Rock & Roll Heaven On The Borderline's Episodes On Sault Memorial Gardens Concerts!!

With news remaining very slow for the local metal, hard rock, and punk scenes, today seemed like a good day to dive back into local internet radio station The Borderline, so what else is available to hear there that would fit our coverage range? Let's start with veteran local musician/photographer Brian Tremblay's series Rock & Roll Heaven, which focuses on musical acts that have played in Sault Ste. Marie in the past, either through personal and guest recollections, or interviews with musicians who have came here on tour, and there are a lot of episodes you can hear on demand now on The Borderline's website. Last month, episodes of Rock & Roll Heaven were posted that explore the history of live concerts at the former Sault Memorial Gardens, which was our major concert venue and hockey arena from 1949-2006. While Brian's musical tastes can stray from our usual coverage, hard rock concerts there do come up, so what can you find within?

The initial Memorial Gardens episode runs for 63 minutes, and it is entitled "A Garden of Music", which primarily explores classic rock-leaning musical acts that played there through the early 1980s, and Brian does play DJ by airing select studio tracks from bands discussed during the show (a full playlist can be seen at this link.) At the 17:24 mark, Brian talks about being in attendance progressive hard rock legends Rush's third and final Sault Ste. Marie concert from 1977, which he fondly recalled, despite being poorly attended. In this segment, Brian played the live version of "Closer To The Heart" from their live album "Exit Stage Left", followed by "(Make Me Do) Anything You Want" by Toronto hard rock band A Foot In Coldwater, who opened for Rush on this tour. Fun 10 minute segment overall, and it's nice to hear some first-hand context about Rush's last local date from someone who was there!

The second episode (entitled "A Musical Hockey Barn") can be heard at this link or above in the second (lower) file. It's formatted very similarly to part 1, and runs for almost as long, but it does creep later into the 1980s in the second half, and thusly talks about more hard rock acts. There's also more recommendations from friends and listeners than in "A Garden of Music", for what that's worth. Hard rock fans will be most interested in segments from 18:02 on, starting with Brian's recollections of Vancouver hard rock icons Prism's local stop, including their songs "Spaceship Superstar" & "Flyin'". At 29:08, Brian looks back on Canadian guitar icon Kim Mitchell, who played the Gardens solo and with Max Webster, and he played his classic song "Lager & Ale" in this segment. Next, at 34:13 in, Brian talked about Alannah Myles, who opened for Kim locally at the show Brian attended.

Rather than go the obvious route by playing "Black Velvet", Brian chose her track "Still Got This Thing For You" to play on air. The last show Brian talked about in this episode was a triple bill from Canadian hard rock legends Moxy (not Moxy Fruvous), Goddo, and Trooper that he saw at the Gardens in the late 1970s. Moxy's segment begins at 40:04, and he plays their song "Ridin' High" here, before switching to Goddo at 45:01, from whom he plays "Walk On", and gives some extra detailed information on meeting and helping frontman Greg Godovitz much later on. Fitting of the headliners, he covered Vancouver hard rock favourites Trooper last at 52:52, and he plays their two first singles to close, "Baby Woncha Please Come Home" & "General Hand Grenade". A third episode was teased, perhaps diving into Gardens concerts in the 1990s, but it sounds like it's dependent on listener recollections and requests, so contact Brian if you can help.

I enjoyed listening to these episodes, especially when Brian had unique thoughts on specific concerts to share beyond just if he liked the bands in question, and his biography details in between were also welcomed! Re: a third episode, I wonder if getting a hold of Duane Roy (author of the Soo Stories book about Memorial Gardens concerts) would be worth considering? He definitely had strong recollections of shows there. Even if a part 3 isn't imminent, there is more to discuss from Rock & Roll Heaven (now linked on the SMS), so give both of Brian's Memorial Gardens episodes a listen above, and stay tuned for a new post of some kind by Saturday! Thanks everyone!