Get Pumped

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This article was published 03/08/2021 (605 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s taken the Pumps four decades, but the Winnipeg band that recorded Bust the TV has finally burned the CD.

Bust the TV was a single on the band’s debut album, 1980’s Gotta Move, which on July 30 became available for the first time on compact disc.

The remastered edition includes two bonus tracks preserved from live recordings and a new acoustic version of the song Coffee With the Queen that Pumps’ bassist and singer Chris Burke-Gaffney and guitarist Steve McGovern recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“We had a lot of requests on social media, surprisingly, saying, ‘When is that coming out on CD?’ so it’s finally here and it sort of coincides with the recording of the record,” Burke-Gaffney says.

The Pumps, which in 1980 included Burke-Gaffney, guitarist Lou Petrovich, drummer Terry Norman Taylor and Brent Diamond on keyboards, were among several bands, along with Streetheart and Harlequin, that emerged from Winnipeg’s nightclub scene in the late 1970s and early ‘80s to become recording and touring artists.

The Pumps turned steady gigs at clubs such as the Norlander Motor Hotel on Pembina Highway and the Osborne Village Inn — both have been torn down in the past five years — into a record deal with Polygram that led to Gotta Move.

They caught another break that got them on the same bill with future rock and roll hall of famers.

“We were super lucky; we got on tour with AC/DC,” Burke-Gaffney says. “It was a lot of hard work, a lot of hard travelling in vans, a lot of partying, a lot of drinking.

“You talk about the stereotypical rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle and it really was that.”

Burke-Gaffney says Polygram stalled the release of the Pumps’ followup for three years, which led the band to turn to another label, CBS, to put out the record. They decided to change the group’s’ name to Orphan; after two albums the band broke up.

The Pumps re-formed for a benefit concert in the late 1990s at the convention centre, and have gigged off and on ever since. Burke-Gaffney even plays bass for Harlequin these days, the Pumps’ rock rivals from the late ‘70s, but he found it was difficult to get back in the old Pumps’ groove at first.

“I didn’t listen to the Pumps or classic rock for years after (the breakup),” Burke-Gaffney says. “I would pull out the Pumps record that I hadn’t listened to for 10 or 20 years and at first listen I was cringing. But we played that show and it was a surprising success and people said we should play again.

“It’s a lot of fun and a lot less stress. We’re not trying to be rock stars any more.”

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Tonight is the opening night of a 19-show series that brings live entertainment back to the Lyric Theatre stage at Assiniboine Park.

City jazz group the Dirty Catfish Brass Band kicks off the free Casinos of Winnipeg Summer Entertainment Series, while Anishinaabe singer and rapper Leonard Sumner performs Wednesday night and bilingual singer-songwriter Kelly Bado takes the stage Thursday.

The series touts a wide variety of artists that will perform Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights until Sept. 9.

Here’s the schedule:

Aug 10: The New Lightweights; Aug. 11: Veneer and Virgo Rising; Aug. 12: the Mariachi Ghost; Aug. 17: the Sunshine Bunch; Aug. 18: Winnipeg Folk Festival songwriter workshop; Aug. 19: JayWood; Aug. 24: Rayannah; Aug. 25: the Lytics; Aug. 26: Slow Leaves; Aug. 31: Field Guide; Sept. 1: Sierra Noble; Sept. 2: Still Crazy: the music of Paul Simon; Sept. 7: Don Amero; Sept. 8: Sebastian Gaskin; Sept. 9: the Small Glories.

Shows begin at 7 p.m.

The Lyric Theatre series includes an Indigenous Day Celebration that takes place Sunday, Aug. 29, from noon to 5 p.m. and includes the Walking Wolves Singers & Dancers, Feather Talia, Sandi Bay & the Rainbow Tornadoes, Double the Trouble, Burnstick and Prairie Sky.

Sundays between Aug. 1 and Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. will be Yoga Day at the Park, which will be 60-minute yoga classes headed by Stephanie Baranowski.

The Lyric will also host a movie double bill every Friday night in August, with films rolling at 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. Here’s the lineup:

Aug: 6: The Lion King (1994 animated film) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Aug. 13: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Iron Man; Aug. 20: Zootopia and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest; Aug. 27: Onward and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

A fenced area with two controlled points of entry will be erected outside the Lyric and bubbles will be marked in the grass for physical distancing, although there will be open areas behind the fenced site.

All guests 12 and older require proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter, while children under 12 may attend when accompanied by a fully vaccinated adult. Masks will be required when entering indoor washrooms.

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Casinos in Winnipeg reopened last week, but it’ll be a bit before Club Regent Event Centre, one of the city’s more popular entertainment venues, welcomes fans back.

A host of shows have been rescheduled, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic — but here are some new concert dates for shows that were planned for August and September to put on your calendar:

An evening with Anthony Imperioli, Steven Schirippa and Vincent Pastore of The Sopranos has been postponed to March 19, 2022; classic rockers April Wine will be back May 26, 2022; and comedian and 30 Rock actor Tracy Morgan, who originally was to play the casino in March 2020, has a new date for Oct. 1, 2022.

Refunds are available for Morgan’s show, but the deadline is Sept. 18.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall

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