Cape Breton's Magazine

for the public, it must have been. Or they'd have never had us back so often, or so long.... And every place we went, the place would be packed. That old hall in Glenville one night, the nurses had a graduation dance and they got us to play. There were 600 into that old wreck of a building. And when they'd be dancing, the hall'd be go? ing like this. I said to old Wins? ton, "Jesus, we've got to get out of here!" I figured the frigging thing was going to fall down on top of us. The Winston Fitzgerald Orchestra at the Venetian Gardens. Left to right: Eddie Pastoni, Tupper MacAsidii, Wes Pretty, Beattie Wallace, Jean Dixon (not a bandmember), Estwood Davidson and Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald. And I'll tell you how big a crowd that we had in the Labour Temple: we busted the floor and we had to move out of there and go down to the Legion at Strathlorne and finish the dance. Oh, what a crowd!... Well, I pioneered the guitar, you know. That's another thing. Nobody else ever played Scotch music until I played it. John Allan Cameron told me I was the first one he ever saw play guitar. I played in a hall in Mabou. He was sitting beside me-- he was only a young fellow then--and I wasn't very old myself then. But he sat beside me all evening. And it was more or less the idea he got from me, for to start playing. But he was a different type of player than me. Because he picked out the old tunes, you see, but he never went in for chord progression. Well, he wasn't all that good for backing up violin, but he was good on what he did. He played melody, picked out his own stuff. So that made him a different type of player than me. So, every one of us had something, I don't know, that probably nobody else had. I shouldn't say that, maybe... I had my style--I had a style of playing. I'd always bass my chords, you know--took the part of a bass player and a guitar player both. And Beattie had her smooth way of making chords. Not this pound? ing, you know. And she'd never play--Winston hated somebody that'd play the melody out with him. Oh, didn't that make him wild. Especially piano player. And Beattie would just seem to slide from the chords, from one to the other, and put every little relative in, and all that sort of thing. And then of course, Winston, he had his own way of playing. So, between the three of us, we more or less had something all by ourselves. But it made a combination. I guess that's what made it different. (And while you were doing it, did you know that the three of you as a group were really that exceptional?) Yes, I was al? ways under the impression that nobody else could play as good as us at that time. We will give Life Insurance to anyone age 15 to 80. No one turned down. No Health Questions asked." Druker Insurance Charlotte street, Sydney • 562-5504 Call Toll Free 1-564-6000 Budget Plan Available ''X CflOW VAN f00 g#' Fully Licensed Restaurant OPEN DAILY 11 A.M. to 1 A.M. FRI. and SAT. till 2 A.M. SUN. till MIDNIGHT Major Credit Cards Accepted Gift Certificates * Ample Parking -'MrrrrTmw' Oriental and Canadian Cuisine in a relaxed and elegant dining atmosphere Daily Luncheon Specials Banquet Facilities Available Take Out Orders Delivered A Warm Welcome Excellent Service and Fine Food t? 460 Grand Lake Rd-, Sydney 562-0088 or 539-2825