Columnists
Breaking up is hard to do
Justin Bieber may have cut short his world tour, but even bigger news (for the County) hit late last week. The Casseroles are throwing in the towel and cancelling the balance of their ambitious 2017 Burnt Offering world tour.
The beloved ensemble—who all hail from the County’s Bowerman’s Corners area—hastily called a press conference at Wellington’s historic Royal Canadian Legion Branch 160. Reading from a prepared statement, band manager Randall “Oobie” Doobee told the assembled media that “the pressures of touring have just gotten to the guys, and their health has to come first.”
In response to a question from this Times reporter, Doobee noted that the band had been together for about 40 years, and that “now they’re drawing Old Age Security, the motivation is a little less strong,” but he refused to confirm a rumour that tensions within the band had grown to the point where further performances were impossible. All he would say was “we’re like a family, and any family has its ups and its downs.”
The world tour had started in Wellington, and followed an exhausting pace that took the band to Carrying Place, Consecon, Hillier, Bloomfield, Picton, Cherry Valley and Milford in the space of three months. Scheduled dates in Demorestville, Waupoos and East Lake will fall victim to the decision. “We even had a date booked for Adolphustown,” said a rueful Doobee, “which would have added to our bottom line quite significantly.”
Rumours of tensions within the band first broke late last year, when drummer Dave “Curly” Mowe publicly complained about his colleagues in an interview with Ontario Musician magazine. “We’’ve been playing Pretty Woman for four decades, and the (expletive deleted) lead guitarist still can’t get the riff right. If I have to play that song with him one more time, I think I’m going to throw up.” Mowe subsequently showed up at a gig in Northport with a heavily bandaged nose.
In the interview, Mowe also acknowledged that the band was getting “a little long in the tooth” and “a little short in the fuse” and would have to think about cutting back on both its relentless touring schedule and its working repertoire. It is widely rumoured that Mowe has recently been telling friends he wants to spend more time with his collection of antique dental flossing equipment, and that the band’s breakup was at his initiative.
The Casseroles began after getting together in Doobee’s basement in 1964, when they were all in high school. The name for the band came to him in a dream, he says. “A casserole is a one-pot meal, where all the ingredients are blended, just like we aspire to be as musicians; so it just seemed perfect. Well, I’m not a musician, so I’m the manager. Besides, it was my basement they were using.” Some expect pressure to be put on County council to declare the basement—now rented as an Airbnb suite—a regional historic site.
All the original members of the group are still with the band. In addition to Mowe, the band features lead bassist Gord “Goodness” Gracious, rythmn guitarist Phil “Toothache” Dent, and lead guitarist Richard Hamm, who for some reason doesn’t have a nickname.
Using 1950s and 1960s rock and roll music as the foundation of its musical legacy, the band is best known for its ‘cover’ versions of such obscure gems as Satisfaction, Brown Eyed Girl, Twist and Shout, House of the Rising Sun and three or four others. The band has at various times experimented with progressive rock, disco and rap, but few of their performances in these genres have made it into the public domain. The band would occasionally play an original song, but never found much of an audience for songs with which their public was not familiar.
At one time, the band had invited another local musician, Jim Lemon, to join them as vocalist, but the arrangement fell apart when Lemon insisted on bringing his girlfriend, the Big Island experimental performance artist Toko Oyeah along. “Let’s just say she tried to put her stamp on us; but we stamped it out pretty quickly” said Mowe in the interview.
Fans are devastated by the news of the band’s decision. Said one admirer in a post on Twitter: ‘‘OMG. I used to LOL when I saw them with my BFF.” Doobee acknowledged in the press conference that the band has considered one final farewell gig, but he doubted that any facility in the County would be large enough to accommodate everyone who really wanted to be certain that the band was playing for the very last time. There are no current plans for a Casseroles’ Greatest Hits album.
Doobee is not standing still. He has auditioned two 10- year-olds from Glenora, whom he touts as being “hotter than Sonny and Cher.” Justin Bieber had better watch his back.
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