I had been at the
first practice as a guitar player but I opted out when Dick Dorwart departed..
I later joined on as a keyboard player about the same time the band's name
was chosen.
This is the version that
worked through agent Paul Handler in Spokane back in 1967. We all
quit our day jobs and gave it a whirl but after a disastrous tour to Utah.
After a disastrous tour to Utah and following a cancelled tour with the
Fireballs, I quit the band. The booking agent had been black-balled
by the union for not paying the Troggs for a tour and the Fireballs refused
to play. The tour was to start in Winnipeg and finish in the USA.
At least we got to party with the Fireballs in Winnipeg but they got paid
to drive there from Clovis, New Mexico and we got to play Lethbridge on
the way home for gas money.
I ran into the Thin Red Line
again in 1976 at a little bar south of Seattle and there were no original
members left. Rick Berglund and Bob Vaquero were the only two Canadians
still in this great band.
The later stage of the band
was working out of either Seattle or Vancouver but that is long after my
stint.
Paul Handler would bring
The Thin Red Line down to Spokane from Cranbrook to play The Cool Blue
Inn when the house band "The Rotations" had a weekend away. I remember
hearing them one night at the club and seeing these "2 x 4 Guitars" in
bright colors all over the stage. We partied with the boys that night
and I can still remember two of the guys calling each other "cabbage farmer"
and "cement head".
My current band is Canadian
Crossfire
Byron Beauchene, April
2008
I won't mention the chick
in Utah in the white mini and thigh high boots that disappeared under the
stage with our singer and caused our sudden departure sans pay to Canada.
The sign out front said The Thin Red Line from New York City anyway. Good
thing I had a credit card because the band was running on empty. We followed
that up with the Fireballs tour that went in the tank and we got deeper
into my credit card. After leaving the band I ended up taking a Gibson
330 to settle the account. That Gibson wound up being pawned by my daughter
(who was just a baby on the Utah trip) for gambling money in Calgary, Alberta.
I had sanded the red finish off it and stained it an orange brown shade.
I'd love to find it again some day. Best damned guitar I ever owned and
I even wrote it up in my song "Hang On To Me"
Byron Beauchane, April
2008
