My brother’s WEMS story:

 

When he was teenaged my youngest brother  started a band  playing rock ‘n’ roll covers… Stones, Beatles ,BTO ,Eagles ,WHO etc… Then eventually married, settled down and had children. 

 

The guitar and his voice were relegated to the basement. More often than not it collected dust for the next 20 years. no one to play with-alas. 

 

Then my three brothers came up from northern Ontario for my 40th. Of course I brought them to WEMS for a jam /open stage. We watched -agog - this barely 20 year old bass player make beautiful music look sooo easy!  Then we had our 1/2 hour of glory.

 

My brother was amazed such a hangout place of shared equipment existed! 

I suggested he could try the same thing back at home. 

 

Maybe put an ad in the paper and see if anybody wanted to do something like WEMS. Rent a place to keep communal equipment. Jam together couple of times a week rather than everybody all alone and sad in their forlorn dad-castle basements ( not too loud- the kids are in bed).

 

Couldn’t get anybody to do that, but eventually, my brother lined up the back room of a bar on Wednesday nights for FREE!

 

Two or three other guys joined him. They kept the door closed. A few sessions go by and the bartender says: “ leave the door open”. 

In just a few weeks it became: “You guys sound alright. How about you play on the stage in the front… We don’t mind. “

 

Few more months later it becomes: “how about we pay you to come play Friday night ? “ 

Then, other bars are calling them to play gigs in town. Then they start travelling to nearby towns.

 

Within two years, those four perfect strangers opened for April Wine in front of 2,000 at our town arena.

 

WEMS has a magic potion there. Gotta find a way to bottle it ! Hope we can resuscitate this enterprise. See you Tuesday!

 

Claude de Blois