Once we were all out of high school and into college CLEARING drifted apart and for the first time I was not in a group with Rocket. I had enrolled in the music program at Vanier College but left after one semester. I took a job as a janitor at John Abbott College to make some money. My intention was to enroll at Abbott the following semester. It was at this time that I was approached by Russ Williams, a well known and excellent guitarist from the West Island. He invited me to join a band he was forming called THE WAX PEDESTIRIANS. Russ was several years older and light years better as a player than I was. I knew things were going to be different this time because we no longer rehearsed just down the street at a school mate’s house…our rehearsals were now way down in N.D.G. which was several towns down the highway for me…and I didn’t own a car.
When I got to our first rehearsal I found out I was playing in a band with drummer Marla Caplan and bassist Sarah McElcheran. Russ played guitar and sang lead and I also played guitar and shared the lead vocals. These players were older and far more experienced than I and were excellent musicians. I was now the the youngest most inexperienced player in the band…again. It was a position that I had gotten used to ever since I hooked up with Tom, Rocket and after that LAYD BACK. The challenge was good and it was rewarding to learn so much and so quickly from these better players. It was also the first time I had played in a band with a girl in it…and OUR band had TWO!
We were described as a “new wave” band. Not quite as slick as THE EAGLES, not quite as ugly as THE STONES, not quite as musical as THE BEATLES, not quite as skillful as STEELY DAN, not quite as loud as DEEP PURPLE, not quite as powerful as FOREIGNER not quite as catchy as THE KNACK. No..more like JOE JACKSON, ELVIS COSTELLO, THE KINKS…we played some HENDRIX and we also wrote our own songs.
This was the first band that I was involved with that was solely a professional, touring, money making business. It was also the first time I had ever played so much and got paid for it. We played exclusively in bars, pubs and night clubs. We also had the dubious distinction of having played strip clubS. We travelled incessantly and lived in hotels and “band houses”. We had to rent P.A. systems and light systems as well as hire trucks and drivers to move us around. We had a booking agent, photographers and printers to handle our posters etc. We had contracts to deal with and people to pay as well as getting paid. We were told to shorten the name of the band so it would fit on posters better…so we just became THE WAX. It was my first taste of what the “business” of music really was about. This is also when I was obliged, due to the nature of the venues we played in, to join the Musician’s union called the AMERICAN FEDERATION of MUSICIANS…the AFof M. We were now part of the somewhat notorious TEAMSTERS UNION. I was given a union number with only 3 digits in it that seems comical compared to todays numbers which have 7. When I joined the union I didn’t have enough money to pay my way in so a man named George Wall who was my older brother’s football coach gave me the money so that I could pursue this venture. More on George later. I had just turned 18.