A Vancouver time travelogue brought to you by Past Tense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpimauRoO68
Vancouver had a happening R&B music scene in the pre-psychedelic 1960s. Bands like The Nocturnals and Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers managed to chart across the country, but many others were big draws locally. Numerous live music venues popped up to fill the seemingly insatiable demand of the local youth culture, and Live! From the GrooveYard is a classic recording capturing that period. Despite its name, the music on the double album was actually recorded at a West Broadway studio and the “live” sound was a looped recording from a West 4th hippie club called Afterthought. A 1981 Sun article points out that the musical rivalry between soul/R&B and the Stones/Beatles rock sound comes across on this record.
Live! From the GrooveYard was produced to promote the GrooveYard teen dance club at 759 Carnarvon in New Westminster. A Vancouver GrooveYard operated briefly on Davie Street in the old Embassy Ballroom, which later became Retinal Circus, Dante’s Inferno, and currently Celebrities nightclub. Tommy Chong operated a bottle club in the basement called the Elegant Parlour. One night in 1965, The Supremes visited the club and were sufficiently impressed with Chong’s band, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, that they helped get them a record deal on Motown. Bobby Taylor later did the same for the Jackson 5.
Live! From the GrooveYard became a rare collectors item but was released on CD by Neptoon Records in 2004.
