Oshawa This Weekend - ENTERTAINMENT - February 24, 1978
Bitter Blue Raises Balloon At Oshawa's Main Street
With a hot air balloon to advertise a club and a possible recording contract in Korea, Bitter Blue, a rock band playing at the Genosha Hotel's Main Street, is anything but mundane. The Toronto-based musicians, chosen as the most promising group in CHUM radio's Super Session competition last summer, are expecting things to happen in a big way.
The release of their first album, Child Of The Stars, will be the key to Bitter Blue's rise to stardom. And with the help of a smooth publicity campaign, headed up by their manager, Ed Dzenis, the group anticipates better days. Mr. Dzenis says that family connections may lead to the recording of the disc in the less expensive studios in the Orient. "It is being worked on through diplomatic channels" he says. "We are looking at the end of March.
The balloon is the manager's brain child too. Before the band and Mr. Dzenis' "destinies met six months ago" he was involved in an advertising promotion gimmick using a balloon as the medium. With his addition to the Bitter Blue entourage came the 56,000 cubic feet of hot air which is emplazoned with the group's name on the ball of material which envelopes it. "We may put it up in Oshawa, but only if the wind is right", Mr. Dzenis cautions. Bitter Blue is at Main Street tonight and Saturday, so we may never get to see the sphere.
But, if you wander down to the club this weekend to catch their act, you'll witness some competent rock. And when the band features it's original tunes like Child Of The Stars, Before The Universe and Gideon--an entertaining bit of rock theater hampered only some over-indulgent guitar riffs from lead player Tom Hoy --- Bitter Blue shows glimpses of inventiveness as well.
Also in the five-year-old band are drummer Paul Kinney and bassist Alec Fraser, both new members, plus originals Brent Moss on keyboards, singer Paul Fletcher and lead guitarist Tom Hoy. Bitter Blue performs songs from the albums of The Beatles, Jeff Beck and Queen and present a commendable Moody Blues medley, a refreshing repertoire from the usual bar band stuff. The name of the group, by the way, is lifted from the title of a Cat Steven's song on his Teaser and the Fire Cat disc. The band doesn't perform the tune in it's set, however.
Article by Bob Thompson - Staff Writer