Wake Up Winnipeg - Episode 96
Hosted Live/Produced/Recorded by: Andru Valpy
Air Date: 10/7/2011 6:00 PM on UMFM 101.5 FM
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Rebroadcast: 10/12/2011 on CJUM 101.5 UMFM - 6:30 AM
On this week's show Natty and I went down to The Forks Market to celebrate alongside thousands of hockey fans.
The event featured live musical performances from Inward Eye, Three Days Grace and Bachman & Turner, and also featured interactive hockey attractions, a live broadcast of the opening night game between the Montreal Canadians and Toronto Maple Leafs from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
The event was hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos.
During our time at the forks market place I had the opportunity to talk to the preforming artists to get their take on the return of The Winnipeg Jets.
In my conversation with Randy Bachman, Bachman shared some of his thoughts on the Winnipeg Jets.
Randy Bachman: "My memories of the Jets go back to all the Jets games and the traditions here and I think when they left Winnipeg it was a sad moment and that Winnipeg lost some of it's spirit. To see it come back and just explode is just fantastic and I'm sure it's going to rejuvenate the whole downtown and everything."
Fred Turner: "I was pretty excited! You know it's funny because you know we played here last week and then to find out that we were coming right back in again was a bit of a shock to us but hey, we're here! We're happy!"
Randy Bachman: "It's been a great year for Bachman & Turner, in this little space of year we've played the grey cup and now we play the kick off to this I mean you can't get much better than hockey & football in Canada, it's just great!" -
During my discussions I learned that the celebratory feelings on the Jet's extended out to other parts of the world.
Turner: "I've talked to a lot of people who have (...talked about the jets). While were on tour with Paul Rodgers, Paul said 'You got your hockey team back' and he's British!"
Bachman: "We were touring the maritimes and guys are rolling down their windows, and I'm walking down the street, and they're yelling 'GO JETS GO' and I'm like 'What?' This is in Sydney or in Charlottetown so I think all of Canada is happy and I think the rest of the NHL in the states because most of the players are Canadians on tour playing in American Cities".
Moments after my interview with Bachman and Turner, Three Days Grace came by the media booth and I had the opportunity to talk hockey with them.
NHL Network: "Are you guys big hockey fans?"
Neil Sanderson: "You know, Peterborough it's all about hockey there, we played it while we were growing up and it's just amazing and great being from Canada. You know we've been in the states a lot but to be back here in hockey, it's on for sure!"
Brad Walst: "I think the Fans in Winnipeg are amazing both for hockey and for us actually, Winnipeg is a great city for us to play in and the amount of supports that the Jet's have got this far is just unbelievable and I think it's really cool."
Adam Gontier."We're really excited to be here man"
After our Three Days Grace Interview, we took a pause from the action at the Forks Market Place and welcomed our musical guests to The Aimless & Andy Sessions at UMFM Studios.
Stay tuned for an upcoming blog entry for the release of this single.
After the break I met up with George Stroumboulopoulos and had a proper chat with him.
Andru Valpy - So George, to come to Winnipeg to see the NHL Face-Off event, what's that like for you?
George Stroumboulopoulos: "It's really cool man, I mean I like being around hockey on any given day but to combine it with the fact that its the return of the Winnipeg Jets that's even more exciting. Then it's the kick off to the NHL Season, and I know on Sunday the first Jets game here is going to be against my favorite hockey team the habs so all around there's a lot of boxes ticked off on the page."
Av: You going to stay around for that game?
Strombo: "Oh yeah, I'm going to stay around here for sure."
Av: So the Jets have been gone for 15 years did you ever think that the Jets would come back?
Strombo: "You know, maybe somewhere deep down in my heart I thought so but probably not. You never thought the day that....You know The NHL was going in a different direction right, they were building teams in America even though we weren't sure it was the best idea. But you know, it wasn't a bad idea to try and launch franchises there, I'm never in favor of moving a franchise, I would just prefer an expansion team.
I didn't really think the Jets would come back until the new ownership came, and once this new building was build and the new ownership came in and everything got quiet. Once everything gets really quiet...'oh wait a minute' they must be maneuvering behind the scenes, plus you knew Atlanta was toast right?
When Phoenix was all in the news, it's never the thing in front of you it's what's happening behind the scene's and we knew something was happening in Atlanta."
Av: You did the NHL Face-Off event before right?
Strombo: "I did the one in Toronto last year so I did part of it and it was good. It was just around the corner from where I lived so this was a bit further away, but I'm happy to do it."
Av: So let me ask you this, obviously there is a vibe in Toronto where everyone was pumped when you did the NHL Face-Off there, how do you feel about the vibe here in Winnipeg?
Strombo: "It's great. But you know, you go anywhere in this country when hockey is on it's madness right? It's a little bit different here because it feels like there's the return, so I think that's different. There's different expectations right, hockey seasons are always related to expectations and the expectations here aren't really about winning right away it's just first we got a team, and that's the win.
Then in December it will be 'Where are we in the standings' and 'how are we playing' and 'what if this Jets team is good', 'What if they're better than people think' Right? And they could be? Who knows?!
In Toronto it's always, 'Oh what's this year going to be like' and in Montreal it's going to be like 'We're building towards something' Ottawa is going to be a bit of re-building and sort of farewell to Daniel Alfredsson, Edmonton is going to be like 'Okay, we got a bunch of kids can we win a few more games than we have', Calgary nobody knows what it's going to be like, and Vancouver it's about 'We just need one more game' so there's all these different things happening in each city that will be part of the conversation".
After a couple of photo's and brief twitter exchange I said goodbye to Strombo and went off to find Winnipeg based band Inward Eye who we've talked to before on previous episodes of Wake Up Winnipeg.
Av: When we spoke with you last year you were just getting ready to play for the Olympics and now here you are playing for the return of the Winnipeg Jets here in Winnipeg, tell me, what's that feel like?
Dave Erickson: "Ah it's great, we're so proud to be Winnipeggers right now, we got our pride back..well we always had pride but we got more of it back now I think."
Av: So that home town feeling is obviously there, and now you're going to be playing front of a few thousand Winnipeggers, compare these feelings with those of the Olympics.
Dave Erickson: "You know, in a way this is more intimate and more personal. It's like a personal victory for everybody and we're really happy to be a part of it. I stopped watching hockey when I was twelve years old after the jets stick and I picked up a guitar, so now I might have to throw my guitar away and pick up a stick... . ..I was probably seven years old when I went to my first jets game, the Winnipeg Jets versus the L. A. Kings, I got to see Wayne Gretzky, and it was a thrill. "
Anders Erickson: "Hockey is such a big deal for Canada, especially for Winnipeg being so cold, and everyone grew up playing it here so I think it's going to be very exciting."
Av: When you guys are on tour and you're talking about Winnipeg, and people are mentioning 'Oh you've got the jets back', what does it feel like to have people talk to you about your home town team?
Dave Erickson: "It kind of puts us on the map again after so long. Having a big major sports team it's sort of like a rallying point for everybody." Anders Erickson: "It's funny, we were just in Korea and someone came up to me and he's like 'Winnipeg Jets' after we played because I guess we announced we were from Winnipeg and he recognized it from that."
Av: So you guys are Winnipeggers, and we've been hearing about this on again, off again for the last few years, when did it finally click in 'Oh wow, this might be the real thing?!"
Dave Erickson: "You know, I was always of the mind 'I'll believe it when I see it' I was skeptical because we've been teased so many times and finally when it was on the front page of the news I believed and I was here at the forks when they announced it so it was a good day. It's great to be accepted by your home town and be part of the festivities and be part of those feelings and share that is really cool"
Moments later the Erickson boys picked up their guitars and kicked off the festivities on the Scotia Bank stage to a very energized crowd. Anyone in attendance would tell you that it was very exciting to be apart of the 2011 NHL Face Off event.
We ended off the show by reminding our listener to enter the Lays Hometown Hero contest and opened up our inbox to give away our lays prize packs. (Ed Note: For those of you listening in iTunes the contest is over).
Additional photographs from the NHL Face-Off event may be found on our Facebook Fan Page.
We'll catch you next week on Wake Up Winnipeg, be sure to tune in! Please also help us reach our goal of 1,000 twitter followers by Episode 100 on November the 4th. You can follow us at twitter.com/WakeUpWinnipeg.
Until then,
-Av
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