THINGS THAT HAPPENED!
This section is to contain credits, and production anecdotes, for all This Thing's Manifestations. These include, live shows, TV bits, song list, recordings, and just about anything that actually got done. Again, as with the rest of this site, it is Developing as I write.
To help you get through this section more easily, observe the following colour code. Anecdotal, Historical, and Technical noted will be in the colour you are now seeing. General Headings will be green, as easy as that may not be. Personnel, credits etc. come in this colour. Pink are the titles.
Watch for TRIVIAL BITS.
We will have periodic contests, and such, based on the esoterica derived therefrom.
On Stage:
This Thing: A Night of Existential Wanderment. Friday November 8, 1991. The Capitol Theater, Nelson,BC. Videotaped by Shaw Cable, Nelson.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Keyboards, Vocals, Visual Planning and Production
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Greg Mann: Guitar, Vocals
Justin Cathcart: Drums
Rick Lingard: Alto Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute
Ian McCutcheon: Visual Planning, Projectionist
Boots: Projections
Harvey Piché: Sound
Paul Pokorny: Lights
This was the very first show of this scale that I had ever done. It showed. The visuals worked rather well, probably due to the fact that Ian disaster proofed my ideas. Still, the actual making and processing of the film caused much consternation. We had to ship in special lenses for the slide projectors and find an auditorium style, long throw projector for the Super 8 film.
Unfortuately, the music just barely worked. We had lost the keyboardist two weeks before the show, due to tendonitis. Being so close the show date, I couldn't find anyone else to do it. This, of course, meant that I had to rearrange all the songs. If the keyboard part seemed more important than the bass part, I would dumb it down to something I could play, etc.
It was a self-induced crash course. Most of what I learned about production and promotion came from this experience. Much of the later work involved applying these lessons. The fortunate part, was that my student loan came two days before the show, thus enabling me to pay for it.
The big treat of the night was the opening set by Pauline Lamb, and Peter Hartley
This Thing: A Pop Requiem for the XX Century at the David Thompson Student Society SUBPub, Nelson BC. Sometime in June, 1992, Videotaped, Sound by on camera mike.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Mike Chubey: Drums
Sara Zacharias: Vocals, The Rack
Brendan Shields: Tenor Saxophone
Dennis Zomerschoe: Flute
Erin Anderson: Tenor Saxophone
Sound: Arron Nelson
Videotaping: Robert Lich
This was the first show after our Capitol Theater Experience. The band from the first show was specifically brought in for the one show only. I decided, to rearrange the songs, and put together an ongoing lineup. This proved more useful.
As for visuals, I think we had a few funky props, and Eric introduced the Body Diaper.
Also notable about this show, were the opening acts. Nelson's Shona Rae performed a set of her own songs, and Rae Pryor read excerpts from John Lennon's "In His Own Write."
This Thing: Experiments in Time/Space Manipulation. DTSS SUBPub. December 11, 1992. Videotaped. Sound through on camera mike.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Mike Chubey: Drums
Sara Zacharias: Vocals, The Rack
Brendan Shields: Tenor Saxophone
Dennis Zomerschoe: Flute
Erin Anderson: Tenor Saxophone
Sound: Arron Nelson
Projections: Boots, Tom Cummings
Videotaping: Robert Lich
This was basically a continuation of the trend. We still hadn't quite figured out The Image, but we were progressing musically. We pulled the projectors and films out for this one. This show also marked our first use of dancers, and the Universe Premiere of The Thing Stomp. The opening act was Jocelyn McGillavray.
During this period the same lineup did a DTSS Benefit in July of 1992, and a New Year's Eve Dance at the Vallican Whole School. This gig caused some to vilify us for our Undanceable Cacophony. I think they also hated us for our version of Auld Lang Syne. We did see a few brave Souls who lasted all the way through Junk Sculpture Monument, without leaving the dance floor. They are to be commended.
The Three Village Tour. Proctor, Kaslo, Gray Creek. March 93
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Mike Chubey: Drums
Sara Zacharias: Vocals, The Rack
Brendan Shields: Tenor Saxophone
Jane Barker: Flute, Alto Flute
Erin Anderson: Tenor Saxophone
For these gigs, we were the crew. We'd set the sound system up, and hope for the best. I always hated this approach. I think the Universe needs people who tend the buttons and make sure things don't explode.
The Proctor gig was a bit of a low point. We were already reeling from the fact that a musician friend of ours, Jocelyn McGillavray, had died unexpectedly, a couple of weeks before. I think we still played fairly well. The 3 people in the audience seemed to enjoy it.
We had fairly decent turnouts in Kaslo and Gray Creek. The Gray Creek Hall is still one of my favourite places to play.
click....from bottom left: Richard, Brendan, Erin, Michael, Eric,Jane, Ian, Sara
photo by Marilyn Roberts, at Proctor Hall, March 1993
Smokin' Beans Coffee House Winter 94
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Brendan Shields: Tenor Saxophone
Ron Butler: Trumpet
Stacy Spencer: Flute
Frazey Ford: Vocals, The Rack
Marty Knox: Drums
Arron Nelson: Sound
Josh Stubbs: Master of Ceremonies
Kerrie Luckie: On Stage Hairdressing
Kachina White: Stage Decor
This venue didn't last very long, which was unfortunate. The town fathers of Nelson basically harassed the owners out of existence. The lesson here is, make sure your dad is on the Chamber of Commerce.
The first of these Live Manifestations featured a Hairsculpture Fashion Show, hosted by Josh Stubbs .The second show was the first Manifestation in the Ceremonial Dress that would later typify our stage work The second one also featured a set by Peter Green and Stacy Shaak. I'm not sure how to describe what they were doing, but at one point it might have saved the world. I think we're too late now.
David Thompson Student Society SUBPub, May, 94
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Ron Butler: Trumpet
Marty Knox: Drums
Shelley Stanford: Dances With Projectors
With Smokin' Beans closed we were back to one venue that didn't care about the dancing issue. We were also in between members. By this point we were running out of people in town to play with. This show is notable if only for the fact that a "real dancer" worked with us.
This Thing Poetry Night David Thompson Student Society SUBPub, Nelson. Saturday, October 1, 1994? Recorded to stereo audio on half of a four track.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Brendan Shields: Tenor Saxophone
Ron Butler: Trumpet
Jane Barker: Flute, Electronic Wind Instrument
James Chatterton: Drums
The Rack: All the band at one time or another
Timothy Shay, Willow Enewold, Jessica Michalofsky, Andrea Palframan, Daniel Johnson: Words
This was a part of a series of Experiments in which we accompanied poets. It actually came out of a gig that Tim, Pauline Lamb and myself, did- as The Jack Acid Society- in February of 94. Tim and I decided to keep up with this idea. Of the local bands existing, This Thing was probably the band most qualified.
Another deciding factor was the surge of activity in the local writing scene. Many local writers had taken to reading their work at various venues. David Thompson Student Society's SUBPub was already established as one of the prime venues for spoken word performance.Putting all of this together seemed a natural extension.
All the five poets mentioned, read individually at the SUBPub, But Tim, Willow, Jessica, and Andrea were also performing together as The Corned Beast Choir.
The methodology was simple in that the poets would give us the mood, or the musical idiom that they wanted, and we would supply the noises. Usually we were improvising, without even having seen the poems.
Tim and myself had a bit of a method going at that point. He would take me on a tour of each poem, describing what he wanted in each section. I would then decide how to best achieve that result. I used a combination of conducted, pre-written bits, and musical reactions that I would cue with hand signals.
I would have copies of the poems on a stand. I would make notes beside the words. Theses notes would indicate a style, a mood, a specific cue, or maybe a sound to imitate. The rest of the band didn't know what they were going to play until the gig.
Trivial bits:
#The reworked version of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" that we played during Tim's set, had been written that day in the Bookgarden Café.
#It was the one time James Chatterton ever played with us. I
don't think we even rehearsed.
Somewhere in here we did an Art Show opening for Courtney Anderson. I didn't actually know him. We set up in the middle of a vaguely hexagon-shaped room. People could walk around us to look at paintings. I think this is the lineup.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Ron Butler: Trumpet
Jane Barker: Flute, Electronic Wind Instrument
Julie Matthews: Flute, Onoisms
Mike Klassen, Richard Kleef : Vocals, The Rack
Mike Powers: Drums
Trivial Bit
#The Courtney Anderson Art Show was This Thing's only manifestation in Castlegar.
This Thing at the Capitol Theater, Nelson March 1995, Videotaped by Shaw Cable, Nelson.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Ron Butler: Trumpet
Jane Barker: Flute, Electronic Wind Instrument
Julie Matthews: Flute, Onoisms
Mike Klassen, Richard Kleef : Vocals, The Rack
Mike Powers: Drums
Words: Rae Pryor
Dancers: Cheryl Janzen, Darla Cambell, Pauline Lamb, Kerrie Luckie, Charlene Poulsen, Bevan Early, Tom Cummings
Makeup: Sheila Lockhart
Sound: Arron Nelson
Lights: Mike Davis
Almost Life Size Cut Out of Botticelli's Venus: Tracy Valcourt
Masks: Rae Pryor
Costumes: Richard Fordham, Ron Butler
Special Appearance by: The Corned Beast Choir
This was the last Multimedia Manifestaton. I had decided to shelve some of the film aspects much earlier on. I didn't want to deal with the hassle of importing projectors and attempting to keep the band synched to them. This show focused more on live performers, and some of the spoken word aspects that we had tried at the SUBPub. It just barely happened. This show was our last with The Corned Beast Choir.
Three Village Tour, the Sequel: Gray Creek, Kaslo, Argenta Autumn,95.
These were the last three manifestations. We did the Kaslo show with local band Mystic Rose.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Ron Butler: Trumpet
Jane Barker: Flute, Electronic Wind Instrument
Julie Matthews: Flute, Onoisms
Mike Klassen, Richard Kleef : Vocals, The Rack
Mike Powers: Drums
That's it for the show section. As I dig through files, details will be filled in. Photos will come as quickly as I can learn the technology.
As Seen On Television
Project Discovery: Demovision. Shaw Cable, Shot in July 94. Aired spring 95. Shot with 8 Betacams, submixed to 2 videotapes. These were then edited for the final master. Audio was recorded with individual miking, mixed to 2 track.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Ron Butler: Trumpet
Marty Knox: Drums
Jane Barker: Flute, Electronic Wind Instrument
Julie Matthews: Flute, Onoisms
Mike Klassen, : Vocals, Accordion, The Rack
Songs Performed: Thing Stomp, Junk Sculpture Monument, and Dashboard Venus de Milo.
This was the TV appearance that we won through CFOX Radio's Demo-Listen Derby 93. A freak strike by the Electrician's Union delayed the shoot by a year. Still, once it finally happened, it was a good time.
All our previous attempts at video had never really yielded the results we envisioned. Still I've managed to compile quite a bit of footage of the various eras of the band. This shoot was a treat since we would have a professional crew who seemed quite keen on making sure that the whole thing went well.
The producers gave us 12 minutes to play, plus 2 minutes of interview with Vancouver DJ Steve Dunbar. I would then get a VHS copy, A Betacam copy, plus a DAT, and Cassette of the audio. All of this was intended for demo purposes only.
It was a good lesson in preparation. They were very clear about what was expected to make the shoot go smoothly. The even gave us a map of the stage on which to draw our stage plot. I also had to send tapes of the songs so they could plan camera movements.
The shoot itself happened at the Centennial Theater in North Vancouver. They had the set ready to go. All we had to do was put on our costumes and make-up. We played the songs live to no audience save the crew. We went all day until we got versions of each song that would be agreeable in all respects.
In general, I was pleased with it except for one challenge. When they recorded the audio, they optimized everything for the stereo mixes needed for the audio tapes. The result then was that the mono mix needed for the video tapes (as most TV broadcast is still in mono) contained some phase cancellation that obliterated Ian McCutcheon's keyboard part in Dashboard Venus de Milo.
This Thing: A Night of Existential Wanderment. Friday November 8, 1991. The Capitol Theater, Nelson,BC. Videotaped by Shaw Cable, Nelson.
Video taped with 2 cameras, mixed live. I think audio was 1 mike in the middle of the theater. The airing was sometime inDecember of 91.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Keyboards, Vocals, Visual Planning and Production
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Greg Mann: Guitar, Vocals
Justin Cathcart: Drums
Rick Lingard: Alto Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute
Ian McCutcheon: Visual Planning, Projectionist
Boots: Projections
Harvey Piché: Sound
Paul Pokorny: Lights
This experience working with a community access channel gave me lots of insight. The station manager at the time, Michael Marek, taught me a lot about production realities, and CRTC licensing.
This Thing at the Capitol Theater, Nelson, March 1995, Videotaped by Shaw Cable, Nelson.
Video taped with 2 cameras, mixed live. I think audio was 1 mike in the middle of the theater. The airing was sometime in April of 95.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals,
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Ron Butler: Trumpet
Jane Barker: Flute, Electronic Wind Instrument
Julie Matthews: Flute, Onoisms
Mike Klassen, Richard Kleef : Vocals, The Rack
Mike Powers: Drums
Words: Rae Pryor
Dancers: Cheryl Janzen, Darla Cambell, Pauline Lamb, Kerrie Luckie, Charlene Poulsen, Bevan Early, Tom Cummings
Makeup: Sheila Lockhart
Sound: Arron Nelson
Lights: Mike Davis
Almost Life Size Cut Out of Botticelli's Venus: Tracy Valcourt
Masks: Rae Pryor
Costumes: Richard Fordham
Special Appearance by: The Corned Beast Choir
I never actually caught the airing of this show. At this point I wish I had a copy of it. I doubt they've save the Master. It's probably now a Nelson City Council meeting or a local hockey game. Someone who did see it told me the Corned Beast Choir bit was chopped out.
FOR YOUR EARS ONLY
This Thing: False Idols, Holy Wine and the Big Picture.
Released in December 93, as a "vanity cassette pressing".
Recorded at Eric's Motel, Mirror Lake, BC. and at Kootenay Mountain Sound Studios, July to November 93.
Richard Fordham: Bass, Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Eric Moon: Guitar, Vocals
Ian McCutcheon: Keyboards, Ideas
Chris Perra: Drums
Sara Zacharias: Vocals, The Rack
Brendan Shields: Tenor Saxophone
Julie Matthews: Flute, Alto Sax, Flax, Onoisms
Erin Anderson: Engineering at Eric's Strip.
Pauline Lamb: Vocals
Actors: Josh Stubbs, Rae Pryor, Sarah Fawcett, Jeremy Herndl
The Booth People: Megan Haake, Tabitha Baker, Eugene, Martin
Peter Hartley: Engineering at Kootenay Mountain.
Cover Photo: Dave Brooks
Cover Layout: Todd deVries
Junk Sculpture Monument : Richard Fordham
Auxiliary Art: Tracy Valcourt
Songs:
Side 1
1. A small group of people overtaken by a powerdrill leading a procession of other sounds, nude
2. Thing Stomp
3. Watery Love
4. Junk Sculpture Monument
5. Lydia
6. Dashboard Venus de Milo
Side 2
1. A Man and His Lawn, interpolated with
i) Not the Sesame Street Song entitled 'In Your Neighbouthood' ii)White Picket Fence iii) Big Picture Bleakness
All Songs written, arranged, and produced by Richard Fordham except Lydia, which was written, arranged, and produced by Eric Moon
This has been the only release so for. Again, it was an education.
We recorded to 16 channel ADAT.
Some songs were divided into sections for recording. Peter had to join them up later. The drums, bass, guitar, and keys for some of the songs were recorded in a converted 6 unit strip motel, near Kaslo, BC. All sections or songs with a constant tempo were recorded there. We could overdub the horns, vocals, and Rack later.
Bits with variable tempos were recorded over a weekend at Kootenay Mountain Sound. I had to conduct, as I would've when we played live, so that everyone would stay together for tempo changes.
#Trivial Bit:
Nelson based singer songwriter Pauline Lamb did a special guest appearance on the first Cassette release. She sang backup vocals in verse 3 and the outro of "White Picket Fence".
THIS THING IN PRINT
The Book of False Idols, Holy Wine and the Big Picture
Lyrics: Richard Forham
Layout: Richard Fordham, with Todd deVries doing the actual technical stuff, and Dave Brooks typing
Artwork: Tracy Valcout, Richard Fordham
Photo of Junk Scuplture Monument: Dave Brooks
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