After spending years providing tour buses for big names in the music industry, Joe and Fatima Bamford have launched “Get Off The Bus Concerts” in Fredericton, hoping to provide old-school rockers a place to play and get further exposure.
The walls of the couple’s New Brunswick home are lined with platinum and gold records Bamford received as a music manager and concert promoter since the early ’90s, “This is the gold record for The Kings who is the first real big band that I worked with,” said Joe, who is originally from the city and moved back recently to semi-retire with his wife.
Images of some of Canada’s most famous rockers adorn the walls of his bedroom.
“This is Glass Tiger and this is a gold copy of ‘Don’t Forget Me When I Am Gone,’ which went gold in one week,” Joe, who co-managed the Canadian classic rock band for almost a decade, said.
“I travelled all over the world with Glass Tiger for about nine years.”
The music promoter and long-time tour bus operator owned a fleet of more than 30 buses with his partner and has helped drive the careers of countless artists, such as Blue Rodeo, Sarah McLachlan, Jan Arden, The Tragically Hip and others.
“The Tragically Hip from day one to the last show, right straight though,” he said.
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After adventures he calls “a circus ride,” he’s now putting them into writing a book of memorable moments with performers such as Willie Nelson, whom he once bused in to Parry Sound, Ont., long before cannabis was legal.
“He says, ‘Joe I got rid of all the pot, I cleaned up the buses. You got to look after me.’ That is a chapter in the book,” he said.
Now semi-retired back home in Fredericton where it all began with his first two coaches. Bamford and his wife have sold the bus business and now hope to help some old school bands like one-hit wonders The Kings revive their careers while raising money for local charities through their Get Off The Bus Concerts.
The couple previously held Get Off The Bus Concerts in Parry Sound and Florida, including such artists as Jann Arden, Blue Rodeo, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Styx and others.
The Get Off The Bus Concerts so far have raised over $500,000 for charity said Bamford and he hopes to do more fundraising in Fredericton.
“I think it is going to open up a lot more places for Canadian music to flourish,” said David Diamond with The Kings, who will be playing with his bandmates at the Fredericton Playhouse for Bamford’s Get off the Bus Concerts event on Nov. 3rd.
The band will showcase some of their newer recordings, said Bamford, “You would be surprised by some of these young kids who are now getting tuned in to some of these bands from the ’70s and ’80s,” he said, noting there is a growing younger market for old rockers.
“They might be in their 60s but they can still rock.”
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