Just how loud was Ted Nugent at the Gardens in 1986?

Following the success of his first book Castle Stories: A Rock n' Roll Scrapbook, local author Duane Roy is happy to announce the release of his second, Soo Stories: A Rock n' Roll Scrapbook.

Roy's new book is a collection of concert stories and photos, both his own and those submitted by others, centered around the old Memorial Gardens.

Contributors include Jason Mapes, George Case, Jeff Neill of Streetheart, three members of Helix, two members of Syre and Don Wilk, lead singer of White Wolf.

Printed by Alloways in Blind River, Soo Stories is available for $25 Canadian or US $28 (includes shipping and handling) from www.duaneroy.com

ISBN 978-0-9811629-7-3

Roy also told SooToday.com that the Rad Zone in the Wellington Square Mall will soon have more copies of both Soo Stories and Castle Stories in stock within the next few weeks.

The following is a copyrighted excerpt, published with permission of the author.

SooToday.com cautions that rock and roll fans use "colourful" language at times and portions of this article may offend some readers. 


***************************** Book synopsis

The Sault Memorial Gardens stood for 57 years as one of the greatest arenas in Northern Ontario.

Some of the most popular bands in music graced the stage of “The Gardens," - from Johnny Cash to Helix and from Ted Nugent to Alice Cooper.

The fans of these bands have some legendary stories to tell, more than sex, drugs and rock n’ roll; much, much more.

Ted Nugent - 1986

The concert started and I can't honestly say that Ted Nugent was the loudest concert I’d ever been to because, well, I hadn’t been to a concert before.

Loud wasn’t even an accurate description.

Death by Marshall and Gibson would be the easiest and most factual way to describe the volume that emitted from Nugent’s sound system.

The lights in the neighbouring buildings must have dimmed when Ted turned his amplifiers on.

For a split second at the beginning of the concert I didn’t think I would be able to endure the slow onslaught to deafness that Nugent was providing the soundtrack to.

I half-heartedly looked at my buddy next to me and smiled.

I didn’t wave the devil horns as I would today because I wasn’t familiar with the world renowned symbol for “F@*ing A” yet.

I secretly thought that if this is what a concert is like maybe it’s just not my thing.

For the life of me I cannot imagine why an artist would have the need to play in the 120 decibel range.

Especially in a small, old decrepit building that seemed to be on the edge of collapse like the Memorial Gardens.

I figured that maybe musicians measure their respective manhood in decibels.

That’s a real possibility, so using Ted’s volume as a measuring stick he was the manliest of men, hung like a buffalo, strong as an ox and more than likely deaf as post.

So in relatively simple terms for the record - Ted was f@*ing loud.

Kim Mitchell - 1986

As far as I can recall, going to the Soo Gardens was my first real teenage road trip.

Sure I’d done thousands of laps around our little town much like every true blue teenager does.

We would circumnavigate the town and count the streets until we ran dangerously low on gas.

Then scrape the nickels and dimes from the sticky car floor and coast to the gas station on fumes and farts and sheepishly ask for $2.39 in gas, regular of course.

My buddy Gord owned the coolest of cruising vehicles in a candy-apple red Volkswagen Beetle or “Bug” as they were ubiquitously labelled by everyone in the world.

This thing could run multiple laps around town on a thimble full of gas.

The occasional mechanical issue could be quickly remedied by Gord who seemed to possess an uncanny ability to diagnose, repair and facilitate the most difficult repairs in the parking lots and side streets of Wawa.

I unfortunately lacked the mechanical aptitude and usually didn’t realize there was a mechanical issue until Gord was already under the vehicle.

My sole responsibility was to change the cassette which usually seemed to be the forgotten about Japanese band Loudness or Uncle Ted Nugent.

I was also the spotter of all things female.

Luckily I had the uncanny ability to spot tight jeans from the greatest of distances and that alone made up for my lack of mechanical skills and abilities.

That summer we found out that Kim Mitchell was playing the Soo Gardens through the usual teenage grape vine.

After a quick discussion and mental tallying of the distance times the rate of fuel dissipation and concert ticket, fast-food logarithms we both agreed that this trip was do-able.

I was concerned that my mother would shoot down the idea and when she agreed I was not only elated but thoroughly surprised.

I figured since the getting was good I’d try to scam a few more bucks out of her.

I was greeted with the usual “Don’t push your luck” stare that only experienced parents are able to muster (a skill that I now possess).

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