Red Robinson's Legends

Canadian rockabilly legend Jack Scott has died from congestive heart failure in suburban Detroit. He was 84 years old.

According to old radio buddy Warren Cosford, between June of 1958 and November of 1961, Jack Scott had 19 records on the Billboard charts. Eight of the 12 songs on his first LP became hit singles. Only Justin Bieber has done as well.

This interview was recorded in 1986 at The Legends Of Rock'nRoll show at EXPO 86. Jack had never played Vancouver before, as airline travel was rare in those days and it was simply easier to stick to his home in Windsor.

Despite his hits, Jack's career suffered from poor management and he changed record labels frequently.

Jack was a guest performer at Brenda Lee's induction into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in 2001. I was at the show and I was surprised to bump into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame president Terry Stewart. He told me he'd come from Cleveland just to see Jack Scott perform. He was a huge fan!

Jack Scott was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011. Enjoy the interview, and please take some time to enjoy the sound of a true rock pioneer. RIP Jack!

Robinson, O’Day, and Allen banter as they consult their music sheets (each have selected their own songs to be played over the next several hours). At 10:25, Factora gives them the go ahead, and through the speakers an announcer introduces Robinson, followed by the first few bars of `Rebel Rouser’ by Duane Eddy. Effortlessly, Robinson chimes in;

“Hey, my favourite theme over the years: `Rebel Rouser’ with Duane Eddy, and that’s what I was: a rebel rouser. But it didn’t matter, I was doing what I loved. And here we are, the final show on this Sunday, and I have two very special guests here: Pat O’Day, who used to be the program director of KJR in Seattle, and we exchanged a lot of things over the years….”

“Had a lot of fun,” O’Day interjects. “And a lot of mutual respect.”

“That’s true, very much so.”

O’Day shoots his old friend a cocked eyebrow. “You tried to make inroads into my audience in Seattle, and I resented that, but forgave you.”

Robin Brunet's new book Red Robinson: The Last Broadcast, is available now in paperback and ebook from friesenpress.com and chaptersindigo.ca

Listen to a medley of classic CFUN jingles as your favorite jocks tell the 1410 story... all the way from Big Daddy to the return of Daryl B and the Fun Sticker!

Special thanks to Ted Wendland and Mike Cleaver for the interview material. Dedicated to the memory of Fred Latremouille.

Red Robinson, Ed Karl, Roy Hennessy, Doc Harris, John Tanner, Terry David Mulligan, Chuck McCoy and Tom Jeffries remember the great radio that came out of 1900 West 4th Avenue. Host: Stu Ferguson. Recorded October 9, 2019

On August 31 1957, Vancouver hosted the appearance of the King of Rock'n'Roll, Elvis Presley. The concert had been anticipated with great fanfare. For the first time in history, a performer was appearing in a venue that would hold 25,000 people, Empire Stadium. Up to this point in music history no one would have dreamed that a performer could command this much attention from the public. Elvis' first tour of the U.S. and Canada was unprecedented.

More than 26,000 tickets were sold for the event. Presley arrived in Vancouver by train as his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, did not want Elvis to fly. The train arrived in the morning at the Great Northern railway station, catching the media off guard as they had anticipated he would be arriving by plane. He was then driven by limousine to the Georgia Hotel where he took over an entire floor. I spent part of the afternoon with Elvis in his room, and then later that day at Empire Stadium during the press conference and afterward in his dressing room. We waited together in the room while the warmup acts performed on stage.

At 8 p.m. I left him to go to the stage at the north end of Empire Stadium to make the announcement of his appearance. He drove out of the area used to house the BC Lions' football equipment in a Cadillac and circled the stadium before arriving at the backstage area. Elvis performed for only 25 minutes. He sang many of his hits including "Heartbreak Hotel", "Don't Be Cruel", "That's When Your Heartaches Begin", and "Hound Dog". As the crowd grew more alarming, Presley was ordered by his manager to wrap up the show and depart in his Cadillac, now parked conveniently behind the stage.

The Vancouver Sun's John Kirkwood was less than enthusiastic:

"It was like watching a demented army swarm down the hillside to do battle in the plain when those frenzied teen-agers stormed the field. Elvis and his music played a small part in the dizzy circus. The big show was provided by Vancouver teen-agers, transformed into writhing, frenzied idiots of delight by the savage jungle beat music. With something over 16,000 at the stadium, it was billed as the largest theatrical entertainment in western Canada. Don't kid yourself. This was not entertainment. Not when children as young as nine, 10 years, glaze their eyes, unhinge their hips and fling themselves into wild orgies of lunatic ecstasy.""

After his departure from Empire Stadium he retired to his hotel room where he stayed overnight. He left town the following morning and continued with his tour. Elvis only performed once outside the U.S. - two April dates in Ottawa and Toronto, and the August 31 appearance in Vancouver. The memories live on.

Originally released on Jerden Records.

Two years after their 1964 Vancouver and Seattle appearances, the Fab Four returned to the Pacific Northwest for two shows at the Seattle Coliseum. The press conference was held at the Edgewater Inn before the afternoon show. For me, the highlight was a series of questions (at 4:37) from C-FUN's "Jolly" John Tanner - dressed as the Jolly Green Giant! Enjoy this recording, originally released on Jerden Records.

It's the 56th anniversary of the Beatles' August 22, 1964,appearance at Vancouver's Empire Stadium

The late Jack Wasserman covered the event for the Vancouver Sun: "The Beatles were on stage for a total of 29 minutes and 12 seconds. It took 35 minutes for the welcoming scream to die down enough for them to start. At one point Red Robinson, the local radio personality, who M.C.'d, had to go on stage and tell the crowd to stop pressing forward. John Lennon snarled at him, 'Don't ever get on our stage again!'"

People still ask me, "What did John Lennon say to you on stage at the Empire Stadium Beatles' performance?"

Brian Epstein asked me to step on stage during their act because of the mad scene in front of the stage. On his directions, the show was momentarily stopped. When I appeared at the edge of the stage, Paul McCartney waved me off — he thought that I thought the show was over. When I arrived at the stage left microphone, near John Lennon, he said, "Get the f**k off our stage — no one has ever interrupted a Beatles performance." I explained that their Manager asked me to interrupt the show and he said, "Oh, why?" I explained to him that quite a commotion was going on.

He said, "Fine, but it's so unusual. No one has ever done this before. There has never been a need." At that point the show was stopped, things brought to reasonable order and the performance continued. Let me explain why John couldn't tell what was going on. Any entertainer can tell you that when on stage during a performance, the bright lights in front do not allow an artist to see more than a few feet. The Beatles could not see anyone in the audience while the stadium lights were out. All they could see in front of them was a dark black screen, caused from the effect of the glaring stage lights.

Lennon and the others smiled when they left and Paul said, "Quite a night, Red", as they tore off stage to leave the stadium, so I doubt if there were any hard feelings about the situation — just some misunderstandings.

Enjoy this recording, originally released on Jerden Records.

60 years ago this afternoon, on August 22, 1964, the Beatles held a press conference before their show at Vancouver's Empire Stadium.

Maclean's magazine reviewed the event:

"The Beatles press conference has become as memorable an institution as President Roosevelt's fireside chats, and at the Vancouver session, Paul, John, George and Ringo were at their flippant best. Eighty-nine newsmen crowded into a room designed for forty, including the traveling Beatles experts from the Liverpool Echo and London Daily Mirror, the CBC's Royal Tour expert, several writers from the U.S. and Eastern Canada, a score or so of electronic journalists and Disc Jockeys, five reporters from Victoria — the empire's last anti-Beatle outpost and a thirteen year old Beatlemaniac named Susan Lomax whom The Sun sent along to get the youthful viewpoint.

All of them were aware that the craze has now reached the stage where the press needs The Beatles much more then the Beatles need the press, and all of them were charmed by their now-familiar Liverpudlian cockiness. When a reporter asked how the boys felt "now that Britannia rules the airwaves," Paul McCartney jeered: "Ooh, you worked that one out, didn't you!" Asked about the customs delay, John Lennon replied, "We had to be deloused."

Enjoy this recording, originally released on Jerden Records.

Tim Conway died this morning (5/14) in a Los Angeles care facility after a long illness. He was 85. Tim won four Emmy Awards on Carol Burnett's TV variety show, starred aboard "McHale's Navy" and later voiced the role of Barnacle Boy for "Spongebob Squarepants". I interviewed Tim for my CISL morning show in 2011 and he was in fine form. Join me as we celebrate a true comic genius. RIP Tim Conway!

In 1956 and early 1957 two "Show of Stars" presentations came to Vancouver. The first was an all-Black show in the sense that the stars were basically Rhythm and Blues stars and not mixed up with white Rock and Roll, except that now that Rock and Roll music was acceptable to everyone they were packaged together to perform for a mixed audience. On the first "Show of Stars" the line-up included Bill Doggett, The Five Satins, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, LaVern Baker and Clyde McPhatter.

Of the group of stars the one that impressed me the most musically was Chuck Berry, but next to him, the friendly and shy Clyde McPhatter. Clyde formed a new singing group with singers from many groups that had drifted together in 1953. They called the group "The Drifters" for this very reason. Their first hit was a Jesse Stone classic called "Money Honey". Clyde wrote the deliciously controversial "Honey Love", which was a big hit for the group in those early days.

Clyde went out on his own after coming out of the service and had a few hits such as "A Lover's Question" in 1958. The Drifters went through a series of lead singers including Bobby Hendricks, Ben E. King and others. The group became one of the legendary singing organizations in the history of contemporary music. Clyde McPhatter died of a heart attack in 1972. He was just forty-one at the time.

Out of this show grew my admiration for the true roots of Rock and Roll. I could appreciate Bill Haley and the Comets and Elvis Presley, but after this dynamite show I realized where it had all begun. The black man had given us jazz and had now spun out his newest offering... and it was taking the world by storm.