In the summer of 1972, Peter Komisar and Ron Pearson had the idea of forming a duo; playing lighter music. Steve Fowler heard about the duo and went to have a listen. He said this duo needs drums and everything fell into place. Pierre Gallant was added soon thereafter and the Nuggets, a "summer job" band, was formed. After spending a month in Ron's basement, the Nuggets was ready to play locally, including Byeways and the Elms and down the Valley. Steve had to take a break to go to summer school and Tony van Kessel expertly filled in while he was away. We had a lot of fun and played some rock, country and popular music. With Pierre in the band, we could also do numbers like Apollo 100's Joy and ELP (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)'s Nutrocker.
--- Steve Fowler June 12, 2023
The Checkers
Riding on the success of the Nuggets, Peter Komisar, Ron Pearson and Steve Fowler decided to form another "summer job" band. Ron and Steve headed to Toronto to load up on top-of-the-line Traynor amps, speakers PA system and Ludwig drums. We spent the next month in the basement learning about 60 songs with a planned opening at the Elms. We needed a band name quickly and Peter told the Elms to just call us the Nuggets.
(For an entertaining account of this time, see Marilyn Carr's, Nowhere Like This Place 2020 Ch 23). We played in Deep River, Ottawa and many places in between. It was a crazy job because we played almost every night. We would sleep till noon and practice every afternoon learning new songs and refining others; then off to bar again. When we could get people dancing in the parking lot at Byeways, we knew we were having a good night.
--- Steve Fowler June 12, 2023
The Checkers Live, Elms Hotel, Deep River June 23, 1973
0:00 Wild Night 3:31 Silver Wings 6:29 Johnny B. Goode 8:29 Good Golly, Miss Molly
