Smack Dab in the middle of GrungerMania comes 70s/80s Rock Dawgs April Wine and Foreigner playing a one and only double bill full headlining set right smack in Good Ol Tbay….
The promoters pumped this one as the only Canadian Date these two AOR Titans would share a stage together in 1993. Of course with my trusty sidekick Tbone off to the show we go!
April Wine in 1993 had a bounce back with their career with the Attitude release going Gold in Canada whereas Foreigner were back in the ring with singer Lou Gramm after he split in the late 80s and so here they be….
April Wine were up first and it’s basically all the cats from the heyday of the Wine in the early 80s except for the guitarist who went by the name (James! You ready for this…) Steve Seagal…not that Segal Ha! Along with Segal on guitar you had Brian Greenway/Myles Goodwyn an Wowzers Tbone, this is triple ax attack right before our eyes! Not the first time though the Gardens hosted a band with Three guitarists in tow. That Honour goes to Ted Nugent who back in 1981 showed up to Tbay with a Commnado Squad and obliterated my hearing (review of that show can be found on this site). Rounding out The Winer’s were Jerry Mercer on Drums and Jim Clench(RIP) on Bass.
April Wine were a real good band this night and aside from plugging a few tracks from the Attitude release it was a Greatest Hits Fest.
Still recall the opening 3 pack of songs that were played with opener Anything You Want which led into I Like To ROCK. Ooowatanite with the ringing Bell and Police Cherry Lights going off with Clench handling the lead vocals as well. Sign OF The Gypsy Queen/Roller/Just Between You And Me/Enough Is Enough so as you can see by these tracks that it was indeed a Hits set and why not!
Come to think of it this is the only time I have ever seen April Wine Live which is alright as they were here a few weeks back in early July at our Blues Festival (GAH!) by all intent and purposes were quite good from what I heard but man them Wine dudes are looking ancient in 2016….
Back to 1993…..
After a quick turnover Foreigner with Lou and Mick Jones took to the stage and blasted out I believe Double Vision that moseyed into one of my fav tracks of Foreigner ever and that would be Long Long Way From Home ( the swirly synth at the beginning gets me every time).
Like April Wine everything Foreigner plays you’ve heard. Head Games/Dirty White Boy/Juke Box Hero(with an inflated Juke box Prop for added pleasure) basically its all hits of course I Want To Know What Love Is is dealt but man what can you do? I don’t wanna hear it but many that night did soooo stuff it Deke’s!
One kooky part of the show was that bass player Bruce Turgon did a solo which at first was kinda Gah! Than he just went bonkers riffing like a lunatic locked in with the drummer and they did a bass and drum dual thing and it was quite good including Turgon flinging back his long hair and soaking it in…
Me and Tbone giggled like a couple of school girls as we said Turgon was frozen from the 80s and was starting to thaw in the warm July 1993 Tbay weather ….Needless to say he was amusing….
It was good to see Wine N Foreigner show up to Tbay when the musical climate was not favourable for bands of their genre and basically sell out about 4000 tickets and put on a real good rock show! Which band was better that night? Too be totally fair they were both real good so it was $29 well spent!(1993 Prices)….
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