Finally, it's time for our 3rd ever book review at The Sault Metal Scene! This time, we're taking a long overdue look at "Soo Stories: A Rock N' Roll Scrapbook", the second book from Wawa author Duane Roy, and the follow up to his earlier book "Castle Stories", about concerts at Castle Farms in Charlevoix. In "Soo Stories", Duane talks about his memories at concerts at the former Sault Memorial Gardens, the hockey arena and concert venue that existed from 1949-2006. Published by Alloway's Printing & Publishing in Blind River, and lasting 270 pages, the book was released in March 2011, and can be bought at The Rad Zone in the Wellington Square Mall locally for $25, or from this location through PayPal. The price jumps to $28 for American customers and $35 for international customers. I'll try to keep things concise but well termed in this review, and remember, I'm not a professional literary critic, I'm just calling the book as I see it, so you guys can form your own opinions without anything being given away. Now, let's begin this review!
After a brief warning for the occasional tall tale, politically incorrect statement, and lack of hockey stories, Duane begins with an introduction outlining some early concert memories of his, or more accurately, big shows at the Gardens that he missed (Triumph, in particular.) He also mentioned the feelings concertgoers had at the time concerning the Sault, while emphasizing that heading here was a break from small town monotony. Duane shares seven concert stories from the Gardens in the book from concerts between 1986 and 1995, starting with Michigan's own Ted Nugent's headlining concert here on July 19th, 1986. After an interesting story as to how he actually saw Ted in person 6 years prior, Duane talks about how he convinced his mother to let him go see the Nuge in Sault Ste. Marie, and the excitement of the coming show which was dampened when he found out that openers White Wolf had unexpectedly cancelled (we find out why right from their singer too in the book.) He noted that the Gardens weren't as impressive as he remembered, and that less than 1,000 people were in attendance. Duane also emphasized how loud the show was, but his excitement and enjoyment of it is very clear! I won't give away the concert itself, but let's just say Ted rocked and Duane sure let us know about it!
The next story took place the next month, as Canadian rock legend Kim Mitchell headlined at the Gardens on August 12th, 1986. Heading to the concert with his friend Gord in a red Volkswagen Beetle, the show itself didn't have the outward bells and whistles of the Ted Nugent show, but there did appear to be more women in attendance. Then P.E.I. arena rockers Haywire opened the show and they learned why. Not his thing, be he praised their talented guitarist! Duane praised Kim's set highly as well, particularly for his guitar skills and some of the old Max Webster covers, but he seemed to enjoy the Ted Nugent show a bit more, at least from what I read. The third show he hit was headlined by Canadian rock legend Tom Cochrane & his band Red Rider on August 18th the following year. Despite some teasing from his friends, he made it to the Soo for the show, though he did stand out a bit. While he didn't think too highly of openers Glass Tiger, he really enjoyed Tom and Red Rider and their chemistry together, especially during "Lunatic Fringe". Shorter story, but worth a look, including the talk of the trip to and from town for that concert!
Fourth of Duane's stories was when he went to see Canadian metal legends Helix at The Memorial Gardens on December 2nd, 1987. Despite being a school night, the show worked as a Christmas present! After some discussion of the trip on the Greyhound bus to the Soo and his tale of how a friend bought some "acid paper" and got ripped off, he discussed the show, which began with an opening set by London metal quintet Syre. He praised their set and energy, but left most of the comments to Syre and Helix members, who detailed their memories of this show (and the set at The Eastgate afterwards) well! Haywire opened this show again, which didn't seem like an ideal fit, but Duane again spoke highly of their guitarist. Duane highly enjoyed Helix's set and all of their classic songs, while also integrating some quotes from frontman Brian Vollmer about the tour this show was a part of. He also added some amusing notes about the reaction to all the students at his high school who saw Helix by staff at the school, so don't miss this story, as it's one of the better ones!
Fifth was his story of when Niagara Falls rockers Honeymoon Suite headlined at the Gardens on July 17th, 1988. Duane equated them to a Canadian version of Bon Jovi, and he and his friends were eager to go, after some planning. This time, they were on the floor amidst many girls to enjoy the proceedings, though Haywire's opening set (again) still didn't win Duane or his friends over. Duane enjoyed their set and how surprisingly heavy and rowdy it could get. Short rememberances of the concert itself, but Duane did detail their stay at a local hotel before and after, and the amusement they got from the owners!
The penultimate of his own stories was when Alice Cooper headlined at the Sault Memorial Gardens on New Years Day in 1990. As a huge Alice fan, he was eager for this show, and he and his buddies braved a bad snowstorm for the trip to the Soo! Los Angeles hard rock legends Great White opened the show, which he enjoyed (and was suprised at the loudness of), before Alice Cooper headlined. I won't detail his on stage theatrics, Duane will do a better job than I, but he delivered a great performance full of classics and newer hits, and the fans ate it up! Sounds like it was worth driving through a storm! Duane closes his stories with one about seeing Kingston rockers The Tragically Hip at the Gardens on Valentines Day in 1995. After asking for the day off from freezing work at a Sawmill in Dubreuilville, he and the gang had some drinks before heading to the Gardens to catch The Hip. He noted the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd (the band noticed that too), which could be blamed on obscure or brand new songs during the set. The show was definitely his least favourite of the seven, finding it boring, and not even admitting to being there when friends discussed it, although he did see The Hip again when they came here in 2007.
After his stories wrapped up, Duane focused the next part of the book on "your stories", as submitted by fans and band members who saw or played at Memorial Gardens concerts. Though contacting bands didn't prove universally fruitful, he did compile some nice stories! Local author George Case was first, offering his memories of seeing Beatles tribute band Beatlemania in 1981 and 1982. He enjoyed them and their faithfulness to the Beatles and 1960s culture, while adding his own reflections of The Beatles themselves, and hearing the Ted Nugent show from outside of the Gardens.
Then, we got a story from former Bad Side guitarist Jason Mapes, also well known as a former DJ at 99.5 Yes FM & 97.9 Classic Rock: The Bear. Jason offered some very long rememberances of Gardens shows. After mentioning his own memories interviewing numerous bands for the Sault Area High School newspaper (which he edited and got press credentials through back then), he detailed some of his more memorable instances interviewing bands and musicians who played here. He highly praised his times interviewing Loverboy and Bryan Adams in 1982, especially for Bryan's sense of humour, while his 1985 interview with April Wine on their initial farewell tour had lots of tension in the room. He interviewed Honeymoon Suite at this same show, but admittedly didn't have much to ask as it was very impromptu. He also detailed getting accosted by The Headpins' manager in 1983 and the aftermath before mentioning his love for their openers, Helix, who he praised for being a real blue collar band and very gracious and kind, even playing despite Brian Vollmer having the flu during their local show in 1987!
For 1990s shows, he mentioned interviewing The Tragically Hip and pressuring them over playing in the Sault despite earlier criticisms of our city, the poor reception of The Black Crowes' local concert, and the impact that the American Yes FM played in Roch Voisine's planned concert here, due to the lack of Canadian content laws which ensured that Canadian acts like Roch Voisine would get airplay. Jason blamed Yes FM's local success on our side for the 1990s dropoff in touring Canadian bands playing there, but overall, his stories (and included photos, many of him with the artists) were really nice, and it's cool to get tales from someone more than just a concertgoer!
The only other major story featured in this section comes from Streetheart guitarist (and Saultite) Jeff Neill, whose stories weren't as detailed, more summing up his experiences at the Gardens before going a bit into his own musical career with bands like Shama and later, Streetheart. He definitely seemed to enjoy the Gardens shows of the 1970s, but I was kinda hoping for more detail about a few of them. Following that section, we get some old pictures starting with many from the 1970s and before of many older acts' newspaper advertisements (many being country), before a number of photos, ticket stubs, newspaper clippings, and other items from Ted Nugent's 1984 local show are featured. After that, Duane included a story from Triumph frontman Rik Emmett (as transcribed from a recording of his 2001 solo show at the Club Princess) where he found out about a story that a fan was telling people that wasn't true. I won't spoil it here, but it's pretty good! Duane also included some photos, ticket stubs, and a newspaper review here as well. Following this, Duane gives a short history of the Sault Memorial Gardens from it's groundbreaking in 1946, detailing the building's history until it's demolition in 2006, along with many historical photos of the arena.
After that, we get some scattered photos, newspaper clippings, and tickets from different decades at the arena. The 1970s gives us memorabilia from shows from bands like Rush, Triumph, and April Wine, while the 1980s features stuff mostly from shows Duane wasn't at, including shows featuring Prism, Nazareth, and The Headpins. One article in this section explores a proposal to ban minors under the age of 13 from Gardens concerts, amazingly. That's worth a read on it's own, though the pages were oddly placed in the wrong order. It's followed by a few 1990s concert photos and articles, including from shows featuring The Jeff Healey Band and The Black Crowes, but you can tell the 1990s weren't nearly as strong for shows as earlier decades, with the 2000s not represented at all (not that much happened by then.) Duane closes with fond memories of the Sault Memorial Gardens, and while he knew it wouldn't have a rich legacy compared to bigger venues, and that the sound and experience lacked in some respects, it's an arena and concert spot with some nice memories and he still misses it today.
So what are my thoughts on "Soo Stories"? Well, once again, Duane provides some very well written and remembered memories of the concerts at the Sault Memorial Gardens over the 9 years that featured shows he hit there! Like with "Castle Stories", he's honest about what he saw, yet respectful, and you can tell these are some fond memories from his youth! Local concertgoers will no doubt have a larger connection to this book than "Castle Stories" due to the local connection, especially if you were around for the shows Duane talks about, although fans of any era will likely see merit in it. I will say that "Soo Stories" is a bit wider ranging in appeal for music lovers, as unlike in "Castle Stories", Duane saw headlining shows here that didn't necessarily fall into the "metal" genre, like with The Tragically Hip and Tom Cochrane. Plus, with the high amount of non-rock concerts from the early and later days of the arena, "Soo Stories" definitely varies more in appeal, so if you look at it on a completely non-local basis, metalheads would probably prefer "Castle Stories", though metal's talked about a lot in both.
As a local fan, even though I was much too young to see the better concerts there in the 1990s, I definitely feel more of a connection to "Soo Stories" than "Castle Stories". I was only ever at the Gardens for hockey games or floor shows, but I did feel sort of transported there at times when reading the book. The added stories, though less compared to "Castle Stories", were nice and gave more angles on the Gardens' concert experience. I find that Castle Farms probably has more of a nostalgic appeal than the Gardens for music fans, but the love is clear for both venues! My main fault with "Castle Stories" was with the photo quality, and while they look clearer here, some are a bit smaller than they probably deserved. Overall though, Duane gives us a great time capsule look at the Sault Memorial Gardens concert experience, and fans of the era, "Castle Stories", or music in general should definitely pick it up! Who knows, maybe down the road, we'll get a book of Essar Center stories next! Motley Crue, Heaven & Hell, Three Days Grace, Jackyl, Kiss... if it happens, the new arena's off to a good start!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for lots more news hopefully tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
