Quarrington here, with late-breaking news flashes.

Porkbelly Futures played a lovely event the other night, a Christmas Party hosted by my friend Judith Keenan, who makes BookShorts, which are short films inspired by books. You could check out the website to see what I’m talking about. (Martin Worthy, our fabulous singer/songwriting drummer has done the music for some of these.) Anyway, the party was co-hosted by Irene Duma (who has made several BookShorts) and Sue Kenney (who had a BookShort made from her book, “Confessions of a Pilgrim”.) We’re going to be producing a BookShort for my upcoming novel “The Ravine.” The Gents performed also, a very accomplished comedy troupe, featuring the talents of Bruce Pirrie (another BookShorts veteran), Matt Baram, Bob Bainborough and Doug Morency. And Marty Adams, a mainstay at Toronto’s Second City, played Santa Claus. There was high hilarity.

Also, Quarrington (me) is very jazzed about the upcoming round of Canada Reads, because his (my) friend Dave Bidini is going to champion the hockey novel “King Leary.” It’s been almost impossible to get hold of this book, which is one of his (my) faves. But it’s out in a lovely new edition from Anchor Press. Anyway, read all about it HERE.

He doesn't sing or jump around on stage, but nobody can miss Chas
Elliott. We like to refer to this gentle giant as the world's tallest
free-standing bass player. Porkbelly players (and knowledgeable
audience members) keep track of his expression during concerts,
looking for the smile that bursts forth when the music feels
especially good. Chas has performed and recorded chamber music with
the great Glenn Gould - which very few can claim! - and added his "low-
frequency bass generator" sounds to some famous film scores that we
all hum along to. He towers over his section mates at the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra, but The iPod That Never Leaves Him (TiPTNLH) is filled with deep, powerful, soulful, funky music. An interesting guy...

We've just performed at The London Music Club, a wonderful Ontario venue operated by a couple of genuine music lovers. Janice and Peter Denomme have converted a gorgeous heritage home into a restaurant/live music site that's one of the nicest we've seen anywhere. Check it out HERE.
London Free Press columnist James Reaney's blog review of our show read: "Paul Quarrington and the other Futures write songs about Sweet Daddy Siki, broken hearts, trains, Newfoundland disasters and just about everything else... Guest guitarist Teddy Leonard was so hot that Quarrington joked he thought he was in Zed Zed Top (nice to see it pronounced properly). Anyway, when they do come back, go! This might have been the gig of the year.

Paul Quarrington rolls up his sleeves and wades in on Bob Mersereau's new book The Top 100 Canadian Albums; in The Globe and Mail HERE. Nineteenth on the list is The Rheostatics' Whale Music, named after Paul's novel of that title. The band subsequently recorded the soundtrack (including Paul's Genie Award-winning song Claire) for the Whale Music movie.

The producer of our recordings is Toronto’s own David Gray, so we like to drag him into the limelight now and then. First off, Dave’s a killer guitar player - so good that Butterfield tried to pry him out of Parachute Club to join a band he wanted to put together in California with the great Ben Keith. So that’s nice. Mostly, though, he’s our wonderful producer, a master of diverse musical genres who takes infinite pains with our material and, well, us. It was Dave (we often call him DG) who suggested Rebecca would be perfect for the band, and we all know how great that’s been. He also got folks like Colin Linden, Richard Bell, Roxanne Potvin and Teddy Leonard onside. He loans us gear too (DG has tons of gear) and encouraged Stuey to learn the pedal steel guitar, which adds a great new sound to our music.
Like us, DG has a keen interest in the original Blues/Roots/Country musician Porkbelly Futures from whom we get our name and inspiration. He even has a couple of original (and, unfortunately unlistenable) Porkbelly recordings.

(Paul) We have completed work on our new album, which, after endless bickering, we’ve decided to call “Porkbelly Futures.” After ourselves, you see, it’s no mere coincidence. We are now in the final stages, pressing copies and printing covers, and everything should be ready to go in a couple of months.
In the meantime, we are playing a couple of very interesting gigs. One is at the Black Swan (154 Danforth, just east of Broadview) on Friday, August 17th. Loyal Porkbelly fans know that the band started there, lo those many years ago, playing the blues and knocking our instruments off the stage. Well, much has changed. Our music is no longer as bluesy, though I expect we will still knock much equipment off the stage. We intend to play two sets of our own music, north country blues, and then perhaps we’ll reprise some of that muddy Mississippi and shuffling Chicago stuff. It should be grand fun.
The following week, on Saturday the 25th, we will be playing in the woods. It’s true. Our management seems to be upset about a small bit of pilfering, anyway, they have booked us into the Haliburton Forest. They say we will be playing upon a floating stage. (We say, let’s see the stage first.) Anyway, for more information, check out this link.

A Porkbelly song that’s been getting a great response lately is Sweet Daddy, written by Paul Quarrington and Dave Gray. It’s about Sweet Daddy Siki (a.k.a. “Mr. Irresistible”) a flamboyant black Texan with flaxen, silvery white hair who became a wrestling legend in Canada in the 50’s and 60’s. Our song tells the story of Sweet Daddy's rise from "bad guy" to the super star that all the bad guys had to fear. Sweet Daddy also has some music in him, penning a honky-tonk number to accompany his famous Siki Strut. He said “the tune drives the women nuts when I enter the ring." Paul and David wanted to create a song that paid homage to a man who was a part of their childhood.
Reginald (for that is his real name) still lives in Toronto and can be found overseeing karaoke events on Saturday afternoons at The Duke of York tavern at Queen and Leslie. We leave you with the words of a champ:
"A lot of people try to copy me, but there's only one Niagara Falls and only one Mona Lisa. And there's only one Mr. Irresistible -- Sweet Daddy Siki."