Sometimes you pull a record out of a box, blink, and squeal with delight. Which is exactly what we did when we found this gem over the summer. Let's turn to Roy Wilcox's Garage Band Rockers for the story:
The story behind this recording is chronicled on rpmcanada1971 channel on YouTube. According to the story, a contest was held in Calgary with the first prize being the band’s performance becoming a record on Sotan Records (A Mel Shaw company). The organizers of this contest were sure that another Calgary band, The Stampeders, would win and wanted their song for the record. As it turned out the Shades of Blond won with their version “All Your Love”. To resolve this unanticipated problem, all 4 bands had their songs cut on an extended play (EP) record. The contest, however judged, ended up with the following rankings:
1 Shades of Blond – “All Your Love”
2 Jim Wheeler and the Spokes – “Secret Spy”
3 The Stampeders – “You Never Know Until You Try”
4 The New Brands – “Ace Up His Sleeve”
Of the four tracks on here, three are penned by Mel Shaw - which to us seems like a bit of a conflict of interest/way to cash in on royalties. But it's the non-Shaw track which is the standout for us - The Shades of Blond's "All Your Love" is a banger, and absolute gem of Canadian garage rock. A couple years after this compilation came out, Shades of Blond would change their name to the 49th Parallel, and songwriters Danny Lowe and Dennis Abbot would turn out a pile of other garage rock bangers.
As far as we know, the only recorded tracks by Jim Wheeler and the Spokes and the New Brands are on this record; and of course, we're told you LOTS about the Stampeders already.
So just jump to the download, won't you?
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