We finally snagged a copy of this Westmount 7", the only release by the funky Biggy Twiggy Band. This is actual funk/soul, not AOR dressed up as funk. We'll turn to [url=https://www.canuckistanmusic.com/index.php?maid=215]Canuckistan[/url] for the story on this: [i]Singer and bandleader Skip Pollard moved to Calgary in 1971 and formed the Biggy Twiggy Band to tour between Thunder Bay and Vancouver. This undiscovered gem, the band's lone seven-inch, was recorded at an old refurbished church for Peter Bentley's Calgary-based Westmount label, known more for country music than for stellar funk/soul dancefloor monsters like this. 'Mama Won't Let You' has a nice seventies funk sound with great falsetto vocals. A real dancer! The flip, 'I Don't Want That to Change', is a smooth upbeat seventies soul ballad with an amazing horn section and vocals.[/i] [i]Though both sides are credited to Pollard alone, guitarist Lou DeAdder recalls, "I wrote the chord structure/arrangement for the b-side 'I Don't Want That to Change'. Leo Sullivan wrote all the horn section stuff for both tunes. Skip Pollard wrote the words and melody for the b-side. The a-side was written by an American artist. The single made it onto the charts in Calgary and Edmonton - somewhere around the 30 mark." And apparently the lads made sartorial statements as well. "...With the Biggy Twiggy Band we wore many strange outfits. Skip would see something in a magazine or catalogue and send the picture to this woman in Thunder Bay that made us all costumes - that's what they were, costumes, not clothes".[/i] [img width=662.5px]//7ca49eb9f67ba1319ef136f9d52cd8b8.cdn.bubble.io/f1726453491212x905660315375101300/richtext_content.jpeg[/img] [b]Grey Cup Shake Up[/b] [b]Football, rock don't blend well together[/b] By Randy Hutton (Herald staff writer) There was a rock concert at the Stampede Corral Thursday night, but you might be forgiven if you thought it was a football game. Rock audiences and football crowds have a lot in common to begin with, but the crowd at the Grey Cup Shake Up spent as much time and energy in cheering for the teams in the upcoming Grey Cup game as it did for the bands that were playing' Hammersmith, Cloud and Biggy Twiggy and Band. But the best football element in the concert was the few minutes at the end of Cloud's set, when the Miss Grey Cup contestants came" on stage for a few minutes of boogying. The smoke billowing out of the dry ice machines tended to obscure what was going on, but that's show biz. They were followed by singer Bobby Curtola, who didn't sing, even when requested to do his old soft drink commercial. But after yet another round of cheers for the football teams - a few of the Stampette cheerleaders had been on stage earlier - Curtola introduced Herm Harrison. Harrison, a former Calgary Stampeder football player, organized the Shake Up. Curtola introduced Harrison as a "great Calgary Rough Rider". Well, that's close enough for rock' or football, whichever. With the slightly unusual diversions happening, the music became secondary. The first band on was Biggy Twiggy and Band. A night club band, it features a male lead singer with a back up trio of female singers, a two-piece horn section and a rhythm section. The singers put a lot of effort into their show, but it's a show that doesn't fare well in the transfer from intimate night club surroundings to the open din of a hockey arena-rock hall. The band's disco-funk is meant for dancing to, not for listening, and it just didn't fill the arena. Cloud, on the other hand, did fill the arena with its sound. Loudloudloud fastfastfast boogieboogieboogie. The only major difference between this band and so many others like it was the time out for football cheers, and of course, the Miss Grey Cup contestants. The Grey Cup Shake Up ended with the set by Hammersmith. Paring down Cloud's frills, such as the smoke and the organ, and a singer who more or less sings, Hammersmith played basic, primitive rock, circa 1968. The singer yelled, the two guitars screamed. Each member had his solo spot. The bass player's, we were told, wouldn't be the usual gimmickry, because he would be playing an eight-string bass. Good thing we were told it wasn't a gimmick. The lead guitarist showed that the only extension he has made to the tired old tricks with feedback and sustain is to doff his stovepipe hat in time to his playing. We weren't told that was no gimmick. Cheerleaders and Miss Grey Cup contestants brighten up a rock concert, but let's hope rock bands are left out of football.
