In 1972, the Canadian Federal government got into the music production business when it contributed $30,000 to the Maple Leaf Junket project, put together by music journalist Richie Yorke along with $50,000 from the Canadian Record Manufacturer’s Association. The plan was to airlift about 100 writers, music journalists, broadcasters and film producers from 14 European countries to an all expenses 4 day trip from Montreal to Toronto to showcase the Canadian music scene, culminating in two shows at Massey Hall - June 6 for folk and the 7th for rock. By all accounts it was a busy hectic schedule of long days and longer nights - the MMJ organizers were so keen to put as many bands on stage that they limited sets to 30 minutes in a multi-hour parade of acts.
In 2018 the CBC put together a short doc on the MMJ with some interviews both then and now as well as a look back at how Crowbar made an impact as last act of the night. Click through to the video here.
On June 7th issue of the Globe, Jack Batten’s “Pop Scene” column titled “Paying people slightly ignored” noted that the event was for the vip’s flown in and not the paying public, quoting one performer calling it a “meat market”. He also said: “… the number of performers and necessary limit on time hardly gave many of the singers much chance to develop a mood or sustain an act“. Lighthouse’s co-founder and drummer Skip Prokop as pretty outspoken about it - here’s the performance of “One Fine Morning” prefaced with an interview clip where he vents:
In the next day’s “Pop Scene” column, Batten stated that Prokop’s intro was a “rebuke to this reviewer for suggesting in the coverage of Tuesday’s folk concert that the 30 minutes allotted each performer isn’t enough to develop a representative act”. The column is almost entirely about the Lighthouse set (”The band was roaring. Then too it was all over. Anti-climax as finale”) and his only take on Crowbar is: “I have to report that Crowbar, a sure-shot crowd-pleaser, appeared last on the bill, far too late for review purposes”.
Part of the plan was to produce two 60 minute radio shows and a 90 minute tv show on the concert - in the Dec 13 1972 Globe, Blaik Kirby writes that the “CBC is busy throwing away about $25,000 worth of program, by slashing its Maple Music Junket pop musical special from 90 minutes to 60.” This meant that some acts ended up with a mere 30 seconds in the documentary - here’s the clip with Fergus (Fergus Hambleton, Peter Lye, Scotty Allan, Jack Merrick):
From the Globe & Mail after the special aired on TV, Blaik Kirby noted “the performances … particularly the disgusting antics of Crowbar, probably helped to confirm the image of pop in adult minds as being mindless, orgiastic and devoted not to music but to noise and complete lack of self-control.” He also mentioned “even Anne Murray did not emerge with credit: she looked overweight and her voice was not at it’s best”.
By the by, check out this advert for Lighthouse from the last page of an issue of RPM magazine: