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Billy Mitchel and Trainwreck

by lan Hunter

It’s hard to be objective and
impersonal when writing
about one’s favorite bands.
Last Friday night at the Com-
modore four of the best rocka-
abilly bands in Vancouver,
Spent Youth, Billy Mitchel
and Trainwreck, Buddy Self-
ish and Rocky Craig and his
Rockabilly Kings played to an
almost full house of lingtime
rockabilly fanatics and new
time followers.

All of these bands have been

active around Vancouver for
the last few years, with the
exception of Trainwreck,
which just started out from the
remains of the now defunct
Blue Northern. Though Rock-
abilly has a long history in
Vancouver, with bands such
as Teen Angel and the Rockin
Rebels being active locally for
at least the last ten years, it’s
only recently that Rockabilly
has become popular on a mass
scale.

What this could mean is
either the re-coming of age for

Rockabilly as a popular music
form or it could be the begin-
ning of the end for Rockabilly
with it reaching fad status
now, with the starting up of
local Rockabilly clubs and the
marketing of rockabilly cloths,
only fade away (as Punk,
Urban Cowboys, and Disco
has) by the end of the year.
Hopefully this won’t happen
because the music is too
strong to be thrown away with
your snake skinned boots and
safety pins. What may happen
though is the rockabilly may
reach a certain height in pop-
ularity and then as Punk did,
go onto obscurity again under-
ground,

So enough with Sociology,
back to the show...

First on stage was Train-
wreck fronted by Lindsay
Mitchel and Billy Cowsill (ex
of the Cowsills). They awere
probably the most together of
groups with harmonies so
tight you couldn’t stick a pin in
them and a confidence with

Photo bay Sean Valentini

 

  

 

their material so evident you
get the impression that they
had wrote the classics they
were giving new life too and
almost believable when before
each song Lindsay Mitchel
would say, ‘‘We wrote this
one for Buddy Holly before he
was famous. Renditions of
“Sometimes When We
Touch’’ and ‘‘Smoke Gets in
Your Eyes’’ were argueably
better than the  origonals-
Trainwreck, by the way, will
be the new houseband at Casa
Blanca’s night club in New
Westminster. ;
Next up were Rocky Craig
and His Rockabilly Kings.
With strong originals and a
steady beat Rocky Craig filled
the dance floor and kept them
going throughout his set.
Craig and His Kings have
been around, in some form,
for the last eight years with
their present line-up of Rocky
Craig singing, Jaimie Kinlock
on Guitar Joad Keppler on
Bass and John Hansen on

Rocky Craig and his Rockabilly Kings

     
 

 

 

drums being together for the
last three years. By the sounds
of things it seems likely they
will be around for some time
to come.

After Rocky Craig came
Buddy Selfish with ‘‘It’s ‘Only
Make Believe’’ from the Bud
Luxford Two Ip preceding
them on stage. Claiming that
this was their last concert to-
gether the band churned
through with an incredibly
powerful set of rockabilly stan-
dards. Buddy Selfish started
out about three and a half y
ears ago out of members of the
local punk community. They
started doing it for fun and
made their concerts into real
life parodies of the old time
Southern Rockabilly bands.
Buddy Selfish’es huge ego led
the band, consisting of the
Reverend Nicky Shilo on lead,
Honest Roy Ferguson and
Whitey Black doing bass and
drums. Many of the same fans
who had followed the band
and it’s members from the

   

photo by Sean Valentini

start were there to say good-
bye with, at the end of the set,
about ten women in fifties
type prom dresses dancing on
stage with the band. Coming
back on stage for one more
encore Selfish recalled his
days as a punker and sprayed
the crowd with beer. They
cheered. Great show.

Last up was Spent Youth, a
band named, not so much for
their youth but for their age.
Most of those who had come
only to see only Buddy Selfish
left by the time Spent Youth
started, but they kept tghose
started, but they kept those
left dancing past one. Having
seen Spent Youth before , in
smaller halls, they seemed
slightly out of place in the
commodore but they also
didn’t seem as hot as they
usually are.

Altogether the evening was
enjoyable but, after four
bands with the same basic
beat and many of the same
tunes, leaving wasn’t hard.

 

 

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Buddy Selfish

   

photo by Sean Valentin