Cape Breton's Magazine

(blues, rock, and folk)--and that's what I still do. I jump around all over the place. But anjrway, I needed a more focused thing, so I came back to Cape Breton. By this time I was married. Babs and I were on the road together, and we got married in Alaska, ac? tually. And so we came back here and sort of just settled in. Started a whole new thing just as Minglewood Band. I had two guys who were with the Moon-Minglewood Band who came with me. And we then started playing right down here at what was then called The Marconi House, playing on the weekends. I just went in there one day and asked the guy who owned the place at the time--I said, "You need some entertainment here to bring the people in. I'll come in and play for whatever comes through the door--two dollars or whatever a head--three dollars." And so I did it, and it soon became a weekend thing. We just packed the place, and it was an ab- Boutiliers* Music Shops Cape Breton's Newest Locally-Owned Musical Outlet Dealers for SAMICK Pianos FENDER & WASHBURN Guitars AKAI Synthesizers We sell a complete line of top quality musical instruments and accessories. Visit our showroom and try the products for yourself. You will like the variety and price. Layaway plan available. No interest for 2 months. ~ We're Open Monday through Saturday Music Keyboards Guitars Reeds Horns Violins Bagpipes Chanters All Supplies Cape Breton Shopping Centre 39 Keltic Drive, Sydney River, N. S. B1S1P4 '' _562-0018 "We're people you can talk to" solute madhouse. Some crazy things went on in there, people swinging from the rafters. Well anyway, the whole idea for this Min? glewood Band was to record and get an al? bum. We made a tape and made a deal in Hal? ifax with a guy who was going to give me the music, give me the studio time in Dart? mouth. He would front the time and master the album, and I would pay him back out of the sale of the albums if I didn't make a deal. So we did the tape and basically we produced it. I produced it with the rest of the band, which at the time was. Bobby Woods, Donnie Hann, Enver Sampson, Terry Edmunds, and myself. So we made the tape, and I took it to all the major labels in Toronto, and they all turned me down. Al? though they felt it was good music, they felt it was too diverse. This was what turned out to be the first album, "The Red Album." So I came back af? ter I waited a few months. I had a few more offers that didn't turn out. So I said, "To hell with this, and I'll put it out my? self." So I did. I made a bunch of them and took them around to all the radio stations and people that I knew from travelling back and forth across the country. I was sur? prised to find out that I knew a lot of people and a lot of people knew me that were in radio--and they started playing it on isolated FM and a few AM stations. In fact, I got into a big war with the sta? tions around the Maritimes--in Halifax and Sydney, at the time--because they wouldn't touch it. I felt it was as good as anything else they were playing, or at least it was playable. As it turned out, I was right, because the people in Montreal (and Cal? gary) made a certain couple of songs--one song called "Swing Low Sweet Cadillac," which Sam Moon and I wrote--they made it quite a hit. It was an FM hit. And the band--we started touring--just be? coming almost legendary. How crazy it was going. We'd get the people going from here to Vancouver and back. But we didn't even have a record company. It was called Solar Records, but it was not a record company as such. So we came back, and as I say, I got in a few scraps with certain radio people, cer? tain individuals at the time. One radio station said, "We play hits, we don't make them"--and they wouldn't play my single. In Stores To Serve You mS' Featuring "'Wfl? Sobeys & Shopper's Drug Mart