November 2024, By David Thomas
“I told this story before, but these photos (from the yearbook) are new and were taken exactly 45 years ago. Still a memorable event:
In the fall of 1979, I was the student council president at Prince of Wales High School in Vancouver. Part of my responsibility was to organize a school dance along with the social coordinator, my friend Malcolm. In those days, there were a lot of bands on the school dance circuit, with big hair playing Van Halen cover songs and the like. But it had all become a little boring.
It was my turn to organize the fall dance and I wanted to do something special, an
d different. I had heard of this local band, Doug and the Slugs, and I had seen posters of these goofy theme parties they organized around Kitsilano. I wasn’t familiar with their music. They were just about to release their first single, Too Bad, on a 45. But something about those posters, I could see these guys were funny. Their sense of humour spoke to me. I had this feeling they wouldn’t disappoint us.
Malcolm and I found out their manager was a guy named Pete McCullough. We went to his house on West 11th and Alma Street and pitched the school dance idea to him. He didn’t seem too interested. The Slugs were moving up and were playing at bigger venues. Playing a high school dance was a bit of a regression, he explained. Anyway, he promised to speak to Doug about it and said he’d get back to us.
I knew Doug was from Toronto, but I believed all of the Slugs were graduates of Lord Byng High School, not far away from Prince of Wales. We hoped that might help a little. As I recall, I think the fee to hire the band was $2,000, about $500 more than we normally paid to hire a band. But we were prepared to hike the ticket price and hype the show at school to make sure we broke even.
About 5 weeks before the show, Mr. McCullough called me and told me the band accepted the gig. Malcolm and I were so excited. However, there were some details we’d have to work out. For example, the standard school dance contract was clear that the band and crew were not allowed to have any alcohol on the premises. Apparently they weren’t used to that.
Around this same time, Too Bad the single was released. It started to get some air play on the radio and I think the Slugs even appeared on a local TV show. Ticket sales at the school were brisk. I think we were allowed to sell a maximum of 450 tickets, the legal capacity of the school gym. But demand was so high, that Malcom came up with a plan. When no one else was looking, he printed another 150 tickets and started the numbering all over again. Those extra tickets sold out as well. We never got caught for doing that. I think we would have been in big trouble. As I remember, we had some difficulty explaining the extra revenue when the dust settled, but at least we had no problem paying the band.
Two weeks before the show, Mr. McCullough called and invited me and Malcolm to see Doug and the Slugs play live.
He put us on the guest list of the club where they were playing. I think it may have been Rohan’s on 4th Avenue. Just as Malcolm and I showed up at the club, the local police walked up to the door t
o do some spot check or something. Although we may have looked a little older, Malcolm and I were only 17 at the time, definitely underage to get into a club. So we discreetly turned around and left, disappointed we wouldn’t get a preview of the band we had just hired.
The big day, Friday, October 19, 1979, arrived and the band showed up in the late afternoon. I thought it was really cool to meet the guys, Simon, John, Wally, Richard, Steve and Doug. I offered to drive up to McDonald’s in Kerrisdale to get them something to eat. Wally put in a big order.
When the show finally started, the lights went dim, and I remember all the kids were chanting, “Slugs! Slugs! Slugs! Slugs!…” everybody was so hyped about this band, for some reason.
The Slugs came out and played two instrumental songs to get the crowd warmed up. Then out came Doug and the audience really got excited. I think his first song was a cover of Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild. Of course, Dou
g changed all the words and it was performed as “Born to be Mild.” Everyone loved it. Doug was so hilarious. He seemed to get a kick out of joking around with kids in high school. So
many inappropriate jokes, but everyone loved it.
I remember them playing Tropical Rainstorm (because I remember the girl I was slow dancing with) and I remember Simon going crazy playing the kazoo. It sounds odd, but he played it so well. And of course, the big song of the night was “Too Bad”, which as I said, people had started hearing on the radio.
The dance was a huge success for the students. Everyone had a really good time. A few days later, Pete McCullough called me and told me the band had enjoyed all the adoration from the school kids. Apparently they had just returned from Prince George where the audiences had been a little less enthusiastic. So it turned out to be a positive for them as well.
Within a few months, Cognac and Bologna was released and Doug and the Slugs were well on their way. Eventually I turned 19 and I went to see them play whenever I could. I was never disappointed.”