The Bill Gumbleton Mentor & Life Coach Award

Bill Gumbleton Chapter 8

I became a chef later in life. I had an Uncle who had been a chef on the Royal Scotsman. He was on the inaugural run of the train from Edinburgh to London. One time when they were approaching London the engineer decided to check the breaks.

Every piece of china in the kitchen broke except for one teacup so he picked it up and said, “Oh to hell with it!” and smashed it down on the floor.

“How did you get into the Kits Band?”

My parents were friends with Doug and Mary Luff. I had been to a couple of Kits band concerts after the 1966 and 1968 trips. I had started playing the snare drum in school a few years earlier. My dad saw that I was interested in learning more so I started taking lessons fron Don Luff’s grandfather, Vic Luff.

I was already in the Navy League Cadets. When they ask for guys to join the cadet band, I went down to HMCS Discovery on a Saturday to sign up. Unfortunately the snare drums were all taken, so they gave me a big 28 inch bass drum and strapped it on me. I was only twelve. There were two guys playing snare drum and two guys playing tenor toms. When they put sheet music out in front of us, I was the only one who knew how to read. I wound up teaching the others thinking that one of them would let me switch with them but no one did. It put me in good form though because when I joined Kits, I already had the marching skills.

After the 1968 trip I went to the homecoming concert at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. That same month, September, I went for an audition with Mr D. Doug Luff took me down and introduced me to Mr Delamont. He said, “Mr Delamont I have a young fellow here who wants to join the band. He plays drums.” I set up my snare drum over by the basement door at General Gordon School. Arthur came over and put a piece of music up on a stand in front of me. It was half the size of what I had been use to (one of his encore pieces). I was lost. He shook his head and walked away. I thought I had blown the audition so I started to pack up. He turns and sees me and says, “Where are you going? Go over there and set up with the rest of the drummers.” He made some comment like “Drummers!”

“He was telling you not to think for yourself. Wait until I tell you what to do.”

I set up with the rest of the guys and the journey started from there. I still have my membership card. At school I was in grade eight band. Once again because I could read music, I was promoted to grade nine band. I went to Moscrop Junior Secondary in Burnaby by BCIT. Mr Wiebe was our band director. But I just couldn’t wait to go to Kits band practices on Monday and Thursday nights. It was really a notch above my school band. The variety of music we played and the pace of the rehearsals just kept me and everyone else coming back for more. It was contagious! I ended up teaching the other drummers in my school band how to play the finer points of the music because all they wanted to do was rush home and bang on the set while listening to Led Zepplin. Band to many at that time was just an extra credit and their last choice because they felt it would be easy.

“Any anecdotes or stories from the early days?”

One embarrassing moment for me was at practice one night we were short a drummer so I ended up playing the bass drum. I cannot remember the piece but the bass drum had a roll for about four bars and I stopped early. Delamont looked at me. He came over took the bass drum mallet and hit me on the head and showed me how to do it. “I got it now,” I said. I had only been in the band for about three months. That was the first and last mistake I made. I remember well his famous words “chumps, fatheads, silly asses.” The drum section was often the ‘silly asses.’

“Do you want to mention any of the other guys?”

Bruce Ball, Bruce Miller, Wayne Briscoe, Don Luff and Dave Calder were the other drummers at that time. I saw Bruce Ball once later on in Edmonton. He had become a paleontologist and lived in Drumheller. Ken Bonnell was another drummer.

“Tell me about the 1970 trip.”

By 1970, I felt I was just one of the guys. I remember prior to the 1970 European tour, Mr. D took his White Rock Band down to Disneyland. I went with them. He took half Kits boys and half White Rock boys for that trip. It was

1968 The White Rock Band included several members of the Kits band as seen in this early photo. Far left, first row left to right Al Petrie, Deryk Smith, far right, first row Barry Miller, second row, far left, Larry Borsa, Wayne Pettie, third row, far right Dave Scoular, Tom Walker, Wally, Chris

Ketchum, Deryk Petrie, back row, far left Don Luff, Wayne Tarling, back row, far right Bruce Miller, Dave Calder, and Wayne Briscoe. The little blond-haired girl with the long hair in the front row (Crystal Loewen) would marry Bruce Miller.

only for two weeks. We went all the way by bus and stayed at the YMCA in LA. It was a fun trip. We played at Disneyland.

One night we all decided to stay up all night at the YMCA. Later, some police cars arrived thinking that we had broken in. They had not realized that we were staying there. Some of the older guys went outside to talk to them. The police got out of their cars carrying shotguns. They asked us who we were and we told them we were from Canada. One of them asked, “ Is it cold in Canada?” Typical we all thought.

Back to Europe! I was really looking forward to that trip. It was my first trip to Europe. Before we went we had the usual fundraising requirements to meet. We had our band photo taken on the old courthouse steps downtown.

The trip turned out to be a terrific learning experience for us all. I was amazed at how many towns we traveled through and got out and played. I loved the way everyone appreciated the band. When we were in London, I asked Mr. D if I could go and see my grandfather. We were leaving the next day. When I got back to London, I could not find the youth hostel where we were staying. I started to have a panic attack. I was afraid the band would leave without me and I would have to find my own way home to Vancouver. I got back about a half hour before we were to depart for the airport.

Being in the Kits Band was sort of like being in a rock band. We would often stop at unscheduled places and perform a short stand-up concert. We would change into our band sweaters, play, and get back on the bus only to arrive shortly at another town. It was great fun! I remember in

Wales we played in a bandstand that was right on the beach. A terrific wind came along and the stage started moving. The canopy on the stage was like a tent. The wind picked it up. What were we going to do? Wally came along and he and a couple of other fellows jumped up on the stage. It stopped moving. The rest of us got up on stage and we played our concert with no problems. Wally had saved the day!

We arrived in Inverness, Scotland in August but it felt like October it was so cold. We stayed in an old barracks that had a row of wood-burning stoves down the center. It had been built for the troops in World War One. A bunch of us found some old wooden chairs. We broke them up and used them for firewood. The northern part of Scotland can be quite cold we discovered. We practiced our marching on the parade grounds.

In Edinburgh, some of the guys climbed up the steep side of Edinburgh Castle. Not a smart thing to do looking back on it but they made it. The hostel we stayed at in Edinburgh was part of a group of row houses. They all looked exactly the same except for the plaque on the door which read ‘Scottish Youth Hostel.’

I remember vividly how salty was Scottish bacon. At the youth hostel, I got kitchen duty. This guy brought out a baking pan and filled it with salt. He said, “Here you go, pan the bacon in this. Put the bacon right on the salt. Later on, someone will come and turn it over.” They love their salty bacon. I do not think anyone knew anything about the effects of salt on high blood pressure. I even asked the guy if I could do one tray without salt and he said, “ We all eat the same here.”

I said, “Well, I won’t be eating any bacon.” He said, “Well,

that is your choice.” He gave me a funny look.

“Tell me about Dartmouth.

We all loved Dartmouth from the first moment we saw it. We came in from the upper road in 1970, parked our bus, and marched down the hill. The whole town came out to greet us. We played both the carnival in July and the regatta in August. The girls were wonderful. I turned sixteen on the 1970 tour.

Wally was quite the character. I had my camera stolen in Amsterdam. I went on a canal trip which was great. I remember landing at the airport in Barcelona and looking out the windows at the brown haze. As soon as you walked out the door you could taste the pollution. The smell stayed with me for quite a while. I remember at the hostel we had to be careful how many guys got into the elevator at one time. It was on a rope system and was quite rickety. One day we went out for a walk. In one delicatessen we saw a bunch of chicken legs all covered with flies. Another time we came across a couple of older men drinking wine from a pouch. “Here try this,” one of them said to me. I didn’t want to be impolite so I took a swig of this warm, dry, red wine. They both started laughing at the look on my face. On another walk, I came across this mound of earth where people had dug out holes and lined the holes with cardboard. I guessed street people were living in them. Then we went around a corner and there was a beautiful, modern subway station. The contrast between the old and the modern was incredible.

One time I took a street car into Barcelona. I can remember seeing bullet holes in the walls left over from the Spanish Civil War. I think that you had to be careful as a tourist in those days. We all bought things that we really didn’t need, leather jackets in Spain, sweaters in Scotland and chocolate in Holland.

When we were in Barcelona the older guys and Dave McKenzie (our band manager) wanted to go to Madrid. It cost each boy so much for the bus ride. We stayed on the top floor of a hotel on cots. It was too expensive to eat in the hotel, so I went across the street and into a bar and ordered a coke. The bartender gave me a beer. I took one swig of this beer and that was it. What with all the other aromas in the bar I was almost sick on the spot. I bunch of us did come down the next day with food poisoning. On our last day in Madrid, we all went to see a bullfight. It was at the Plaza del Toros, a famous bullfighting arena in downtown Madrid. About halfway through the fight, it started to rain and everyone cleared out of the plaza at the same time. There were about seven fights in all that day. Dave wanted to stay and see them all and Mr D did not. Mr. D said, “Those of you who want to go back to Barcelona, I’m going.” I was one of those who returned to Barcelona with Mr. D.

“How did Dave get back?”

Dave rented another bus and he and the others came later. We all caught our plane back to Paris where we stayed at the Lycee St. Louis (youth hostel) on the left bank near the Sorbonne. I remember seeing all these taxis bringing our instruments along a little later (I guess they could not find a bus). There were two fellows in the first taxi who led the way. One was standing up on the passenger side with his head sticking through the open sunroof giving directions to the other taxis. It was the funniest thing I ever saw. Right out of a Peter Seller’s movie.

The West Van Youth band arrived at the same youth hostel a few days later. They were not enjoying themselves as much as we were because they were over-chaperoned and were not allowed to go anywhere on their own. Norm Black (who the boys called Wolfman, not sure why) was one of the tuba players, he got up on top of the youth hostel’s roof and started howling like a Wolfman (maybe that is why they called him Wolfman). The police were called and everything calmed down. One night Wally wanted to go downstairs and get something to eat, after hours, from the cafeteria. He climbed into a dumb-waiter and the rope broke. He and a couple of other guys found themselves lying on the floor of the cafeteria which was in the basement. I remember the elevators had a light that projected a beam from one side to the other. We discovered that if you blocked the light with a shoe, the elevator would stop. When the West Van Band was checking in, we blocked the light with a shoe and watched them climb up several flights of stairs to their rooms. Mr D found out about that and he was not very happy. When the West Van band was leaving the youth hostel, some of us got up on the roof and threw water balloons down on the roof of their bus. We did not know that the sunroofs were open and the water all went inside. I had my sixteenth birthday in a Paris cafe.

I remember playing daily concerts in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. MacDonalds had still not caught on in Paris but Marks and Spencers was huge in London.

“What do you remember about Nice”

Loved it! We stayed in a former Spanish Consulate

2008 Bill second from left playing snare drum in a rehearsal for the 2008 Reunion Concert.

2008 Bill (far right) next to Brad Goodwin and Don Luff on stage at the Kits Showboat.

building that was situated on a hilltop looking down on the ocean. It was a spectacular location. We played in a bandshell and all rented Vespa motor scooters and drove to Monte Carlo. I remember we went into the Battle of the Flowers Parade which was a huge parade on the Promenade des Anglais and won. Everyone was throwing confetti at us. It got inside some of the instruments and caused problems. We started throwing it back at the onlookers to their surprise. Because we were a good marching band we were able to win the contest and we were unaware that it was even a contest. The other bands had been practicing for a year for the parade.

I remember some of the hotel staff came into our room at the youth hostel on the morning we were to leave and began throwing our baggage out onto the street. It seems the night before someone through confetti into the swimming pool and plugged the drain. Someone had also put a North Vietnamese propaganda movie on television (the Vietnam War was still raging in 1970). They thought that we had done both and were kicking us out of the hostel. We all wound up sitting on our luggage by the roadside waiting for our bus to come later that afternoon. A couple of the boys still had their Vespa scooters, so they went and got something to eat for everyone. The boys didn’t mind waiting outside in the hot sun too much but it was pretty rough on Mr D who was eighty at that time. Dave was nowhere to be seen as we found out later that he had had a row with Mr. D over something and left the band and flew back to New York. Eventually, the chaperones called Dave in New York and he returned and the tour resumed as if nothing had happened.

“What do you remember about the 1972 trip?”

That one was to England, Scotland, Norway and Sweden. I was a senior boy on that trip. Mr. D brought in a lot of boys from Victoria for that trip. One of the drummers (who was from Victoria) had trouble marching in time. Vera Delamont, Arthur’s daughter, came along on the trip. She played the bass drum sometimes.

I remember Brad Goodwin often had to play a solo out in front of the band. He was quite short, so the audience loved it. I am not sure what Brad thought. We all loved Dartmouth again. I had to do laundry with Dave Jones and his mom who was a chaperone.

In London, one of my aunts came to hear us play on the Thames Embankment. One time we were playing the Hunting Scene at a concert in Scotland. Gary Watkinson had to go behind a fence to play the echo. Gary fell coming back over the fence and damaged his trumpet. He tried his best to play but eventually had to go to a music store to get it fixed. One time Mr. D asked me to find a bird whistle which we needed in one of the pieces. I finally found a music store which had the kind we needed. I had to fill it up with water but unfortunately, it was like a dog whistle, you could barely hear it.

We took the ferry to Norway. We slept on reclining seats on the ferry. We didn’t get too much sleep. Mr D wanted to play on the ferry but it was too rough.

“What did you think of Norway and Sweden?”

A lot of the guys felt homesick because both reminded them of home. The red brick buildings and the beautiful trees and forests. In Stockholm, we saw Paul McCartney & his band Wings perform. The tickets cost $.60 before 3pm and

$2 after, boy, how things have changed! I remember that it was a hot day. They were doing a university circuit so this was when they were just starting out after the Beatles. It was a great concert. On the way back, we took the ferry to Copenhagen for a day. There is now a bridge from Stockholm to Denmark.

“So tell me what being in the Kits band means to you now so many years later.”

It was a great learning experience for us all. I learned how to get along in a group. We became a family on those trips. Mr. D got the best out of us. His discipline was good for us. He taught us to appreciate music far more than we ever would have been able to on our own. I always loved the variety of music we played.

“Who were the three people who were the biggest influence on your life?’

I would have to say my two grandfathers who both taught us how to laugh and put things in perspective. They taught us to be positive and not to worry needlessly. Mr D of course on the musical side. Lastly, I would say my parents. I was the only one in our family who showed an interest in music. I became a chef later in life. I had an uncle who had been a chef on the Royal Scotsman. He was on the inaugural run of the train from Edinburgh to London. One time when they were approaching London the engineer decided to check the breaks. Every piece of china in the kitchen broke except for one teacup so he picked it up and said, “Oh to hell with it!” and smashed it down on the floor.