Rockin’ on the


Rideau part 7


R-E-S-P-E-C-T: It’s how you spell ‘Gary Comeau’


By JIM HURCOMB Gary Comeau is someone you should


know about. He’s a guitar player whose career spanned


the golden age of Ottawa rock and roll from 1960 to the mid 1970s, and he played in several of Ottawa’s most important bands. But Gary Comeau didn’t get the spotlight


that often, he didn’t get the screaming girls. He got something far more important….


respect. This is my favourite Gary story, told by the


man himself. “When I was in the Esquires we were


getting ready to play a gig, and I got a phone call. It went like this: ‘Hi. This is Dewey Martin, and I’m from Smiths Falls. I’m here with my buddy Neil from Winnipeg. We bought a hearse and we’re on our way to California. We want a guitar player. Do you


16 BOUNDER MAGAZINE


want to come and play with us?’” Gary turned them down, so Dewey and his


Winnipeg buddy, Neil Young, drove down on their own and started Buffalo Springfield, one of the most important bands on the 60s. Turns out Neil was a big fan of the


Esquires, and had even named his Winnipeg band The Squires in tribute to Gary’s band. Who knows? If Gary had accepted the invitation it might have turned into Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young and Comeau! Buddy Holly was the reason Gary Comeau


picked up a guitar. There was no going back after he saw Holly in concert here in Ottawa in October 1957. “I thought, I’ve got to learn how to


play guitar,” he remembers. “That was it. My parents got me a guitar for Christmas from Orme’s on Sparks Street, and the kid


www.bounder.ca Photo By PETR MAUR


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