MYNAH BIRDS By Nick Warburton Ambitious, charismatic and dripping in raw talent, Ricky James Matthews (b. James Ambrose Johnson, 1 February 1948, Buffalo, NY, US; d. 6 August 2004) didn’t take long to capitalise on his sharp looks, soulful voice and US navy uniform after he landed in Toronto in August 1964. Within weeks of his arrival, the young singer found himself fronting the aptly titled Sailorboys, a raucous R&B outfit that subsequently evolved into the Mynah Birds. Unbeknown to his musical cohorts, however, Matthews was a wanted man by the US authorities. His failure to report for active duty with the USS Enterprise and a fear of arrest had prompted the young singer to flee across the border. Interestingly, it was not Matthews’ first brush with the authorities, for as a teenager he had been arrested on several occasions for stealing cars. Indeed, throughout his career Matthews would have numerous run-ins with the law, culminating in a prison sentence in the mid- 1990s. While Matthews later enjoyed a string of hits for Motown Records in the late 1970s/early 1980s as funk star Rick James, little is known about his early life, particularly his involvement in the Toronto rock scene during the 1960s. And perhaps it would have remained that way had it not been for the fact that the Mynah Birds also briefly included Canadian rock legend, Neil Young (b. 12 November 1945, Toronto, Canada). Even so, it would be a gross oversight to view the group as merely a footnote to Rick James and Neil Young’s careers. Not only did the Mynah Birds include several notable musicians who later found fame with the likes of Buffalo Springfield and Steppenwolf, but they were also the first largely white outfit to sign to Motown Records. The fact that the group’s recordings have gathered dust in the label’s vaults for nearly 40 years has merely added to the group’s legendary status. Matthews’ earliest musical venture on the Toronto rock scene was an intriguing yet relatively short-lived affair hatched around August 1964. While the exact details surrounding the group’s formation remain sketchy, one story goes that bass player Nick St Nicholas (b. Klaus Karl Kassbaum, 28 September 1943, Hamburg, Germany) was jamming with friends (possibly under the name the Swinging Doors) at the El Patio when Matthews walked into the club wearing his navy uniform. Invited to sing with the musicians on stage, the friends were suitably impressed and took the young American under their wing, employing him as a singer and prompting an appropriate name for the fledging outfit, the Sailorboys. Finding regular work at the El Patio, Matthews and St Nicholas, abetted by guitarist Ian Gobel and drummer Rick Cameron (formerly a member of the Kelly Jay Band), entertained the crowds playing a mixture of R&B and British Invasion covers, most notably songs by the Rolling Stones. As Jo Anne Marshall, Rick Cameron’s girlfriend at the time, explains, the group’s line up remained far from settled during its stint at the El Patio with a number of transient musicians coming and going. “During the time Rick Cameron was with them, they 1 weren’t really doing much except hanging out and playing in the El Patio. There were a lot of musicians who…would just drop by and sit in for a while. Most of the new members joined in this way and the group was in a constant state of change. For a while it was hard to say who were actually members and who just sat in for a bit.” Marshall’s recollections support those of several other band members and underscore the difficulty in pinning down a definitive line up during these formative months. Nevertheless, it does appear that a new guitarist, Frank Arnel, had joined the core members of Matthews, Cameron and St Nicholas during the first few weeks of December after Gobel left to form the Knack (and later the Dickens). Also on board at this time was former Little John & the Friars keyboard player, John Goadsby (b. 2 May 1945, Toronto, Canada), who was recruited to “beef up” the group’s sound. According to future Mynah Birds drummer, Richie Grand, the only place the band could practise during this time was in the basement of Friars’ member, Ricky Capreol’s parents’ house. Interestingly, a photo of this line up, with short-lived manager Carlton Underwood III and Little John & the Friars’ lead singer, Peter McGraw has surfaced on Ear Candy’s website. Taken on Peter McGraw’s 21st birthday, 21 December 1964, the photo shows Matthews in the centre surrounded by Carlton Underwood III (back row, left) and Peter McGraw (front row, left), alongside Nick St Nicholas (back row, centre), Rick Cameron (back row, right) and John Goadsby (front row, right). But if this wasn’t confusing enough, within weeks, the Sailor Boys had added a second singer, Jimmy Livingstone (b. 28 February 1938, Toronto, Canada; d. 1 June 2002), once frontman for early 1960s rockabilly outfit, Jimmy Lee & the Countdowns. Livingstone was wildly eccentric, and his strong stage presence when paired with Matthews’ charismatic personality and dynamic on-stage antics greatly enhanced the Sailorboys’ local status. Not surprisingly, an interracial band pumping out R&B with attitude, and led by two strong singers (a la Sam and Dave) soon made people sit up and listen. One of the first people to recognise the band’s potential was entrepreneur Colin Kerr, the owner of nightclub on Yorkville Avenue called the Mynah Bird which featured a naked dancer silhouetted from one of its windows. Suitably impressed, Kerr offered his services as a manager and quickly renamed the group after his favourite pet. While Kerr’s support may have been welcomed on the music front, his influence over the Mynah Birds’ image in the early days was somewhat problematic. Besides the nightclub, Kerr had his own pet mynah bird called Raja, and according to Nicholas Jennings in his book, Before the goldrush, one of his first moves as a manager was to get the band to adopt Raja as its mascot. Matthews later confided to Canadian music journalist Bill Munson that the worst part of working with the actual mynah bird was having it crap on his shoulder. If this wasn’t bad enough, Kerr insisted that the group dress up in mynah bird colours. Local guitarist Stan Endersby remembers seeing the group’s early line up at Massey Hall on a bill with local rivals, Jack London & the Sparrows. “Colin Kerr wanted them to have a look, so they had black Beatle boots with Cuban heels dyed yellow, 2 black pants and yellow vests,” he says. “They really smoked that night. It was with the two singers before Ricky was doing his Mick Jagger trip.” Jo Anne Marshall, however, is more critical of Kerr’s influence and argues that the band was unhappy with his antics. “I didn’t get the impression that any of the guys had too much faith in Colin Kerr and his mynah bird tactics,” she says. “Some of the antics which involved me and other friends and girlfriends were over the wall. Really crazy things done to attract media attention.” Future member, Richie Grand, agrees: “He had one minor bird that he would leave in a cage with a tape running 24-7 saying, ‘Hello, Ed Sullivan’ because he was quite convinced that sooner or later we’d end up on his show.” Kerr’s manipulation of the Mynah Birds’ image could have severely dented the band’s street cred, but interestingly his “wacky” ideas soon paid off and the group soon won a recording deal with the Canadian arm of Columbia Records. This however, is where events again become extremely sketchy. According to Livingstone, the Mynah Birds split into two groups around this time and then reformed over a matter of weeks. While it’s impossible to account for the various comings and goings, it appears from several accounts that a line up comprising Matthews, Arnel, St Nicholas and Cameron (some sources credit English-born drummer Kent Daubney, later a member of the Liverpool Set) was responsible for recording one track, “the Mynah Birds Song”. This soul-influenced ballad, which was recorded sometime in early January, was not seen as being strong enough for the prospective single’s a-side and by the time work began on a stronger number, the group had undergone further personnel changes. Rick Cameron was the first to bail out and initially hooked up with Jay Smith & the Majestics. He then joined forces with former Kelly Jay Band guitarist Roger Plomish in a new group, which later recorded as the Magic Bubble, although Cameron had moved on by then. “I think Rick just thought it was all too crazy and set out to find something more in tune to what he was used to,” says Jo Anne Marshall. “Playing the circuit and touring. Playing the bigger clubs in town, that sort of thing. He also wasn’t too happy about the Colin Kerr antics. [It wasn’t] something he had ever experienced in his career before.” With Cameron gone, Jimmy Livingstone and John Goadsby returned to the group’s ranks with Goadsby’s former band mate from Little John & the Friars, drummer Richie Grand (b. 11 June, 1945, Toronto, Canada). The new line up then returned to the studios to record a stronger song for the single’s a-side. The result was a calypso- flavoured number entitled “the Mynah Bird Hop” written by Kerr’s brother Ben, a country singer turned street busker and a future candidate for Toronto mayor.