Stockbroker-turned-rock promoter remembered as ‘gentleman,’ ‘gentle man’
Peter McCulloch could only have come from Vancouver.
He started out as a stockbroker, dropped out to become a hippie, then became Western Canada’s leading alternative rock promoter.
Put it this way — he was probably the only friend of Margaret Trudeau who promoted concerts by Nirvana, the Pogues and Jonathan Richman.
McCulloch died in his sleep on Dec. 16 at the age of 75. A celebration of his life will be held Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Commodore Ballroom, where he promoted countless concerts.
One of the first was The Last Upper, the Commodore debut of Doug and the Slugs in 1979. For the artwork, head Slug Doug Bennett recreated the Leonardo da Vinci painting The Last Supper.
“It was a double bill with Six Cylinder,” said Slugs keyboard player Simon Kendall. “So (on the poster) the Slugs and Six Cylinder were the 12 disciples and Peter was Jesus, because, after all, he looked the part.”
He did. They called him the tallest promoter in Western Canada, because he stood six foot six. But he was the gentlest giant you could ever meet.
“I never saw him angry,” said a longtime friend, Paul Manning. “He always had a ready smile and an easy laugh. He was a gentleman, and a gentle man.”
That made McCulloch an unlikely concert promoter.
“He was not a shark, he was genuine,” said Kendall. “He wasn’t a slick, backstabbing kind of a guy, he was real honest. … He was just so methodical and slow and thoughtful.”
Peter James McCulloch was born in Vancouver on March 1, 1942. One of the seminal moments in his childhood was attending the movie Blackboard Jungle in the mid-’50s. Bill Haley ’s Rock Around the Clock played at the end, and he was transfixed.
“He told me he was just kind of blown away by the song, and stayed around till the next screening to hear that song again,” said Grant McDonagh of Zulu Records.
He was a basketball star at Lord Byng high school, where he was nicknamed Stretch. After taking
He wasn’t a slick, backstabbing kind of a guy, he was real honest. … He was just so methodical and slow and thoughtful.
commerce at UBC, he became a stockbroker.
“In the old days Peter was the ultimate in dressing up properly — tuxes, tails,” said Manning. “We’re talking literally three-piece madeto-measure suits, monogrammed shirts and all that stuff. He was meticulous as hell.”
Years later, Kendall would be the beneficiary of McCulloch’s sartorial flair.
“When I got hooked up with the Slugs, we all had that sort of thrift store fashion sense,” said Kendall, who is six foot five himself.
“I was just thrilled, because Peter gave me five custom-made suits. He said ‘I will never wear these again.’ It was a thrill for me, because he was an inch taller than me, and I didn’t have to have … pants up around my knees or whatever, they were actually suits that fit.”
McCulloch had dropped the suits when he dropped out of the straight business world.
“As the ’60s came, his interests changed,” said Manning.
“He got involved with the nightlife. As I got older and had kids I went to bed earlier, but I think Peter had kids and still stayed out late.”
McCulloch became part of the Out to Lunch Bunch, who helped stage hippie fairs around the city. At the Langley Pleasure Faire he ran a restaurant, and Margaret Sinclair (later Trudeau) was one of his waitresses.
“Peter came to a Canada-Russia game at Margaret’s invitation,” recounts Manning, who became a prominent Liberal. “Pierre and Margaret had a row of seats at the game. Peter as usual arrived late and by this time he had a full Afro, which at six foot six meant that most of the people sitting behind him couldn’t see the game!”
McCulloch also was very involved in the Habitat Forum in 1976, a United Nations conference on human settlements at Jericho Beach. And then he started promoting concerts, first with Fourwest Productions, then Timbre.
He promoted a dizzying amount of acts, from roots rockers like the Blasters and Los Lobos to alternative standard bearers like X and Jane’s Addiction.
One of his wildest shows was a Replacements gig at the Town Pump. It had a capacity of 375, but it quickly sold out, so he decided to move it to the Commodore, and kept selling tickets. The problem was the Commodore was already booked, so he jammed 750 people into the club, double the legal capacity.
He also was something of a record mogul, financing the Doug and the Slugs single Too Bad.
“We had only expected to sell copies at Quintessence and a few copies offstage at gigs, and we had a national top-10 hit,” said Kendall.
“By the time the gears geared up (to press and distribute enough copies to meet demand), we had a stack of 45s that ended up in Peter’s basement. He had Too Bad 45s pretty much holding up his house.”
McCulloch is survived by his wife Christa, daughter Erin and son David.
“Timbre is still going strong with his kids (running it),” said Kendall. “It’s quite a legacy.”