Rockin’ on the Rideau When


came to Ottawa In the late 1950s and


early 60s, thousands of Ottawa kids, inspired by Elvis and the Beatles, picked up guitars and drums and started playing rock and roll. Caught up in the wave


of the British Invasion, Ottawa rock bands attracted huge crowds to halls like Pineland and the Oak Door, and garnered heavy radio airplay, making the Ottawa music scene one of the most vibrant in the country. Over the next several


issues of Bounder we’ll be remembering the era we call “The Golden Age of Ottawa Rock and Roll”.


By JIM HURCOMB Where do we start? That’s easy. It


was April 3, 1957. That was the day Elvis Presley


came to town to play two shows at the old Auditorium on the corner of Argyle and O’Connor. Ottawa had not been on the


10 BOUNDER MAGAZINE


original tour schedule, but when Montreal authorities backed out of bringing “the devil’s music” to


ELVIS PRESLEY WITH GORD ATKINSON,APRIL 3,1957 City of Ottawa Archives/MG393/AN-49378-135/Andrews- Newton


Montreal, the promoter went to Plan B, and brought the E-Train to Ottawa. CFRA disc jockey Gord Atkinson


was chosen to introduce Elvis on stage. He was an obvious choice, being instrumental in getting Rock and Roll on the radio in Ottawa. “There was a lot of resistance to


it, a lot of hostility from adults,” Gord remembers. “I personally had quite a hard time on CFRA playing a lot of this music (Rock and Roll), and I finally convinced the powers that be,


why don’t we take at least one block of time and say this is just for the younger generation.” That “block” was called “The


CFRA Campus Corner”, later the “CFRA Campus Club”, a must-hear nightly radio show for rock and roll fans in the 60s. Most Ottawans first became


aware of the skinny kid from Tupelo on September 9, 1956, the night of “Rock And Roll’s Big Bang”. Elvis Presley made his first appearance


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on the Sunday night TV show that everybody in North America watched: The Ed Sullivan Show. Twelve-year-old Don Norman and


his sister sat captivated in the front of the family black and white TV, watching Elvis rip through “Don’t Be Cruel”, “Ready Teddy” and “Hound Dog”. Don says, “He was so different, so completely different. We had never seen anything like it”. Although his Mom wouldn’t let


Don attend the Presley concert in Ottawa, she made up for it, buying Don his first guitar from Ormes Furniture on Sparks Street. “I haven’t put it down since,” Don


says. Don made his mark on the 60s Ottawa rock scene with The Esquires and Don Norman and the Other Four. Butch Pro was a young drummer


with a new Ottawa band called The Talkabouts when Elvis came to town. They specialized in music by The Four Lads and the Four Aces − that is, until Butch saw Elvis. “That show put Rock and Roll


out front,” he says. “The city kind of came to life and everybody was talking about it. We were able to get in the cheap seats. It was just unreal, the electricity in the air. Everybody was so wound up. It was loud. When you’re in a fever pitch you just go with the flow, you don’t listen to the words. It was just to see the appearance and people going wild.” The Talkabouts became the


first “Rock and Roll” group to play the Green Door, downstairs at the venerable Chaudiere Club in 1958. Pro also sees that night as a


turning point for the Ottawa music scene. “The next year all the local dance clubs were really coming into play. Out at Lakeside Gardens in Britannia the Big Bands started playing some upbeat stuff too.” Dave Bittan was another member


of the Talkabouts. At Lisgar High School he was in a band called The Crystals, and then a doo-wop group called The Campus Kings. “I saw Buddy Holly when he


DON NORMAN AND THE OTHER FOUR


came to town. I saw all those ‘Big Shows’ of ‘57, ‘58 and ‘59. They all came to the old Auditorium: artists like Jimmie Rogers, The Crickets, Eddie Cochrane, The Everly Brothers and Jerry Lee Lewis. It was just ongoing rock and roll.” Like their American brothers and continued on page 12


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