Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/67029
Datsun — only to have three strap- ping young lads in the car behind jump out and exclaim, "We'll help you, miss." They were rather embarrassed to discover their 'miss' was a mister but nonetheless pushed the car until it was able to get traction, and I left a pair of shoes behind as I hopped into the now-moving car. I arrived home late in the evening and went straight into a hot bath. The event made the front page of And then the rain came... a torrent of both rain and hail. Like Woodstock, the Niverville Pop Festival turned into a mud fest as more than five mm of rain fell on the site. "All I can remember, Mongrels' guitarist Duncan Wilson, "was hail a bit bigger than golf balls and lots of mud. " says dampen the communal euphoria. "I remember everyone really hav- ing a lot of fun before the rain," local Surprisingly, the rain failed to " guitarist Ron Siwicki recalls, "and even when everyone was sitting in their cars in the rain, they were still partying and having fun. It was pretty bizarre, like the spirit of Woodstock transported to Manitoba. thick, wet, sticky mud. "It took four hours to get four local music promoter who went on to become a partner in Nite Out Entertainment. A Winnipeg transit bus had to be " recalls Bruce Rathbone, a towed out of the mud by a farmer's tractor. "I had parked my CKY-marked Montego station wagon in a field and got out onto a road, only to slide sideways and tip into a ditch, Michael Gillespie recalls. "The car was on its side. About 20 people lifted the car out of the ditch back onto the road. Unbelievable!" 30 June 2012 Winnipeg Boomer " Vehicles became mired in acres of " miles through the mud to the high- way, vehicles. "Roger Kolt went back two days Others simply abandoned their later to get his car and someone had stolen the battery, follow Chopping Block when the rain hit. We never got to play but we did do our share of pushing others' vehicles. My girlfriend gave me her pink raincoat and, with my long hair soaked, I attempted to push her little My band, Pig Iron, was slated to " Wallace says. ...which made for lots and lots of mud. both newspapers the following day. According to Wallace, "we never collected the money. The Doerksen supporters did and years later we tried to track down where the $10,000 went. We found out it had gone into this trust fund and nothing ever happened with it." Even so, the cause was noble and the effort both heroic and memorable. John Einarson is a music historian and author of 15 books on music history/biography. He teaches a popular course on rock music his- tory at the University of Winnipeg. John Einarson Hans Sipma