Ray (Fabulous Overtones) was a dishwasher at the Peter Pan and he got me a job as a bus boy. Fergus was a high class guy - he was a professional waiter! He had the best loft on Spadina. There must have been three or four bands that worked there as bar tenders, bus boys and waiters. Funny how I used to hang out in Furgus's loft overlooking a synagogue I didn't know then existed. It was part of another huge chapter of my life that would happen later. And from that synagogue I overlooked Israel, which is the current chapter I am still living in. But back to the loft, we would practice vocals and listen to Leroy Sibbles who Fergus turned me on to. Actually Peter Tosh visited us once in our rehearsal hall. He said hello, we played him a song. It was pretty cool. I guess we started off kind of new wave pop and then towards the end started to get into reggae. Fergus went on to be the Sattelites and I went into my Reggae chapter as well.

The band was lots of fun; played some really nice gigs. One of the highlights was the Palais Royal Ballroom over looking the lake. There were three bands, a ton of people; the Bob Cats, whose drummer Teddy was also a bartender at the Peter Pan and the headliner The Sharks who had 'Cleeve' as their drummer. Later Cleeve became the drummer of Blue Rodeo. In those days Jim and Greg were called the Hi-Fi's before they hooked up with Cleeve and my brother.

More on the band. Bruce Mac - Great Bass Player. From Paul McCartney to Lee Perry he was very inventive and musical; original yet always in keeping with the music and very solid. Dave Norris; lots of Beatles influence; his drums sounded orchestrated, always coming up with the right beat. I don't remember why we switched drummers. Maybe Dave got busy with school or something. Our later drummer Gary Steed was a powerhouse. He came from Nova Scotia schooled in R&B and Soul music. It was a very cool mix of British influenced pop sound driven with a Funky Soulful backbeat. I remember riding to gigs with Gary in his Black Corvette Stingray speeding 100 mph down the highway. When we arrived at gigs its like you stepped out of the Batmobile.

With the Basics I went from Rockin Ronnie the piano player to a song writer. I still hopped around a lot on the piano but I began to write pop songs. I had a few toy pianos rigged up with electronic switches that I could move around with more freely. Along with these mini pianos I had someone rig up a Theremin for me. It was the coolest thing. You held it like a machine gun, each hand covering a small metal stem. The more you squeezed your hand to the metal the higher the pitch. I would jump off the piano, grab the Theremin and like a siren sound going up and down made Theremin solos.

It was towards the end of the Basics that I met Neil Gertler and his band the Customers. Our first meeting and jam session was in the Basics rehearsal hall. It was one of the best jams ever and unfortunately I can't find it.

Video of the Basics at the Paper Door (After Hours Club)