In those days we practiced at least once a week even when playing most weekends. Arrangements for the horn parts were time consuming and often had to be written from scratch. In spring of 71 Mike quit and was replaced briefly with John Morgan, then with Jamie Durwood. In the fall of 1971 we added Mike Burch on percussion, Gaye on vocals, Dave Hasselfield on Sax and Mike Pettit on trumpet.
Mike Burch was attending university. We'd jammed with him a few times, and I believe that was the start of the idea of expanding the band to include more rhythm for material like Santana and horns for material like Chicago.
We We met Dave Hasselfield through his brother Bart, who I'd met while playing in Deloraine with the Eighth Street Bridge. He was only sixteen when he started.
Gaye was from near Virden we saw her singing with a vocal group that opened for Mashmekan at the Centennial Auditorium. Leigh may have known her, he was from Virden.
Mike Pettit was a university student
Highlights of that era included a regular summer gig at Clear Lake.
Leigh lives in Prince Edward County, east of Toronto where he plays with "The Fade Kings"
I've lost touch with Mike Kotyk, Mike Burch, Gaye, Mike Pettit, and Jamie.Dave was playing jazz in Wpg. last I heard.
Paul lives in Brandon and works for Sunsweet doing school fundraising promotions. I used to see him regularly at my school. He still plays locally.
