Some of the Special Guests at The Last Waltz
Meaford’s version of The Last Waltz, slated for Meaford Hall on Sat, Nov. 25th, is fast approaching a sellout, as promoter Chris Scerri is announcing some of the special guests that will fill out the bill.
The Band itself will be well represented by local rock stars but one of the great aspects of the original performance was that it included a wide variety of influential artists from the time, and these will also be reproduced by local artists. Two of the artists just announced to represent some of these friends of The Band are Fran Bouwman and Tom Thwaits.
Tom Thwaits is well known as keyboard and accordion player for Bored of Education. He’s recently added a sideline with a Bring Your Own Vinyl night the third Saturday of every month. This popular gathering at The Red Door encourages people to bring along their favourite vinyl records, introduce them to the audience, and Tom spins them on his turntable. For him The Last Waltz was not only a document of an era but an inspiration to the generations of musicians who have followed.
“The Last Waltz is, for me, the epitome of a particular time and place in the history of North American music,” he says, “so many disparate threads coalesced for one night in 1978, thankfully captured on film by none other than Martin Scorsese, that for generations to come it will serve as a starting point for hungry ears to understand a bygone era.”
Fran Bouwman has been making waves locally performing as Frannie Wisp, accompanying herself on washboard. As the Frannie Wisp persona she explores, with her own humorous take on it, the trials of being a single middle-aged woman, part monologue, part songs. Her frank approach to some taboo subjects adds spice to her act. Fran is also an accomplished sculptor whose works are as thought-provoking in their own way as is her washboard act. For The Last Waltz, she’ll be taking on a new persona as one of the stars featured in the movie.
“I first heard about The Last Waltz when I worked in the criminal ward at the Queen Street Mental Health Centre, now known as CAMH,” she says, “Robert, who had been in and out of the Don Jail since he was a teen talked incessantly about The Band. It was The Band that got him through his most difficult times. He begged for me to take him to Sam the Record Man to buy The Last Waltz album. I agreed to sneak him off the property. Although he had been wheelchair bound for months, he stood up, threw his cigarette to the curb and stepped onto the Queen Street streetcar. Although we got caught for our petty crime, he said it was one of the best days of his life. So that’s how I was introduced to The Last Waltz. An incredible album with an incredible memory.”
If you review the list of performers included in The Last Waltz movie you’ll see that there are many other roles to fill. Chris says they are lined up and rehearsals are “amazing”, but he will wait to feed us the details in the coming weeks.
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