L-R:
Sandra 'Smokie' Holm (guitar), Irene
'Beenie' Lesiuk (keyboards), Revellie
Nixon (drums), Hugette 'Yogie' Trudel
(bass)
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All-female band Honey came together in
1974 when a few friends who were hanging
around Orfans guitarist Danny Holmes’
McCalman Avenue home decided to form a
band. Guitarist Sandra (Smokey) Holm (née
Ellefson), bass player Hugette (Yogie)
Trudel and keyboard player Irene (Beeni)
Lesiuk recruited drummer Revellie Nixon
after placing an ad in the newspaper.
Holms was the most experienced, having
played in all-girl American band the
Ladybirds, who appeared at the Town &
Country supper club in the late ’60s.
“I wasn’t looking to be in a band,” notes
Lesiuk, “but I just went along with it for
fun.”
For Nixon, however, playing drums was her
life calling.
“I was 16 when I joined the band,” she
says. “The other girls were older. But
from the time I started playing drums at
age 9, I loved it. I just knew I was
different than other girls because I just
wanted to play in a band. I used to stand
outside the St. Vital Hotel because I was
too young and listen to Marc LaFrance
(Musical Odyssey, Crowcuss) playing and
singing. I wanted to be like him.”
Honey played the bar scene for a few
years, with Nixon using a fake ID as she
was underage.
“I had a lot of guy friends who were
musicians,” states Lesiuk, “and they were
cool with the idea of an all-girl band.
But some girls weren’t so cool about it. I
remember playing the Kenricia Hotel in
Kenora and a group of girls in the
audience walking by the front of the stage
and flicking their cigarette butts at us
because they thought we were going to
steal their boyfriends.”
While Nixon made music her
career, most female
musicians and singers from that period
left the business to marry, have kids or
return to school.
Nonetheless, they were groundbreakers for
female rockers today.
John Einarson
Excerpt from GIRL
ROCKERS WERE GROUNDBREAKING
published in the Winnipeg Free Press,
November 21, 2015
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