I was in a band back in high school for about twenty minutes… I’m not sure what “style” we were, but we played a pretty excellent growling version of “Beach Song” by ‘The Dead Milkmen’ [link] and we really nailed “Smoke On The Water” by ‘Deep Purple’. But we had a drummer who wanted to play bass, two lead guitarists, a bassist who wanted to be in a ‘Sisters of Mercy’ cover band, and a vocalist who was too nervous and couldn’t remember lyrics… that was me. So we were doomed from the outset.

We never actually got around to giving ourselves a name, but we did play a nightclub in Hawkesbury once… during a night out with the Drama Club, we managed to convince the ‘band of the night’ to let us play during their break. So we decided on Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild”, because I thought I knew the lyrics. Then the band went on to play their own version of “BTBW”, which included a ten minute drum solo that ended with the drummer playing his drum set with sticks that were on fire. Basically our version was just everyone in our band playing the wrong instruments, and me yelling “faster, faster, faster” into the mic with the rest of the Drama Club playing along and pretending to be a mosh pit.

…back then, pretty much everyone I knew was in a band or two. I can’t remember all of the original band names, but ‘The Cause’ was the first one I remember playing live at our high school. Later on came bands like Sound Corps, Hush Hush [link], Imaginary Heaven [link], Trip The Off [link], The Peelers [link], K-Man & The 45’s [link] — there were others with more tenuous ties to Vankleek Hill, like Heaven’s Radio (Terry Gillespie [link]), and April Wine… that one’s a bit of a stretch though, Brian Greenway [link] is from Hawkesbury, the city down the road.

And, of course, Constable Brennan [link]…

…at this point I should point out two things:
1. that the First Part of ‘My Life With Constable Brennan’ is here [link]…
2. and it’s really important to read the first post before reading this one because, otherwise, this post will make no sense. Sorry, I probably should have written that sooner.

Constable Brennan lasted longer than some, not as long as others. But they were great. They broke up after Darell moved to Calgary. I think that was 2002. I moved to Guelph soon after to concentrate on my own stuff. Jamie, Steve B., and Sam rebuilt Constable Brennan with Steve Brown as their new drummer. I’m really not sure how long that lasted, although I did catch them playing once at The Dominion Tavern in Ottawa a few years later. They were harder, faster, and… different. This is a video of the Steve Brown-era version of CB playing at Sneaky Dee’s in Toronto back in 2010, during a kind of reunion tour: [link]

…anyway, Darell is now playing drums in a “roots rock band” in Calgary called ‘Heartbreak Etcetera’ [link], he’s married with a couple of kids. Steve B. is now the lead guitarist and vocalist for a Vankleek Hill-based punk band called ‘Audio Visceral’ [link], and is also married with kids. Jamie is, coincidentally enough, married with kids, and Sam is married and also has a child.

…so, if you’re down with it, just click on a photo to get the carousel going… fwiw, “No Shoes, No Pants, No Sober” was the name of Constable Brennan’s first EP. It was freaking fantastic. Hey-OH!