Max Webster - Diamonds Diamonds


Issued in Canada June 1977 on Anthem ANS-005.The origins of Max Webster date back to when Kim Mitchell played guitar as a teenager in a Sarnia, Ontario group called The Quotations, with Brian McLellan (drums). Jim Chevalier (rhythm guitar, lead vocalist), Phil Goodwin (keyboards, sax) and Dave Myles (bass) came from Unit Four. The five of them started out as The Grass Company. Later, they changed the name to Big Al's Band. They played over a large area, expanding into Michigan. In Battle Creek, they opened for the MC5. When they relocated to Toronto, they changed their name again to Zooom (with 3 'o's). The band was unable to succeedthere, so all the members but Kim returned to Sarnia.

Terry Watkinson (keyboards, vocals) was born in Fort William, Ontario. Growing up in Toronto, he began with Sonny&The Sequins, and then joined Merseybeat group Dee&The Yeomen in 1964. Over the period 1965-1967, they made eight singles. Over time, their name evolved to Dee&The Quotum, The Yeomen and Rock Show Of The Yeomen.Gary McCracken (drums) came from Zing Dingo, a three-piece jazz-rock group from Windsor. Later Max Webster bassist Dave Myles also played in this group.

Mike Tilka (bass, vocals) is from Indiana, and his route to Max Webster is insufficiently documented. Sorry about that.

Kim Mitchell had gone to Greece to back up a lounge musician. After six months, he invited childhood friend Paul Woods, who adopted the pseudonym Pye Dubois, to join him. In Greece, the two wrote songs and created the plan to start a group with some Sarnia friends, and call it Max Webster. Dubois wrote the lyrics, Mitchell wrote the music, and Terry Watkinson contributed a fair number of his own outstanding songs to the group's repertoire.

The real dirt on the origin of the name, as quoted by Mitchell, is that Mike Tilka's previous band used to play a song called "Webster." "We wanted to have a name like Jethro Tull, where there wasn't anyone by that name in the group." This puts to rest the rumor that the name was chosen from a phone book at random.

Their first drummer was Paul Kersey. He was with them from the beginning, through the first album. After a falling out with Mitchell, Kersey left to form The Hunt, and Gary McCracken was recruited. In 1975, they were signed by SRO Productions, the management division of the newly-formed Anthem Records. Their first, self-titled album in 1976, was released on manager Ray Danniels' Taurus label initially. This edition of the LP is extremely scarce now. It waslater released on Anthem, as would their second LP, "High Class In Borrowed Shoes," and all subsequent albums.

"Diamonds Diamonds" was their first single on Anthem (a previous one was on Taurus), and only the fifth single in the Anthem catalogue. It didn't chart in RPM, but we can assume that it came out around the same time as the album. "High Class In Borrowed Shoes" charted June 25, 1977 at #91, and reached #44 on September 3rd.

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Channel: Music
Uploaded: July 5, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Author: mojofilter02

Length: 00:03:23
Rating: 5.00
Views: 745

Tags: Webster Kim Mitchell Max pop Diamonds rock Canadian 1977

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Video Comments:
cjthemusicman (July 8, 2008 at 7:37 am)
Excellent! Great guy! I hope he realizes that he had, and has, a great effect on Canadian music!Thanks for the music, Kim!
secordman (July 6, 2008 at 4:05 am)
Kim's been an afternoon DJ on Toronto's Q107 for over a year now. He's also doing a few tour dates this summmer, the Calgary Stampede, Lloydminster Agricultural Fair, Fergus, Meaford, no doubt somewhere in Muskoka too. I'm sure he's still a fixture at coffee shops in his east end neighbourhood, just one of the regulars.

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