Sarah Smith is a multi award winning singer songwriter who has toured the world over & is a tireless, independent self promoter. We discuss her time spent in the Royal military academy, her mentors, giving back to the community and a lot more.

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Bill Durst is an award winning Canadian blues rocker and iconic classic rock singer/songwriter & guitarist who blazed trails through Canadian music history starting in the 1960s. We talk about the early years before Thundermug & their history through two breakups & a reunion in the mid 2000s at the Jack Richardson awards gala. He talks about his time earning top dollar in his role as Billy Gibbons in Tres Hombres the world class ZZ Top tribute.
Bill talks about how primitive a time it was for the music business in Canada in the early 1970s & how difficult it was for Canadian acts to get radio play until the Canadian government stepped in with Cancon rules for radio airtime. Bill tells us about being influenced to let his guitar scream while watching Domenic Trojano play live with the Byrds. He answers three questions from fans including advice for bearded men. He talks at length about his personal disdain for billionaire corporations who he feels have completely hijacked the music business .....and a whole lot more.

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I met Frank Soda back in the early days of his tenure with Thor & the Imps. His amiable & generous personality along with a huge boatload of talent & ingenuity opened several doors for him since our first meeting....all those years ago. He went on to be signed with Quality records & also helped to launch the career of Canada's "Metal Queen" Lee Aaron ...among other things. Frank's recorded music was never a fair representation to his live shows where he would explode a TV on his head, engage in guitar duels with himself & to this day he never has failed to electrify a crowd. We talk out his early days as a high school kid winning battles of the band contests & some of the other huge talent that he came up around with members of classic bands like Prism, Bryan Adams etc......and a whole lot more!

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Jaimie Vernon started playing electric guitar in 1978 & quickly went from just a player in the band to band manager & since has become well known as a record company executive as president of Bullseye records. He started publishing at first to promote his own band & then his magazine Great White Noise became a voice for indie artists nationwide. He re launched several Canadian artists' careers as his label redistributed their out of print works. Jaimie is still active in the music scene & blogs weekly as a contributor to Bob Segarini's "Don't believe a word I say" series. We discuss all this and a lot more in this episode.

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Rocket Norton is mostly recognized as the drummer in Canadian classic rock band, Prism who toured North America in the 70s & 80s promoting their hits Armageddon, Take me to the Kaptin, Young & Restless, Spaceship Superstar etc . There's a lot more to his life & to the band Prism than most would know. We talk about everything from his days as a young musician who was influenced to play drums after watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, his love for baseball, books he's written & a whole lot more!

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Rainer & Cindy Wiechmann are a fairy tale rock & roll love story ...& a lot more! I consider them both to be some of my closest friends & they have been occasional members of my band, the Night Crew, but more than that they have been members of Canadian classic rock band Helix & have garnered critical praise world wide for their progressive band Nail. Before they left their home province of Newfoundland on the East coast of Canada they rocked the rock & inspired others like Alan Doyle from Great Big Sea to pursue their own musical careers. We discuss their careers as husband & wife rockers & a lot more in this episode.

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Greg Simpson has been in the music business for over 50 years. While most of his career has been spent in radio & broadcast journalism, he's spent a lot of time behind the scenes managing & promoting several artists including Bill Durst, Thundermug & Shelly Rastin. Greg is past the normally accepted retirement age, but that doesn't stop him from moving forward on his job with Canada Music Week, his active involvement with the Great Lakes Blues Society etc. He has several ongoing projects & has a lot to say about the music business as we discuss his career on this podcast.

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Walter Zwol was the 1st Canadian artist to be signed with American record label EMI & seemed to be destined for fame & fortune. While he was the frontman with the band Brutus had a marginal hit with a song produced by Jack Richardson called Ooh Mama Mama & things were looking good for his career. We talk about everything from his early years as a singer opening for bigger acts to his sharing a flight home from England with Fleetwood Mac & more ....

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Mario Circelli is mostly known as the man behind the Forest City London Music Awards & Hall of Fame. He's also had careers in broadcasting & record production. As a record producer, Mario produced successful artists like the Ghandarvas etc. He's been a radio station manager & a documentary producer among other things. Currently, Mario heads up the Digital Creative Arts Center at the Boys & Girls club in London Ontario. We talked about all of the above & more in this episode.

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I grew up in the same neighbourhood & attended the same high school in North Bay, Ontario with John McGale. John is one of very few musicians who I've known over the years who's been able to successfully make a living as a full time musician from his teen years to present day. He has gained most of his notoriety as lead guitarist with Quebec based band, Offenbach. The irony is that he was initially reluctant to audition for a French language band in Quebec. We discuss everything from his days as social convener in high school (where he first made music biz contacts) to sharing the stage with Chuck Berry, befriending Les Paul & a whole lot more.

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