KENSINGTON MARKET - A Band Too Far Ahead of its Time
KENSINGTON MARKET - A Band Too Far Ahead of its Time
Anyone living in Toronto during the late 60s would have known about this band. I was much involved with them, not only because I was their lawyer and their manager's lawyer, but because in a way I could almost be called a groupie as I was certainly a very good friend of the band members and their manager and watched many of their performances. Their history is documented fairly well in this Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Market_(band)
Alex Darou, the one in front in the photo, was the boyfriend of my (eventual and now ex) wife's best friend. He was extremely spiritual, but went overboard and actually starved himself to death. The one behind him leaning to the left is Jimmy Watson, who was small enough to fit into his yellow Lotus. Luke Gibson, leaning to the right was a partner with the band's manager, Bernie Finkelstein, in purchasing an abandoned farm in the remote Killaloe area of Ontario that I found for them, and I spent many weekends there alone as they didn't use it much. This is a photo of the barns behind the farmhouse I took when I was there one time:
Behind Luke is Gene Martynec, an amazingly talented guitar player and songwriter. Luke and Gene remained as my clients for many years after the band's breakup. Finally, the lead singer, Keith McKie, who had an absolutely golden voice.
As they were not particularly famous, I cannot find any of their music on the internet music sites I have access to, but I'm sure you can find something by them or one of them on YouTube.
I recall one time when the band travelled to Kingston, about a 2 hour drive on the Queen Elizabeth Way from Toronto, to play at a high school. I got a desperate phone call from John-John, their roadie, who FORGOT TO TAKE THEIR GUITARS. So with the girl who was with me at the time we raced over to their rehearsal hall, grabbed their guitars and drove at 100 mph + to the high school, marched in with their guitars through the auditorium while the audience were clapping and shouting for the concert to start, and saw the relief plastered on the band's faces when we gave them their guitars.
They were later joined by John Mills-Cockell, an exceptionally talented Synthesizer player who also became my client.
They impressed Felix Pappalardi, who produced and performed their two albums, arranged their American tours and perhaps if Felix had not been shot and killed by his wife, the trauma of that loss most likely contributing to their breakup, their sound, so advanced for their time, might have become better known and appreciated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Pappalardi
In any event, at this point in time, Kensington Market has become only a memory of my earlier life.
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Nothing about Trump or religion so I guess this article will be wiped off the board in a day.
Trump wants to be a king like the King of Kensington. That's an on-topic comment by the way!
The "King of Kensington" was Al Waxman, a Toronto actor I knew fairly well.
I remember the show well, cool that you knew big Al.
you had some interesting clients
I sure did, from bikers to high-ranking executives, from folksingers to real estate moguls, from head-shop owners to the Toronto chapter of an International Children's Charity, from famous artists to lawyer colleagues.........
I haven't heard of the group in quite some time...
Good article Buzz.
Thank you SO MUCH, Sixpick. I've not listened to their music for ages.
I do believe that in a former life, I had at least one KM vinyl album - good memories.
No idea of the tragic history.
Thanks Buzz!
Again thanks, Six. Don't stop. Keith's most famous song was "I Would Be The One".
That picture is one of the streets in the downtown area of Toronto called Kensington Market. Those yellow houses resemble one that one of my clients, and a long-time friend, lived in. Today such a house in that location would sell for more than a million dollars. Another one near there was purchased by a famous French restaurateur for his French Restaurant, who was also I client of mine (I acted for a few restaurateurs). His daughter used to babysit my kids.
You don't know how good it is for me to listen to those songs again, Six. Memories of my life from half a century ago.
One this one I'm just posting the audio, since the video is the same photo as your article.
Nice.
Great music! I never heard of them before. Thanks for the tunes! There were def, before their time.
Good article, Buzz; and good music, Six.
Thank you, both.
This song truly indicated the totally different direction taken by the group from the music of the day, although in that regard it also displayed the influence that the Beatles played in their offshoot direction.
I always considered Phoebe to be a "fun" song, written, I believe, by guitarist Gene Martynec - certainly a very different direction from most rock groups.
Just another example of how unique this group was, why I considered them so special, and why I was so sad to witness their demise.