TILL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-01-16 published
Bluesman made his mark
Canadian harpist's brush with greatness was frustrated by his
battle with the bottle
By Bruce Farley
MOWAT
Special to The Globe and Mail Thursday,
January 16, 2003, Page R9
He will be remembered for creating some of the high water marks
in the history of popular music in Canada. Blues harpist Richard
NEWELL, also known as King Biscuit Boy, has died. He was found
dead at his house in Hamilton on January 5.
Richard NEWELL's story is the stuff of legend, but not legendary.
The Oxford Canadian Dictionary defines legend as "a traditional
story sometimes popularly regarded as historical, but unauthenticated."
Nearly all the career anecdotes surrounding King Biscuit Boy
have been verified. Yes, he really was recruited for the Allman
Brothers in 1969, for Janis
JOPLIN's Full Tilt Boogie Band in
1970 and for a mid-seventies session with Aretha
FRANKLIN.
The
stellar Houston blues guitarist, Albert
COLLINS was recording
a version of Mr.
NEWELL's
Mean
Old
Lady, before he died in 1994.
Mr. NEWELL, though, would rarely volunteer to offer up such information,
unless you prodded him for it. He didn't think it was important.
He was born the
son of Lily and Walter (Dick)
NEWELL, an Royal
Air Force airman stationed in Canada during the Second World
War. Richard
NEWELL developed an early interest in music, from
the country of Hank
WILLIAMS
Sr. to the jump blues of Louis
JORDAN,
to the frenetic sounds of such original rock 'n' rollers as Little
Richard. At age 12, he purchased his first harmonica after discovering
the blues via late-night AM radio.
Mr. NEWELL spent seven years rehearsing his ever-expanding collection
of blues 45s, which he purchased on regular hitchhiking forays
to Buffalo. Few of his Friends at the time were even aware that
he played harmonica and guitar.
In 1963, Ronnie
COPPLE's sock-hop rock 'n' roll group, the Barons,
recruited Mr.
NEWELL as its lead singer. Mr.
NEWELL had heard
a recording of their instrumental original, Bottleneck, and came
by with an record by the prototypical American electric blues
slide guitarist, Elmore
JAMES.
Within weeks of his joining, the group was transfigured into
the flat-out, deep blues band, The Chessmen Featuring son Richard.
The sound was guitar driven and harmonica-heavy, certainly not
the type of thing you'd find at the average mid-sixties Southern
Ontario teen dance. The band made it to Europe the following
summer, playing successful shows at U.S. Army bases to predominantly
black audiences.
Back in Canada, Mr.
NEWELL would go on to become the lead singer
of Richie Knight and The Mid Knights in 1966. He also made his
debut professional recording at this time, as a session harmonica
player on a recording by country singer, Dallas
HARMS, best known
for writing such hits as Paper Rosie for American country singer
Gene WATSON.
When ex-Mid Knight and future Full Tilt Boogie band member Rick
BELL was recruited for the Ronnie
HAWKINS band in 1968, Mr.
NEWELL's
name came up. After one audition, he was hired on the spot and
rechristened with the royal King Biscuit Boy moniker, a title
he was never totally comfortable with.
Back in his native Arkansas,
HAWKINS had rehearsed in the basement
of the old
KFFA radio station where blues harpist, Sonny Boy
Williamson 2nd (Rice
MILLER,) did his King Biscuit Flour Hour
broadcasts. To
HAWKINS,
Mr.
NEWELL must have sounded like a letter
from home.
When JOPLIN scooped
BELL and guitarist John
TILL from
HAWKINS's
band early in 1970, Mr.
NEWELL and drummer Larry
ATAMANUIK were
left with the task of re-assembling the band. That group would
become the first King Biscuit Boy-led outfit, Crowbar. In a fit
of pique, HAWKINS had inadvertently given the band its name in
an exchange of parting shots at the Grange Tavern in Hamilton.
"You guys are so dumb," he yelled, "you could fuck up the moving
parts of a crowbar."
As the bandleader, singer, harmonica player and guitarist on
Official
Music,
Mr.
NEWELL was responsible for building a razor-sharp
and singularly intense sound. The rehearsals for these sessions
were apparently tension-laden affairs, but the payoff came when
the album muscled its way on to the Canadian charts, (without
the benefit of Canadian-content regulations), the fastest-selling
domestic release to date.
Mr. NEWELL and the band would part ways after King Biscuit Boy
and Crowbar had scored on the singles chart with the traditional
piece, Corrina, Corrina. In 1971, Crowbar (without King Biscuit
Boy) earned a place on the bestseller charts with a song that
was to become a perennial Canuck rock anthem. Oh, What a Feeling
was the first domestic single to take advantage of the newly
legislated Canadian-content rules for broadcasting.
Fate intervened throughout the following years to rob Mr.
NEWELL
of his career momentum. The backing band he assembled to promote
Good 'Uns, the 1971 followup to Official Music, was beginning
to work on a third album, when the funding for it ran out.
With the momentum lost, that unit disintegrated, with guitarist
Earl JOHNSON leaving to form the hard-rock outfit, Moxy.
In 1974, sessions produced by Allen
TOUSSAINT, the architect
of many a New Orleans Rhythm and Blues classic, would culminate
in the Epic label release of a self-titled recording. Mr.
NEWELL
would tour the United States the following year with The Meters
(featuring future members of the Neville Brothers) as his backup
band. When the Epic label cleaned house later that year, though,
he was one of the acts dropped.
In 1972, Mr.
NEWELL wed Jacqueline
WILLETTS but found that married
life did not curb his increasingly frequent drinking binges.
The couple divorced in 1979. Alcoholism was also the source of
most of his professional woes for the better part of his life,
as key shows were either cancelled, or worse, rendered into shambles.
Musicians who worked with him tended to admire him, but found
it incredibly frustrating that such an enormous talent was being
squandered.
At several junctures in his career, Mr.
NEWELL managed to quit
drinking. Of the three albums he recorded and released in the
eighties and nineties, two were the direct dividends of his abstinence.
Those recordings earned him Juno nominations, in 1988 for Richard
NEWELL aka King Biscuit Boy,and in 1996 for Urban Blues Re:
NEWELL.
The latter is still in print on Holger Peterson's Stony Plain
label. Official Music, along with Good'Uns and Badly Bent, a
best-of compilation, are available on the Unidisc label (http://www.unidisc.com).
The rest of the King Biscuit Boy catalogue, including the 1980
Mouth of Steel album, is out of print.
In 2000, Mr.
NEWELL's mother died and he left regular stage work,
preferring the seclusion of his home in the central Mountain
neighbourhood of Hamilton. His last recordings include a version
of Blue Christmas, available on the Hamilton Hometown Christmas
Compact Disk compilation assembled by saxophonist and long-time
friend, Sonny
DEL
RIO. An original composition, Two Hound Blues,
along with material recorded by
DEL
RIO and Mr.
NEWELL in the late
seventies (the Biscuit With Gravy sessions) is planned for release
this year.
Mr. NEWELL, who leaves his father Dick, brother Walter (Randy,)
and son Richard James Oddie, made his last public performance
in a cameo appearance with The Little Red Blues Gang on September
12, 2002, at Mermaids Lounge in Hamilton. The 60 or so audience
members present were treated to a version of his hit, Corrina,
Corrina, which is strange, because he never particularly cared
for that song.
Richard Alfred
NEWELL, musician; born March 9, 1944, in Hamilton
died in Hamilton, January 5, 2003.
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TILLETT o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-23 published
Rolf O. KROGER, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Psychology University
of Toronto
Rolf died, as he lived, with grace, courage, humour and dignity,
at home on April 18th, 2003, of advanced prostate cancer. He
was the devoted and beloved husband of Linda
WOOD. He was the
cherished son of Erna
KROGER and son-in-law of Adele
WOOD; loving
brother of Harold and Jurgen
KROGER; dear brother-in-law of Wilma
KROGER,
Edelgard
DEDO, Lorraine
WOOD, Robert and Deborah
WOOD,
and Reg WOOD; much loved uncle of Andrew
KROGER and Stephen
KROGER,
Christina and Linda
JUHASZ-
WOOD, Taylor, Genna and Devon
WOOD,
Jonathan and Nicole
WOOD,
Phillippe
NOEL, and Jose and David
TILLETT, and nephew of Liesl
WINTER,
Otto
WINTER and Alf and
Sue MODJESKI.
Rolf was born in Hamburg, Germany, on September
28th, 1931. He emigrated to Canada in 1952, and completed a B.A.
in psychology at Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University)
in 1957. Following his M.A. (1959) at Columbia University, New
York, he received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University
of California at Berkeley in 1963. His advisor, Prof. Theodore
R. SARBIN
(Prof.
Emeritus,
University of California, Santa Cruz,)
has continued to be a valued colleague and dear friend, together
with Rolf's fellow graduate student, Prof. Karl E.
SCHEIBE of
Wesleyan University and Karl's wife Wendy. Rolf joined the Department
of Psychology at the University of Toronto in 1964 and continued
his research and writing in social psychology after retiring
in 1996. Rolf's work addressed a variety of topics concerning
the individual in the social system. His articles and papers
on the social psychology of test-taking, hypnosis, history, epistemology,
methodology and the discipline of social psychology all reflected
his dissatisfaction with the status quo combined with proposals
for new directions. For more than 20 years he has worked with
Linda A. WOOD
(University of Guelph) on topics in language and
social psychology (e.g., terms of address and politeness), and
most recently on a book on discourse analysis. At the time of
his death, he was working on a discursive critique of the 'Big
Five' personality theory enterprise and on stories of his experiences
growing up in Germany during the Second World War. Rolf also
took great pleasure in teaching and greatly valued the opportunity
to work for almost forty years with so many talented and enthusiastic
students, both undergraduate and graduate. Rolf was privileged
to have many long-lasting Friendships, and he was grateful for
the encouragement, help and comfort given by so many, especially
Bogna ANDERSSON,
Eva and Fred
BILD, Clare
MacMARTIN and Bill
MacKENZIE, Frances
NEWMAN and Fred
WEINSTEIN, Jesse
NISHIHATA,
Anne and Michael
PETERS,
Andrew and Judi
WINSTON and Lorraine
WOOD. We have also been sustained by the kindness of our neighbours
on Walmer Road. We express our particular thanks and appreciation
to family physician and friend, Dr. Christine
LIPTAY.
Our thanks
go also to the staff of Princess Margaret Hospital, to the physicians
and nurses of the Hospice Palliative Care Network Project, especially
Dr. Russell
GOLDMAN and nurses Francine
BOHN,
Joan
DYKE, Dwyla
HAMILTON, Lynda
McKEE and Ella
VAN
HERREWEGHE, and to the nurses
of St. Elizabeth, especially Liz
LEADBEATER,
Sylvia
McCALLUM
and Cecilia
McPARLAND.
Cremation was private. There will be an
Open House for remembrance and celebration on Sunday, April 27th
(3-7 p.m.), Monday, April 28th (4-8 p.m.) and Tuesday, April
29th (4-8 p.m.) at 98 Walmer Road, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2X7.
Please direct any queries to Frances
NEWMAN (416-351-0755.) In
lieu of flowers, donations to Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative
Care (700 University Avenue, Third Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5G
1Z5) or Amnesty International would be appreciated.
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TILLEY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-11-26 published
MacLEAN,
Dr.
Bruce
Livingstone 1926 - 2003
Dr. Bruce MacLEAN died gently at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary,
on Friday, November 21, 2003 at the age of 77 years. Bruce was
loved and will be missed by his wife
Jocelyn
(Joy
COYLES,) son
Jock (Vancouver), son Douglas (Kasia) (Calgary), daughter Catherine
CAGNIART
(Francis)
(Paris,) daughter Elizabeth (Beth) (Calgary)
and was predeceased by daughter Janet (Saskatoon). Grandfather
to Philip and Gabriella (Calgary), Cedric, Alexis and Nicolas
(Paris), Matthew and Rachel (Calgary). Bruce is also survived
by his brother Dr. John A.
MacLEAN
(Toronto) and sister-in-law
Margaret MacLEAN
(Ottawa.)
Bruce was predeceased by his sisters,
Jessie, Elizabeth (Betty
TILLEY), Jean and his brother Roderick
(Rod). Bruce was a family doctor in Owen Sound, Ontario for twenty-five
years. In 1977 he moved to Edmonton to work with the Workers'
Compensation Board and concluded his working life there. In 1997,
Bruce and Joy moved to Calgary. In his life, Bruce was a backyard
ice rink maker, a sailor (lightning class), a curler (on good
days), a golfer (short but straight), a bridge player (white
hot), a cross word puzzler (expert) and a great lover of classical
music. On Friday, November 28, 2003 at 2: 00 p.m. a Service to
honour Bruce's life will be held at McInnis and Holloway'S 'Fish
Creek Chapel' (14441 Bannister Road S.E. Calgary, Alberta T2X
3J3) Donations to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta would
be appreciated (1825 Park Road S.E., Calgary, Alberta T2G 3Y6).
In living memory of Dr. Bruce
MacLEAN, a tree will be planted
at Fish Creek Provincial Park by McInnis and Holloway Funeral Homes.
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TILLEY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-29 published
Died This Day
Leo
Percy de Wolfe
TILLEY, 1947
Monday, December 29, 2003 - Page R7
Lawyer, Conservative premier of New Brunswick born at Ottawa
on May 21, 1870;
son of lieutenant-governor of province; 1916,
elected Member of Legislative Assembly; 1931, appointed minister
of lands and mines; 1933, became premier; 1935, government defeated; died in Saint John.
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TILLMAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-10-18 published
TILLMAN,
Frances "
Frankie"
Geddes
Montgomery
86, died peacefully October 8, 2003 at 5: 45 in the morning, at
Vancouver General Hospital, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.
She was accompanied in her dying by her three children, Karen,
George and Colleen, her grand_son Ruben and daughter-out-law (as
she fondly called her) Wendy, and her many loving Friends, whose
support and affection reflected the love she gave to so many
throughout her varied and active life. Frankie was a mother,
grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, supporter, critic, and
tireless activist whose faith and humanity sustained and inspired
her in good and hard times. Many life-long Friends and allies
of all ages and backgrounds helped her continue living life to
the fullest after the death of her husband Bob in 1995. We will
all miss her; we are grateful to have shared in her life. Please
make any donations to Camp Fircom, the World Young Women's Christian
Association or the Student Christian Movement. A memorial service
was held at West Point Grey United Church, Vancouver, Thursday,
October 16, 2003.
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