Newt’s top 10 (or 20) things to do in Vancouver this weekend, January 26 to 28

Ché Aimee Dorval plays the WISE Hall By Steve Newton FRIDAY: B.C. premiere screening at the Rio Theatre of writer/director/producer/star Tommy Wiseau's 2023 horror-comedy Big Shark, with special introduction by Greg Sestero, co-star of Wiseau's 2003 cult phenom The Room. FRIDAY: comedic stunt magician and YouTuber Wes Barker performs at the Biltmore Cabaret. FRIDAY: late-night … Continue reading Newt’s top 10 (or 20) things to do in Vancouver this weekend, January 26 to 28

Jack White calls Big Sugar’s 500 Pounds “the best blues-based record to ever come out of Canada”

By Steve Newton If you haven't already figured out that Big Sugar is an awesome band, the guy from White Stripes has a message for you. In a video posted today, rock legend Jack White extolls the virtues of the Toronto group's second album, Five Hundred Pounds (released in the U.S. as 500 Pounds). "I … Continue reading Jack White calls Big Sugar’s 500 Pounds “the best blues-based record to ever come out of Canada”

That time I asked Tommy Stinson if there was anything he’d change about his time with the Replacements

By Steve Newton I interviewed Minneapolis rocker Tommy Stinson back in June of 1993, when his band Bash and Pop was heading to Vancouver for a show at the Town Pump. Stinson is best known for his work with his previous group, the Replacements. He was only 14 when the Replacements released their first album … Continue reading That time I asked Tommy Stinson if there was anything he’d change about his time with the Replacements

One month before the 1987 Monsters of Rock festival I told Jon Bon Jovi that his band didn’t seem to fit that metal gig

By Steve Newton On June 18, 1987, I did a phone interview with Jon Bon Jovi, whose band at the time was topping the charts worldwide with the Slippery When Wet album. Just over a month later--on August 22--Bon Jovi was scheduled to headline the massive Monsters of Rock festival at England's Castle Donnington, headlining … Continue reading One month before the 1987 Monsters of Rock festival I told Jon Bon Jovi that his band didn’t seem to fit that metal gig

Newt’s top 10 (or 20) things to do in Vancouver this week, January 22 to 26

Mashed Poetics does Slippery When Wet By Steve Newton MONDAY: the red-hot Vancouver Canucks take on the Chicago Blackhawks in National Hockey League action at Rogers Arena. MONDAY: Vancouver blues-rock quartet Terminal Station, featuring singer-guitarist Scott Smith, plays tunes from latest album Brotherhood at Guilt and Co. Here’s my interview with Scott Smith from 2020. Sunny War plays the … Continue reading Newt’s top 10 (or 20) things to do in Vancouver this week, January 22 to 26

Hanging out with Paul Rodgers and Storman Norm Casler at the Skynyrd show was all right then

By Steve Newton I interviewed rock legend Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company, the Firm) for the first time back in August of 1997, when he was heading to Vancouver for a show with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and headliners Lynyrd Skynyrd. I'm pretty sure that's where I got him to sign my vinyl copy of the first … Continue reading Hanging out with Paul Rodgers and Storman Norm Casler at the Skynyrd show was all right then

Newt’s top 10 (or 15) things to do in Vancouver this weekend, January 19 to 21

 Brass Camel plays the Rickshaw heather horncastle photo By Steve Newton FRIDAY: the Rogue Folk Club presents A Tribute to Shane MacGowan, featuring the Pat Chessell Band and Sinead X Sanders, at Mel Lehan Hall at St. James. POSTPONED to March 2. FRIDAY: Band of Brothers: Levin & La Barbera, a jazz quartet composed of … Continue reading Newt’s top 10 (or 15) things to do in Vancouver this weekend, January 19 to 21

That time I asked Ugly Kid Joe guitarist Klaus Eichstadt how the band’s recent hit, “Everything About You”, came together

By Steve Newton Way back in June of 1993 I interviewed 25-year-old Ugly Kid Joe guitarist Klaus Eichstadt on the phone from his parents' house in San Francisco. Three weeks later his band was set to play Foxfest at Seabird Island near Agassiz, B.C., with Def Leppard, Tom Cochrane, Rockhead, April Wine, and Sven Gali. The … Continue reading That time I asked Ugly Kid Joe guitarist Klaus Eichstadt how the band’s recent hit, “Everything About You”, came together

That time Dick Dale told me what it was like playing with Stevie Ray Vaughan on “Pipeline”

By Steve Newton Back in the summer of 1993 I did my first interview with guitar legend Dick Dale. Thirty years earlier Dale had released an album titled King of the Surf Guitar, and ever since then that's what he'd been called. That's why he and Stevie Ray Vaughan connected in 1987 to record a … Continue reading That time Dick Dale told me what it was like playing with Stevie Ray Vaughan on “Pipeline”

That time Dickey Betts told me that an Allman Brothers reunion “could be a good idea”

By Steve Newton I did the first of my four interviews with guitar legend Dickey Betts back in March of 1989, when he was touring with the Dickey Betts Band, playing tunes from his first album in seven years, Pattern Disruptive. Betts' famous former group, the Allman Brothers Band, had broken up (for the second … Continue reading That time Dickey Betts told me that an Allman Brothers reunion “could be a good idea”

Newt’s top 10 things to do in Vancouver this week, January 15 to 19

Shane MacGowan tribute at Mel Lehan Hall By Steve Newton MONDAY & WEDNESDAY TO FRIDAY: the work of late Trinidadian-Canadian artist Denyse Thomasos is featured in the career retrospective Denyse Thomasos: just beyond, running until March of 2024 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. MONDAY TO FRIDAY: 31 emerging and seasoned local designers and makers were … Continue reading Newt’s top 10 things to do in Vancouver this week, January 15 to 19

That time Jon Bon Jovi told me that his band’s new Slippery When Wet album was just meant to be a fun summertime album

By Steve Newton I did the third of my three interviews with Jon Bon Jovi in June of 1987, when his band was touring behind its massively successful third album, Slippery When Wet, which went on to sell over 12-million copies in the U.S. alone. A year earlier the group had barely caused a stir … Continue reading That time Jon Bon Jovi told me that his band’s new Slippery When Wet album was just meant to be a fun summertime album