Clock ticks again for Ottawa's Staccatos

Hits by city's biggest '60s band are finally on CD

LYNN SAXBERG, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN NOVEMBER 28, 2009

On Canada Day in 1967, the Staccatos performed in front of the Queen and a crowd of 24,000 people at Lansdowne Park. The chart-topping Ottawa band was riding high on the success of their latest top-10 hit, Half Past Midnight. Along with The Guess Who, they were one of the biggest bands in the country.

July 1 was a golden day, recalls Vern Craig, the singer-songwriter-guitarist who co-founded the band in the early 1960s.

"That was cool," he said during a phone interview from his home in British Columbia. Despite the low stage, two puny speakers and the fact that no one in the band could hear a thing because the crowd was so loud, the Staccatos were at their peak when they played for the Queen that summer day.

"That was probably the high point, next to the first time we heard It Isn't Easy on the radio," said Craig, referring to the band's first single in 1965, a track they wrote, arranged and produced themselves.

The next single, Small Town Girl, led to a deal with Capitol Records, making the Staccatos one of the first Ottawa bands to be signed to a major label.

All three of those songs -- It Ain't Easy, Small Town Girl and Half Past Midnight -- are among the 51 tracks included on a new two-disc set documenting the complete musical output of the legendary Ottawa band, which also counted Ted Gerow, Mike Bell, Rick Bell, Les Emmerson and Brian Rading as members.

Also included are three previously unreleased songs, including a cover of Stephen Stills' Sit Down I Think I Love You, that were discovered in the EMI archives.

The new reissue, First Sparks: The Anthology (1965-1969), marks the first time the Staccatos' material has been available on CD. The project is the brainchild of two Ottawa-area fans, Ian McLeish and Dave Sampson, who have been working on it for three years.

"I'm a musician, been in Ottawa most of my life," said McLeish, who ran the Sam The Record Man shop at Merivale Mall for 15 years. "I loved the Staccatos and the other Ottawa bands when they were putting out singles back in the day. Then all of a sudden in the '70s, the music business changed and a lot of these bands disappeared. Basically, the music started getting forgotten."

McLeish and Sampson, his business partner, used to complain about not being able to find the old music on CD. A few years ago they decided to do something about it. Their first project was a reissue of another Ottawa band, the Townsmen.

When it came time to seek permission from Capitol/EMI to release the Staccatos, the Townsmen project proved they were serious. McLeish and Sampson collaborated with Toronto-based label Pacemaker Records, which had partnered with EMI to re-release Canadian bands of the 1960s.

"A lot of people think this stuff isn't going to sell," said MacLeish, "but there is a small and dedicated market around the world."

The best-known Canadian bands of the era were successful in their hometowns but rarely had a national profile, partly because they didn't get airplay outside their region. Before Canadian content regulations came into effect, there wasn't much of a homegrown music industry, and bands didn't have a chance at radio because they were competing with the likes of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

"It was the British Invasion at the time," explained Craig. "Nobody wanted to talk to anybody about a group unless they were from Jolly Old England."

The Staccatos were making money on local gigs, mostly because of their four-year residency as the house band at Aylmer's venerable Chaud-ière Club, and did some touring, but the band members were frustrated at their inability to break through in the United States.

"It was a disappointment because we had tried so hard," said Craig. "I was tired of being on the treadmill with very little happening outside our borders. We had tried, done just about everything."

Separated but still close to his three children, Craig left the Staccatos in 1969 to operate a booking and management agency. After moving to British Columbia, he spent the rest of his career in the printing industry.

The other members of the band changed their name to the Five Man Electrical Band, and went on to become the leading Canadian band of the psychedelic era, best known for the 1971 hippie anthem, Signs.

Where are they now?
Les Emmerson: The singer-songwriter still lives in Ottawa, and gigs occasionally, either on his own, with friends or with the Five Man Electrical Band or the Cooper Brothers.

Vern Craig: The singer-guitarist has lived in British Columbia for 30 years and is semi-retired from the printing industry.

Ted Gerow: The singer-keyboardist stayed in the music industry, making a living as a producer, arranger and musical director. He lives in Ottawa, works at a music store and gigs with the Five Man Electrical Band.

Brian Rading: The bassist lives in the Outaouais and still plays music occasionally.

Mike Belanger (Mike Bell): The singer-drummer lives in Etobicoke, works for Atomic Energy Canada and gigs occasionally with the Five Man Electrical Band. Rick Belanger (Rick Bell): The lead singer and drummer lived in California for 16 years, came back to Canada in the 1980s and now lives in Ajax, Ont. He owned a communications installation company, but is now retired.