Finder’s Keepers was the name
of a rock and roll band that played in
Winnipeg, Manitoba from 1965 to
1968. The name “Finder’s Keepers”
was given to the band by Burton Cummings
of the Deverons. The original group
consisted of Graham Reynolds on drums,
Bill Vandurme on bass guitar, Bob Miller
on lead guitar, George Spanogiannis on
rhythm guitar and harmonica, and Len
Ross on key boards. The group was a
top 40 cover band that played the hits of
the day at community clubs, high schools,
clubs, and private parties. Their
repertoire consisted of songs that had
been recorded by the Searchers, the Dave
Clark Five, the Beatles, the Rolling
Stones, the Animals, the Yardbirds,
etc. There was no single lead
singer. Four of the guys had sung in
school choirs and thus took turns singing
lead on different songs.
The whole thing started in July of
1965. The band practiced for two
months on the stage in the basement
banquet hall of St. Mathews Church.
By the end of August we had a repertoire
of thirty songs, a manager (Gerry
Chapman), a fan club of six young ladies,
but no bookings. There were a lot of
good bands in the city at that time and it
was difficult for a new band to get
started. To overcome this dilemma
Finder’s Keepers ran their own dance in
the basement of St. Mathews Church.
We hired a disc jockey (Harry Taylor) from
a local radio station to be the M.C.
He promoted the dance on the radio and
mentioned the name of our band over and
over again along side more established
bands. We invited reps from several
community clubs to attend so that we could
audition for them. This strategy
paid off as we received three bookings and
never had to sponsor a dance by ourselves
again.
The most memorable dance we ever played
was on a cold, blistery, January night at
the Northwood Community Centre on Burrows
Ave. The snow was blowing and the
temperature was -35°C. Consequently
a small crowd turned out. The M.C.
that evening was Boyd Kozak, a DJ at a
local radio station. Just before we
were about to start playing Boyd huddled
us together and said, “Although you have a
small crowd out there, they braved this
cold weather and paid to see you
play. They deserve your best
show. Are you ready to give them
that?” We nodded our heads in
agreement and played our hearts out that
night.
Although we did not make much money that
evening we learned a valuable lesson that
we never forgot. Never take your
audience for granted. Always give
them your best no matter how many people
are out there because as Boyd said: “They
paid to see you play. They deserve
your best show”.
As the year passed Bob Miller left the
band for personal reasons. He was
replaced by Ric Stokell. Graham
Reynolds moved to Edmonton. He was
replaced by Bob Watson. George
Spanogiannis left and joined another band.
Bill Vandurme became our manager. He
was replaced by Brian Rudolph.
What we had now was the second version of
the band. The only person who played with
both lineups was Len Ross.
With only four members in the band and
having lost three of our singers, it
became apparent that if we were to survive
we had to find a lead singer.
Fortunately for us, Geoff Marrin, lead
singer of The Mongrels, became available
at this time. Our manager contacted
Geoff and within a day or two he was
practicing with us. It was a match
made in heaven. We all got along and
enjoyed playing music together.
To distinguish our band from some of the
other working groups we billed ourselves
as a “show group”. We did a lot of
songs that had been recorded by The
Animals and the Stones because they suited
Geoff’s voice. We were a very busy
band and played a lot of fraternity and
sorority parties at local hotels like the
Fort Garry and the International Inn in
addition to high schools and community
clubs.
The most bizarre booking we ever had was a
“barn dance”. Our manager told us we
had been booked to do a barn dance.
I asked him if the people who booked us
realized that we were not a polka band nor
were we a country western band. He
said they specifically asked for us and
they knew we were a rock band. Then
I asked him if this was going to be held
in a dance hall barn or a real barn.
He didn’t know. We found out pretty
quickly when we arrived at the location of
the dance. It was a small real barn
that could hold about eight large animals
and came with straw and all the
characteristic odors that one associates
with a barn. We actually had a lot
of fun that night playing a frat party in
a real barn. We tripped the circuit
breakers three or four times since there
was only one fifteen amp circuit in the
barn. They had to run extension cords from
the house and we had to turn down our
volume.
The most hectic gig we ever experienced
was a double booking on the same
evening. We had to play a graduation
dance in a school gym from 8:30 P.M. to
11:30 P.M. Then we had to play the
River Rouge riverboat for the same grads
from midnight until 2:00 A.M. Half
an hour was not enough time to tear down
the equipment at the school and then
travel to the boat and set everything up
for the next show. In order to
overcome this conundrum we spoke with the
grad committee and came up with this
plan. Twenty minutes before the end
of the show the drummer stopped playing
and tore down his equipment. Five
minutes later the key board player did the
same. The P.A. system was
disassembled shortly after that. For
the final few minutes of the gig only the
lead guitar player was playing. At
the stroke of 11:30 P.M. he unplugged his
guitar, someone grabbed his amp, and both
of them ran out of the gym to vehicles
that were waiting outside. We raced
to the River Rouge dock as quickly as we
could. Thank goodness there were no
red light cameras at the time. By
12:05 A.M. we were playing our first song
as the boat left the dock.
The second lineup of Finder’s Keepers
played as a rock and roll band for two
years from 1966 to 1968. In those
two years we performed over 140 shows.
One evening in April of 1968 Geoff, our
lead singer, arrived at practice and
announced that he would be leaving our
group to join another group called “Sugar
and Spice”. Obviously we were
disappointed but wished him all the best
in his future endeavors. This was
the end of Finder’s Keepers as a
band. We could have found another
lead singer and continued but it would not
have been the same.
On January 29, 2011 Patrick Friesen, an
author, wrote an article in The Winnipeg
Review entitled “In Praise of
Burton”. In his opening paragraph he
wrote:
“I listened to the little green radio in
my parents’ house in rural Manitoba in the
60s. When they were out, I’d bring
it into my room and crank up CKY or
CKRC. Rock ‘n’ roll. I loved
everything coming out of England back
then, 1964/65. Each day there would
be a new single followed by the
album. In between numbers, I’d often
hear Dino Corey or PJ the DJ announce what
groups would be playing at what Winnipeg
community clubs, Saturday night
dances. Finder's Keeper, the
Devrons, and a group known as Chad Allen
and the Expressions.”
Note: The Winnipeg Review was on
online publication that ceased
operations in November 2017. To
the best of our knowledge, none of the
articles published between 2010 and it's
closing date were ever archived.
So what happened to the guys in
Finder’s Keepers?
Original Group
- Graham Reynolds – Was
actually an accomplished pianist and
our musical director. He could
have played keyboards for any group in
the city but instead chose to play
drums for us. He became a lawyer
in Toronto specializing in competition
and antitrust law.
- Bob Miller – moved to
Ottawa and worked for the Federal
Government.
- Bill Vandurme – became the
business manager of the second edition
of Finder’s Keepers. After
completing his schooling he worked as
a business education teacher at
Rossburn Collegiate for a few years
and then at Dakota Collegiate for the
remainder of his teaching career.
- George Spanogiannis –
moved to Los Angeles and became the
president of Janis Imports Inc.
- Len Ross (Rosolowich) –
became a biology/science teacher at
St. John’s High School. While
working as a teacher he performed as a
dancer and singer in the chorus at
Rainbow Stage and the Hollow Mug
Theatre Restaurant in the
International Inn.
Finder’s Keepers #2
- Brian Rudolph – went on to
play in other Winnipeg bands like The
Potted Plant, The Elastic Band, and
Leighton Coal. Brian is now
retired having owned a large
mechanical contracting company in
Calgary. He often gets together
with
- Ric Stokell – went on to
play in more Winnipeg bands including
The Potted Plant, The Elastic Band,
and Leighton Coal. Ric is now
retired and living on an acreage
outside of Calgary with his wife and
grandson. Ric and Brian Rudolph
have remained friends to this day and
still get together frequently to play
rock and roll.
- Geoff Marrin – played with
Sugar and Spice for a couple of years
and then left. Some time later
he resurfaced as the lead singer of a
Winnipeg band called Honey
Throat. Eventually he moved to
British Columbia and was employed by
B. C. Forestry. He is currently (2014)
working in a provincial park on
Vancouver Island.
- Bob Watson – After the
Finders Keepers, Bob became the
drummer with Mantae, after the tragic
death of their drummer, Tommy
Thompson. They were a really
popular band, especially with the
university crowd. Bob played with them
{Mantae} until they disbanded in
1968. He then became an
elementary school teacher and worked
for the St James-Assiniboia School
division, 15 years as a teacher and 19
years as a principal. He married
me (Suzanne Hammond) in 1972, had 3
children, and now 6
grandchildren. He retired from
St James in June 2006, and managed his
son Neil's music school for 4
years. He still drums, and has
played with Neil, a prominent Winnipeg
jazz saxophonist, on several
occasions. He'd love to jam with
anyone from that fabulous era
anytime! - Suzanne Watson 2014
- Len Ross (Rosolowich) –
became a biology/science teacher at
St. John’s High School. While
working at the school he performed in
teacher bands that played at staff
social functions and student pep
rallies.
There
were three other musicians who briefly
played with Finder’s Keepers at one time
or another. They are as follows:
- Peter Koskie – lead guitar
- Dennis Browaty - bass
guitar
- Kenny Hordichuk – drums
Fun Fact: Fred Finder was the name
of our mascot, a plush toy dog that had
been given to us by our fan club, and we
were Finder’s Keepers.
Special thanks to Len Ross
(Rosolowich) - 2014
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