Bob (Doc) Livingston
I joined Neil McKay’s Orchestra in 1942 and we played every Friday and Saturday night at the Goderich Pavilion for the summer. The whole band had to have accomodation of course and we were able to rent a house in town near the dance hall. We would practice in the mornings and then spend afternoons on the beach swimming or sunbathing and generally having a fun time.
After the summer was over we got a job playing on Saturday nights at the old London Arena. This lasted for a couple of years. These were the war years and Neil joined the Navy as a musician for a couple of years
I joined Johnny Down’s Orchestra in 1945 and played with him for 20 years. During that time we had a long-term engagement playing on Saturday nights at the Stork Club in Port Stanley. We were the house band, and whenever some big-name attractions from the US were booked, we would get to play at the intermissions. On one occasion, the well-known quartet, “The Four Aces” was booked and they asked us to accompany them playing their musical arrangements. They were a great hit and so well liked that they came back on two more occasions.
They played us a great compliment by saying that of all the “territory bands”, as they called us, that they ran into in the US and Canada we were the best. In fact they actually asked Johnny if we would consider travelling with them on a short tour. Unfortunately we were not able to do so, but we appreciated the offer. We played at the Stork club for about 10 years, then later we were able to get the contract to play at Wonderland Gardens in London for about another 10 years.
An interesting experience happened to us while we were still playing at the Stork club. One Saturday night we were driving back from Port Stanley at the end of the evening. Johnny Downs was driving his van hauling our trailer, which had all the musical instruments in it. On the outskirts of St Thomas we were crossing a railroad track. It was a foggy night, and all of a sudden a slow-moving freight train loomed almost on top of us. The train hit the trailer and drove it up into a cemetery of all places. Nobody was hurt but the instruments were all smashed to pieces, including my stand-up bass. In later years we were able to have a good laugh about that. We were covered by insurance, of course.
On another occasion six of us were driving back from a dance when suddenly the car engine gave out on us. We didn't know what to do. All of a sudden a Canada Bread van pulled up and saw that we were in trouble. We just wanted him to drive one of us to the nearest gas station. Instead, he told us that his truck was empty, and he piled all of us into the truck, lying on the bread racks, and drove us all the way to London.
In 1946 Bill Vize, the drummer for Johnny Downs, and myself were fortunate to play a concert with the upcoming jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. A local young men's group from the YMCA hired Oscar with the idea of raising some money for club funds. The concert was held at Beal Secondary School auditorium to a full house. This was at the beginning of Oscar's career. He was a superb musician even then, and of course he went on to great heights. He was very gracious with us, and a great inspiration. He was back of course, in later years, appearing at Amble's lounge, and he had Ray Brown on bass and Ed Taigpen on drums