NANAIMO REGION
Vacant lot to become food ‘forest’ in Nanaimo Perennial plants, shrubs and fruit trees will be planted at Haliburton Street location through a partership. A3
NATION & WORLD
Shredding g swiss
Pre-election confidence was high for NDP leader
Team Canada clinches inches first place in its group at hockey’s world d championship
Rachel Notley figured she would win Alberta election close to a week before it happened. A7
Sports, B2
The newspaper of record for Nanaimo and region since 1874 || Monday, May 11, 2015
On the Road ‘Daily News’ reporter Julie Chadwick hits the pavement with Nanaimo electronic dance band Top Men on a tour through B.C. and Alberta
BUSINESS
Weekend liquor permit denied for restaurant ROBERT BARRON DAILY NEWS
Reporter Julie Chadwick, far right, was invited to hit the road with, from left, Paul Carpenter, Liam Gibson, Brendan Holm and Chris Thompson of the local electronic dance band Top Men as they toured through B.C. and Alberta. [RUBY CHADWICK-BOOKER/FOR THE DAILY NEWS]
Local band forays into oil country scene JULIE CHADWICK DAILY NEWS
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arely three days into the tour, disaster strikes. I’m on the road with local techno band Top Men, roped in to perform alongside their driving electrobeats as a dancing robot. The concept behind my role is loosely based around the film Death of a Salesman (or Salesbot?). We’ve just completed a nine-hour drive to Vernon and then a four-hour trek to Edmonton the following day, with the idea that we’ll wind back through various locations in Alberta and B.C. to end with a final gig in Vancouver on May 2. Pacing the room, bassplayer Brendan Holm lays out the scenario: Wendy the Windstar, our cherry-red tour van stacked to the gills with amps, bedrolls and suitcases, needs a new transmission. It can putter along at about 60 kilometres an hour but more than that is pushing it, he says. Last night they played The
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Variably cloudy High 19, Low 11 Details A2
Bohemia, a punky dive not sleeping bags, wet socks and unlike a wide hallway stuffed stacks of graphic novels that with pierced revelers and a fill the living room is the sizsmall ground-level stage. able cage of Tetsuo, a portly, Though Top Men enjoy an grandfatherly rat with a penenthusiastic hometown follow- chant for boiled eggs. ing due in part to their “One of the most starry-eyed, highdestructive creatures concept stage shows, known to man,” it was uncertain how grumbled an Alberta their particular brand government website of DIY electro-geek that confirm he is and loved-up cardin fact an outlaw, board robots would fly smuggled into a provdeep in oil country. ince where rats are Band consensus was not only banned but that the crowd was which has proclaimed Julie small but responsive, itself effectively ratChadwick and bought their free since 1960. Reporting fair share of merch, The group discussed which ran from their options: fix embossed Top Men the van, buy a used sunglasses to glowvehicle immediately in-the-dark T-shirts designed or pay for a rental van, each and silkscreened by the band with their advantages and themselves. drawbacks. Holm gathers group memA cancellation in Calgary bers Chris Thompson, Paul had bought the band an extra Carpenter and Liam Gibson in day, but with the next show in the kitchen of Gibson’s aunt Banff, there was a reluctance Laurel, whose generosity has to limp the van back over the led to a full-scale occupation of Rockies with the hope of a fix her home. Amidst the sweaty at a later date.
The discussion takes a turn and the band begin to talk about their future aspirations, their commitment to the project. The van becomes a symbol of where they might be going musically and how far they’re willing to take it. Thompson pulls out his ukelele and ‘Que Sera Sera’ fills the room. He begins to teach the song to my nineyear-old daughter Ruby — also along for the ride. Eventually the band agrees to rent a sleek white rental van with Quebec plates and we’re back on the road, cleaving through snow-creamed mountains and threaded with chuffing Canada-logo trains. It’s dizzyingly picturesque. Arrival in Banff continues the dream. Nestled in an eyewatering panorama of jagged mountains, it boasts a level of tourist surrealism that borders on cartoonish. Walking the streets before the show makes me wonder if actual flesh-andblood locals even exist. See ROAD, Page A6
Tony Adema sees the growing excitement but thinks that next weekend’s Nanaimo Heritage Days is bypassing him and his ACME Food Company. Adema, manager of the Commercial Street restaurant, said he and his staff had hoped for a temporary extension on the establishment’s liquor licence to allow it to sell liquor on May 15-16 on the sidewalk adjacent to the business. He said the Downtown Nanaimo Business Improvement Association typically canvases downtown restaurants and pubs in the weeks leading up to Bathtub Days, to determine how many would be applying for extended liquor licences. Adema said the DNBIA would then submit an umbrella application to the Liquor Licensing Branch for all the requests and the process would then be expedited to get the temporary licences. He said members of the organizing committee for Nanaimo Heritage Days, replacing the Empire Days event, had approached him with the same offer, but he was recently informed that because he was the only downtown business in the area applying for an extended liquor licence for the weekend, the committee wouldn’t make the application to the LLB. “It takes at least three weeks for applications to be processed by the LLB and if I had known this weeks ago, I could have made a separate application,” Adema said. Angie Barnard, who is co-ordinating the event, said she appreciates Adema’s frustration. She acknowledged that the committee approached Adema and other business people downtown about submitting an umbrella application for everyone who intended to apply for temporary extensions to their liquor licences. But Barnard said when it became apparent that ACME was the only establishment looking for an extended licence, she informed Adema that the committee wouldn’t spend money for an umbrella application for just one business. “We’ve asked the city to at least allow ACME to place tables outside so the restaurant can take advantage of the crowds expected downtown, but that’s all we can do right now,” she said. “We had just six weeks to plan a major festival in the city and, while it was our intention to grease as many wheels of downtown businesses as we could, we just didn’t have as much time this year that was needed to do all we wanted to do. “We look forward to having a full year to plan for next year’s Nanaimo Heritage Days.” Robert.Barron @nanaimodailynews.com 250-729-4234
Police officers shot, killed in Mississippi
Jr. Timbermen roll over Lakers at home
Three suspects are in custody, including two who are being charged with capital murder after a shooting during a traffic stop on Sunday in Hattiesburg. » Nation & World, A8
The Nanaimo Junior A Timbermen offence continued its hot play Saturday in a three-goal win over the Burnaby Lakers in B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League action. » Sports, B1
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