“Xmas of 1957 my Dad gave my Mom seven Elvis 78 RPM records. I remember them being played at their parties. Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog, All Shook Up etc. They and their friends were jive dancing and having fun with a few beers. One by one through the next couple years I remember seeing them dropped and broken except for Elvis' first record release That's Alright Mama/Blue Moon of Kentucky which I inherited as my first record and I still have that copy today.
In 1961 I had a paper route and from that money, $30 a month, I purchased a good quality RCA 6 Transistor radio which cost $50. I took it everywhere with me. My favorite station was CKWX 1130 on the dial. They played Rock 'n' Roll of the Day. My early favorite singers were Del Shannon, Bobby Vee, Neil Sedaka and Bobby Darin, along with the others of that time. As an 11 year old I had no older brothers or sisters and my friends at that time weren't into music, so I learned on my own. There was a song I really liked called Private Eye by Bob Luman, it was moving up the charts headed for #1 and out of nowhere came Elvis' Little Sister/His Latest Flame taking the #1 spot in its second week of release, preventing Private Eye from hitting #1. I was disappointed thinking Elvis was overrated. Red Robinson was the best DJ on that station. He seemed to be on all the time. My favorite of his shows was called The Flashback Hour, 8 pm nightly on which played the hits of 1956-1960 that I had missed out on. I can't overstate the influence Red had on me. He was like my teacher. I learned the difference between Buddy Holly and Buddy Knox along with Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent etc. After a few months I learned that Elvis was indeed ‘The King’ and from then on I appreciated the real Rock 'n' Roll of the '50s more than any other period and I still feel the same today.
I got a couple cheap guitars that never stayed in tune when I was 16 or 17, learned a few chords, never did much with it. From birthday money on my 22nd birthday I purchased my first half decent guitar, a Yamaha FG -140, I paid $70 for it new, no case. I still have it. I strummed and sang through a handful of songs now and again just for personal enjoyment. During this time I jammed with fellow baseball player and friend Flay Hall. We got together 8 or 10 times both singing and playing guitars. We had some fun at it but it never went anywhere.
I met my good friend, Rod Arundell, over a few beers at the Century Inn in 1970. It turned out we were both big Elvis fans. He said he could play a little like Scotty Moore and I said I could sing a little like Elvis. In the next few years we ran into each other at bars and parties, always saying we should get together. We never did. Aug, 16, 1977, the day Elvis died, Rod phoned me up. We talked about it for an hour and planned to get together the next week, which we did, just the two of us. Rod playing Scotty Moore type lead guitar with me singing with an old microphone and scratching on rhythm guitar, all through a cheap $10 amp. We did this weekly for a year, learning Elvis' Sun and early Rockabilly songs, along with Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent and a few others. We played a few parties and a few songs at greaser dances, the Ponderosa etc. Our first big dance was at the Bay Street Armory, Aug 16, 1978 exactly the 1 year anniversary of Elvis' death. Someone had put it on, it was mostly a DJ playing Elvis' records but Rod and I played the early stuff live through a pretty good PA system that local country singer Norm Watson had lent us. We played quite well for forty minutes and the 140 Elvis fans that were there really liked us. Shortly after, we recorded a makeshift tape and had a vinyl album called Mystery Train, 300 copies, that eventually all sold out at $7 a copy. Soon after things got a bit stale and we stepped away from it, devoting a little more time with our young families and such. In mid-1980 I ran into bass player Bob Richardson at the Sherwood Park Inn. He was looking for someone to jam with so I contacted Rod and we started up again. The bass added new enthusiasm to our old songs. After a few months, we added old friend, Dave Paul, on drums and in May 1981 we went to CHEK 6 TV station where we filmed seven songs which were dispersed on to three half hour shows called Daybreak. Knowing we needed a band name I had told the guys to think about it and meet at my house just before taping at the TV studio, Rod came up with Rockhouse and I came up with Raucous. We couldn't decide so we just called ourselves Rockhouse Raucous. When the shows were aired the TV host, Bruce Payne, mispronounced the name calling us Rockhouse Ruckus. I thought that was kind of cool and suggested to the guys that we drop the Rockhouse and just call ourselves RuKus without the C and that's how we came up with the name. Within the next few months we added a fifth member, Phil Isaacson, to add on vocals and guitar. Then Norm Piercy replaced Bob Richardson on bass and within the next couple years we played gigs about once a month. In Dec 1982 Phil was in a serious car accident, broke his leg, and was replaced by local Blues legend, John Fisher, for a few months before Phil came back. Our last gig with this lineup was an Oct 29, 1983 Halloween dance at the Princess Mary. RuKus took five years off after that before resurfacing in 1988 with Bob, Rod, Dave and Art De Mulles on bass and vocals, John Hughs on keyboards and vocals, again gigging about once a month with a few more personnel changes through those times into 1991. Now we had Dave Kissinger on guitar, Brian Ferguson on keyboards, Steve Hanson on bass and through these early to mid-90's we also had women singers Kim Cutler, then Helen Davies. Playing steadily through the '90s and up until 2019, there were hundreds of gigs and many personnel changes, of note bass players Pete McDonald, Ian Adamek, Fred Herfst, Adrien Aucoin, drummers Dan Ison, Steve Peabody, John Lorenzo, Barry Casson, Paul McClellen, Don Crocker, Geoff Peterson, keyboardists David Masters, Marty Adams and Allan Heffer. RuKus started in 1977 and went to 2019 in one form or another with normal ups and downs. It started Rockabilly and ended as Rock 'n' Roll, just a cover band. I met a lot of nice people along the way with happy faces and packed dance floors.
We played nearly every venue in Victoria through the years, a few places up Island, Cowichan Bay, Duncan, Thetis Island, Ladysmith, Nanaimo, Parksville, Qualicum, a few more. The one time we left the Island was in July 1993 to be part of Buddy Knox's 60th Birthday Party. Played at a bar in Vernon then the next day at The Cadillac Ranch in Armstrong BC with The Coasters, Bobby Curtola, Tommy Sands, Susan Jacks, Buddy Knox and Randy Bachman. Other bigger gigs were seven or eight shows at Government House for Lieutenant Governors Iona Campagnolo, Steven Point, Judith Guichon, and Janet Austin, Butchart Gardens summer and Christmas Shows six or seven times, regulars at The Saanich Parks Summer Shows, Saanich Fair four or five Shows, many more. Probably around 1000 gigs in 38 Years.
Through the 38 years there were many changes and politics crept in. In the end I was the only original member. The newer members didn’t have the same respect as I did for the old songs and wanted to do newer all-hits material. It caused friction and it was decided to disband.
About Elvis - In our family home there were three housekeeping rooms upstairs that my parents rented out, $25 each a month to help with the mortgage payments. One of the men that lived upstairs was George Parkin. He worked at The Capitol Theater as the maintenance man. Every other Saturday he would take my younger sister Susan and I to a movie whatever was showing. Lots of Walt Disney etc. Elvis' 3rd movie was Jailhouse Rock. He took us to see it in late 1957. I had no idea who Elvis was. The theater was packed with screaming teenage girls. Everytime he came on screen they would stand up screaming and yelling. When he sang they were dancing in the aisles, I couldn’t hear it, I couldn’t see it, it wasn’t Old Yeller and I hated it. That Christmas my Dad bought my Mom those Records. It didn’t really affect me and I didn’t realize it was that same guy I had suffered through at the movie theater. The next couple years were more baseball for me and in 1961 I got the paper route. After listening to Red’s show for about six months it was easy to see and hear that Elvis was indeed the King. I wasn't completely sold on him yet though. The man upstairs was still taking us to the movies, I saw Blue Hawaii, Kid Galahad, Girls Girls Girls, the lineups on Saturday were always way around the block for Elvis and we just walked through the lineup and straight in for free. During this time I started appreciating Elvis more. I had a few 45s I had picked up in second hand stores. Used 33 albums were not available yet in 1962 so my first Elvis album (expensive at $3.98 plus tax) was Elvis’ Gold Records Vol 2. When I played it I realized just how great every song was, it blew me away. My next Album was Girls Girls Girls after seeing the movie, then Elvis' Gold Records Vol 1. That was it! I was totally hooked. From then on I loved all his records. Around 1964 I was playing an Elvis $5 RPM 45 called Anyway You Want Me. It had four songs on it, three of which I would later find out were his Sun recordings. There’s something a little bit different sounding and the feel of them, especially Mystery Train and I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone, I couldn’t put my finger on it but I really liked them. I later found out they were the Legendary Sun Recordings. It was a couple Years before I had heard the term Rock A Billy but that’s exactly what they were, hence my love for Rockabilly. I stayed an Elvis fan through the years adding everything to my collection as it came out. I recognize that not everything stood up to the early Elvis recordings, especially the movie soundtrack albums. He had a good handful of decent songs through the ‘70s but I was never a big fan of the jump-suit era. I am glad I got the chance to see him Live two times both in 1970 Feb 17 in Las Vegas and Seattle Nov 12. Without Elvis music would have been totally different. His influence was immense, no Buddy Holly, no Beatles.
On being a talking head in a documentary about Elvis - It’s called Elvis Presley - The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years. It was produced by a British company called Edgehill Productions. The guy that was filming it was looking for Elvis fans to film their comments and opinions on Elvis' songs from the 1954 to 1956 era. Three Victoria fans ended up being selected, Wayne Forseth, Alex Solnac and myself. It was Alex that recommended me. There were also fans from Britain and after the photographer left Victoria he headed to Nashville to interview Elvis' original bandmates guitarist Scotty Moore, drummer DJ Fontana and from the Jordanaires, Gordon Stoker and Ray Walker. That’s what made me proud to have been part of this project. All these commentaries were inter-spliced with early Elvis 1956 television performances from The Dorsey Brothers Stage Shows and The Ed Sullivan Shows. It was marketed as a saleable DVD and shown many times on British Television. I was also involved in the same format for a Beatles DVD project for the same company. It was also broadcast on British television and marketed as a nice DVD for sale. Both of these mini music documentaries can be seen on Youtube, if you can find them.
On other projects since RuKus - I really enjoyed being part of the Hip Shake Collective, I had only ever been in one band before, this was a different style of music very Blues oriented. I had never really sung much Blues before, though I always liked and appreciated it having a good stack of early Blues records in my record collection. I always liked Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Arthur Crudup, Hound Dog Taylor etc, and the early Boogie-Woogie piano players, knowing that this music influenced the Rock a billy Rock ‘n’ Roll that I liked. I know I have a little Blues influence in me. Playing with Hip Shake Collective led by Dave Harris and Sharon Wadsworth was fulfilling and a lot of fun. I learned a handful of songs I hadn’t done before, mixed in with some of the old ones that I had done before and were appropriate. There were a lot of very talented musicians within the group who have become good friends. It was fun singing lead and harmony vocals as well playing with wind instruments, that was new to me .
My wife Brenda of 50 years has always been very supportive in anything I have done, she has always contributed in many ways in the background. Without her my music journey would have been very different in a lesser way.
At the end of the day I'm just a music fan who was inspired by the music I love to learn ten chords on the guitar and a hundred songs. Through many hours of rehearsals I ended up in a couple bands, met some nice people played a lot of gigs before a lot of people, many that gave me some real nice sincere compliments and I made enough money to buy guitars, amps and guitar strings and a few free meals and drinks along the way.”
For physical events that happen at a specific time. For example a concert, or dance performance. If there are multiple shows, you can still duplicate your event to cover them all.
Ullr Bar
