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The Skaliwags
365 Days a Year / Turn Him Down - 7"
Excellent - 1966
Michael Panontin
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This monster of a double-sider is reputed to be one of the rarest and most sought-after garage records in all of Canuckistan. The band behind it, a Gatineau quintet called the Skaliwags, had been kicking around the capital region since as far back as 1961, playing under different names like the Blue Angels and the Tru-Tones.
Unbeknownst to many at the time, the five were actually a mix of anglophone and francophone. "I was the singer for the Skaliwags," Ed Mitchell informs us on the Garage Hangover site. "The version of the group that recorded 'Turn Him Down' consisted of [me], John Bacho lead guitar, Gerry Foster (real name Gerry Fortier) rhythm guitar, Andy Cody (real name Andre Cote) bass guitar and Gil Brooks (real name Jules Leclair) drums. The names were changed so as not to appear to come from Gatineau, since we thought that it would make a difference to Ottawa kids."
Mitchell credits the group's success in part to those Big 12 shows at the old Ottawa Coliseum in Lansdowne Park, where a dozen bands would do two sets apiece to crowds that often swelled to 8,000 kids. It was there, he tells us, that they made many of their contacts, like promoter John Brower (who would later put on the Rock and Roll Revival festival in Toronto), CFRA deejay Al Pascal and, presumably, Alex Sherman of Sherman's Music and owner of the Excellent label.
With Sherman's cash, the guys were hustled off to RCA studios in Montreal in February of 1966 to record the first of two singles on Excellent. That disc, the effortlessly groovy '365 Days a Year' with the Beatlesque 'Turn Him Down' over on the back, was issued a few months later, with the b-side allegedly reaching the top spot on Ottawa's CFRE charts. RPM dutifully took notice of the band's talents. "From the nation's capital comes news of a not so new group known as the Skaliwags. Not so new because they were once known as the Tru-Tones," they write in the April 18, 1966 edition. "Keeping up with the 'in' sound, they've been playing to good crowds in Deep River, Kingston, Brockville and their own Ottawa area. A record release is now being considered plus a tour of Canada."
The Skaliwags issued a second seven-inch the following year, 'Me Minus More' b/w 'Broken Man I Am', but by this time only Mitchell and Fortier were left from the earlier line-up. Mitchell would ultimately leave the fold in October 1967 to join the short-lived Musical Fantasy, but by December "I quit music altogether when my lung collapsed on stage at what was then called Immaculata High School on Bronson Ave."
('365 Days a Year' was issued a couple of times with different label designs, both allegedly in runs in the low hundreds, so tracking down a copy of either version will be a tough slog. And be prepared to pay, as mintish ones will set you back about half a grand these days.)
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