d
Rock
around the clock
By FRANCIE HEALY
Meet Bob. By day, Bob Windsor is a respectable
Bob
government employee, a grandfather in his early 50s. He lives in a nice house in a nice neighbourhood near Kemptville. He has a wife, four children, four grandchildren, and two dogs. For Bob, life seems to go along in predictable fashion. Now meet Eddy, with his greased-
Gord
back hair, shiny pink jacket, apple- green guitar and high-top runners. He’s jumping all over the stage, then lying on his back and kicking his feet, all while handling a mean guitar and belting out great tunes from the 50’s. His crazy energy is infectious. The audience is going wild. The audience doesn’t care that Bob
Andy
and Eddy are the same person. They just want to hear the music, laugh at the antics, and be teenagers again. Eddy and his band, Eddy and the Stingrays, are there to entertain just as if 2010 hadn’t even been thought of yet. It’s hard to believe Eddy and the band
have been on stage for 30 years. His energy and enthusiasm make him look and sound like a kid. He says himself that’s what he is at heart, especially when he steps out of the ordinary and becomes an onstage personality. Eddy and the Stingrays have been
Rob
Head Shots by FRANCIE HEALY
16 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
together so long they show up for a performance and immediately turn into a wild music machine. If they’re tired from their regular jobs, or bummed out, or bored, it all changes instantly when they
start that first set. They’re so in sync that they almost
never practice together. They just get onstage and the magic happens. “We were only going to do this for
about two years when we started,” Bob/ Eddy says. “We didn’t care if we made money. It was just about having fun.” He and Gord Baker (a.k.a. “Frankie”)
were the original two. They’re old rockers from way back. They’ve known each other for 36 years. “We just jumped into the deep end at
first,” Bob says. “We didn’t sit down to think about it. But after about 10 years as a band, we started to make conscientious decisions about business. We realized there was more to all of this than we thought.” At first Bob, Gord and two others
were a “bar band”, belting out old 50s tunes, and that was okay as far as it went, but they tired of the bar scene. When other bands came and went, however, Eddy and the Stingrays kept their appeal. “We were one of the few that had a
niche,” says Bob, “and we just stuck to it. We were developing a deep-seated sense of entertainment.” Along with Gord Baker, Andy
Tetreault (“Buddy”) and Rob Wittkie (“Tommy”) are the other pink-jacketed, black-shirted, greased-hair members of the Stingrays. When they’re not wowing the crowds, they lead “regular” lives not unlike Bob’s. Gord is a government worker in
Ottawa. He lives in Kanata. He’s married with two girls aged 16 and 17.
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