Since 1969 April Wine has been rocking audiences across Canada and beyond with 21 top-40 hit songs and a legendary live show. Now they’re coming to Powell River.
April Wine will swing through town on Sunday, April 10 on what guitarist Brian Greenway described as the “never ending tour.” With the band’s last studio album, Roughly Speaking, released in 2006 the band doesn’t hit the road promoting anything anymore so much as to play the hits and rock audiences. Last year the band played 64 shows and this year they’re on track to play even more.
“We’re just promoting us still being around really,” said Greenway, laughing.
April Wine formed in Nova Scotia, the brainchild of brothers David and Ritchie Henman, along with cousin Jim Henman and Myles Goodwyn. They released their first album, Fast Train, in 1970 spawning the early hit of the same name. April Wine’s second album, On Record, contained the hits “You Could Have Been a Lady” and “Bad Side of the Moon” and confirmed their place in Canadian rock. Hits like “Tonight is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love,” “Oowatanite” and “Just Between You and Me” kept coming over the years as the band went through lineup changes and played to audiences worldwide.
Over 17 days April Wine will be playing 13 shows around BC, a schedule some might consider rigorous for a band where most of the members hover around the 60-year-old mark. Greenway, who has been with the band for 35 years, said things have changed since the rock and roll days of the 1970s. The days of partying are behind them and they are now more likely to be found reading a book, watching a movie or sleeping after a show than living the rock-and-roll lifestyle.
“Thank God for that,” said Greenway. “If I’d have known back then I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself.”
Things started calming down for the band in the 1980s, said Greenway, and as the 1990s and the new century came around things changed considerably. It’s all business now, he said, and members of the band are a lot more concerned with taking care of their health. For a few years now the band and its crew has been completely non-smoking, something that would have seemed impossible and ridiculous 20 or 30 years ago.
The thrill of playing for the crowd and the high that comes from a good show keeps the band and the audience coming back for more year after year. For Greenway it’s the guitarist’s constant search for the perfect tone, or “GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome” that has often kept him going. Collecting gear and searching for that perfect sound can become an obsession, said Greenway, although he says for the most part now he’s content with what he has.
Every year the band switches up its set list. With over 40 years of tunes to draw from Greenway said they can afford to mix things up and make it more interesting for them to play and for the crowds to listen to. Greenway’s personal favourites are “Sign of the Gypsy Queen,” “Fast Train” and new versions of “Lady Run, Lady Hide” and “Slow Poke.” He said they work hard to keep energy levels high over songs they’ve played thousands of times and to approach their shows with excitement and enthusiasm.
“You make it sound like you’re playing it for the first time, except this time you know it,” said Greenway. “If you have a good run of good shows you feel good about what you’re doing.”
April Wine will be playing the Evergreen Theatre. Tickets are $42.50 available by phone at Powell River Recreation Complex box office, 604.485.2891. Doors open at 7 pm.
