glad you mentioned Ian Thomas because that's going to segue nicely into what I play next.

But please continue because Valdi, too? Yeah, we had Valdi. We had another band from Vancouver, Jason Hoover and his band. We had some great, great talent on that show. You know, special guest talent that later went on to major glory. Well, you mentioned Lighthouse and the Stampeders.

Did you mention? Oh, I didn't mention the Stampeders, but yeah, they were on there. Rock Golf, who's a listener of this program, wanted me to say he loved Music Machine because it's the only video of, and I hope I say the name of this band, Klaatu? Yep. The double A's throw me.

Klaatu. So this is apparently, yeah, if you want to see footage of Klaatu performing, it's going to be probably from the music machine. Yeah, that's right. Okay, very cool, man. That's very cool. And again, I coincidentally played,

before you were booked on the show and everything, I played that exact clip for Bill King because it was his first national, so it's a nice convergence there. And Ian Thomas. So Ian Thomas, you mentioned, great singer-songwriter, Canadian singer-songwriter Ian Thomas, you mentioned, great singer-songwriter, Canadian singer-songwriter Ian Thomas,

who has a brother. But let me play this in his brother. Let me play his brother, and I have a question about this, okay? Okay. Very poor recording. It's from VHS, but... June 17, 1938.

The fight was for the heavyweight championship of the world. This is Dave Thomas, Ian's brother. It's SCTV. And this bit was called, it's from the first season, I think. It was called, It Was That Way. And I won't play the whole thing, except he's playing an announcer named Keith Hampshire. Yes.

So is that like an homage? What is that? Tell me. I've always wondered. small compared to today. So if you went to an audition for something, you'd run into the same performers. They would be Dave Thomas and Eugene Levy and Martin Short and Janie Stewart, Dan Aykroyd, Andrea Martin. We all sort of went to the same places and did that. We all hung out together. We all, you know, we all dug each other. Let's put it that way. And then when Godspell started, you know, the Broadway or the Toronto production of Godspell,

a lot of them went and joined that, and they tried to get me to go to do that. But by that time, I was doing other things. So I couldn't join the cast of Godspell. that time, I was doing other things. So I couldn't join the cast of Godspell. And then when they started doing Saturday, um, SCTV, they also tried to get me to join the cast of SCTV. But again, I was doing other things. I think maybe I had my own show then I can't remember the exact logistics. So, um, you know, I, I certainly don't regret not doing those things because, like I say, I'm the luckiest guy in the world and things have sort of gone my way. But, you know, it's wonderful to see all these great performers doing so well and having known them before they were world famous. So that and then the name of that bit, by the way, for the completists out there is

called, it's Dave Thomas doing, it was that way with Keith Hampshire. That's the name of the bit. It was that way with Keith Hampshire. So you're a part of SCTV lore there. Yeah. And I guess, you know, when you do a thing on television, you have to be very careful of the name that you use, because if you use a name of someone who is actually alive and who doesn't particularly like the idea of you using

their name, you could be sued. So they knew that they could use my name and there's no damn way I'm going to sue them because they're friends of mine. So that's sort of how that went. They're friends of mine. So that's sort of how that went. That's fantastic. Now, I don't want you to have to spend several hours here. So I'm going to now play. I've been waiting for this moment in this episode.

We've gone a good hour and 24 minutes. And I'm going to play this. And then I'm hoping you can bury me in fun facts and details about this. I would really love it and appreciate it. But let's get this going here. A song I've heard, as I i said a million times a million times you got a diamond you got nine men got a hat and a bat, and that's not all. You got the bleachers, got them from spring till fall. You got a dog and a? Coming in from the lake just to catch the game. It's the last inning. Our guys are winning.

Dave's put down a smoker, a strike, and you got no doubt. What do you want? Let's play ball. Okay. Okay. Blue Jays, Blue Jays Let's play ball It's a beautiful evening, fans At the ballpark and the game starts

It almost feels sacrilegious to bring this down, but we know the words. Keith, how the heck did this come to be back in, I guess it was 1983? Something like that, yeah. It was originally a promotional film that the Blue Jays put together through their advertising agency to promote the team and trying to get some advertising, I suppose, you know, personal endorsements and what have you.

So they came up with this. The advertising agency hired Tony Kozinec and Jack Lenz to write this song and produce it. Excuse me. And the idea was to put together this promotional film. And then after it came out so well, they decided to use it on some radio and television commercials in its shortened form.

And next thing you know, it's like become an anthem. So Tony and Jack went to the Blue Jays and said, listen, do you mind if we press this into a 45? Again, we're talking a record here. And sell it at the ballpark. And they said, yeah, sure. So that's how the record came to be. And it was sold at the ballpark.

And people would, you know, go and buy their souvenirs. And they'd buy a copy of the Blue Jays song, you see. Well, the next thing you know, the Blue Jays song. You see, well, the next thing you know, the Blue Jays are in the World Series and the song takes off like crazy. Everybody, all the radio stations are playing it across the country. I mean, this song is going nuts. And guess what? It becomes a gold record. It has sold in Canada, a gold record is 50,000 copies. So it sold 50,000 copies and boom, it's a gold record. And I'm sitting at home one day and I'm reading the paper and there's a tiny little blurb at the

bottom of the entertainment section said, okay, Blue Jays, the Blue Jays theme song has just been certified gold. And it was just a little blurb in the paper. And I thought, oh God, that's me singing. I should get a gold record. So I phoned the record company, which was A&M at the time, my old label. And after going through five or six different people who had no idea who I was, I finally got a hold of somebody. And I said, listen, I'm the guy that sings the Blue Jays theme song. And I understand it went gold.

And he said, yes, it did. And I said, is there any chance I can get a gold record? Oh, oh, I suppose so. So anyway, he took my name, he took my particulars, and he said, yes, yes, certainly. We'll send it on out to you. So great. A few weeks later, there's a knock at the door, and it's the delivery guy. And he said, special delivery here for Keith Hampshire. And I go, yeah, yeah, terrific. It's my gold record. So I'm dying to open it. He says, that'll be $81, please. I had to pay for my own gold record. I have a gold record on the wall, and it says Keith Hampshire. It's a Blue Jays song, and it's hanging right above my toilet. That's a great place for it. Now, I'm glad it says Keith Hampshire because, of course, it was the guys of the Bat Boys that they credited it to.

Yes, well, because I was signed to another label at the time, and in order to get around that, I had to get, A, a release from the label, and also they couldn't sort of say it was Keith Hampshire. Gotcha, so the bad boys. Keith Hampshire and the singing style, it's very different from those earlier hits we heard. Well, yeah. I'm sorry.

When they played me the song, I sort of heard a Randy Newman idea. Short people? Yeah, it sounded like a Randy Newman type song, and I love Randy Newman. And so I decided to sort of give it a Randy Newman twist, I suppose. So that's sort of where that voice came from. Yeah, that's exactly what it is, actually. He was my inspiration. Short people got good reason.

Fantastic. And they do play it still, which is fantastic that we can hear it. But they split it. The time is split. Like, I get less okay Blue Jays than they added in Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I, for one, would just like to say

it was better the old... I'm going to have those old farts. It was better the old way. More okay Blue Jays. We don't need Take Me Out to the Ballgame at the going to have those old farts. It was better the old way. More OK Blue Jays. We don't need Take Me Out to the Ball Game at the Dome. I agree with you. However, Major League Baseball has placed that song at every single game. Is that mandatory?

Mandatory. Every game. Spring training, anywhere that Major League Baseball is, Take Me Out to the Ball Game is played at every song, at every game. Now, can I ask, you game now can i ask you were uh you know born in england and you came you were a young man when you came over but did you play baseball yeah yeah i was lousy i i think uh i played for the um oh the dad's cookies something or other team in calgary uh little league and i i one game, and I think we lost 11 to nothing.

Oh, they hit everything I threw. Boy, but I could throw a strike. And again, I said this off the top, but this was done not because I ever thought I'd even meet you, let alone get you on the show, but I did the top 10 jams with Mark Hebbshire from Sportsline. It was an episode of Toronto Mic'd.

I think we called it Sports Jams, if you're looking for it. And we did 10 songs, sports songs, our favorites. And number one I put up there was that song right there, which you performed, OK Blue Jays.

I love it because it brings me back to when I was a kid at Exhibition Stadium watching my favorite ball team and my favorite player, George Bell. Yeah. So if a song can bring me back to like the summer of 85

at the exhibition stadium, then that's a magic thing. That's a miracle. That's amazing. And you do that with OK Blue Jays. Music is a wonderful thing. It's a time machine. It's a great art.

It's fantastic. So thank you for that. Before I let you go, you do end up hosting an oldie show on J.F.M. in Barrie, right? Yeah, that sort of came out of the woodwork. You do end up hosting an oldies show on J.F.M. in Barrie, right? Yeah, that sort of came out of the woodwork. All of a sudden I get a phone call one day from the program director, and he says, how would you like to do a weekly oldies show Saturday night? And I said, what's in it for me? And he said, well, I can't pay you a whole lot of money, he said,

but if it gets really good response, we can probably syndicate it across the country because our station is a chorus radio station and we have 87 radio stations across the country who could pick the show up and run it every Saturday night and probably, you know, do well with it. So, you know, we can, we'll sell it to them. And of course you get paid for that. So he uh, you know, we can, we'll sell it to them. And of course you get paid for that. So he said, that's the, that's the original premise. So I said, Oh, sure. Let's give it a go. So I, uh, I started doing that for a while, but, um, uh, then they started putting restrictions on the songs I could play. For example, I played, uh, uh, do right man,

do right woman by Aretha Franklin. And, uh And they said, but that wasn't a hit. I said, well, I know it wasn't a hit at the time, but it has since become a classic. You know, it's a fabulous, fabulous song by a fabulous singer. It should be played. It's of the era. And so anyway, eventually I just said, listen, I can't work under these conditions.

This is not what I signed up for. I signed up to be able to say what I wanted and play what I wanted. And they changed their mind. Good for you. Well, I don't know. Okay, well, listen. Maybe not. You've got to have some integrity in this game, right?

You can try. And I realized I was going to play off with a final question from a lady named Laura, but then I missed Rockoff. Rockoff, I mentioned him earlier. He had a question about Klaatu. But Rockoff wants me to make sure I ask you about your commercial voiceover work. And before I ask you about your commercial voiceover work, I'm just going to play a couple of real quick hits here. Now, hat is a wonderful thing, you see.

Everyone's got its own personality. This is you? It's from the Care Bears movie Adventures in Wonderland. I played the part of the Mad Hatter. This song was written by John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful. You like hats? Wow. I'm mad about hats. And you did a whack of work. I mean, I'm going to play a couple more before I get

a bit more detailed. Some are quiet and small. Some are more daring. They laugh at faces. That's you too. All me. You're talented, man. You like hats? I'm mad about hats. Now it's amazing how a hat All me. Hats for fun. Hats for the winter end. Hats for the sun. Hats for the hunter end. Hats for the game. Hats for the little girl who lives down the lane.

You like hats? I'm mad about hats. And then there's this from a small little independent outfit called General Motors. Let me hear this one. Keith Hampshire. Did you know that there's a secret code printed on some car tires it's there to tell a well-trained and knowledgeable eye the general motors approve that tire design for use on gm vehicles know what you're looking for we do ordinary services for ordinary cars gm good wrench. Right on time. And one more. Keith Hampshire.

Did you know that there's a secret code printed on some car tires? Oh, it's the same. We don't want that. Tell us a little bit about how you got into this and... You don't want that. You don't want that. Well, okay. After the television show ended, I decided that perhaps I'd had enough exposure or whatever you want to call it.

So I decided that in order for my children to be able to go to school and not get kidnapped on the raid because people thought I was a multimillionaire and they could kidnap my children and hold them for ransom. I decided that maybe I should drop out of the public eye. So I, um, went, I got myself a really good agent and, um, uh, he started promoting me as a, uh, singer, performer, actor, this, that, and the other. So I, um, went behind the scenes and made my living as a voiceover person. So I did cartoons like the Mad Hatter thing. I did jingles. I sang a whole crack of a bunch of jingles. And I did voiceovers for television.

And we asked women to give up their regular soap and take the Doe seven-day test. Stuff like that, you know. Jingle. So, I mean, is there any jingle you can drop on us that we might have heard or remember? No mean to put you on the spot, but did you want to? You mean a famous jingle? My God. Oh, I don't.

I did so many. I, um, as a matter of fact, I really so many. As a matter of fact, I really can't. Oh, yeah, okay. For years, I did Labatt Light, which was their new light beer. When you're feeling up and your friends are near, get a Labatt Light, all you want in a beer. Now, ain't that nice? Labatt's light on ice.

Tastes nice and smooth and goes down so nice. Get a Labatt's light. Something like that. Well, I'm glad I persisted because that was worth it. That was fantastic. Oh, all right. Now, final question, Keith. This is the big hard-hitting question of the day. Oh, crap. Okay. Thank you for all of this so far. That was amazing. Amazing. This question comes from Laura. Laura Hampshire wants me to ask you who your favorite child is.

Oh. That's probably the least fair question you've asked. That was the of a twin. The other one didn't develop. Let's put it that way. That one was my favorite. That's funny. Now, Laura's on the radio, right?

Yes, she is. She's in Hamilton at CHML 900. As a matter of fact, she's probably on right now. And I hope she listens to this. So, hi, Laura, and thanks for that question via Twitter. It'll break her heart, you know. Is that your answer?

Keith, thank you again. That was my pleasure. That was amazing. Great jams. And, I mean, you mentioned Expo 67. It's only appropriate that you were here for episode 367. I saved it for you. Wow.

67. And that brings us to the end of our 367th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Keith, are you on Twitter? No. You're a Twitter holdout, so don't follow Keith on Twitter. I don't have a cell phone.

Is that right? That's right. I have a Twitter holdout so don't follow Keith on Twitter. I don't have a cell phone. Is that right? That's right. I have a website. Okay, tell us your website. Keithhamsher.com Keithhamsher.com Don't forget the P in Hampshire.

That's very important. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthesix.com is at Raptors Devotee. Paytm is at Paytm Canada. And the Royal Pains

are at Royal Pains Band. See you later this week when my guest is Molly Johnson. Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green