Niagara physician slaps that bass
The Docs That Rock annual fundraising jam heads to YouTube
Once a year, Niagara Health emergency physician Suneel Upadhye puts down his stethoscope and picks up his bass guitar.
For the annual Canadian Association for Emergency Physicians conference, he joins doctors from across the country to play with the Docs That Rock.
The five-piece group jams for about three hours to raise funds for charity.
In recent years, the shows have raised between $15,000 to $18,000 for the Emergency Medicine Advancement Fund.
“For us, we’re just happy to be able to play and have some fun one night,” says Upadhye, who grew up in Niagara Falls.
“It started out pretty small … and it’s just grown to the size that we’re our own stand-alone event. Pretty much everybody comes, about 600 or 700 people.”
But when COVID-19 cancelled this year’s conference in Ottawa, the docs sadly realized they were not going to rock.
“For some of us, it’s the highlight of the year,” he says. “But then our drummer Peter (Toth) from Mississauga came up with the idea of doing a virtual performance.”
In response to the pandemic, the band chose to cover Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” The video was posted on YouTube last week and has more than 12,000 views.
“They picked a good song,” says Upadhye. “It addresses dealing with challenges and adversities and how you rise up to meet that.
“I think Niagara Health has done a pretty exemplary job of preparing the institutions and doing the best they can.”
The band sticks to mostly classic rock, adding a few new tunes every year. They’ll learn the songs as well as they can at home before meeting for a quick rehearsal at the conference.
Upadhye is hoping the docs can rock again — in person — by next year’s conference in Winnipeg.
“It creates some inspiration and motivation for people who are otherwise slugging it out under pretty tough conditions.”
His favourite tune to play after 12 years?
“It’d probably be ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ ’ by Journey.”
Besides Upadhye and Toth, the group consists of Judy Morris, Matt Chellew, Chris Boule, Anoop Manocha and Phil Leduc.
“It’s party music, bar music, that kind of stuff,” says Upadhye.
“We like to make sure there’s some modern stuff for the younger members. At some point they’re going to take over for us, once we become too old and feeble to play!”