Video: Rock ‘n Roll Greats

[Red Robinson radio announcer stinger and excerpt from the show]

[Red Robinson] Hi there, This is Red Robinson with the all-new Canadian Bandstand show presenting the new sounds of the West Coast’s most vibrant bands, the Viscounts with Skip Hansen and Little Laverne…

[Music and photo of Red Robinson and his fans looking on]

Also featuring the DeVilles with Wayne Gust. See and dance to the most fabulous prize package of entertainment to come your way since 1958,

[Photo of Ladysmith Aggie Hall]

of icons and the DeVilles in person in the Agricultural Hall and Ladysmith with an All-Star dancing show.

[Man standing inside the Agricultural Hall]

[Rob Johnson] One of the outstanding features of the hall in its history is the fact that in the early 60’s, Red Robinson, a famous disc jockey and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

[Photo of Red Robinson and his fans looking on]

used to have travelling rock and roll shows, and he would bring them to Ladysmith.

[Photo of Mural depicting a collage of Jerry Lee Lewis, Red Robinson, Buddy Knox, Red Robinson, Bobby Curtola, Conway Twitty, and Roy Orbison, hanging on the wall of Aggie Hall]

On that wall is a mural of some of the rock and roll stars that performed on this stage: Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, and The Everly Brothers.

[Music and photo of Bobby Curtola] Bobby Curtola Corinna Corinna]

[Music and video snip of Roy Orbison] Roy Orbison Only The Lonely]

[Music and video clip of Conway Twitty] Conway Twitty It’s Only Make Believe]

[R.J.] One of the stories that Red Robinson told me about the dances here in Ladysmith. Jerry Lee Lewis was famous for his piano playing.

[Music and video clip of Jerry Lee Lewis playing Shake Baby Shake Oh Shake Baby Shake]

[R.J.] When he came here, he went up onto the stage behind me and he played the piano there. The piano was so out of tune, he pushed it off the stage, and he said I’m not playing this piece of junk.

[Photo of Jerry Lee Lewis]

And that night, the patrons at the dance here in Ladysmith got to see Jerry Lewis playing guitar all night because he wouldn’t play the piano.

The other story that I found personally interesting was that he also said that when Roy Orbison appeared here.

[Photo of Roy Orbison]

It was the first time in the history of Canada that they had to have police dogs at a rock and roll dance. Over the years at the various dances on the island here, rivalries have developed between guys from Nanaimo and Ladysmith and Duncan, and quite often they would take it out at the dances, so they had police dogs to maintain order here.

[Rob Johnston walking in front of Aggie Hall]

Well, there are numerous stories about funny events within the Aggie Hall, and as I say, one of the ones was the number of people who would try to sneak in there with alcohol because all the dances were booze-free. One thing that used to happen at these dances is that they’d also bring in raw eggs, and they would throw them at each other. So I heard the story about how when some guys from Duncan were coming in, they were met at the door, and they were patted down quite vigorously, and as a result, all the eggs in their pockets were smashed.

[R.R] Aggie Hall in Ladysmith with an All-Star dancing show Saturday night, May 13th from 8:30 to 12 midnight, be there

[Music and photo montage of Ladysmith Aggie Hall]

[R.R.] Another Jaguar Presentation!