April Wine - my homeboys

[rocky]

My home province of Nova Scotia has provided the world with very little in the music industry with possible exceptions like Anne Murray ( i never liked her ), the Rankins, The Barra MacNeils' and oh yeah those hot rockers from a place called Kentville, April Wine. Jeez when I was going to high school we were often treated to these guys on our Friday night dances. April Wine have done us proud by producing several smash hits and taking their place on the world stage. Everybody loved them, even Kid Rock ;D

[kevin]

I always thought April Wine was from Montreal. Is Myles Goodwin from there? I can't remember where I got that idea. Oh well...you learn something new everyday. My hometown (Napanee, Ont) is famous for two things....Walleye and Avril Lavigne. Avril was recently named Citizen of the Year. Nothing against her, but this is a total crock. She dropped out of school and left town permanently. She's contributed nothing but her name to the town, but the town can't help trying to exploit her success. It's quite sad really. I recently saw a real estate add which stated that the house was on a corner where "Avril Lavigne hung out". That's pathetic.

[rocky]

Well actually Kevin your not too far off the mark there. When they left NS to seek their fame &fortune they migrated to Montreal which proved to be a very wise move, the rest,as they say, is history. Of course several of the band members were replaced over the years but Myles Goodwin went the distance and is still playing today ... Yeah I always meant to ask u about miss Avril, wow she has lit up her old home town. Does she ever visit there anymore.
Speaking of local celebs I just found out that 'bubbles' from the tv show "trailer Park Boys" is from here, lucky us, it couldn't be Brad Pitt or someone, nooo its bubbles. Actually I heard that he's a real good guy, believe me folks, he's acting

[kevin]

She's snuck into town on a couple of occasions to visit her parents. She doesn't appear to want anything to do with the town. At the Juno's the only reporter from her hometown couldn't even get an interview. I guess she's too good for us now. Ironic, considering we had to listen to her off-pitch karaoke Shania tunes at the local amphitheatre every summer:)

[April Wine]

Hey all;just joined your music site,Kevin sent it to me.

April Wine are the rock band who have the distinction of being my first live act I ever saw.I caught them in 1981 at the Kingston Memorial Centre on their "Power Play World Tour".The band Streetheart opened for them,what an awesome night that was.

April Wine were using a multi-level stage that would be later used by the band Helix for two of their tour "Long way to Heaven" and "Wild in the Streets",I know this because I was present at both tour stops Helix made in Kingston.

Back to April Wine,they put on an amazing show,the high-light of the night for me was "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" to this day that is my all time fave tune they perform,followed closely by "Oowattanite",another great part of this show without a doubt had to be Jerry's drum-solo.The lighting rig above his kit lowered down,and the multi-coloured display along with the fog from the dry-ice machines created an awesome effect to go along with a blistering fast drum-solo.

This performance was just the starting point for my many concert going experiences,one year I attended 27 different shows,but that's for another topic later.

[newt]

The above post by Guest,about the April Wine concert,was actually made by me(Newt),for some reason it didn't come up with my name on it.

[kevin]

I saw April Wine at the Memorial Centre as well. I don't remember the year, but it was the Nature of the Beast tour (1980?). The hi-lite of the night was their cover of 21st Century Schizoid Man. Good show, but barely an hour long. They didn't play any of their old classics either.

[kevin]

You mentioned Streetheart. Another good band. A couple members of that band went on to join Loverboy, not to mention Nick Gilder of Sweeney Todd fame.

[newt]

I guess I saw the better concert,because they played for nearly two hours,before encores.They played everything from old to new sutff (five songs off "Power Play",Enough is Enough,If You See Kay,Doing it Right,plus two others I can't recall right this minute).They included about three of of their ballads as well,

Streetheart played for 45 minutes as well,pretty long for an opening act,usually they get 30 most nights.

Another funny thing about seeing April Wine,in 1991,I saw them again live shortly after they got back together at Stages in Kingston,and the day of that show was exactly ten years to the day from the first time that I saw them live,how's that for freaky coincidences.

[kevin]

I have to correct myself. Kenny Shields was the singer for Streetheart, not Nick Gilder (they do sond somewhat alike though). Paul Dean and Matt Frenete were the guys that formed Loverboy with Steve Smith and Mike Reno.

[rocky]

Newt Welcome to the board, sounds like music is a passion for you as well, thanks Kev Newt, sorry about your login problem, bugs in the system perhaps. ......Does Nick Gilder perform anymore, I actually saw him live once way down here in NS when "Hot Child In The City" was on the charts. The man can sing
EDIT: Hey Newt see where u rock to Kiss, hey they're awesome. You should't have any prob. witth Danko's style

[newt]

One thing that I forgot to mention,was about meeting Miles Goodwyn and Gary Moffat after the show.

My brother and I were waiting for our ride to get to the arena,so I suggested we take a walk around back and maybe get a chance to see one of the guys.

We get around back to where the tour buses and transports are,and I spotted a long black limo off to one side of the parking lot close to one of the exits.

I suggested we stand over there instead of where the main crowd was by the buses.

Sure enough about 15 minutes after we started to wait by that door,out comes Miles and Gary.We got to shake hands with them and tell them how great the show was before they quickly hopped into the limo.

Seeing as this was my first concert,and I had no hopes of meeting any of the band members,I didn't have anything to use to get an autograph with,but saying "Hi" and shaking hands with was still pretty cool though.

This experience came in handy for my future concert going adventures,as I was never ill prepared for such chance meetings ever again,I'll tell you about them later.