Whatever happened to...

Well, I'm bored so I decided to add a reoccurring feature to my site. I'm going to do a few posts on some of my favorite bands from back in the day that just kind of disappeared or broke up without any fanfare. So... whatever happened to Red Autumn Fall?

A few years ago, my best friend's sister was always raving about this band called Red Autumn Fall from Calgary. This was just before I turned 19 (holy shit! that's like 10 years ago... I REALLY feel old now...) so I gave her some money to pick me up their CD at their gig at the old Channel 1. It is still one of my fave discs of all time. They released a follyup CD, had a couple videos played on Muchmusic and seemed like they were just on the verge of hitting that next big step of Canadian rock celebrities...along the Sloan/Headstones/etc level. Their singer/guitarist/songwriter Simeon Ross had an incredible voice. They kind of reminded me of what would happen if Morrissey were replace Bono in U2. I had an opportunity to see these guys play at The State in 1998 or thereabouts, and they were absoluting stunning live. Simeon had a HUGE migraine headache, but he persevered and carried on with the show and still had the relatively small crowd enraptured. "Josephite" and "Satellite" were both released as singles. In a fair world, these guys would've been one of the biggest bands in Canada. But just when it seemed they were ready to make that next step, they broke up. I believe Simeon Ross has a solo career now, but I have not had a chance to hear any of his solo material. Another one of those "could've been" bands that just decided to call it a day. It's hard for any band (especially Canadian bands) to make a decent living. So many bands give it a go in the hopes of striking gold, but it's a hard reality when they realize that they can barely pay the bills and start having families to support. So I have to pay my respects to any musician that dares to make that leap of faith and sacrifice the 9-5 world and take the gamble to try to make it in music and entertain people. Besides the lucky 2% of the music world, a musician's life is not lucrative, so it must come from a pure and genuine love of music to travel in a crappy van or bus and play in any dive that will accept them, all in the hopes of putting a smile on the faces of their audiences.