As an aspiring, determined singer, 17-year-old Judy Walchuk lied about her age so she could perform at the hottest club in Vancouver at the time Isys Supper Club.
I told them I was 20, she says with a laugh. I was thrilled I got the job, but of course I could only sing on weekends because I was still in high school.
That was 52 years ago, she adds. I remember Isys being very sophisticated dark, a lot of black, a lot of little round tables with chairs, but the main thing was the stage was great and the band was awesome the Bobby Hales Band, four pieces, five pieces, sometimes more.
That was the most awesome part was that I got to sing with a live band that actually had horns in it.
Isys closed in 1976 and was eventually being replaced by the Shangri-La Hotel, which, coincidentally, was where Walkchuk and her long-time songwriting partner and younger brother Jim were inducted into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame on November 18.
Yeah, its a real honour, says Walkchuk who had her first public performance at the Kitsilano Showboat when she was eight. And it is surreal that it happened in the same location as where Isys was pretty cool.
During the more than five decades as a singer (she often went under her married name, Judy Ginn), Walchuk and her brother played countless shows in lounges and clubs in Hawaii, Vegas, Chicago and London and had their own variety show on CBC television.
On the evening when they were inducted, Walchuk says she brought along a piece of jewelry that she felt was fitting to wear for the honour.
I remember a salesman came up from Vegas into Isys and he was selling these massive rhinestone necklaces, she says. That was in like 1961 and they were ridiculously expensive at the time about $150. But I bought one and I had it all this time, for 52 years, and I actually wore it on Monday night. I had to clean it up with OxiClean because it was on a mannequin in my bedroom forever.
Its travelled with me everywhere. I took that necklace to LA, to London no matter where I went, but I hardly wore it I think I wore it three times in my entire life, but its symbolic for me.
The pair eventually settled down in LA for 18 years where Walchuk started her own business and distanced herself from music. But when she moved back to Vancouver she found herself invigorated creatively.
When I came home to Vancouver, I thought I would not sing again because theres no place for me to sing, she explains. The irony of it is that I moved into PAL, the Performing Arts Lodge, and, with a bit of prodding helping to produce a show and being in the background people started asking to come forward more. Ive had a whole resurgence in my career at this age.
We havent slowed down; if anything were writing more than ever. We just wrote a tune for a play upstairs at PAL called Quartet and I did a new album a year and half ago.
Yeah, not slowing down I still have a lot to say.
To purchase her latest CD, The Flying Walchuks: Without A Net, go to JudyGinnWalchuk.ca. Quartet runs at the PAL Theatre from December 6 to 15. Go to PALVancouver.org for details.
