Mandala's End a Beginning

" , -,... SATURDAY, Aprill, 1989 The Londoi- --, -. POP HISTORY ~~,'" ;""c~:~~:: ' ,;:, ",,:'c ;;,~~r;Jt~"'~~i~~~ ...,~~ - -..,,~ ."~",,, ,~"'-"- Mandala'sfor most of endband's a beginning members - The Canadian success. It performed with Cream and The Who in the U.S., and re- rhythm and blues leaseda handfulof tuneswhich b~nd went Top 10 in Canada. c' was a Opportunityand Give And Take successful live act werebig with Olliver as lead sing- and m d th T 10 ~, er; Love-itis was a hit with Kenner a e e op onvocals. in Canada several Inhis 1983book,.HeartOfGo~d, .J 30 Years Of CanadianPop Music, tImes. author Martin Melhuish said The Mandala caused "mass hysteria" in Canada.But despite its best ef- By Randy Ray, Mark Kearney forts, it couldn't crack 'the lucra- tive U.S. market. "Some joumalis~ have called th~ir Crusadeevangelical. their Tops IN CANADA:"We were suc- ~resence on a stage can truly be cessful as a live act, our records ~Ikened only unto a crusade bring- were No.1 across Canada but we mg.forth all that dwells within the .' . couldn't get the hits in the U.S., soulor _freed. of man.,. regardless of his color 1St~omenlcof the Mandala,TroIano, leadh.as recent- gultar- label,even though,. says we Olliver. had a U ..5 record I -ltner notes,The Mandala's Soul Iy produced musIc for TV The group broke up in 1969but Crusade album shows., including Night Heat rather than an end, the Mandala's Domenic Troiano chuckles and DIamonds. passing was a beginning for most when he's reminded of the words of its members. inside the Mandala's first and only ~oronto's CHUM r~dio, rec,ans01. Troiano later played with Bush, LPm 1968. lIver, becausethe Influential sta. The Guess Who and the James "Yeah, we were pretty serious tion was ignoring the Mandala's Gang and releasedseveral LPs on back then," he says from his To- rhythm an~ blues sound. The his own. More recently, he has ronto home. "Twenty years later, demonstratIon worked. CHUM produced music for TV shows, in. It sounds a little heavy handed." eventually began spinning the cluding Night Heat and Diamonds - But as far as Troiano's con- band's records. and produced Toronto singers Da. ~ed, it had to be done. The group started in the early vid Gibson and John Rutledge. ;~wo decades ago, when the '69s. as house band at Toronto's Olliver lives in Whitby, has l'Ilndala was attempting to break ongIn~ Bluenote Clu~. In mid. played with a number of groups, ~ ground on the Canadian mu- 1965,It became The Five Rogues still sings on the Toronto bar dr. ~ scene,its causewas a crusade and later changed its name to The cuit and recently released a new if-::there ever was one. says Man~~a. LP. Dream Girl. Kenner fronted 1:'"t'Oiano,the band's lead guitarist. angInal ~embers .were singer Roy Kenner and The Associates A ' George Olliver, TroIano, drum- and also played with Bush and the BAnLE:"We were a white band ~er Whitey Glan, bassist Don El- James Gang. Today. he's part ctQftlgrhythm and blues. The Bea- hot and Joey Chirowski on key- owner of a Toronto bar. t= and The Dave Clark 5 were boards and horns. Toronto singer Glan and Chirowsky worked bi=: We were doing James Brown Roy Ke~ner later replaced Ollive! with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper. ~q Ray Charles and it was a bat- at the microphone and Hugh Sulli- Today, Glan lives in Toronto and t~ ,to get work. No one would van was a !ater organ player. still plays music. Elliot is in Toron- bO~k us. so yes, it was a crusade." As The Five Rogues, the band to and when last heard from was ;:the band certainly faced its was confined mainly to Ontario out of the business. Chirowski ~re of roadblocks. but as The Mandala, it took a slab was living somewhere in the U.S. ~t one point, ,its fans picketed at the U.S. market and won mild and Sullivan died in 1978..

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