This Tuesday, Nov. 6 and for every Tuesday in November, we'll be playing at Grossmans tavern on Spadina ave. here in Toronto.

For me, it feels like a sort of homecoming. Grossmans was a place that I used to hang out in back in the '80's. I used to think of it as my livingroom. In fact, one of my biggest claims to fame, is that I used to have a tab there. Every sunday night, I'd square up my tab for the previous week, and I was good to go for the next week. As far as I know, I was one of the only people in town to acquire that status. No one that I knew had a weekly bar tab.

Wow! I felt like a big shot!

Over the years, I must have played at Grossmans at least a couple of hundred times. Shit, that's where I first met Alec, seeing him play with the Visitors, and Morgan Davis. After picking my jaw up off the floor, I dreamed about eventually getting in some kind of band with him…….

I remember getting in some kind of drunken fight there with Gregory Ray -the drummer in my own band 'The Phantoms'- about what, I do not know- and having my ass handed to me by Mr. Ray, who is about 25cm shorter than me, and perhaps 20kg lighter than me.

I remember pinching Bobby King's nose for stealing my 'last call beer' the night before an important photo shoot that he had the next day, and leaving a red 'Rudolph' impression on the tip of his schnozz that lasted for days. (He later told me that it took about 4 dressings of make-up to cover up the glow)

I remember tossing a brand new Strat across the room, and watching it helicopter into a corner wall because I had blown a chance to stay together with a long time girlfriend. You should have seen the looks on the faces of the guys in the music shop where I bought it, when I brought it back the day after purchasing it, in pieces, and telling them that "I think you guys sold me a defective guitar. It just doesn't fly right."  

I remember doing a few gigs there with Jerome, and his band 'Deep Down', who really tried to help me out when I was on the verge of insanity, and being a complete asshole to him.

I remember going there one night when the Jeff Healey band was playing there, when they were huge, and having (Mama) Mrs. Louie say to me: "Joe, I just kicked 'Kung Foo' out of my bar!" It took me a little time to figure out that what she meant was that David Carridine had just tried to get in, but she refused him entrance because the joint was full to capacity.

I remember playing there one Sunday back in the '80's when the bars used to close at 11 p.m., and inviting the whole bar back to my house after last call because I was wiley enough to buy ten cases of beer on the previous saturday (back then the beer stores weren't open on sundays) so that there was plenty to go around. I sold the beer at a buck a bottle, realized a ten dollar profit per case, and got to keep all the empties for myself!

WOO-HOO!!! 

Now, I'm not gonna promise you that there's gonna be any kind of monumental episodes that come out of our gigs there this month…….

But you never know…………..

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