‘IT WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL’
Beloved Montreal Rocks signing off
Montreal Rocks is not long for this world.
On Sunday, the bomb dropped on social media. Jay Walker was short and sweet on Facebook.
“Big news. #MontrealRocks is coming to an end after 7 years. Thanks for letting us share your music and stories, it was an honour. Final episode airs on December 31, 2017. Catch us tonight 10p chom 977fm Studio #RueBarree”
Montreal Rocks is the totally great radio show that media personality Walker has been hosting and producing for the past seven years.
The blast of unadulterated, often corrosive indie rock is one of the bright lights on the barren, uninspired landscape that is commercial radio in Montreal.
The reaction from fans and musicians on the local scene came fast and furious.
Veteran publicist Leisa Lee spoke for many when she posted on Facebook: “Who’s gonna carry the torch for Montreal music if not you?”
Great question. On the phone Monday, Walker sounded sorry to be walking away from his baby, and he made it clear it wasn’t his decision.
“I knew that we weren’t renewed and that was pretty much it,” said Walker. “I don’t really know much more than anyone else. I know my world of being a (freelance) contractor … you never really know where you’re going to be. … You never know how it’s going to end.”
But rather than mope about it, Walker prefers to think back to all the good times, to underline that he was able to play music by cool indie bands from Montreal and around the world for seven years on the city’s top rock outlet.
“The big take-away from this for me is that it’s so f---ing cool to me that we’ve been able to do what we’ve been doing for so long on a major radio station like CHOM,” said Walker. “It was something special. I don’t know how many big businesses still do these kinds of things. The fact is, we’ve done it for seven years. I’d see people from Toronto, they’d come in and they were in bands and they’d be like, ‘Wait a minute! You can play pretty much whatever you want?’ You know what we play. We’d play Kanye West if we felt like it. I remember when he dropped Black Skinhead. We were like, ‘That’s a real punk-rock kind of track. It’s so angry, so vicious.’ “
CHOM program director Chris Bury said he cancelled Montreal Rocks as part of a bigger change to the Sunday night schedule. When Randy Renaud took over the midday shift from Tootall this fall, Bury figured it would be hard for Renaud to keep hosting his Sunday blues show Black Cat Alley, which airs from 8 to 10 p.m., just before Montreal Rocks (which runs from 10 to midnight). Bury decided to switch the whole night to live-DJ programming, which left Montreal Rocks out in the cold.
“Whenever I can be live, it’s always my preference, because you’re building your bench strength,” said Bury. “You can have more people who can come in and replace. More people can develop and turn into full-time DJs down the road.”
Bury is aware a lot of people are disappointed by the cancellation of Montreal Rocks.
“I can’t really respond to that, the same way I can’t respond to fans of Black Cat Alley who are disappointed to see that show go,” said Bury. “It’s just a question of fit.”
After the final instalment of Montreal Rocks airs on New Year’s Eve, Walker is going to focus mostly on his day job, as a real estate agent with the Londono Realty Group.
FLARSKY
If you were walking by the Windsor on Peel St. this week, you may have noticed a slew of film trucks and trailers parked outside. And if you looked closely at the orange signs, you’d have seen that all the activity was generated by a film with the unusual title of Flarsky.
It stars Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron, both of whom are also producers on the project, though neither of them was spotted on a walk by the set on Monday. Rogen plays an unemployed journalist who pursues Theron’s character, who is one of the most powerful women in the world and just happens to be his childhood crush and former babysitter. Yes, it’s a comedy. It’s directed by 50/50 director Jonathan Levine.
The shoot continues until Jan. 16.
LEIF VOLLEBEKK
Montreal singer-songwriter Leif Vollebekk has done just fine with his latest album, Twin Solitude. It made the Polaris Music Prize short list, his Elegy video was viewed 265,000 times, and he played sold-out shows in Amsterdam, New York, London and Boston. Now he’s finally set to do a major show in his hometown, touching down at Le National Saturday night, with opening act Little Scream.
He’s a super original artist, so it’s great to see it’s clicking for him.