Winnstock Battle of the Bands

story by Norm Richards

As good a reason as any to raise money for charity I say, have a battle of the bands event. Sure, and why not? I much enjoyed my evening and the company I kept. The financial people of Winnipeg get together every year to do this. They throw together a desperate number of people together from the financial trade to be in the bands. They're given maybe a month at best to rehearse. They show up and maybe some magic happens. Sure enough. We were entertained by four groups.

The first group was called The Bailouts, the others were Prime + 1, The Bottom Line and The Wall Street. Good thing I wasn't a judge. That was left to Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press, Tracy Koga from Shaw TV and Howard Mandshein from 92 CITI-FM. I had friends in the third band up to perform. I might have chosen them. They had a couple of ringers in their lineup.

Kathy Kennedy is a well know Winnipeg blues rock singer and Ron Siwicki is often seen as her guitar accompaniment. They're good and worthy of praise any day of the week. But the evening went to The Wall Street, with a remake of The Wall by Pink Floyd. Norm Goodman lead the band with ripping lead guitar parts not far off from what David Gilmore of Pink Floyd would do. I was a little surprised. I'm used to seeing Goodman taking the bus home everyday from his accounting job. He's the guy with The Beatles' haircut but tonight he's trimmed to look like Gilmore more than Ringo. The acts were festooned with daily players in the financial investment community and not full time rock musicians. So, I give them praise for pulling it off. Great fun was had by all, especially those who ended up winning the fund raising prizes at the end. My tickets lay abandoned on the table as I write this.

I was graced by the fine company of Nygard executive Gordon Stein and his wife Denise. Gordon is a seven year member of the board of tonight's charity Manitoba Riding for the Disabled Association Inc. Winnstock.ca tonight helped raise $63,000 to assist disabled people enjoy life while attending horse riding events throughout the year. Denise shared many stories with me about those experiences and some of her own. One was when Princess Ann came to Winnipeg during the Pan Am Games and her and Gordon were boarding some of the horses in competition at Meadow Green Riding Academy when they owned it. Princess Ann visited and greeted participants at the Academy. My evening at this event was full and uplifting. I felt better being there rather then remaining home practising drums for my own next event.