While all these bands were coming and going I had been accepted as a student into John Abbott College. Having left Vanier College, taken a job as a janitor at John Abbott and learning what it was to be in the work force…it was a thrill to be a student again instead of a laborer. At this stage of the game I was juggling student life, the older bands breaking up and the new ones coming in and learning new repertoires but i was also still concentrating on playing solo gigs as well. I had briefly mentioned George Wall earlier and here is the story.
George Wall
George Wall was the head coach of the John Abbott Islanders football team. My brother Mike was 18 months older than me and that put him two years ahead of me in school. My brother Mike was an exceptional athlete and an exceptional brother. While he was playing AAA level hockey and football for The Islanders at John Abbott he was also constantly talking up his “little brother who plays really well” to whomever would listen. George Wall listened. George was an administrator and very active organizer at the college and had a hand in organizing events such as NOTES TO YOU FESTIVAL, THE WONG SHOW and other events that required musical acts. The fact that George had a complete football team of 50 players or so that he could tap for security or manual labour helped him enormously. My brother was constantly pushing my name onto these projects and George’s answer was always “yes”. So I was only 16 and in high school when I started running with the older college crowd and playing those large events.
After the success of the NOTES TO YOU appearance in 1977, George had me play the college talent show…(same year I played my high school talent show). So here I was, a high school kid playing the same stage as some pretty talented college kids. THE WONG SHOW was a talent show organized by George with prizes etc. I won first place. On the strength of that win George took real note of me and when I became a student at Abbott he hired me to organize the next year’s talent show called THE VARIETY SHOW. It was a resounding success as I had held auditions and having musical experience as well as event experience helped construct a really fluid and professional looking event.
George knew my brother well as well as my mom who was a cashier in the cafeteria at the same college. George knew my family wasn’t really well off financially and he also knew that I needed a job that would pay for equipment etc so he gave me several jobs at the college…among them an equipment room counter position in the Casgrain Sports Centre as well as an equipment manager for the John Abbot Islanders football team. He also secured a job for me at the John Abbott TV/AV department. I had the night shift till 3am because I was already keeping vampire hours anyway! He also said I couldn’t just sit around playing the guitar all day and I needed some exercise so he let me play (told me to play) on the staff touch football team called THE JOCKS. He was the quarterback so he made sure I caught a lot of passes. We got to play the Olympic stadium. it was a thrill. When George found out I didn’t have enough money to join the musician’s union…he gave me the money and told me never to think about it again…he didn’t want to get paid back…he wanted to see me succeed. George also wrangled a solo show for me at the prestigious STE ANNE SUMMER THEATRE FESTIVAL. A solo show at the CASGRAIN THEATRE for a 19 year old kid was unheard of. All of a sudden I had a professional theatre staff, lighting staff and technicians all at my disposal. It was sold out. George Wall had an enormous impact on my life. I was 19.