Still living the rock and roll dream one hot lick at a time
By Stephen Pate – Todd King is out in Calgary living the rock and roll dream.
I always have respected him for doing what he did and getting free (Bob Dylan paraphrase).
The Calgary Beacon profiled Todd King with a story about his music and new CD for Stratabuse. Calgary Band Stratabuse Looking to Break Out with First CD
He’s not pushing paper at Music PEI or the government. Todd did both those jobs but he left them to be a rocker.
You can’t be a rocker conforming to the system. Rock and roll is about rebellion against the system, telling the establishment to shove it.
On PEI, the dependence on government money is corrupting rock and roll into a civil service job.
Unless musicians are willing to curry favour with the government and Music PEI, they don’t have a chance at the grant money that floats around twice a year.
With the new attempts by Music PEI to control the PEI Music scene, rebellious musicians will be out of work.
Not to worry – the whole government controlled music scene is imploding under the weight of its own paperwork. Soon the ECMAs will be a phone in affair.
Read the Beacon article. It’s truly about Todd.
Expecting Rain – Todd King, Jeff Smith, Stephen Pate, Robert Arsenault, Heidi Jury, Matt Chandler
I first met Todd King when the lead guitarist in Expecting Rain quit one Saturday afternoon. Someone said – Call Todd King.
Todd King? The guy worked for the government and wanted to get elected, what’s with that?
Sure enough, he was a civil servant but the rocker was not too far below the surface. He joined the band and we had a great time.
Todd had converted his suburban garage into a music studio where we practiced. He recorded my first two songs Knocking on Heaven’s Door and Can’t Help Falling in Love which are still up on ReverbNation.
Todd thought I was a little too tame for his tastes. This guy could rock. Thankfully he tolerated my folk-rock aspirations long enough to get through a summer of gigs.
Think of me as a wannabe Bob Dylan and Todd as Neil Young in grunge mode.
“The crowds are young and appreciative, and performers are rarely asked to play Brown Eye Girl,” says Todd in The Beacon. One night at Piazza Joe’s, two gals came in at 1:30 AM and insisted Todd play Brown Eyed Girl. He put down his guitar and quit playing. When they gave up, we started rocking again.
The next year, Todd was Executive Director of Music PEI during the ECMA’s. It was the biggest party ever. Still have the t-shirt.
Todd King with Tina the dancer (picture The Beacon)
Then Todd quit the government and went pure rock.
PEI wasn’t quite ready for a hard rocking guy.
In reality the market is so small on PEI no can can make a decent living at rock music.
Todd also made waves with standard rock shows like the one at Hunter’s with the exotic dancers.
Rock shows have exotic dancers. The Beach Boys have been delivering up go-go girls in bikinis for 50 years. They brought them to Halifax on Citadel Hill for a family show.
On PEI, it was shocking. The pictures on PEI Locals of Todd and the girl back-to-back came down with a thud.
The Calgary Beacon has no problem with a rock and roll star like Todd cutting it up.
Rock and roll is about being BAD.
You gotta play bad-ass and you gotta act bad-ass.
Rock and roll is about rebellion. Rebellion against parents, the establishment, all the lies and baloney that’s stuffed down the throats of people by the powers-that-be.
Except on PEI. Here rock is about rebellion until the youngsters want to apply for assistance for their first CD.
Then it’s all about sucking up to Music PEI and the government of the day.
I couldn’t believe it when Mars Hill got stomped on by the Conservative government and Harry Holman. Mars Hill let me use the song Where Did the Money Go in a protest video.
Holman, the Consigliere of Minister MacFayden, of refused to pay their gas money back to Montreal from the ECMAs unless the band signed a paper withdrawing their permission to use the song.
If Mozart had to suck-up the the Archduke of Austria, a rock band on PEI was would be under the thumb of the government.
Things got worse on PEI after Todd left Music PEI. It became a club for friends of the Liberal government and the new executive director, a political appointee.
When I complained too much in public, Music PEI cut my $1000 grant to $560. Having learned a thing or two about rebellion, I responded by writing 56 Percent Man.
By then I was exposing the corruption withing Music PEI on a regular basis. The song was the final straw – they kicked me out of Music PEI the day after they heard 56 Percent Man.
The message to other Island musicians is – shut up and suck-up. No rock and roll rebellion on PEI.
The corruption in Music PEI is widely talked about behind the backs of the Music PEI board. Must be Music PEI awards coming up because everyone was telling me last week that Music PEI stinks.
No one wants to offend these guys since they are very vindictive.
The whole thing is a cancer on the PEI Music scene with musicians relying on welfare instead of independent action. The musicians have no choice. Being independent is not allowed.
It will be interesting to see if club owner Steve Barber can buck the system inside Music PEI. He’s on the board now. Will he change Music PEI or will he fold into the malignant mass of patronage?
One thing I’ll say about Music PEI – they’ve cleaned up the insider dealer almost to zero.
Last year 84% of the grant money was going to the Music PEI board members, when I wrote Most of the money at Music PEI going to Board of Directors.
The Board squealed like a stuck pig over that story but they don’t dip their little pinkies into the bank account as much any more.
The downgrade of the ECMA’s to a smaller event indicates that the patronage model of music development throughout Atlantic Canada is a failure.
It’s not nurturing talent. Literally there’s a vacuum of new ground-breaking music in the region. Everyone’s waiting for the next Great Big Sea while the government types suck the lifeblood out of young rebellious acts.
Todd King on Facebook
Stratabuse on MySpace
Updated
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