What is it about Winnipeg, the lonely western Canada birthplace of two of the country’s biggest rock bands, a city that musicians leave for success? Maybe it has to do with the deep chill of the prairie winters and the dry cold of winds whipping across a thousand miles of wheat fields: To get warm, you huddle together, because alone you perish. Even those who break out of the healthy local scene, itself a necessity fostered by isolation from major entertainment capitals, tend somehow to stay together. Thus it was that Garry Peterson, seemingly a lifetime member of the Guess Who, Winnipeg’s first international rock success, teamed up with two Bachmans and a Turner in the ’80s version of BTO. The ’70s Bachman Turner Overdrive had to leave its native Canada to achieve its enormous popularity. (In case you’re wondering why the stress on “leave,” let me explain: In Canada, […]

May 1985 Issue