"It
all began in 1980 when four young Winnipeg
lads got together with an idea of
a band that brought together the 'World’s
Greatest Entertainers' live on stage."
L-R:
Rick Kosheluk, Tom Pshednovak, Brent
Degryse, Wayne Hlady
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A few years ago, Wayne Hlady
was putting together a Shania Twain
tribute act as part of his duties with
Bravo Concert Productions.
One afternoon, the woman fronting the
group arrived at rehearsal carrying a new
dress she intended to wear onstage,
remarking it had cost her $250. One of the
guys in the band remarked, “Jeez, we’re
going to need to get a lot of jobs to pay
for that,” to which Hlady immediately
replied, “If you think $250 is a lot of
dough, you definitely don’t want to be in
a Beatles band.”
Although Hlady won’t divulge exactly how
much Free Ride spent a few years ago on
colourful get-ups depicting the Beatles
during their Sgt. Pepper period, he
motions up with his thumb three times when
a scribe asks, “$1,000? $2,000? $3,000?”
“We carry 14 guitars, each one of which is
an exact replica of what the guys in the
Beatles and Stones used,” he says, adding
his Ludwig drum kit – which he guesses
he’s torn down and set up 100,000 times
through the years – is precisely the same
as the kit Ringo Starr employed in the
early ’60s.
“If somebody offered me $1 million for
that kit tomorrow I wouldn’t take it,” he
says with a laugh. “When I’m done playing,
that will go to my daughters. There are
way too many memories associated with it
to ever let it go.”
David Sanderson
Excerpt from LONG, WINDING ROAD published in the
Winnipeg Free Press, January 4, 2020
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Photo credit: James
Bordass
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Photo credit: James
Bordass
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