Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Got lost reading your Art Bergmann posts. One of the benefits of being a rock critic at The Sun in the 1980s was being allowed to nominate and vote for the Juno awards. My only nomination was Art Bergmann, who was then nominated for Best Male Vocalist of the Year. Not surprisingly, considering the awards were Toronto-centric, he didn't win.

William Deverell & Tamara

Also, I took a Toronto A&R man to see Art playing at the Cultch in the early Poisoned days (he was signed to his first major record contract sometime later). Art and the band were absolutely brilliant that night. Afterward, I remember going with the A&R guy to the apartment of drummer Taylor Little, who lived in a building at 1st and Commercial. The living room had this cool neon glow from the Manitoba appliance store, which had an RCA Victor logo on top and a rotating sign saying "Easy Terms."  Here's the only photo I have found of the long-gone sign.

Thanks for rekindling the memories.

By the way, do you have a blog post on Vancouver's lost neon signs?
Neal Hall


I received the above from Neal Hall the always on top crime reporter for the Vancouver Sun. Les Wiseman and I would run into Hall a lot in the 80s. At the Time Wiseman was writing his monthly rock column, In One Ear for Vancouver Magazine and I provided the accompanying photographs. All three of us had a soft spot for Art Bergmann. When I received the above communication from Hall I smiled a bit smugly. No, I don’t have a collection nor have I ever written a blog about Vancouver’s lost neon signs. But I do have this picture. In it are writer William Deverell (in his Che-Guevara-look period around 1986) and with him is his daughter Tamara who happened to know Poisoned drummer, Taylor Little quite well. And if you look behind you might note a cool neon glow that came from 15664 Commercial Drive.

Addendum:

An all-time great photo. It's been on my wall a long time, though not a large image. Tamara is a much-sought-after production designer for film and TV in Toronto, in charge of crews of set and costume designers, location finders, carpenters, you name it -- and mother of two bright teenagers.

Bill

More William Deverell