IN PERFECT HARMONY
Heebee-jeebees mark 25 years with new album
Rock stars get the girls.
That’s what Cedric Blary, Jonathan Love, Ken Lima-Coelho and Chris Herard were counting on back in 1993 when they decided to form a rock band.
Fate stepped in and instead of becoming rockers, the quartet became a comic a cappella group known as The Heebee-jeebees.
They not only got the girls but they got to meet and perform with the likes of Percy Sledge, The Commodores, Spirit of the West, Paul Brandt and the legendary Harry Belafonte.
On Dec. 22 and 23, the Heebeejeebees will be performing their 25th anniversary Christmas Show at the Bella Concert Hall in the University of Mount Royal’s Taylor Centre.
The first show is already sold out.
Love explains how the wannabe rockers ended up as an a cappella quartet.
“We let people know we intended to be a band and ended up getting a gig at the University of Calgary before we even had a single rehearsal or a name,” says Love.
Odder still was the fact the guys didn’t even have instruments.
“We knew we could all sing because we’d be in high school choirs and the Calgary Boys Choir, so we rehearsed a couple of songs and turned up at the wine and cheese event that had booked us.”
They quickly exhausted their short repertoire, but the people at the event demanded an encore, so they repeated their songs.
“We got three more bookings from that event, but we knew we needed at least 10 songs to play a concert, so that became our immediate goal.”
The phone kept ringing off the hook and has done so for 25 years.
“We’re the equivalent of Calgary’s Batman. You send us a signal and we appear. We haven’t learned to say no.”
Over the past 25 years, the Heebee-jeebees have done so many fundraisers for the Calgary Food Bank that they are now the official spokes-group for the organization and, as Love quickly adds, they “couldn’t be prouder. Now our shows are always done in support of the Food Bank. We always ask patrons to bring something to our shows.
The quartet took its name from a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.
“Calvin and Hobbes saw a dead raccoon and they said it gave them the heebee-jeebees.
“We thought that was a real fun thing to say and that’s where we got our name.”
One of the Heebee-jeebee’s earliest gigs in the United States was at a casino in Atlantic City.
Love jokes that “most groups have a bunch of hits and when their run starts to die down they play the casinos. We skipped all the hits and went straight to the casinos.”
The Heebee-jeebees keep making hit albums.
They will release their ninth to coincide with this 25th anniversary concert.
It’s called Best Before Christmas because, as Love explains, “when you’ve been around for 25 years you know there is always the possibility you’re going to expire, thus our latest best-before date.”
The album is only going to be available for download.
Check heebee-jeebee.com for more information about the release of Best Before Christmas.
Love promises there will be special guests at the concert at the Bella Concert Hall on both Dec. 22 and 23.
The audience can expect a lot of non-traditional traditional songs which means “you’ll get all your favourite Christmas tunes with all the wrong words.”
Reserve tickets at taylorcentre.ca