SugarPuss was born out of a need to learn new songs. Brad had been having fun with Silly Wrabbit, but wanted to relive some of his past. There once was a band called Vendetta, and Brad was a part of that band. The band featured a girl singer and toured through B.C. and Alberta. They played a bunch of classic rock tunes by Heart, Pat Benatar, Toronto and Blondie. That was a bunch of years ago, but was a lot of fun, except the drummer was nailing the singer, so that put a nail in the coffin. Anyways, fast forward to 2002. Things were going great with Silly Wrabbit, but Brad felt like starting a new band, one that could play all those classic rock chick tunes. This band was going to be a fun "side project" that would gig every once in a while. The first step was finding some folks to rock with. Brad got ahold of Kevin, a drummer he had played with in a previous version of Silly Wrabbit, and he was down with it. Next, Jamie Landry heard about the project and also seemed quite excited about trying it out, even to the point of getting drunk on his birthday and slurring out his need to be a part of it. Ok, more than halfway there, now we need a singer... Now I am not sure how we managed to get Trish into the band, she'll have to update this herself, but she was looking for another band, and we needed her voice. The lineup was rounded out with Curt on guitar, after a lengthy debate over our need for a keyboard player, or guitar player. Guitar usually wins there. We set about choosing some tunes and rehearsing them until we were ready to showcase our little show. The first place we went was Big Al's for the Sunday jam, with Matt from the Hot Tamales. Things went really good, and we decided to try out a weekend. The first place that gave us a shot was the King's Head, during a Silly Wrabbit weekend. SugarPuss did Friday night and Silly Wrabbit did Saturday. The crowd ate it up, and we were re-booked back in for our own weekend. Curt eventually had to step aside due to schedule conflicts with his other band, so Brian came in and played with us for a few months, until he had to slow down his playing because of his new baby boy. We enlisted Jamie Warren, who had just replaced Craig in Silly Wrabbit, and had filled in for Brian for a SugarPuss weekend, so he was excited to join. Jamie Landry ended up with a chance to re-form one of his old bands, Father Nelson, so he left the band in August, just after a 5 week run. The band quickly called up Al Clarke, who has been chilling at home the last couple of years after playing in popular Calgary band Liquid Courage, with ex-Sugarpuss guitarist Brian. Al not only plays some serious guitar, but he also adds another voice to the band, which should open up some other doors regarding song selection. Armed with all the tools needed to kick some ass, the band has added songs to the setlist ranging from the classic rock chick tunes to some disco/dance to some retro hair metal.
Thanks to The Musician's Lounge.com for help with the pics!
