Details
By this time, the entire first album had been written (and recorded) and was being performed live, as well as plenty of material that would end up on later albums. Lip Service is particularly interesting during this era, as it sounds more like a disco song (Mike Tilka dedicates it to Average White Band on this night).
Tilka did the bulk of the between song banter in the early days, and on many nights he'd reveal that Marmalade Mama was about a prostitute in Toronto. It's one of the first songs Kim Mitchell and Pye Dubois wrote together.
These early versions of Let Your Man Fly have Terry Watkinson and Mike Tilka sharing lead vocals in the verses (Kim never sang the song live). Terry's songs Lady Let Me In and Do You Or Don't You Want To Know are featured in the show around this time, and contain lyrics that would eventually end up in Let Go The Line and Charmonium.
The version of Beyond The Moon played in the early years is much more embryonic. The lyrics are there, but the soaring coda is not. Instead the band just jam over the main progression again.
The intro to Summer's Up isn't in the live arrangement, as the song begins with the first verse.
Line-up
- Kim Mitchell : Vocals/Guitar
- Mike Tilka : Bass
- Paul Kersey : Drums
- Terry Watkinson : Keyboards
Partial Setlist
This setlist is of one of these four nights (but not the final night, as the setlist is taken from a recording where Kim says "we'll be here tomorrow" at the end of the gig). Here Among The Cats was played twice.
- Here Among The Cats
- Research (at Beach Resorts)
- Peaches en Regalia
- Anna Lea
- Blowing The Blues Away
- Mash Moon In Hawaii
- Marmalade Mama
- Let Your Man Fly
- Lady Let Me In
- Only Your Nose Knows
- Lip Service
- Lily
- Beyond The Moon
- Toronto Tontos
- Here Among The Cats
- Summer's Up
- Hangover
- Coming Off The Moon
- Hot Spots
- Do You Or Don't You Want To Know
- Howdy Doody Boogie
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Audio
Fan Stories
Paul Koprla
Back in the day Max Webster used to play the bars in Hamilton all the time. My friend and I would check out the bars hoping to find a half decent band. The first night we saw Max we knew we had found our group. They were miles above anyone else. We quickly became big fans and would go to see them every time they played Hamilton. "What are these guys doing playing in a bar" became the most overheard phrase at the time. Eventually the words we were dying to hear got out - they were recording an album. It immediately became our most anticipated album. We spent so much time sitting around speculating as to what songs should be on it. Well, as these things go there were several delays and we were getting sick of waiting. So we decided that the next time they played we would sneak our tape recorders in and at least we would have something to listen to. After meticulous planning (putting the recorders in a bag) we set off, put the mics on the table and these are the results. One complete night in a bar before the first album was released.