MISSISSAUGA MUSIC WALK OF FAME

What Brian Smith remembers most about the fledgling Malton rock ’n roller he met while they played lacrosse together as teens in the mid-1960s was that “he had a hell of a scream on him.”

Smith, a guitarist, lived in Westwood Village. Jim Tovey, a singer, lived in Victory Village. Smith had a band called The Soul System.

Tovey had a band called The Grass Impact.

The bands would get together to jam. Eventually they would join forces.

“The reason we got Jimmy in the band – which was renamed The System –  was because we heard him scream one night,” says Smith.

Tovey was doing his best James Brown and really struck a nerve with his future bandmates. “We knew that anyone who could scream that good would give us a great added attraction,” Smith laughs.

Tovey’s next door neighbour, Bert Mellen, played bass, Al Cairns was on drums, Smith was on guitar and Mike Whitham, the only one who from Brampton, was on keys.

Anyone who knew the enthusiastically independent Jim Tovey will enjoy the thought of him fronting  “The System.”

The band played Malton’s two community halls, local high schools and shows at Bramalea Civic Centre where they were often double-billed with another young group named Rush.

Rush bassist Geddy Lee often sat in the front row while The System played, keeping a sharp eye on the work of Bert Mellen to see what he could pick up.

The System’s repertoire of Rhinoceros and Steppenwolf covers, mixed with originals by Smith and Tovey, earned them a spot on the CBC-TV summer show Drop-In, where they played three originals.

Tovey auditioned to host another CBC show but lost out to some guy from Hamilton named Martin Short.

Jim at first appeared headed for a career as a visual artist – his primary arts passion in high school – before the magic of the music carried him away.

He quit high school to play full-time, a decision that didn’t sit well with his parents.

A farmhouse in the country on Airport Rd. where Jim and Bert lived was where the band rehearsed, partied, wrote, rehearsed, partied and rehearsed, not necessarily in that order. Smith stayed there on weekends because his parents wouldn’t let him live there full-time.

“We played every weekend, then went back to our families,” says Smith. “That was the start of it all.”

Jim was a natural showman, who could contort his body in strange ways. He had a confident stage manner, loved to lean out into the audience, swing the mic out and pull it back in and use his very loud voice to full advantage.

Smith, who did imitations of other band’s singers to warm up audiences, couldn’t imitate his own band’s lead singer because he was always changing his approach.

“He was born to be a frontman,” says Smith, who runs his own music promotion business in London, Ont. “He could quickly get people in the palm of his hand.

In a premonition of his future career as a carpenter, Jim cut up chunks of wood before one show, had The System’s name stamped on them and got the audience to play percussion, getting  everyone involved — a collaborative style he favoured in all his careers.

He’d studied voice at the Ontario Conservatory of Music and made his singing debut around age 10 in the Christmas Eve concert at Our Lady of The Airways Church.

He would prove to be a much better singer than altar boy.

After The System broke up, Jim was in several groups, including the regularly rotating membership of Bond.

His late brother-in-law Dave Cooper recalled on his blog that “Jim had this idea for a show band called the Alpha String Band. We played Jethro Tull, Moody Blues, that type of classical-inspired rock. We had these coloured suits,  pink, blue and white, a different colour for each set.”

The group formed after Tovey met John Oglivey in the subway, lugging a huge case in which he carried his cello.

One can just imagine the conversation:

Jim: “What’s in the case?”

John: “A cello”

Jim: “Cool. Want to be in a band where you get to wear different-coloured suits?”

In his blog, Dave Cooper explains that Jim later lured drummer Paul Nixon  – best known for his drumming on  Downchild’s original “Flip, Flop & Fly” — to join him, Brian Smith, and “Shady” George Bland in Rockit-88. Most of the band lived together in a house in Westwood Village.

It was a bluesier band that morphed into a group called Live Jive and then transformed into Hott Roxx, the band which survived the longest and for which Jim is probably best remembered. It featured guitarists Dave Harrison and Papa John King and toured extensively showcasing the music of The Rolling Stones.

That ended abruptly when an explosion and fire at a Thunder Bay bar destroyed their uninsured equipment.

Their many friends in the business held a benefit concert — but Hott Roxx never recovered.

Jim, with his wife Lee’s assistance, crafted a second career as a carpenter. They moved to Mississauga in 1989 and he started another career as Ward 1derful councillor in 2010.

Music remained a powerful force in his life.

In 1994, Jim got up on stage with a band at the Grosvenor Exchange bar.

From the moment he nailed a Jaggeresque straight overhead kick to start off Chuck Berry’s “Oh Carol,” Andrew Dixon knew he’d found a fellow-traveller. It took about a month of convincing but Tovey joined the band known as The Primitives. It included Dixon on lead guitar, David Smith on rhythm guitar and backing vocals Bob Heinrich on bass and Dan Hill, later replaced by Stuart Hull, on drums.

They’ve played together since, across the GTA but especially up-and-down Brown’s Line.

His political career slowed the band down a bit, but Tovey continued to co-write songs and the band performed periodically, including backing him at the Waterfront Festival for the song he wrote to celebrate Hazel McCallion’s 40th year in office.

The chorus he wrote perfectly captured the intersection of a disaster and a political coronation:

“When the train it went flying

and the tankers were torn

That was the moment

the legend was born”

In the last few years whenever he felt people were giving him too much credit for one of the numerous projects he’d gotten rolling, Jim was fond of saying that nobody accomplishes anything alone.

It’s true that it often takes a community of people convinced to believe in a good cause before it can be achieved.

But there’s usually a main instigator – somebody who hears “no” and translates that into “there’s still a chance.”

The truth is that Mississauga Music Walk of Fame would not exist except for Jim Tovey’s love of music and his insistence that local players – be they musicians or singers or promoters or composers, be celebrated in – and by – the community that fostered them.

When Jim and Lee visited a music walk of fame in Philadelphia, which was then recreating itself as a city of the arts, Jim saw many names he didn’t recognize. He realized that enshrining names in stone in a local park would educate the public and celebrate many worthy Mississaugans – famous and not so famous – at the same time.

He suggested a “pilot project” that – like so many of his temporary ideas – has turned into something pretty permanent. He recruited a committee and cajoled staff and council on board – using the charm that made his mother say that, even as a child, he could sell anything to anybody.

The rest, as they say,  is history — our collective musical history celebrated.

He even helped install the stones the first couple of years.

Jim Tovey was a dynamite package of passion, plans and persistence.

Take, for instance, his idea to have some kind of physical recognition in Port Credit’s streetscape of the village’s rich music and festival culture.

He had the bright notion of having the pedestrian crossing at a major intersection marked in the shape of piano keys.

In the city that Tovey’s piano hero Oscar Peterson called home for the last 35 years of his life, it seemed most appropriate.

But the official answer was no.

So Tovey went home and figured out  – to scale – how it could be done, then went to the works yard to chat with the template maker.

The next week he got a call to visit the works yard to see the test strip of piano keys that had been painted on the parking lot.

When they were installed at Hurontario St. and Lakeshore Rd., a  photo of the “piano keys” intersection taken from on high from a nearby condo went viral on the Internet.

That was the Jim Tovey that people in the musical and political communities shared –  a man bursting with ideas from his hyperactive imagination with an infectious way of expressing them — so everybody sang along when it was time for the chorus.

The piano keys were just a quirky little dab on our landscape but they spoke volumes about the talent of the City of Mississauga’s musical frontman – James Michael Tovey.

We welcome him into the place that clearly wouldn’t exist without him: Mississauga’s Music Walk of Fame.

The many artists, record company and music industry executives who paid tribute to Randy Lennox earlier this year when he received the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the Junos had some trouble defining his skill set.

Bono & U2, Gord Downie, Bob Ezrin, Kiefer Sutherland and other friends couldn’t decide if he should be recognized for:

• his legendary two-decade service at Universal Music’s Canada where he forged critical business and innovative cultural mergers among many other initiatives to double market share
• helping land seven Canadian artists in the top 10 chart the same week on Billboard record charts in late 2015
• raising an estimated $50 million for charities through his many initiatives such as the “Waving Flag” single and campaign for Haiti
• his acumen and resourcefulness in readapting and leading his industry through a precipitous 60 per cent drop in revenues because of piracy in the early 2000s
• his legendary tenacity and Guiness-record volumes of daily e-mails on behalf of his clients and his employer
• his unshakeable belief in Canadian musicians and their rights and his unique ability to recognize an artists’s gift and package it perfectly for the wider world to admire.

It was probably a case of “all of the above.”

Before he became head of Bell Media two years ago, Randy had been Music Industry Executive of the year seven times and Universal Music had been named Label of the Year for 15 consecutive years. His company won 185 Junos during his tenure.

He’s been named one of Canada’s 50 most influential people by Macleans Magazine, is in the Music Hall of Fame and would likely be on Canada’s Walk of Fame if he wasn’t so busy serving on its board.

A record store clerk at Sam The Record Man before he talked his way into a job – working for free – in the mailroom at MCA Records, Lennox eventually worked his way up to become head of the company – after he’d pulled a few mergers to make it the right size for him.

Randy’s peers, and the artists he represented, identified different aspects of his career but they all agreed on one singular source of that success – his quality of character.

Perhaps Peter Gabriel said it best, “I’ve been signed to many different labels around the world but in Canada, I just wanted to be on the label where Randy was.”

Kiefer Sutherland called Randy “a global face of the Canadian music industry for decades now.”

When he was a kid, Randy was already honing his future musical scouting skills. He’d go into his bedroom each week and compile his own list of what he thought the CHUM chart should look like.

When the list actually came out, he’d work on his future lobbying skills by phoning the station to argue that his list was better than theirs.

His eye for spotting and nurturing talent and his loyalty to his clients are legendary.

His success has many sources. One of them is his willingness to outwork everyone else in the business.

Another is his understanding of his role to push everyone, including himself, out of their comfort zones.

And his appreciation that the music business stands on the shoulders of those it serves.

“The true joy of our business is the sense of discovery and the unconditional belief in an artist, committing to their gift, seeing and feeling their spirit and sharing their journey and always remaining awestruck, never losing sight that you are there to serve their vision,”  he says. “You stand behind them through thick and thin.”

Canadian artists big, medium and small could not have been more expertly served by their champion.

It is my honour today to induct Clifford Gordon Hunt onto the Mississauga Walk of Fame. It was 23 years ago when I met Cliff, who looked pretty much the same as he does now only with more dark hairs than white ones.

By that time he had already established himself as a pre-eminent Canadian music mogul‎. Right out of high school, Cliff played in a band called The Brass Union. to be honest The Brass Union was before my time, and when I asked Cliff what their claim to fame was, he gave me one of those stares that says, maybe you shouldn’t bring up The Brass Union.

He then did what many players did when they figured out touring is grueling and went over to the business side. His first gig was sitting alongside future Rush managers Vic Wilson and Pegi Cecconi booking bands at Concept 376 which at the time was Canada’s biggest booking agency booking bands like The Guess Who, April Wine, The Stampeders, etc.

Later he worked alongside his dad as the Associate Producer of the CNE Grandstand where he worked with artists like The Beach Boys, Chicago, The Jackson 5 and Frank Sinatra. If I stopped right now, Cliff probably would have done enough to have his name added to the Walk. But Cliff had another 40 years of deals to do.

Later he managed, worked with, and did record deals some exciting acts through the years including Triumph, The Diodes, Zon, Refugee, Lydia Taylor‎ and many others. I met Cliff in 1993 and together we managed a band signed to Warner Music called the Killjoys who went on to win the Juno for best new group.

Cliff saved his master stroke for last. In 1999, Cliff started a company called Musicrypt. The digital age was upon us and record companies were looking for a more rational solution for delivering music to radio stations.

Until Cliff came along, record labels would deliver a physical record to a courier or radio promoter and have them hand deliver a copy to the radio station music director. While incredibly personal, it was also bereft with problems. You can just imagine ego driven arguments between radio stations over who would get the new U2 song first. And what if the courier lost or worse copied the song before it was widely available?

In one grand swoop, Cliff changed all that. With Musicrypt, Cliff would deliver music instantly to all, fully, securely so that no stealing could take place, and better still open a direct channel of communication between radio station and the labels.

Cliff’s solution was widely embraced. It was not too long before Cliff’s solution was used by over 95% of the Canadian music business and widely used throughout the U.S.

Today, the company, now called YANGAROO is the world leader in music and video delivery being used North America wide as well as Europe and Latin America.

If that wasn’t enough, Cliff’s team tweaked the software to become the voting tool for The‎ Junos, the GRAMMYS, the Emmys, the Golden Globes, the Academy of Country Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and the Canadian Screen Awards to name the most notables.

Cliff’s contribution to the international music community is significant. Long after he is gone – and based on his mother who is here with us I suspect that will not be for a long while, Cliff’s fingerprints will continue to be all over it. It is seldom recognized but should be a source of pride for all Mississaugans and Canadians alike.

I would like to talk for a moment about Cliff the man.

Cliff has lived his whole adult life in Mississauga, right now living just down the road in Port Credit. His two children, Adam and Shauna, both married, live nearby in Mississauga as well.

Cliff has always been proud of his Mississauga background and couldn’t be happier that his kids and his children’s children still reside in the same place. If you stop and ask anyone about Cliff, I’m sure they’d all say the same thing. He is affable, genial and never ever has anything negative to say about anyone. He is a gentleman’s gentleman. His picture is in the dictionary beside the phrase Class Act.

If the Mississauga Walk of Fame was just about accomplishments in industry, Cliff would be a shoe in. If the Mississauga Walk of Fame was only about devotion to family and community, Cliff would be a shoe in. And if the Mississauga Walk of Fame was solely about the measure of a man’s inner qualities, Cliff would be a shoe in.

With Cliff, you get a three for one. A pioneer of the entertainment business, a devoted family man and community oriented person and a class act all the way.

So it is my great honour to present to you, the newest member of the Mississauga Walk of Fame, Mr. Clifford Gordon Hunt.

Every high school has a long history of wannabe rock bands. Toronto’s East York high school in the 1960s was no different. A group called Misty Blue often played school dances. One guy, the bass player, made it big in the music business.

But not in the way you think.

Neill Dixon was no Paul McCartney, but he quickly recognized his natural flair for the business side of music. He became de facto manager of his group.

When he returned to his native England to go to school, he booked acts like Donovan, and the group that would become Pink Floyd, to play at his arts college.

Back in Canada in 1967, Dixon opened a coffee house on Jarvis St. called Grumbles where he booked acts like Joni Mitchell, Ian & Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.

His music business apprenticeship continued with RCA Records in 1972, while he also booked acts for a club that had just been taken out of mothballs, the El Mocambo.

While marketing and promoting for RCA and GRT Records, Dixon developed critical contacts with agents, managers and record companies. Soon he was an A & R manager, while booking acts at the Colonial, Le Coq d’Or and The Hook & Ladder.

He often crossed paths with a band manager named Steve Propas. They formed the Dixon-Propas marketing partnership in the 70s, an alignment of stars that was recognized in 2013 when the pair won the “Pioneer Award” from Music Managers Forum Canada for their groundbreaking work, which included producing innumerable concerts at the Ontario Place Forum.

One of the groups Dixon managed was Act 3, including young guitarist Rik Emmett. When a fledgling group from Mississauga poached Emmett from the band, Dixon-Propas ended up managing his new group through their first three records and their U.S. breakthrough. “Triumph went from a bar band to an arena act in a very short period of time,” says Dixon. He had more than a little something to do with that.
While Triumph was able to get a record contract stateside, other groups in the Dixon-Propas stable weren’t so fortunate.

That’s why they formed the prophetically-named and highly-successful “Solid Gold Records” which broke numerous Canadian bands in the U.S., such as Chilliwack.

In the early 80s, a weekly music tip sheet called The Record started an annual convention to build its circulation and credibility. Dixon’s company, Chart Toppers, was hired in 1983 to put it together. It was a match made in musical heaven.

Neill’s extensive network of contacts in all aspects of the business, his penchant for innovation and his ability to exploit emerging trends made him the perfect match for the job. Thirty-four years later, it’s now the industry powerhouse known as Canadian Music Week. Dixon became a partner two years after it began, swallowed the publication that initiated it in the early 90s, added the attached musical festival in 1991 and guided it safely through astounding changes that have transformed it – and the industry it serves – multiple times.

Like its patriarch, it has always been on the cutting edge. After almost three-and-a-half decades of producing the showcase – Canadian Music Week and Neill Dixon – are all but synonymous. As the record business morphed into the fragmented and downsized “music business” we see today, Dixon never forgot one simple fact: it’s ultimately “all about the song.”

“Bands can always tell if you’re just a guy in a suit or if you’re on their side,” he says. “I think I’ve been successful because I have an artist’s mentality.” An artist’s mentality and a natural business acumen will get you a lot of things, including a nameplate on Mississauga’s Music Walk of Fame.