Gerry Boulet aurait eu 73 ans le 1er mars 2019, témoignage de John McGale.

John McGale fait souvent de beaux témoignage au sujet de nos artistes qui ont façonné la musique québécoise, voici un texte touchant  pris sur Facebook:

Synchronicity.

I woke up this morning and the first thing I thought of was my old friend and partner in Offenbach Gerry Boulet. This happens just about every year at this time. Gerry’s birthday is tomorrow, March 1st.

I was wondering how he would be doing, how he would look and if we would still be making music together. I always thought that Gerry would look like Gilles Vigneault as he got older, their profiles are very similar and the same brilliant blue eyes. Gilles is now 90.

I did the math in my head and realized that he would be 73 this year. He was eleven years older than me. I am now 22 years older than he was when he died.

I owe a lot to my old friend, I wouldn’t have had half the opportunities that have opened up to me if he hadn’t contacted me 3 times to join the band before I finally agreed. Once I join something I stay with it. I’m very cautious about getting involved and committing myself to a project unless I feel good about the people I work with. I don’t want playing music to become a job.

Gerry was my mentor and my friend and as a songwriter he recognized my talent early on and put me to work. I became the principal songwriter for the band starting in 1978. I had only been in the band 2 months when we started recording our landmark Lp « Traversion ». I wrote 5 out of 10 songs on that record.

He defended me on several occasions when people were harassing me for being « English » (I’m Irish by the way….BIG difference!). The separatist movement was in full force in the late 1970’s and all through the 1980’s. It was not always easy to be an « Anglo » in Quebec at that time, and Gerry always stood by me and made sure I was okay. There were a few times when some guys were itching to beat me up, especially in the really pro-Quebec – Fuck the English parts of the province….and there were a lot of them at the time. There was an exodus of English people leaving the province then and lot of Quebecers wanted to see me get back on the bus heading down the 401.

But….I liked in here. I was a Quebecer by choice, not simply because I was born here. My friends were here.

I started getting prepared to head to the dive boat this morning, thinking about Gerry being 73. He was 33 when I first met him on June 4th 1978.

I got to the dive center. I do not own my own dive equipment and rely on Seafari to supply me with what I need. A wetsuit, BCV, regulator, fins, mask and dive computer all put neatly into a large dive bag. Numbered, so it’s easy to identify.

I looked at the bag after Camille gave it to me. #73.

I think Gerry was thinking about me too.

Offenbach Spectacle Acoustique au Quartier de Lune le 12 janvier 2019.

Samedi 12 janvier 2019 de 22 h 30 à 01 h 00

Quartier de Lune1096 3e avenue, Québec G1L 2X4

https://www.facebook.com/events/310505123110841/

○ Mike Deway, Randal Spear, John McGale au pub Limoilou le 31 oct. 2015.

https://www.facebook.com/Pub-Limoilou-Blues-Bar-206427692722084/timeline

• Offenbach à Montreux: un spectacle mythique sort de l’oubli

(Québec) Les fans du groupe rock Offenbach pourront remercier le guitariste John McGale d’avoir fait son grand ménage l’an dernier, puisque l’exercice aura permis de mettre la main sur l’enregistrement d’un spectacle mythique donné à Montreux, en Suisse, en 1980 qui vient d’être gravé pour la première fois sur CD.

lire la suite de l’article de Ian Bussières dans Le Soleil.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/offenbach12

♦ John McGale au Petit Impérial le 12 avril 2013

un retour attendu, John McGale sera au Petit Impérial le 12 avril prochain.