Rockin’ on the
Rideau part 4
wave
The next
By JIM HURCOMB Not only was the Esquires
the first Ottawa rock act to attract national attention − the band also provided a launching pad for two other successful Ottawa groups: Don Norman and Other Four; and the Townsmen. Twelve-year-old Don Norman
was probably one of Ottawa’s top “hair brush singers” in late 1956. The turning point came when his mom saw Elvis in “Kid Creole”. “She was so impressed,” he
remembers, “she marched up Sparks Street to Orme’s Furniture, bought a flat top guitar, came home, said ‘Here, take this’, and I haven’t put it down since”. Within a year Don was writing
songs for his first group, The Continentals, then the Jades, and finally the big break: joining Ottawa’s top band The Esquires in 1963, just in time to start recording the band’s first album on Capital records. The skinny kid with the hair brush was now fronting Ottawa’s biggest rock band. Don Norman was the perfect
lead vocalist for the times, but times changed, and when the Esquires began to alter their look and sound in 1965, Don was the odd man out. “We were having a meeting and
they just spelled it out to me,” says Don. “It was not a happy ending.” The dirty split involved a bit of court time over the name “The Esquires”,
16 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
but when the dust had settled, Ottawa had a new band: Don Norman and the Other Four. Don Norman and the Other Four
lined up some high-powered help in the person of local DJ John Pozer. Pozer was instrumental in getting the band a deal with Quality records, and later co-founded a local label called Sir John A., in large part to push Don’s abilities as a songwriter. Don Norman and the Other Four
were a solid commercial success in the Ottawa area, selling records and getting good play on local radio stations, but they never really broke out nationally like the Esquires and Stacattos. Still, their singles “Low Man”, “The Bounce” and the Dylanesque “All of my Life” remain classics of the 60s Ottawa scene. In hindsight, Don Norman
and the Other Four could be called “Garage” or even “Pre-Punk”. “I’ve heard us described as
Ottawa’s most under-rated band, and I think it’s kind of true,” says Don. The end for Don Norman and the
Other Four is hard to pin down, with various lineups over the years, but when guitarist and co-founder Gary Comeau left in 1966, it was a turning point. Gary had decided to throw in his lot with a new band called The Townsmen. While Don Norman and the Other Four took a harder-edged approach,
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