11.28.2015 09:42 AM

I’d be upset if I had any of the details 

P.S. – I can’t get the code to centre this thing. Driving me crazy.

6 Comments

  1. Harvey Bushell says:

    Haven’t been there in a very long time but in the early 80’s I was the house sound tech there up in Albert’s Hall for a couple of years. I saw and worked with many of the best blues bands in the world incl Albert Collins, Son Seals, Luther Johnson, Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon (who played downstairs for some reason)… Albert Collins was the original “turn it up to 11” guitar player.. he used a Telecaster with a vintage Fender Twin which is a really loud amp on it’s own but with literally every knob at max incl input/output, treble, bass *and* reverb it was really farking loud. He had a 100+’ guitar cable and near the end of each show he’d walk down the stairs and onto Bloor Street while still playing with the band and mingle with passers-by while he did a looong guitar solo (most blues guitarists do looong solos all the time but only Albert did it on the sidewalk LOL). He also drove the band’s old tour bus.. he was a bus/truck driver in his younger years.

    I was also there the night Stevie Ray Vaughan dropped in and played with him for a set. That was something. They traded guitar solos for nearly an hour and left the people in the house awestruck incl me.

    So long Brunswick House.. it was fun.

  2. MississaugaPeter says:

    The best drinking hole in my lifetime. Never ever left coherent and without a gal. Only place in the world us U. of A. St. Joe’s boys (came to work in the centre of the universe every summer and lived in College/Brunswick area) didn’t strike out, because the girls were just as incoherent as us. Had to order 1-2 trays of draft (watered down), 27 glasses at a time, because service was so bad. Where drinking from boots (if you were from Western) was normal. Singing Irene and Elvis (piano?). Did I say that like you WK, I never left the place sober?

    Disappointed a few years later when we brought our wives there and they had a friggin’ dance floor and served bottles. At least we went home with gals.

  3. The Doctor says:

    Too bad – ’twas a great place in its prime — especially when the legendary Irene and Carla were the in-house musical entertainment. And the tray of draft beer was the only item on the drink menu.

  4. James Smith says:

    This place in the 1970’s was an odd juxtaposition. Upstairs one had the amazing & internationally famous Peter Appleyard & his band as the house band, joined by other Jazz greats as well as many from the blues scene. (I think this is where I saw Sun Ra & his Arkestra, but I’m old and my mind wanders.) I seem to recall that CHCH produced some TV shows from there.
    Downstairs, well it was downstairs. If we wanted a break from the Beverly or the Crash & Burn the Brunswick was entertaining.

    Amongst my pals reminiscing these last few days, we all talk about Donny. Donny was about 1200mm tall but he had the voice of someone 2000mm tall. One could count on Donny to belt out at least his two standards:
    OOOOOOOOOOOO-klahoma (from the musical of the same name https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbrnXl2gO_k)
    and Ca-Na-Da (the Bobby Gimby 1967 song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vE17TazIvM )

  5. SG says:

    A sign of the times. Not just in Toronto – bars and clubs are shutting down everywhere in North America, probably throughout the Western world. The reasons are no doubt complex but I think it simply comes down to the fact that young people today simply don’t have the disposable cash to blow on nightlife the way they did in decades past, and miserable un- and underemployment rates for young people don’t exactly breed a sense of optimism.

    This isn’t really a lament for times past – I never had those great ‘coming-of-age’ memories from the bars of my youth (I’m 35, so it wasn’t all that long ago). Mostly I remember being shy and insecure at those places amidst all the beautiful, exuberantly happy and seemingly carefree people.

    It’s just amazing how things change in a flash. 15 years ago, Toronto’s Richmond and Peter district used to be so mobbed on Saturday night it was difficult to find a place to walk on the sidewalk. I don’t live in Toronto any more but as I understand it has since gone eerily quiet.

  6. Mark says:

    RIP Brunswick House. First place I ever got into with a fake ID. First place I was ever kicked out of by bouncers. Was usually drunk when I arrived, and drunker when I left.

    I really hope something (anything!) other than a soulless Boston Pizza will take over the space. The Annex crowd can get pretty noisy when they want to – maybe they’ll start a protest. Calling Adam Vaughan!

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