Ken
Storie, Paul Solon, Mike Kotyk, Leigh
Moore
From a Brandon Sun article, early 1971
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Band history
was written & submitted by Ken
Storie, along with the accompanying
images.
Blind Justice formed in the summer of
1970. The original lineup was: Leigh
Moore (Keyboards), Paul Solon (Bass), Mike
Kotyk (Drums), and Del Krauchi (Guitar).
Del quit in Jan of 1971 and I had to
audition to get the gig.
That was followed by a busy winter of high
school dances throughout Westman.
In those days a live rock show, in a small
town, was still a relatively new thing,
and deeply appreciated.
We might not have been able to sound just
like Led Zeppelin or the Allman Brothers,
but we were pretty sure that being loud
was the first step. Our crowds had
never heard those bands. They were
happy with what we were doing and cut us a
lot of slack. We didn’t play a
string of hit pop songs, we played what we
liked. As long as it was loud, in
tune, and you could dance to it, the
audience was content. Extended solos
and jams happened without plan. We
often opened with an entire side of the
first Santana album featuring long
instrumental and rhythm passages.
 By
the spring of 71 we had settled into a
routine, which included consistent weekly
practice at the North End Community
Centre, where we had the use of the hall
in return for playing an annual
dance. We took what we were doing
seriously, and worked hard on
arrangements.
Mike Kotyk left the band and was replaced
briefly with John Morgan, then Jamie
Durward.
I have to say again that the spirit of the
times encouraged us to expand out
horizon. We didn’t have to learn the
latest pop song to get work, we were busy
as it was. What was cool was to be
seen as progressive or original.
In 1971 bands like Blood Sweat & Tears
and Chicago were taking heavy rock basics
and adding horns. Santana, one of
our favourites, also recorded with horns,
so adding a second drummer and horns
seemed like a cool thing to do.
Drummer Mike Burtch had jammed with us a
few times, and I believe that was the
start of the idea of expanding the band.
We met a high school student, Dave
Hasselfield from Deloraine, who could
really play rock and roll, we added him to
the band.
By fall we had added a trumpet player,
Mike Pettit, and started working on songs
by groups like Chicago while we added horn
parts to much of our older repertoire.
 We
also found a teenager from Virden, Gaye
Harry who could sing like Janice
Joplin. We added her to join the
band and expand our options even further!
By
that fall our set list was miles away from
where we had started. I loved the
latest stones album, and Brown Sugar had a
sax solo! Leigh liked horn sections
and painstakingly charted trumpet and sax
parts for Dave and Mike. Gaye added
harmonies and sang solo on some of the
newer female rock. Horns added punch
to songs like Joe Cocker’s Delta Lady.
We did gain some distinction and people
took note that we were not just your run
of the mill rock band. One highlight
was playing the Vibrations Club in
Winnipeg.
Another highlight was being the “House”
band at Danceland at Clear Lake for a
summer.
More lineup changes.
The eight-piece band, while interesting
and challenging, was hard to manage.
In hindsight, or even at the time, one
could see that there were too many
conflicting ideas. By the spring of
1971 Mike Burtch, Gaye, and Mike Pettit
had left the group and were replaced by
Barb Good a high school student from
Souris on sax, and a young trumpet player
from Brandon, Garth Scott. That
lineup lasted through the summer, but I
think the experiment was over.
When Dave and Jamie left the band, we went
back to basics, bringing in local drummer
Marty Old. That winter Leigh left
for Ontario to pursue opportunities there,
and we brought in Garth Dandy.
At the end of the winter of 1973, I was
ready to begin a teaching career and had
to move away to do that. Paul and
Marty carried on for a while before
turning to other projects.
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Ken
Storie, Paul Solon, Garth Scott, Barb
Good, Jamie Durwood, Dave Hasselfield,
Leigh Moore |
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