Jim Algie pays tribute to his former bandmate, Al Miller, a kingpin of the Edmonton and Toronto indie music scenes, who taught him how to play the guitar solo in Teenage Kicks, among many other priceless favors.
One of the hardest parts of aging is seeing my old friends and musical colleagues depart one by one in unfortunate mishaps or from ruthless diseases, like Al Miller (right), who made his mark on the early punk/new wave scene in Dedmonton, singing and playing guitar in various bands, and performing at the first two gigs at the later legendary Spartans hall, alongside Evan C Jones and I in the Urban Surfers, before he relocated to Toronto where he enjoyed a long career as a musician in groups like Living Proof, a soundman in clubs and a contributor to the cult TV show Kids in the Hall.
We did not always get along (Al had a bad temper), but I will always be grateful to him for everything he taught me about music, like how to play the guitar solo in Teenage Kicks.
From left to right, the Urban Surfers were Evan C Jones (drums), Jim Algie (bass, backing vocals, main songwriter) and Al Miller (lead vocals, guitar).
One of the Urban Surfers´s first gigs was opening for DOA. Poster designed by Ken Chinn, who later became Chi Pig, the leader singer and acrobat of SNFU, who recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of their first album.
Al Miller joins his fellow Surfer Evan C Jones in the long rest note of eternity. Speaking of Evan, he is receiving some posthumous glory thanks to the 40th anniversary edition of the first SNFU album, And No One Else Wanted to Play, which riffs on his skills as a drummer, arranger and mult-instrumentalist. Congrats to the surviving members, Muc, Bunt and Jimmy, on their milestone, as well as a shoutout to the late Mr Chi Pig, aka Ken Chinn, who cohosted the only punk/new wave radio show at Vic Comp high school, alongside yours truly.
But old musicians never pass away completely. They just get reincarnated as vinyl records, MP3 files and radio waves hurtling through outer space at the speed of sound, so the aliens are rocking out to Flying Saucers Rock n Roll by Billy Lee Riley, and some Evan, Al and Chi riffs.
Many of Jim Algie´s best music stories, both fiction and nonfiction, are included in the collection “On the Night Joey Ramone Died: Tales of Rock and Punk from Bangkok, New York, Cambodia and Norway,” along with a number of tributes and obits to his musical heroes like Leonard Cohen and Joey Ramone. The ebook and paperback are available on Amazon. The acclaimed mystery author, Timothy Hallinan, said, “The book captures the pop music world as well as, and in some cases better than, most actual rock autobiographies.”
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