The Revols
Encyclopedia
The Revols were a Canadian band from Stratford
, Ontario
, Canada
, formed in 1957, with Richard Manuel
on piano and vocals, John Till
on guitar, Ken Kalmusky
on bass, Doug Rhodes on vocals and Jim Winkler on Drums. Fourteen- and fifteen-year-old kids at the time, they were shortly adopted by Ronnie Hawkins
, and together, and individually, paved international music history in the years to come.
As The Revols gained popularity in the Ontario area, one of their first gigs was opening for Ronnie Hawkins in Port Dover
, Ontario
. According to Levon Helm
's book This Wheel's on Fire
, on page 87, the next time Ronnie Hawkins came to Stratford, The Revols were on the bill, "following" Hawkins.
Till, 15 at the time, was reluctant to quit school and was replaced by Garth Picot of Goderich
. David "Dave Mickie" Marsden
, another Stratford native, joined as the band's manager. The Revols, working for Hawkins, went to Fayetteville
, Arkansas
, and played a house gig at Hawkins' club.
By the end of 1961, The Revols returned to Stratford. Manuel remained with Hawkins, until joining Levon And The Hawks in 1964, while Kalmusky re-united with Till to form The Fab Four, the "Original" Fab Four, at the top of 1962.
The Fab Four had their own weekly television show on CHCH-TV
. On April 25, 1965, when they opened for The Rolling Stones
at Maple Leaf Gardens
in Toronto
, The Toronto Star put The Fab Four's picture in the ad, and not The Rolling Stones. Kalmusky stated in an interview with Stratford's The Beacon Herald
, "They thought we were The Beatles
, girls were diving at the car, piling on, as we were driving out of the stadium". In fact, the picture the Toronto Star ran (see photo to right) did in fact look a whole lot like the Beatles. It is speculated that The Beatles nickname became "The Fab Four", after this event. Some authors, and articles, over the last few decades, have cited this story, referencing the parallels, stating "Could 5 boys from Stratford, Ontario
really influence the nickname of the Beatles?"
By 1966, Till and Kalmusky paralleled the same move Manuel had made after their trip to Arkansas, leaving The Revols, The Fab Four, and Stratford behind, to be full-time "Hawks" in Hawkins' band.
Hawkins' band was famously "picked clean" by Albert Grossman
, manager for Janis Joplin
, Bob Dylan
, and Ian & Sylvia. The first of the former Revols to be plucked out was Manuel, by Dylan, who later formed famous roots rock band, The Band
. The second to be plucked out by Grossman, was Kalmusky, who subsequently ended up playing bass with Ian & Sylvia's group, Great Speckled Bird
, Todd Rundgren
, Jerry Reed
, and others. Lastly, in 1969, the Summer of Love
, John Till
joined Janis Joplin's Kosmic Blues Band, and in 1970, stayed on to become a member of what ended up becoming Joplin's last band, The Full Tilt Boogie Band, and recorded the album Pearl, her last record. Two of the original Revols, Richard Manuel and John Till performed at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, Manuel with The Band, and Till with Janis Joplin's Kosmic Blues Band.
, and Donald 'Philbert' Manuel were seen on the cover of People
magazine, carrying Richard Manuel's casket out of the funeral service, after his death on March 4, 1986.
.
Recently, the original Revols' reel to reel recording from 1958 of Richard Manuel
's first original song ever written, "Eternal Love", was taken to famous Toronto engineer / producer, Peter J. Moore
(Bruce Cockburn
, The Cowboy Junkies) where it was re-mastered, and is slated to come out on a Capitol Records
forthcoming box set Levon and The Hawks *The early years*.
The Revols have been noted in People
magazine, written about extensively in Levon Helm
's novel This Wheel's on Fire
, Nicholas Jennings' Before The Gold Rush, and Barney Hoskyns
' Across the Great Divide.
On August 4, 2008, the City Of Stratford dedicated a band shell in Upper Queen's Park to The Revols. A ceremony, erecting a plaque that bears the band's name, and its Stratford residents, Ken Kalmusky, Richard Manuel, John Till, Doug Rhodes
, Jimmy Winkler, Garth Picot, & David "Dave Mickie" Marsden
was unveiled at 12:30pm August 4, 2008. Followed by a concert by Plum Loco, (Kalmusky & Till's band), followed by Ronnie Hawkins.
Stratford, Ontario
Stratford is a city on the Avon River in Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada with a population of 32,000.When the area was first settled by Europeans in 1832, the townsite and the river were named after Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is the seat of Perth County. Stratford was...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, formed in 1957, with Richard Manuel
Richard Manuel
Richard George Manuel was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his contributions to and membership in The Band....
on piano and vocals, John Till
John Till
John Till is a Canadian musician. Born in Stratford, Ontario, Till played in local bands until the early 1960s when he was picked to play in Ronnie Hawkins band The Hawks, to replace previous members who had left to tour with Bob Dylan...
on guitar, Ken Kalmusky
Ken Kalmusky
Ken Kalmusky was a Canadian musician born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, to saxophonist Walter "JoJo" Kalmusky and Mary Kalmusky.-Early career:...
on bass, Doug Rhodes on vocals and Jim Winkler on Drums. Fourteen- and fifteen-year-old kids at the time, they were shortly adopted by Ronnie Hawkins
Ronnie Hawkins
Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins is a Juno Award-winning rockabilly musician whose career has spanned more than half a century. Though his career began in Arkansas, USA, where he'd been born and raised, it was in Ontario, Canada where he found success and settled for most of his life...
, and together, and individually, paved international music history in the years to come.
Early career
The band started in 1957, in Kalmusky's parents' basement, on Queen St. in Stratford. They performed the very first songs Manuel wrote, and were invited into the studio to record "My Eternal Love", Richard Manuel's first original.As The Revols gained popularity in the Ontario area, one of their first gigs was opening for Ronnie Hawkins in Port Dover
Port Dover, Ontario
Port Dover is an unincorporated community and former town located in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada on the north shore of Lake Erie.The community was the subject of an American raid during the War of 1812, on May 14, 1814....
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. According to Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
's book This Wheel's on Fire
This Wheel's on Fire
This Wheel's on Fire - Levon Helm and the Story of The Band is the 1993 autobiography of actor and musician Levon Helm, focusing on his career as a member of the rock group The Band...
, on page 87, the next time Ronnie Hawkins came to Stratford, The Revols were on the bill, "following" Hawkins.
Till, 15 at the time, was reluctant to quit school and was replaced by Garth Picot of Goderich
Goderich, Ontario
Goderich is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario and is the county seat of Huron County. The town was founded by William "Tiger" Dunlop in 1827. First laid out in 1828, the town is named after Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, who was British prime minister at the time. The town...
. David "Dave Mickie" Marsden
David Marsden
David Marsden is a Canadian radio broadcaster. As the driving force behind Brampton, Ontario radio station CFNY in the 1980s, he became an influential figure in the Canadian music industry by giving many Canadian and international alternative rock artists major Canadian radio exposure...
, another Stratford native, joined as the band's manager. The Revols, working for Hawkins, went to Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, and played a house gig at Hawkins' club.
The Fab Four
The Fab Four had their own weekly television show on CHCH-TV
CHCH-TV
CHCH-DT, channel 11, is a television station originating in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, with transmitters located throughout Ontario. CHCH currently operates as an independent station, having previously served as a CBC Television affiliate, and more recently as the flagship station of the...
. On April 25, 1965, when they opened for The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
at Maple Leaf Gardens
Maple Leaf Gardens
Maple Leaf Gardens is an indoor arena that was converted into a Loblawssupermarket and Ryerson University athletic centre in Toronto, on the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church Street in Toronto's Garden District.One of the temples of hockey, it was home to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, The Toronto Star put The Fab Four's picture in the ad, and not The Rolling Stones. Kalmusky stated in an interview with Stratford's The Beacon Herald
The Beacon Herald
The Beacon Herald is a daily newspaper published in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. The paper serves the area of Perth County, Ontario....
, "They thought we were The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, girls were diving at the car, piling on, as we were driving out of the stadium". In fact, the picture the Toronto Star ran (see photo to right) did in fact look a whole lot like the Beatles. It is speculated that The Beatles nickname became "The Fab Four", after this event. Some authors, and articles, over the last few decades, have cited this story, referencing the parallels, stating "Could 5 boys from Stratford, Ontario
Stratford, Ontario
Stratford is a city on the Avon River in Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada with a population of 32,000.When the area was first settled by Europeans in 1832, the townsite and the river were named after Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is the seat of Perth County. Stratford was...
really influence the nickname of the Beatles?"
By 1966, Till and Kalmusky paralleled the same move Manuel had made after their trip to Arkansas, leaving The Revols, The Fab Four, and Stratford behind, to be full-time "Hawks" in Hawkins' band.
Hawkins' band was famously "picked clean" by Albert Grossman
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music scene and rock and roll. He was most famous as the manager of Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1970.-Biography:...
, manager for Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, and Ian & Sylvia. The first of the former Revols to be plucked out was Manuel, by Dylan, who later formed famous roots rock band, The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
. The second to be plucked out by Grossman, was Kalmusky, who subsequently ended up playing bass with Ian & Sylvia's group, Great Speckled Bird
Great Speckled Bird (band)
Great Speckled Bird was a country rock group formed in 1969 by the Canadian musical duo Ian & Sylvia. Ian Tyson sang, played guitar and composed. Sylvia Tyson sang, composed and occasionally played piano...
, Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
, Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...
, and others. Lastly, in 1969, the Summer of Love
Summer of Love
The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a cultural and political rebellion...
, John Till
John Till
John Till is a Canadian musician. Born in Stratford, Ontario, Till played in local bands until the early 1960s when he was picked to play in Ronnie Hawkins band The Hawks, to replace previous members who had left to tour with Bob Dylan...
joined Janis Joplin's Kosmic Blues Band, and in 1970, stayed on to become a member of what ended up becoming Joplin's last band, The Full Tilt Boogie Band, and recorded the album Pearl, her last record. Two of the original Revols, Richard Manuel and John Till performed at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, Manuel with The Band, and Till with Janis Joplin's Kosmic Blues Band.
Reunion
In 1984, three original members of The Revols, Kalmusky, Manuel and Till, re-united at The Stratford Shakespearean Festival Theatre as The Revols. Opening for The Band at two sold out "The Band/Revols Reunion Shows". Not long after that, Till, Kalmusky, Levon HelmLevon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
, and Donald 'Philbert' Manuel were seen on the cover of People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine, carrying Richard Manuel's casket out of the funeral service, after his death on March 4, 1986.
Later developments
Two of the original Revols, Till, with Joplin, and Manuel, with The Band, can be seen in the 2004 film, Festival ExpressFestival Express
Festival Express is a 2003 documentary film about the eponymous 1970 train tour across Canada taken by some of North America's most popular rock bands, including The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends...
.
Recently, the original Revols' reel to reel recording from 1958 of Richard Manuel
Richard Manuel
Richard George Manuel was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his contributions to and membership in The Band....
's first original song ever written, "Eternal Love", was taken to famous Toronto engineer / producer, Peter J. Moore
Peter J. Moore
Peter Joseph Moore is a Canadian music producer who was first recognized for his innovative recordings of the Cowboy Junkies, produced on a shoestring budget.-Early life:...
(Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His most recent album was released in March 2011. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...
, The Cowboy Junkies) where it was re-mastered, and is slated to come out on a Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
forthcoming box set Levon and The Hawks *The early years*.
The Revols have been noted in People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine, written about extensively in Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
's novel This Wheel's on Fire
This Wheel's on Fire
This Wheel's on Fire - Levon Helm and the Story of The Band is the 1993 autobiography of actor and musician Levon Helm, focusing on his career as a member of the rock group The Band...
, Nicholas Jennings' Before The Gold Rush, and Barney Hoskyns
Barney Hoskyns
Barney Hoskyns is a British music critic and editor of the online music journalism archive Rock's Backpages.Hoskyns graduated from Oxford with a First Class degree in English. He began writing about music for Melody Maker and New Musical Express, quitting his job as staff writer at NME to research...
' Across the Great Divide.
On August 4, 2008, the City Of Stratford dedicated a band shell in Upper Queen's Park to The Revols. A ceremony, erecting a plaque that bears the band's name, and its Stratford residents, Ken Kalmusky, Richard Manuel, John Till, Doug Rhodes
Doug Rhodes
Doug Rhodes, multi-instrumentalist, performed with 1960s rock bands The Music Machine and The Millennium.Growing up in Garden Grove, California, Rhodes began his music career as a jazz saxophonist at the age of 16, playing with older brother Robbie Rhodes. Eventually, he became the member of a...
, Jimmy Winkler, Garth Picot, & David "Dave Mickie" Marsden
David Marsden
David Marsden is a Canadian radio broadcaster. As the driving force behind Brampton, Ontario radio station CFNY in the 1980s, he became an influential figure in the Canadian music industry by giving many Canadian and international alternative rock artists major Canadian radio exposure...
was unveiled at 12:30pm August 4, 2008. Followed by a concert by Plum Loco, (Kalmusky & Till's band), followed by Ronnie Hawkins.