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| 1969 this track was bleachers and entrance |
As I scanned the smattering of people seated just outside the fencing at
Toronto's Varsity Stadium, I didn't notice
Johnny Brower there, the man irreversibly tied to the break up of
The Beatles, so I wandered over to what looked like was the main entrance and had a gander. The vibrant colours of the now, sports-only field, provided contrast to the current old greyish non-nondescript metal and wood doors, which I suspect still look pretty much like they did when
Brower, along with partner
Kenny Walker, hosted the concert that would be come to be known as the one that
broke up The Beatles, The Toronto Rock n Roll Revival . Not
Paul Mcartney, who'd preempted the imminent announcement from
John Lennon by making his own declaration first - knowing the inevitable.
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| Lucky Ladybug |
On my second swing by I spied him, wearing a
blue toque that stood out on a not that cold day, likely to get my attention, but, at first, it had done the opposite as I hadn't been expecting it. Ha! But I did know what he looked like from the
Pop69 Movie Party ,so, when our eyes met, I offered up,
"Johnny!", and after a hint of recognition and shaking of hands, the first thing he said in his gruff raspy voice was,
"A ladybug", pointing to his arm where one lay, "
Good luck. That's a good sign for the movie", the obviously superstitious legendary promoter said, now with a hint of accent. Sun state no doubt.
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| Brower greets guest at Pop69 gala |
Gazing around at the former location where the famous
12 hour festival was held,
Johnny pointed out the entry gate location where people came through that Sept 13th day of 1969, offering that a track now lies in place of where the bleachers once were - which adorn just the east section now.
He was complimentary of the new sports field though. Still, as he described what it used to look like as an open field surrounded by seating on three sides, I got the sense
J.B.thought they missed an opportunity for it's use as a concert venue over the years with this new design.
Shortly in, he took a call from what sounded like one of the guys from back in the day, as he'd chuckled, " Hey, I was just talking about you..." Whoever it was could be represented in the
Pop69 movie ,which is being developed by
CanWood Entertainment, about this famous part of what has become world music history.
Some guys you can never turn off the wheeler-dealer, promo mentality, and I suspect
Brower's
one of those. His passion for rock & roll is obvious as he speaks,
and it's history and his part in it are fascinating as well - which all came together this day in a nice bundled package.
Toronto's
Rock N Roll Revival concert was headlined by
The Doors but also featured
Bo
Diddley,
Chicago Transit Authority,
Tony Joe White,
Alice Cooper,
Jerry-Lee Lewis,
Chuck Berry,
Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys,
Gene Vincent,
Junior Walker & The All-Stars,
Little Richard,
Doug
Kershaw,
Screaming Lord Sutch,
Nucleus, Milkwood and
Whiskey Howl - the only "local band.
Alice Cooper's group was the backing band for
Gene Vincent, while
local act
Nucleus provided support for
Chuck Berry, and
The Doors closed out the
festival.
The then 20,00 seat
Varsity Stadium attendees had no idea that
John Lennon was even coming, and, if not for a smooth talking
Johnny Brower in a phone call to
Eric Clapton - who then relayed to
Lennon that it was too late to cancel when he asked to on the day of the concert - they'd of been none the wiser! I can just imagine
J.B.'s poker face as he deadpanned his position to
Clapton that Johnny'd have to leave the country if they cancelled. But, sure enough, flanked by
Johnny B himself and 80 Bikers from
The Vagabonds Bikers Club,
Lennon arrived at the dingy backstage area and after looking around at the squalor, declared,
" I could have gone to Brighton!" Lennon didn't really even have a band - making up
The Plastic Ono Band on the flight over. But his toughest sell was convincing a junkie, as
Lennon admittedly was back then, to come to a foreign country away from his source.
Lennon is quoted as saying about that time doing the concert,
"We were full of junk too. I just threw up for hours
till I went on. I nearly threw up in Cold Turkey (the song) - I had a review in
Rolling Stone about the film of it - which I haven't seen yet, and
they're saying, 'I was this and that.' And I was throwing up nearly in
the number. I could hardly sing any of them, I was full of shit."John Lennon
Lennon is also is quoted by Johnny B to have said afterwards back stage,
" I haven't felt so alive in years"
But there
was more to his reasoning for wanting to visit
Toronto, as back then T.O. was a major rock & roll mecca and hub, and still is, but especially during the war
being the biggest destination for draft dodgers, just as
John Lennon was becoming very controversial with his messages of
peace and anti-war. As
JB would tell me, "
A lot of powerful people at the time very much wanted to squash his music and message " - Even trying to stop future
Brower concerts by using various tactics such as revoking permit allowances close to concert dates.
John Lennon with a return visit to
Toronto with
Johnny B in December of that same 1969 year, would go on to change Canadian history next.
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| Lennon's Limo and JB arrived here |
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| Former site of Mcluhan's office |
"The limo pulled in right here and I walked John Lennon down this path to Marshall's office" Brower said, reminding me
Lennon was also a philosopher, when I'd inquired as to why he had wanted to meet this particular philosopher of communication theory
, Marshall Mcluhan, a
Toronto University "
Futurist" who coined the phrase, "Global Village", so badly. The walk had been very spiritual for
Lennon he'd offered, " A dirt foot-pathway (now paved) had run through the area then, and, at the time, running brooks of water, wild life and the like and was known as being sacred ground to traditional native aboriginals, also seen about in traditional dress.
"And so you have to imagine the walk was very spiritual for John". Johnny Brower
As we walked the same route he and
Lennon had I'd tried to imagine the atmosphere of the time, envisioning an area abundant with nature sights and sounds - tough to do on the now road-like maze of paths leading to non-descript concrete buildings. Of course I didn't have the drugs in my system he did either. Ha.
So did anyone ever blame you for the
break up at the time, I asked? To which
Brower predictably replied that no,
Yoko Ono was blamed
by all the masses, however his ability to put on concerts was
hampered - such as the
Toronto Peace Fest or Strawberry Fields Festival, which was moved and renamed several times, and ultimately, held at
Toronto's
Mosport having been hindered by governmental interference.
With the
Vietnam war raging at the time, along with
Lennon's powerful influence, the powers that be wanted him
silenced, and
so, almost by default, Toronto became
the place - being the southern most spot to the
U.S. - and home to
bastions of war resisters and defectors. It truly was an explosive time - literally! And that aspect of those times has, in itself, cemented
Toronto's
place into the world history of rock and roll, and a very important role it was / is.
As we strolled,
Johnny B pointed out where the office of
Mcluhan had been - now a drab unappealing old / new hybrid - a far cry from when the philosophers had discussed language and music and the difference between them. Afterward they'd arranged for
JB and Lennon to take the train to
Ottawa to meet the Prime Minister of
Canada at the time,
Pierre Elliot Trudeau. He'd set up the meeting through
Bill Clement an undercover
RCMP
operative who was
Brower's friend and whose job it was to keep an eye on
American draft dodgers living in
Toronto.
Bill was a wild character,
almost like
Wild Bill Donovan, the U.S.
C.I.A. agent who many times got very
close to the people he was shadowing. And
Bill Clement partied hard with
the rock and rollers that
Brower brought through town. Here is
actual filmed footage of when
Yoko and
John enter showing an arm coming down after
Lennon, stopping
Clement, who was right behind, at the
P.M.'s office door . The guard is frozen with an icy glare, and, recognizing him, hastily lets
Clement in!
The train ride allowed
J.B. several hours alone with
Yoko &
Lennon along
Ronnie Hawkins and his wife
Wanda, as well as
Ritchie Yorke the journalist and
his wife
Ann, pulling into in
Ottawa very late having stayed awake most of the time.
Upon arrival, they were met by two members of the
Le Dain Commission which had been tasked with interviewing
John Lennon on his
views about
marijuana since the commission was considering the
possibility of legalization. So, What's a guy to do?
They ended up smoking dope with the two men, and everyone had a
jolly great laugh when one asked John if he thought it was
addictive..."Meantime the guy was bogarting the damn joint the whole time!", laughed
Brower, "Lennon at one point looked at him and said, pointing to the burning joint
clutched in his hand,
Well, what do you think ( about it being addictive )?" and everyone had exploded into fits of laughter at that. Maybe so, however there is no doubting
Trudeau's waning image at the time took a considerable swing upwards after his 50 minute visit scheduled for only 10, giving him a new resurgence politically - winning the election - in step with
Lennon's endorsement of the Canadian P.M.
So Brower's setting up of this meeting, may indeed have changed a country as well!
" I was pleased to receive (Lennon and Ono),” Trudeau wrote in his memoirs, adding that
the Beatle “was kind enough to say afterwards, ‘If all politicians were
like Mr. Trudeau, there would be world peace.’ I must say that Give
Peace a Chance has always seemed to me to be sensible advice " Pierre E Trudeau
" So how did you ever get involved in all this?" I'd offered as we drove towards an old stomping ground of his, and
Johnny relayed a little about how he'd been a placed in a prestigious private boys school because of his close living proximity to it as was done back then, growing up on
Kilbarry Road which ran along the north side of the
Upper Canada College, where he rubbed shoulders with the kids of the elite of the elite from 1961-65.
Many of his chums there were from
international families, as a boarding school was part of
the college where he met
George Eaton (
Eaton's Department Stores) and his brothers - one
of whom
Thor Eaton would eventually become his partner, along with Ken Walker, in
Brower Walker Productions. These years were very formative for
Brower
musically too as he also played and sang in a couple of
Toronto's most well known
bands at the time -
The Diplomats being the most well known - from 1963-65.
Brower used to be the one to get gigs for his band and became good at it, so often he was asked to do the same for other bands - some of which he also
began to promote.
At 19 he took on
L.A. too - returning in 68 with a wife.
I envision a
rat pack of guys with bands, putting on concerts at various venues, and embracing
everything rock & roll of the times.
J.B. gave me a little hint of what it might of been like to hang with them when as we drove through
Toronto's Yorkville district to spark some memories - not a great idea since
Brower told me only
The Pilot remains from back then - but as we sat in slow traffic in the now upper-scale boutique-y tourist lure, he spied two
beautiful youngish women dressed to the 11's, looks at them out the rolled down window and deadpans with a straight face,
"
Excuse me, are you the escort girls were supposed to be meeting?"
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| Tom Pearson outside Toronto's famed Maple Leaf Gardens |
Of course I had to play along by looking serious as well, gazing towards them in mock earnest anticipation, while the looks on their faces as they glanced back and forth to each other with a puzzled-like, semi-embarrassed expression was priceless. We laughed like school boys when just out of range. Well, at least I did, he only chuckled! Bad boys to the end! Ha.
Eventually he and
Kenny had taken an office downtown, and a salary of $350 a week pay. But the concert promoter-
pioneers ran into all kinds of roadblocks while learning the ropes - like trying to promote
"Blind Faith" with
Clapton et al when the
record wasn't ready until the day of the show - so they had nothing with which to promote it with! And there was no internet or instant news back then either which exasperated the whole promotional process.
It's well known, when
Lennon and
Ono arrived in
Toronto in December 1969 to begin
planning for the 1970 concert that wouldn’t happen, the city had been
strategically plastered with posters, billboards and print
ads bearing the message “WAR IS OVER! " If you want it ” and
“Happy Christmas from John & Yoko.” An original copy of the poster
is counted among the most coveted artifacts held today by the
Canadian
Museum of Civilization and
Canadian War Museum and was featured in
their 2011 illustrated volume,
Treasures. What's not so well known is that it was mostly
Johnny Brower and his buddies in
Yorkville that put most of those up, with
Johnny able to obtain some of the biggest and most prominent downtown spots literally overnight! And all this during a time when it's been revealed in
de-classified documents released in 2007 in an
RCMP
report dated Dec. 30, 1969, that the Canadian Security Service began
spying on ex-
Beatle John and
Yoko after they announced their plans for
the Toronto
Peace Festival.
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| I wonder how Lennon would feel about suits taking over Yorkville |
Who knows? I'm trying to convince
Johnny to do another concert like The Great
Toronto Rock & Roll Revival Return or
Strawberry Fields, the
35 Year Anniversary Concert, once the
Pop69 Movie is completed! After all
we do have a little in common as I've promoted / created many an event - nothing on his level - but
"first ever type"events and bands,
promoting one now even,
The Yappers, who's leader
Ray Yap's uncle, ironically is,
Phil Chen, current bass player for
The Doors and one of rock & roll's most used session bass players of the 70's/80'. I've even got a genuine
old school rock vocalist ready to go should Johnny want to revive
The Diplomats! I even released a short documentary recently,
A Short Thin Pink Line, with cool music and footage w
Carole Pope etc
Ha.... Oh well, we shall see. Until then the #
Pop69movie will move forward in production, and I know
Johnny wanted to auction off the rare
Beatles art replica he revealed at a
Hard Rock Cafe Gala to a good kids cause as well, reminding me of our parting that day, as
I noticed just before we were about to, Johnny walked over and gave some guy in need some cash, like he never forgot where he came from perhaps, or maybe the messages of
love & peace he so passionately embraced back in the day is still part of who he is.
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| Beatles Influence today as seen on Toronto Sidewalk 2014 |
These guys, like
Johnny Brower and
Kenny Walker, pioneers of music / event promotion, who paved the way for the rest - including
holding the first multiple day event concerts - could really show em how it's done today...
old school! 'Know'mean!? Ha, and frankly, I think we'd all enjoy the ride!
Definitely candidates for The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Stay tuned to TPE for future update blogs on the POP69 Movie coming to screens soon!@
Peace out!
Tom Pearson
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