Ron and the Viscounts
Ron and the Viscounts was a rock & roll band from Brockville, Ontario, during the dawn of the 1960's. The band's music roster consisted of hits from that era and a few of their own tunes.ÂThe big beat quintet played at many local teen dances where one would only pay a 65 cents admission fee. This was very exciting for the youngsters from that era since prior to the band's formation, the local teen dance entertainment was typically only a jukebox or other local rock & roll bands like The Count 5 and The Crescendo's.Â
Hundreds of kids would come out to the Playland Bandstand or the Office Bowling League Banquet at the Hilltop, doing the twist, rock & roll jiving, the stroll, slow dancing and other new dances.Â
Hilltop was a building on a hill, right in the center of Brockville that a local teenager, started up. He featured Ron and the Viscounts as well as crooners like, Bobby Curtola and Johnny Tillotson who came from other cities and towns. This became competition for Playland which was on the skirts of town.
Ron and the Viscounts entertained for both adult and teen dances at both dance venues.Â
Playland had pin-ball machines, archery, a baseball machine, mini-golf, go-carts, a driving range and a big hall. Teens would go there to hang out and dance to the big jukebox. The boys would sit on one side and the girls on the other, waiting for a boy to ask them to dance. Some girls would jive together as their patience would wear thin.Â
The teens that didn't have money would order a "Pine Float", which was a tooth pick in a glass of water.
Like all good things, Ron and the Viscounts came to an end after only 2 years. Ron moved away to Kingston and that was that. Or was it the end...
John lost touch with all the band members over the years until he crossed paths in 2004 with Ron. The two got back together for a couple of jam sessions at John's home, Ron played the guitar and keyboards and John played the drums and the bass.
Not long after these memory lane jams, Ron died from a heart attack in 2005. Barney currently resides in Brockville and the whereabouts of the Varela brothers are unknown. There is a possibility that they and their parents moved back to England.
Happy Listening and check back to learn more about the Ron and the Viscounts story.