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West End singin' the blues while fans await Windsor's fate

By: Morley Walker

Posted: 02/24/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Enlarge Image

Musicians and blues fans show their support at a rally in front of the Windsor Hotel in January.

The West End Cultural Centre is stepping onto the blues stage vacated, at least temporarily, by the Windsor Hotel.

This while rumours circulate that the gritty 107-year-old Garry Street hotel has new owners and will return to presenting quality live music.

The WECC, the 22-year-old Ellice Avenue roots music venue and community centre, has booked the Chicago blues band Eddie Shaw & the Wolf Gang for a one-off gig March 5.

"The city needs a blues bar," says Mike Petkau, who took over as WECC artistic director in January.

"We can do our part to bring in acts for people who get excited about the blues."

The frontwoman of a community group lobbying to get the blues back to the Windsor welcomes the WECC's entry into the 12-bar musical genre.

"The city needs more venues," Kathy Kennedy says. "But the Windsor will always be the home of the blues."

Kennedy, a blues singer herself, says the hotel has been purchased by a group led by businessman Wayne Towns, the current owner of the Winnipeg Hotel on Main Street and former owner of the Royal Albert Arms.

The change of ownership takes place in March, she says.

"I've spoken with Wayne," she says. "He said he was finalizing the paperwork."

Towns could not be reached on Tuesday, but Don Matthews, owner of the La Salle and Woodbine hotels, confirmed that he, too, had heard that Towns was taking over the Windsor.

Winnipegger Sukhi Gill, listed as one of the Windsor's current owners, could not be reached. Her telephone line was not in service on Tuesday.

In January, Kennedy garnered media attention when she organized a rally in front of the hotel after she heard that it had been sold and was slated for demolition. At the time, Gill denied that it was even for sale.

Kennedy now concedes there was no truth to the demolition rumour, but she has collected 3,000 names on a petition which she has presented to the city's historical buildings committee in hopes of derailing future problems.

"We hope to God to uphold the Windsor," she says. "We don't want it to be another pit to get drunk in and watch strippers."

Kennedy forwarded an e-mail of support from musician Ben Darvill, a former member of the Winnipeg pop group the Crash Test Dummies.

"The Windsor is more than just a blues bar or a cheap hotel," he wrote from England, where he lives and works.

"It is what the Colosseum is to Rome, or the Miracle Mile is to Chicago."

At the WECC, Petkau hopes to attract the blues crowd to hear Shaw, a saxophonist famous for his 17 years playing with the late legend Howlin' Wolf.

In Shaw's five-piece band, Petkau says, is Shaw's son Vaan, "a hotshot whiz guitarist."

Tickets for the March 5 show are and $20 at Ticketmaster and the WECC

morley.walker@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 24, 2010 D3

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