Toystock VIII Fallout & Videos (Part 1!)

After a delay of far too long (blame personal commitments and the holidays), it's time to finally look at fallout from this year's Toystock charity concert at The Grand Gardens North on Sunday, November 24th! Lots of local news services were in attendance for the eighth annual installment last month, including CTV Northern Ontario, who sent camera crews to the event for a 52 second piece on that day's local news, similarly to last year. The video proper features video of Kaitlyn Parr's set (albeit without audio of consequence), plus a brief interview with Toystock organizer Greg Simpson about Toystock's growth. While it's not a long feature, it's great to see MCTV give it any platform, so give it a look at the above links! SooToday's Darren Taylor was also on hand for this article on the festivities, featuring 12 photos from the afternoon, including four photos of L!me's set, one of Kaitlyn's, and seven of attendees and the donations. Shame he couldn't stay longer, but Darren got some nice shots!

The article proper features a similar but extended interview with Greg about Toystock, and it's great to see how much he enjoys giving back to the community and helping the less fortunate each year like this! Finally, SaultOnline's Megan Pounder was also in attendance for this article, which features 11 photos, mostly of the Stuff-A-Bus, though she did get one band photo (more them in a second.) She left most of the formal coverage for an attached YouTube video that presumably also got played on the ONNtv streaming channel. The video features lots of clips from Toystock in progress, as well as an interview with Greg's wife and co-organizer Kerry Simpson, and it's very informative while also giving a nice look at what was going on that afternoon. The only band featured in the piece or in the photos was the Case's Music Band, but in a surprise change from years' past, they were not made up of students there. Rather, this band was comprised of Case's Music instructors, all familiar to local music fans!

In fact, if you like local progressive rock quintet Machines Dream, this will have been extra exciting, as singer/bassist Craig West, guitarist Jake Rendell (on drums), and keyboardist Brian Holmes made up 3/4ths of this band, rounded out by Parabol guitarist Steve Myers. Judging by the performed cover in Megan's video (The Beatles' "Back In The USSR"), I imagine they didn't get too proggy at Toystock, but they definitely had the musical chops and experience to make their mark! The above news coverage didn't get into hard rock covers or bands, but we do have some footage of that ilk today, as power rock quartet Re:Born played at Toystock VIII and posted footage of the last six bands onto their Facebook page the following day! They weren't present for the opening four acts, but we will address more afternoon band footage in an upcoming post. We'll start with headlining country rock cover quartet Bone Yard, who Re:Born filmed covering April Wine's version of Hot Chocolate's "You Could Have Been A Lady"!

As previously filmed by Mike Caruso at Reggie's West on Halloween, this rendition is a welcomed classic hard rock sampler in their country-heavy repertoire, and the filmer has a nice central angle of Bone Yard in action, with solid use of the zoom lens. Give it a look below!



We'll close today with Re:Born's video of themselves in action on this night, wherein they play their original song/Project 421 carry-over "Running Away". With their cameraman playing on stage, the camera is stationary here, but the audio quality and angle work out just fine, and everyone plays to their strengths, with Blair's guitar work shining as usual, and Elly's getting more and more confident on the mic with every set. Check their clip out below, and stay tuned for much more from Toystock shortly!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post on the site next! Thanks everyone!