Hula-hoops,
the advent of television, the introduction of
45’s, Sputnik, the Edsel. The late 50’s
was a period of optimism in North America.
The young people of the time, an emerging force
that would later come to be known as the Baby
Boomers, hadn't struggled through the war
years. They were looking for something
more exciting. They discovered that
vitality in Rock and Roll.
Augustine
United Church still stands on River Avenue in
Winnipeg’s trendy Osborne Village
district. Back then, the area was called
Fort Rouge. And it became the setting for
the inception of one of Winnipeg’s most
influential bands - The Crescendos. Still
without a drum kit, Vance would borrow a set
from the uncle of one of his school friends,
Terry Loeb, and every Saturday, the two boys
would practice together. Terry, too,
initially wanted to be a drummer, and they would
take turns rehearsing, each learning off the
other. Gradually, other budding musicians
began to drift into the practice sessions, and
the gatherings took on a more structured
arrangement.
Early summer of 1963
found Vance and Terry at the home of a bass
player by the name of Ralph Lavalley, where they
met up with Glenn MacRae. The instrumental, Long Tall Sally, was recorded in
the back yard of Ralph's parents' place on Larsen Avenue. It was on that
afternoon that Glenn, Terry, and Vance first
broached the subject of forming a band
together. Lavalley was already with
another group - The Legends - so the search for
a bass player began. Chris Anderson, later
of Dianne Heatheringon & The Merry-Go-Round,
filled the spot.
The band
started out playing the local community clubs
and their first job had an unpromising
beginning, recounted by Glenn, but long
forgotten by Chris.
"He was a
guitar player and we talked him into tuning
his guitar down and playing it as a
bass. We practiced a bit and he played
at our very first gig ... a small community
club on Logan near Keewatin. He
doesn’t remember it … I’ve talked to him
about it and he doesn’t remember it.
Anyway,
we did 2 sets - repeated a few tunes as we
didn’t have that many; getting ready for the
third set and Chris packed up his guitar and
left. His mother told him he had to be
home by 11:00 pm. Took the bus
home. Quite a first gig.
We
managed to finish the 3rd set without him
and went for Chinese food at the Shanghai
and ate his share of the gig money.
One of my favourite stories." -- Glenn
MacRae
In Denis
Penner, they found the perfect addition to fill
the spot vacated by Chris, and the diverse group
of teenagers formed into a viable unit called
The Crescendos.
Initially, the
band performed instrumentals only, but with the
burgeoning influence of British bands such as
Cliff Richards and The Shadows, their repertoire
was gradually reworked to include vocals.
It was an exciting time in the music industry
and local teen clubs began springing up
throughout the city. Radio stations jumped
on the bandwagon, with one DJ in particular
greatly influencing the marketing of The
Crescendos.
CKRC’s Doc
Steen promoted their shows and played their
music on the station, starting a trend that
would set the benchmark for all others to
follow. He even went so far as to allow
the band to practice and record in the station’s
studio. Their second recording was of a
tune written by the band, titled "So Devoted to
You". It was only on tape and never
pressed to vinyl, but Doc Steen aired it
whenever he would be acting as MC at a
Crescendos gig. Having such a close
working relationship with the DJ also gave the
group first crack at listening to newly released
material. They would often play tunes at
their shows that had not yet been released to
the public, and when the songs finally did
receive airplay, many thought they were
listening to The Crescendos instead of the
actual groups who had recorded the music.
The Cellar was
one of the first clubs to cater to the rock
culture. The Crescendos played there
almost exclusively throughout 1963, earning ten
dollars a night during the week, and twenty-five
dollars on weekends. They were able to
purchase their first van on the strength of that
steady booking at The Cellar. The
Crescendos were so much an integral force within
the club that other bands wanting to play there
had to audition for the group and they would
have the final say on who would be allowed to
perform. It was at The Cellar on one of
those auditions, that Vance first met Kurt
Winter, and a life-long friendship would
develop.
"We were like the house
band there," recalls Glenn MacRae. "We
played there for months at a time, and used to
practice there. We'd make maybe ten
dollars a night during the week and twenty-five
dollars on the weekend. We bought our
Volkswagen van on the strength of our steady gig
at The Cellar." The entrance was in a lane
off Fort Street and had a big, red door.
In1964, The
Crescendos were approached by an entrepreneur
who had the cash, but not the know-how, to set
up another teen nightclub - The Twilight
Zone. The organization of the club was
turned over to The Crescendos, and in addition
to taking over where The Cellar left off, it
quickly became the place for musicians to
frequent when they weren’t playing. It was
also the place to kick-start many new bands as
entertainment ran every night of the week.
The Twilight Zone was the setting where The
Crescendos made that fateful decision to take
the band international.
It took a year
for the group to save enough money to book
passage on a ship to England, and on July 20,
1965, Vance Masters (then known as Schmidt),
Glenn MacRae, Terry Loeb, and Denis Penner
docked in Liverpool, the birthplace of The
Beatles. Try to imagine, just for a moment
- 1965: The Beatles, Liverpool, the British
Invasion, the whole world caught up in the
frenzy of Carnaby Street and Piccadilly
Circus. You’re 19 years old, and you have
just jumped right into the middle of the whole
foray. The entire metropolis was throbbing
with creativity; photographers, models,
musicians, designers and actors were emerging
from every nook and cranny of the city.
What an amazing time that was! Nothing
seemed impossible or out of reach. But the
first months of their adventure were anything
but a storybook tale.
The band
arrived in England with no bookings scheduled
and began making the rounds of the English
clubs, often playing just for the
exposure. They had used their entire
savings for their train and boat tickets, and
resorted to such tactics as pilfering coal from
their neighbors to heat their flat, and relying
upon the generosity of their growing legion of
fans to get through the lean times. Denis
Penner, disillusioned by the whole ordeal,
lasted only 5 months, and returned to
Canada. By this time, however, the band
had developed a loyal following, and they hired
Stewart McKernan, a bassist from Liverpool, to
replace Denis.
The Crescendos
became regulars on The Cavern Club’s schedule,
often playing on the same night with legendary
artists such as Rory Storm & The Hurricanes,
John Lee Hooker, Georgie Fame & The Blue
Flames. On occasion, Paul McCartney got up
to play with them at The Blue Angel. John
Lennon and Brian Epstein were often in the
audience to catch the band’s show. A
commemorative wall was unveiled by Gerry Marsden
in 1997 on the site of the Cavern Club.
There are two bricks engraved for the only
all-Canadian band to ever play at the club - one
for The Crescendos, and a second brick for the
name under which they recorded - The 5 a.m.
Event.
After hearing
a set at The Sink Club, Chris Curtis, drummer
for The Searchers, took the band under his wing,
gave them a new name - The 5 a.m. Event - and
signed them to Pye Records, taking them to
London to record their first single, a tune
called Hungry. Written by Cynthia Weil
and Barry Mann, the song had been released in
America by Paul Revere & the Raiders one
month earlier, but was unknown in Britain.
Though the
release failed to chart in Britain in1966, it
has since become a classic and was re-released
on a CD titled Maximum 65. Hungry, by
The 5 a.m. Event, is now considered one of the
top twenty tunes for that year and the original
45 has become a much sought-after collector’s
trophy. The flip side of that 45 is I
Washed My Hands In Muddy Water. The
obscure band from Winnipeg has gone down in
history along side of such legendary notables as
The Kinks, John Mayall, David Bowie, and The
Small Faces, who all appear on that compilation
CD of 20 songs, released in 2000.
While
in London, they played a few local jobs under
the name of The 5 a.m. Event. Kit Lambert
(manager of the British band, The Who) attended
one of their shows. So impressed by
Vance's performance, Kit convinced Vance to join
the Fruit Eating Bears, the backing group for
The Merseys, a Liverpool teen pop band formed
out of the break up of The Merseybeats.
The Fruit Eating Bears also enlisted Joey
Molland of The Masterminds, a group that
frequently played on the same nights as The
Crescendos at the clubs. Joey later went on to
play with Badfinger, and would reconnect with
Vance and Glenn 42 years later in Winnipeg,
Canada, on December 11, 2008. (READ ABOUT THE EVENT HERE)
During the
interval when Vance worked with the Fruit Eating
Bears, The 5 a.m. Event became the resident
group at the Blue Angel in Liverpool, hiring
Pete Clarke as their new drummer. Pete had
previously played with Vince and The Volcanoes,
Groups Inc., The Escorts, The Krew and Them
Grimbles. Vance returned to The 5 a.m.
Event shortly before they departed for Canada on
October 7, 1966.
The return of
The Crescendos to Winnipeg was like a brand new
start for the band. Denis Penner came back
into the fold and they resumed playing.
Being the only band from Winnipeg that had dared
to take a chance of living the life most
musicians dreamed of, they were overwhelmed by
fans and fellow musicians alike at their first
performance. While in Britain, the band
had developed their own distinctive sound and
style, and they were a breath of fresh air into
what had become a stagnant scene locally.
They caused a decided shift in the direction
music took here, with other bands changing their
music to keep up with The Crescendos.
August 1967
brought an end to The Crescendos. Glenn
went on to have an illustrious career with
Winnipeg Piano and then Long & McQuade,
while still playing occasionally. Denis
left the music industry and moved his family to
Vancouver several years later. Vance and
Terry carried on with their next venture - CLAYTON SQUARE - until September of
that year, when Vance replaced Ron Savoie in THE FIFTH.
POSTSCRIPT: July 2022
On
February 12, 1994, The Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature hosted
a musical reunion called Get Back, The Evolution of Winnipeg Rock.
That event was the catalyst for a project that is on-going to this
day, involving thousands of hours of interviews and combing
through historical records to crystallize the memories of
musicians who left their mark on Winnipeg and the surrounding
area.
Many
years ago, Dave Romanyshyn, of The D-Drifters fame, had a
conversation with one of the volunteers working on the project and reminisced about a humourous event he called his "Beatlemania moment" that involved Vance.
Full
text of Dave's recollection - in his own words - can be read HERE.
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Rehearsal 1963
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Vance Masters 1964
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The Crescendos 1964
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The
Crescendos Van
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1965
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1965
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Vance 1966 in London, England
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1966
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1967
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The photo in the top left corner
is the promo picture for Pye
Records and
was taken in Picadilly Circus.
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THE
CRESCENDOS
