Northwest Dancehalls

The Accents at Oil Can Harry's in 1966
Oil Can Harry's
752 Thurlow Street
Vancouver, British Columbia

Some of the bands that rocked Oil Can Harry's during the early years of NW rock and roll were:

OIL CAN HARRYS was later known as Outlaws, the THE METRO, but unfortunatley it burnt to the ground in the early ninties, and is now a parking lot. Many bands played that stage in impromtu jams, such as Motley Crue, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Blue Murder, and many more.
Nick Cardarelli, December 2005
 

Oil Can Harry's never burnt to the ground - the building was demolished to make way for a highrise.
Ron Simmonds, July 2006

Twitch, a local rock group known for it's bizarre stage show, theatrics and theme inspired fast rock,played Oil Cans several times.

In one part of the show.the drummer, Mike Brown, was shot from a platform with a fake revolver and dove (fell) over the drum kit on a riser and landed writhing around in "pain" on the stage next to the rest of the band spewing fake blood.  When the "bullets" hit him, a pressurized blood bag hidden in his mouth exploded for effect.

Although that and the rest of the show was very successful even after seeing it several times including Grey cup weekend, the owners at the time were never able to erase or paint the "blood stains" off the wall until it was demolished..

Picture is on myspace and then found in the Twitch archives

Ian Steeksma, December 2006

If you have corrections, a neat photo or more information, please send it to:

Last Update:  13 January 2007

Credits:   Ed Nadorozny, Brian Pulham, Brian Newcombe, Carol Hillis, Terry Coan, Cory Steuart, Gary Lindsay, Lou Crockett, Lynn McLean, Nikki Johnson, Terry Budd, Nick Cardarelli, Ron Simmonds, Ian Steeksma, Bruce Thompson, John Gordon