In early December, I went to this special storytelling event hosted at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, B.C., in conjunction with the exhibit, Beyond the Beat: Music of Resistance and Change, which ends Jan.5, 2026.
Six individuals from a variety of cultural backgrounds shared stories about their personal intersections with music and concerts or concert venues that really stood out for them as milestones in their lives.
After that event, I reflected back on my own musical background and it made me question how someone who likes music, and who took piano lessons for 9 years, could have had so few concert experiences growing up.
I went to almost no concerts as a teen or young adult. In contrast, when I was in my late 20s, I met a friend who was so into music that she even worked at a place that was a precursor to The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), which I believe may have been called Performing Rights Organization. The office was located just off Robson Street on Thurlow in a second floor office. I too worked there for a while as the receptionist and until writing this, I'd forgotten all about that. It was short-lived.
The woman who ran the place, Lynne Partridge, had a dramatic personality and according to Google was inducted into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2020-2021 for her work on performing rights. The prominent Canadian music manager and booking agent, Bruce Allen, would occasionally pop in.
I remember this same friend, Pam Melnyk (who must have got me the job), dragging me to a Nick Cave concert at the Town Pump in Gastown in the 1980s. I'd never even heard of Nick Cave back then. If my memory serves me correctly, he may have started the concert by coming out of a coffin or maybe he just looked like he’d died and had just risen. All I could think, watching and listening was, “I hate this. How long is this night gonna last?”
“Nick Cave” by NRK P3, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
I now realize how incredibly "lucky" I was to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in such a small venue for a relatively cheaply-priced ticket. Now, 39 years later, another friend whose brother lives in Liverpool told me recently that he was desperately seeking a ticket to a Nick Cave concert in Ireland and debating whether he could afford the lofty price. It blows my mind that all these years later, Nick Cave is still performing and is such a legend.
Pam and I also went on a trip to San Francisco in 1987 or 1988 and she was so excited to show me the Haight-Ashbury District and point out the places where Janis Joplin hung out and performed.
It was such a great trip. When we got on the plane to come home, a voice over the P.A. system announced the flight was overbooked and they'd be willing to pay for an extra night in a hotel if anyone wanted to get off. We dashed off that plane so fast, hands raised, deliriously happy to spend one more night in San Fran. You'd think we'd won the lottery. It didn't even matter that they wouldn't give us back our luggage for the night.
I was raised in such a straight-laced family and I was a really quiet and shy kid so I didn't really grow up with a friend group that I hung out with. I had my basketball team and one really close friend and we didn't go to concerts because we had no money.. Maybe that explains it, not that it’s convincing enough.
Mostly we spent time just listening to albums. Carole King. Earth,Wind and Fire. Chicago. Fleetwood Mac. The Cars. The Band. Pat Benetar. Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. The Doobie Brothers. The BeeGees. Annie Lennox. The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
We went to Pink Floyd when their music was the background as part of some light show at the Vancouver Planetarium in the 1970s. I recall going to Paul Simon and Elton John concerts at B.C. Place but that's about it. Oh, and David Cassidy. Can’t forget that heartthrob from back in my day.
Like so many families, we had one of those old stereo systems in a big wooden console with the record player inside and my parents listened to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. I think they had a Louis Armstrong and a Nat King Cole album. My sisters had a 45 of Petula Clark singing "Downtown" that they'd play all the time. Or when we finally got a black and white TV, we'd watch Ed Sullivan on Sunday nights when the Jackson Five and The Supremes and Tiny Tim were first on his show. Wow. Do I ever feel old writing this!
Anyway, I know this post has nothing to do with Salt Spring, but if you have a chance to catch the exhibit at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, and you're of a certain age, it's bound to bring up some personal music memories.
Even if you don't go, why not slow down, grab a Bailey's, do some daydreaming and take a mental stroll down your own musical memory lane.
I'm absolutely certain it will be a million times more interesting than mine.