Cop’s back beat goes over well with loud band and partygoers
When a noise complaint is called in, usually the police’s job is to quiet the fun, not join in on it.
But that’s exactly what happened on Saturday night, when police were called to a birthday party in Mississauga to investigate a band playing too loudly. The teenage members of Vinyl Ambush expected to get shut down, but to their surprise, one of the officers sat down at the drums and proved he had some musical chops of his own.
The five members of Vinyl Ambush had been playing together for about six months when the mother of Jack Laing, the19-year-old drummer, had the idea for them to play at a surprise party for Laing’s father’s 50th birthday.
The drummer passed around a letter to all the nearby houses letting them know the band would be playing at the party, but bassist Corwin Bjelic, 15, says it’s possible they “misinterpreted it, thinking it would be something like an acoustic set, where it’s not too loud.”
He didn’t seem surprised by the noise complaint: “All the houses are pretty close together.”
When the officers arrived just before 9 p.m., they asked the band to turn the volume down, but also told them to keep playing for a little bit, much to the band’s surprise. After watching for a couple of songs, Const. Joel Clark stepped up and asked if he could join in.
Bjelic said he “couldn’t believe it” when the officer sat down at the drum kit. He played through one full song with them, a band original called “Curiosity.”
Bjelic said the second officer was laughing and recording on his phone when Clark gave in to the call of music.
“He had to take his boots off when he tried to play,” Bjelic said.
Clark told the band he used to be a drummer, though he said he hadn’t played in five years. Before the officers left, he gave the band some advice based on his own experiences as a musician, telling them that “it’s tough work” and that they should be “be willing to be broke for a bit.”
“He said his biggest regret was stopping, which was kind of sad, so it just made me want to continue and hopefully do it as a job one day,” Bjelic said. “I think everybody else got that from it as well. Just never stop.”
“That was the most fun I had in years,” Clark can be heard saying in a video of the event.
Before they left, the officers told the group they could play a couple more songs before packing it in for the night.
The band was formed when Bjelic and singer Belle Mathews, 17, decided to put together a group to compete for a chance to open for Bon Jovi at the Rogers Centre. They were joined by Laing and two guitarists, Anthony Caetano, 18, and Pedro Alvarado, 19. Although they didn’t win the competition, they found they “had a lot of fun playing together, so (they) just stuck together,” Bjelic said. They’re now trying to put together an album.
When asked by the Star if the drummer was worried he would lose his spot in the band to Const. Clark, the band began to laugh. “You should be,” Bjelic quipped. “Yeah, he was pretty good.”
Clark did not respond to a request for an interview on Monday, but a Peel Regional Police spokesperson had high praise for the impromptu jam session.
Const. Bancroft Wright called it a “positive spin story” and said it “shows that just because (officers) attend a call for a noise complaint, it doesn’t mean (they’re) going to go in there heavy-handed.”
“Talk about community outreach,” the band wrote on YouTube, where the video of the session was posted. “Many thanks to Peel Regional Police for making it such a fun and memorable night for the band and everyone there.”