ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON DEC. 12, 1986
By Steve Newton
The last time Pat Travers visited Vancouver he was sharing the Pacific C0liseum stage with Aerosmith playing to a crowd of several thousand hard-rock fans.
This time around the fiery Canadian guitarist will be playing in a much more intimate venue–he’s at the Town Pump this Tuesday (December 16).
That may not be good news for Travers’ accountant, but it’s great news for the many fans who’ve followed his up-and-down career and been rewarded by his classy fretwork.
Travers got his start in the music business playing country music with Ronnie Hawkins and touring around Canada. Then he moved to Britain and recorded his self-titled album, released in 1976.
An impressive first try, the Pat Travers record included rowdy renditions of “Hot Rod Lincoln” and Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene,” as well as Stan Lewis’s “Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)”, a song that Travers re-recorded live for his most popular album Go For What You Know.
Travers recorded the latter LP with a killer lineup that included co-guitarist Pat Thrall and drummer Tommy Aldridge, and that unit hit the singles chart with the raunchy Travers/Thrall tune “Snortin’ Whiskey”.
Serious legal and management problems have plagued Travers in recent years, and his albums–though not without their bright moments–have failed to cause a stir.
Still, this scribbler’s impression is that Mr. T still knows how to play. You can bet I’ll be at the Pump on Tuesday to find out for sure.