In 2017 While chatting with old friend and band mate Rejean Lachance (Rej E. Chance) from the ROCH VOISINE days, he told me he had put a trio together with Breen Lebeouf and Steph Gaudreau. They were called BSR (Breen.Steph,Rej). I loved the idea and wormed my way in and now we were a quartet called BSSR (Breen, Steph, Smallwood,Rej). I had known Breen from the OFFENBACH and BUZZ BAND days as well as having played on his solo album and I knew Rej from having played with him in the ROCH VOISINE, JOHNNY HALLIDAY and WILLIAM DESLAURIERS band.
Quick change
After our first gig we had a personnel change…Steph Gaudreau left and we needed a new drummer. Trouble is we had already had posters and merch printed…so luckily we found Bob St Laurent..and his named started with an ‘S’! Now BSSR was Breen Lebeouf on bass and vocals, Bob St laurent on drums and vocals, Jeff Smallwood on guitar and vocals and Rej E. Chance on guitar and vocals. It was a blast. Four guys who could sing lead and a repertoire of straight ahead two guitar-bass-and-drums rock and roll tunes. We played scattered gigs at festivals, car rallies, blues festivals and parties.
This band…despite our collective age of over 200 years…acted like a bunch of teenagers…and still does. We rehearsed in a friend’s basement for a while and because there wasn’t enough room for all of us to crash there I slept on his sailboat down at the dock. Then we rehearsed in another friend’s barn for a couple of weeks and slept in his camper out back with the chickens and rooster waking us each morning. We never rented a truck we just drove our own stuff around in our own vehicles. Rej E. Chance owns an huge, old CHEVY SUBURBAN so we painted it up with the band’s logo, used it to get around to gigs in and christened it THE BAND MOBILE. When we needed to spruce up some tunes we moved all out gear into Bob St Laurent’s living room for a weekend and rehearsed there! This band of seasoned, older professionals has more fun and acts still like we’re on our first go around!