It was fitting that banners displaying the theme of this year’s Juno Awards — “the flatter the land, the harder the rock” — were still up around Winnipeg when the bands in the inaugural “Winnstock” took to the stage April 14.
Inspired by Baystock, Toronto’s financial services industry’s battle of the bands, Winnstock featured four stellar performances and attracted 700 fans, but no apparent rock groupies. Most importantly, however, it raised $20,000 for The Arthritis Society.
Al Jacks, vice president of sales at Crocus Investment Fund and the moving force behind Winnstock, says it drew its members from a wide variety of often competing companies within Winnipeg’s financial services scene. Most had not met their bandmates before December and many hadn’t picked up their instruments since high school.
“This has turned into a music revival reminiscent of the 1960s when every house had a band practising in its basement or garage in order to play the Friday night gig at the community centre,” he says.
To avoid last-minute bailouts, Jacks implemented a $1,000 registration fee for each act. “They paid that for the privilege of playing. We had to do a real sales job on them to cough up 1,000 bucks, but this way they had some skin in the game,” he says, noting that every band was allowed one “ringer” from outside the industry to round out their lineups.
Jacks says he’s anticipating a bigger and better show next year, as a number of advisors from different firms in both Winnipeg and Brandon, Man., have indicated a desire to rock at Winnstock II. There have even been several inquiries from lawyers about expanding the category next year so their firms can enter, he says.
The winning band, named “Disposable Income,” featured Corinne Durand, vocals (Caisse Populaire de St. Boniface); Adam Hanson, guitar and vocals
(PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP); Jamie Dowd, guitar (Wawanesa Insurance); and brothers Cordell Jacks, bass and vocals (Investors Group Inc.) and Don Jacks, drums (a student at the University of Manitoba).
The runners up were “The Disclaimers,” which featured Gregg Filmon, guitar and vocals (Mackenzie Financial Corp.); Ron Heck, guitar and vocals (AIM Trimark); Brian Taylor, bass (CIBC Wood Gundy); Gary Golden, keyboards and vocals (Credential Securities); and Greg Mann, drums (Great-West Life Assurance Co.).
David Christianson, a senior advisor at Wellington West Total Wealth Management, but known that night as the bass player for Motown-flavoured “Soul Beneficiaries,” says he was having flashbacks to his high school days, when he played in a band called Mad Pig.
“My bass and our guitarist’s guitar are older than any of the people in Disposable Income,” he says.
While the charity was the focus of the evening, the competition element encouraged all the bands to finely tune their skills. “The bands I heard at sound check were just fabulous,” Christianson says. “We took it very seriously. If another band sounded better, we were considering breaking their fingers.”
Two bands were edged out for a prize. One was Christianson’s band, which also featured Noreen Radhay, vocals (Crocus Investment); Lisa Tjaden, vocals (Advocis Winnipeg); Heather Simard, vocals (Wellington West Capital Corp.); Joe Halas, guitar, (Winnipeg School Division No. 1); Don Mulder, keyboards (Stantec Architecture); Lynn Blake, saxophone (Royal Bank of Canada); Mark Dally, drums (Rice Financial Group Inc.); and three members of the Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers.
The other band, “Mutual Fun,” was made up
of the father-and-son team of Jack and Kelly Morris, guitar and drums, respectively, (Morris Financial); Bayne Robertson, guitar; Keith Lalmar, guitar; Gregg Melnyk, keyboards; Murray Hill, vocals; Gaby Gosselin, vocals (all with Great-West Life); and Dave Hill, bass (Province of Manitoba). IE