1964 - The USA Tour - Les Mégatones

We all know that 1964 was the year that the Beatles toured North America.  Being one of Canada's most popular bands, we were approached by several booking agents and managers who wanted to take advantage of Beatlemania by having their own Canadian answer to the Beatles.


We chose to sign up with New York City agents, John Mack as our manager, and Johnny Brown as our booking agent .  Promises to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show appealed to us, even though we never got to do it !  Little did we know that we were not the only North American band hoping for instant success in the good old USA !  

Top row:  Denis Champoux, Guy Martineau, Michel Verreault

Bottom row:  Ralph Angelillo, Jean Poiré, Réjean Careau

We did end up doing the U.S. club scene for nine months in 1964, which gave us more and more experience in our careers.   Not always good moments, but, mostly good and interesting.     
We ended up being the house band in Jersey clubs, as well as in St. Paul, Minnesota, Detroit and even Washington, DC.


Highlights were being the club band for well-known stars such as Dionne Warwick, Tony Orlando, the Del Satins and Frankie Lymon, among others.

1964 was the year the Beatles first toured in North America.  So, as you can see in this photo, we just had to look like the Beatles in some way !  This is me in my room in Seaside Heights, NJ where we stayed whenever we played the Jersey coast ! 

TWIN DRUMS


This 1964 version of our band had something special.  Two drummers !  Before leaving for the U.S. tour,  drummer Réjean Careau joined the band to give us a unique drive and look on stage, with my drums next to Réjean's.  Combining two different ways of drumming, the result from the audience was a very original percussion sound backing up the band.  Réjean had solid timing and along with my way of playing, we created a locomotive-like groove giving the rest of the guys a solid foundation.  We had found out later that only James Brown played with two drummers .  


The band broke up in February 1965 while in Washington, DC, this is when we realized that we were still kids, lonesome from being away from home, and like many bands on the road, the arguements and fights between some of the guys, became sort of unbearable.  All in all,
a great experience of life, being on the road at an early age.