The Welland House

[Freddy G]

There is a club / hotel in my hometown of St. Catharines called The Welland House. From the time I could pass for being of age (which was when I was about 16 and over 6 feet tall) I used to sneak into that club every week to watch the bands. Yeah, sure they served me, but I wasn't there for the booze.....I would nurse one beer the whole night.
The Welland House was the most amazing sounding venue...a soundman's dream. I think that I was hooked right from the first time I went there on the magic and visceral power of a great rock band. The floor was laid out cabaret style...tables and chairs. Big stage elevated about 2 1/2 feet, bands always brought in massive stereo PAs and light shows.
I started gigging there with my first band just before I turned 18...my first pro gig. And we always brought in production that rivaled the touring bands that came through. My friend Jimmy Johnson was Rush's guitar tech....he lived in town and he owned a PA that we rented from him. The PA included lots of cast off gear from older Rush tours.....The FOH rack had Urei LA4 compressors, Urei graphic EQs, Delta Lab delays. All JBL speakers in stereo and all Bryston 4b power amps. I realize now how good we had it compared to what any club band has today (never mind a band of 18 year olds!)
Add to that a 24 par can light show with specials, a large black backdrop and a Rosco fog machine. And a dedicated soundman and lightman. We looked and sounded HOT!
The club owner loved us and booked us often....I think we played there 5 or 6 times a year....and the gig was always a three nighter....Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We drew a crowd and they drank. I always made it a point to talk to the waitresses and the bartenders to see how the sales were. I'd count the empty beer cases....60, 70 or 80 cases for the night was not unusual. Damn right the bar owner liked us....I think we could have played Lithuanian polkas for all he cared....he was raking it in!
But yeah they treated us right...always gave us each a hotel room (even though I lived 5 minutes away)....but at that age we partied like animals.....can't even count the number of times I got lucky at that club.
And also unlucky.....sleeping with a chick I met that night and waking up to find her and my guitar gone. sigh....good times.

Sadly, this morning I woke up to this news:

 

[decoy205]

Damn that’s terrible. Sorry to hear about that.

 

[Freddy G]

Damn that’s terrible. Sorry to hear about that.

Yes. It was a historic building. Built in 1853....quite an interesting history!

https://stcatharinesmuseumblog.com/2016/02/16/after-the-underground-railroad/

 

[brokentoeswalker]

Last time I went to St. Kits was to get a kid settled into a place to go to college. The streets were full of crackheads/prostitutes/grifters and it looked like the town must have been broke cause it was filthy. Very unCanadian to my eye. I chalked it up to it being in a low rent area but damn. I know it's close to the border as well but it's nice country out there. I was surprised.

Sorry to hear about the lost of that club. It's always sad. Our memories are tied to these places and when they are gone, it does diminish them. I'm finding that out with people now that most of my friends are dead. The times you shared with them also diminish because you have no one left to share in that memory.

 

[Freddy G]

Last time I went to St. Kits was to get a kid settled into a place to go to college. The streets were full of crackheads/prostitutes/grifters and it looked like the town must have been broke cause it was filthy. Very unCanadian to my eye. I chalked it up to it being in a low rent area but damn. I know it's close to the border as well but it's nice country out there. I was surprised.

Sorry to hear about the lost of that club. It's always sad. Our memories are tied to these places and when they are gone, it does diminish them. I'm finding that out with people now that most of my friends are dead. The times you shared with them also diminish because you have no one left to share in that memory.

It's still like that. Not far from the Welland House is the new Performing Arts Centre. A beautiful, modern state of the art facility. People rave about how it transformed the downtown core. Yeah right. Whenever I go there to work (sometimes mix sound in one of the three venues) I trip over bums lying by the front doors, pass by prostitutes and grifters and the street is loaded with freaks. I sure as shit won't go near that area unless I'm paid to. It's so sad really. It wasn't like that in the 80s....it was just a very sleepy downtown. Then in the 90s there was an explosion of college kids rooming in the downtown core and it slid fast into a kind of progressive anti-establishment hellhole of freaks, drug addicts and punks. A very sharp divide of well heeled people coming from the north and south end of town to see the symphony orchestra and the low lives downtown.

 

[PapaSquash]

Thanks for sharing your bit of history with the place, and I'm sorry for your loss. The passing of these icons of our salad days is a reminder of our own mortality.

George was right "All things must pass"

 

[sonar1]

Bummer

 

[Freddy G]

St. Catharines was always a solidly blue collar town. A factory city. Two major GM plants.

it looked like the town must have been broke cause it was filthy.

That happened when GM closed the plant here. Almost everyone I knew worked at or had someone related working at GM when I was growing up. When they went tits up the whole economic infrastructure took a terrible body blow.

 

[brokentoeswalker]

The town I'm from was tiny when I grew up, but it did have a Oil refinery and a Ford Plant. So i know all about how town economies are tied to these places of employment. I knew St. Kits and it was exactly like you said it was. Sleepy. Like pretty much all Canadian towns and cities. Yes all things must pass I suppose but there was actually a time when people used the trash cans and didnt think the world was their own personal shitter. That had nothing to do with how much anyone made a year.

 

[Roberteaux]

Bittersweet post of the year, right here...

Keep those memories enshrined in a place of honor in your heart, bro... they're keepers.

--R

 

[Tim Plains]

Damn, I used to go by there all the time when I worked in St. Kitts.

 

[redking]

Yes. It was a historic building. Built in 1853....quite an interesting history!

https://stcatharinesmuseumblog.com/2016/02/16/after-the-underground-railroad/

I wonder if Samuel Ball is a relative of the Ball family from the article - he is a key piece of the puzzle that is the History of Oak Island and some wonder whether he found part of the treasure while living there and acquiring 100 lots of land on the island.

 

[Uncle Vinnie]

Looks like a total loss. Very sad.

 

[Freddy G]

Bittersweet post of the year, right here...

Keep those memories enshrined in a place of honor in your heart, bro... they're keepers.

--R

Been hearing from bandmates from back then....it truly is a bittersweet reminiscence.

 

[SteveC]

It's a cliche, but...

As long as people remember, it's not completely gone.

Sorry to hear about the loss.

 

[Sct13]

thats terrible....

 

[dave b]

Feel for ya, Freddie. Sad day. Fire leaves nothing but memories.

 

[Freddy G]

I had no idea....just talking to my current drummer and he told me

"my fav hangout when I was younger ...my wife's Dad owned it in the late 50's ...he let us go downstairs on a Sun morning to look at the area where the Hot Springs were very cool ....."

wow!

 

[fernieite]

Damn, sorry to hear about the loss of this historical landmark!

I enjoyed reading about your history there (apart from the guitar theft! ) and that your drummer and other friends have fond memories about the place, as well.