“We’re just fun-loving guys”
Grant Tomkinson (bass and vocals) grew up in
Toronto and moved to the Pembroke area in 1974. He’s been playing with country rock bands for years. He plays with five bands at the moment, including the popular Mumbo Jumbo Voodoo Combo, the Shameless Blues Band, the Wilno Blues Band, (for the past 10 years at the Wilno Tavern , Wilno, Ont.) and even a good old- fashioned polka band. Every year he makes the trip to Atlantic City for Oktoberfest. He’s there for a month, so he and his wife, Christine, make a vacation out of it. He loves “playing with the guys in the [Mick
Armitage] band”. He calls it both business and friendship, where they get to have fun, play diverse kinds of music, and work at the same time.
Al Tambay (guitar and lead vocals) has been with
the Mick Armitage Band for three years, but he has played guitar professionally for 30. He had his own band called Lil’ Al’s Combo, where he played Blues and Rock. He was featured at the Kingston Limestone Blues Festival, the Toronto and Ottawa Micro Beer Fests and the Mont Tremblant Blues Festival. He has toured Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, opened for Omar and the Howlers (from Texas), Miles Goodwin (from April Wine), the Lee Aaron Band and for Ray Bonneville. He plays acoustic guitar regularly at Tucson’s on Bank Street in Ottawa, and he teaches acoustic finger-picking in the style of blues artists such as Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Johnny Winter, George Thorogood, Keb’ Mo’, and Ray Bonneville. Last year he released an acoustic CD called Back 2
Square 1. It features him on vocals and acoustic guitar and Wayne Jeffrey on hand drums. In his “regular” life, Al is a personal trainer at the Sport Performance Institute in Ottawa, and he has been a stay-at-home Dad to two “awesome” daughters who make him and his wife, Joyce, proud.
www.bounder.ca Bruce Baker (sax and vocals) is another one who
began his musical career in his teens. For the past 32 years he has played with 13 popular
bands, including The Dixie Cups, The Hearbeats, Andy King and the Tributes, and, of course, The Mick Armitage Band. He’s been with Mick for about 15 years. He lives in Stittsville with his wife, Bonnie, who is an
amateur pianist and sax player, and daughter Alana, who is in her second year at Waterloo U. He likes the variety he gets with the Mick Armitage
band. “They’re great musicians and a lot of fun to play
with,” he says. “It’s not really work when we’re playing.” Mick says they’re the “busiest non-recording band
around”. Where does his own, seemingly limitless, energy come from? Attitude, for one thing. Great genes, for another. His Dad, Dr. Roly Armitage, a retired veterinarian and former Mayor of West Carleton, still runs his own farm. And a good woman by his side. Mick says if he didn’t
have the support of his wife, Mary, there might not be a band. “I do it because I love it,” he says. “There’s nothing
better than seeing someone dance to something you’re doing. You know they’re having a good time.”
BOUNDER MAGAZINE 11
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