Bruno Gerussi’s Medallion

Putting to rest any doubt of the impact “Beachcombers” has had on Canadian culture, Bruno Gerussi’s Medallion was formed in Vancouver in the mid 1990s by frontman Tom Harrison, his brother Don and Ron Hyslop on guitars, Jim Elliott on bass, and drummer Mike Schmidt.

Tom Harrison was also hosting a North Vancouver community cable TV show at the time called “Soundproof,” which was in the vein of “Wayne’s World”, except it featured punk music. The band played

They recruited Trooper‘s Ra McGuire as producer and booked time at Blue Wave, Bullfrog, and Ocean Studios in Vancouver over the next several months to cut some tapes. Don Harrison left to form Sons of Freedom, and was replaced by Jimmy Walker (ex of ????), and Schmidt was replaced on drums by Bruce Faulkner.

In 2001, “Faith In The Season,” a song that was initially recorded for a BMG holiday album a decade earlier, appeared on Bullseye Records’ compilation, TAKIN’ CARE OF CHRISTMAS.

Recording information: Blue Wave; Bullfrog; Ocean; Profile. Photographer: James OMara. Personnel: Tom Harrison (vocals, percussion, background vocals); Jimmy Walker (guitar, E-bow, keyboards, background vocals); Don Harrison (guitar, background vocals); Ron Scott (guitar); Mike Schmidt (drums). Audio Remixer: Joel Van Dyke. Tom, Ron & Mike were already in a band called Little Games — previously known as Bruno Gerussi’s Medallion). Keyboardist Tracy Marks is recruited at a party (he was the caterer) and a CD is recorded shortly thereafter. Coffee, Jazz and Poetry is taped completely live in front of a drunken studio audience I’m known as a writer, but writ­ing your own bio is tough..It might be the tough­est assign­ment I ever had. But I’ve done it before. The key is to keep it brief and always ask your­self, how much does any­one need to know? This being a web­page, I’ll expand a lit­tle but not much. A faulty mem­ory might be a bless­ing in this case. I was born in St. Boni­face, a French-Canadian speak­ing city within Win­nipeg. I was the eldest of five kids – Betty, Bill, Gary and Don fol­low­ing me. My par­ents con­stantly were broke, which might account for my father’s many dif­fer­ent jobs and my mother buck­ing ‘50s social con­ven­tion and going to work. We knew hard­ships, then, but noth­ing disastrous. We lived in Win­nipeg, Edmon­ton, Win­nipeg again and finally North Van­cou­ver. The idea to move to North Van­cou­ver was to start over and be near the other Har­risons, who’d moved from Win­nipeg years before. At first we were out­casts within the large fam­ily – five uncles and an aunt — because of our poverty and my par­ents’ evi­dent lib­eral atti­tude toward bring­ing us up. Over the years, my broth­ers and sis­ter have tri­umphed in their own way. Grad­u­ally we rebuilt and by the early ‘70s I was enthralled by music, col­lect­ing records and lis­ten­ing to the radio con­stantly. North Van­cou­ver also seemed really hip, although there was noth­ing to do. At high school, I dis­cov­ered that I had a tal­ent for writ­ing and enjoyed it. Later on, I became the music direc­tor at the Uni­ver­sity of British Columbia’s cam­pus radio sta­tion, which then was known as CYVR. The sta­tion was fee­ble but it put me in con­tact with record label rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Simul­ta­ne­ously, I still was con­sum­ing music vora­ciously and read­ing about it. One Toronto-based music monthly, Bee­tle, had a reviewer that aggra­vated me so much I wrote a let­ter of com­plaint. Imme­di­ately, I was remorse­ful and sent the edi­tor a few of my own reviews to show that I was pre­pared to “put up or shut up.” He wrote back, say­ing, these are good. He wanted more and asked if I was in a posi­tion to do inter­views. As CYVR’s music direc­tor I was. I think my first pub­lished review was of a Magma album. My friends threw a party and I was called an “inter­na­tional jet-setting rock critic.” Not quite. Bee­tle folded in 1975 and I was hired by the Geor­gia Straight to fill a hole cre­ated by Bob Geldof. In 18 months in Van­cou­ver, Geldof had increased the Strraight’s music cov­er­age sig­nif­i­cantly but he was going back to Ire­land, mut­ter­ing some­thing about form­ing a rock band, which even­tu­ally became The Boom­town Rats . In four years at the Straight, I increased the music cov­er­age even more, free­lanced on the side, and took up drums. As a novice drum­mer, I pounded for The Explo­sions, the Straight’s “house band.” We issued a sin­gle and opened for Talk­ing Heads at the Com­modore the day Keith Moon of The Who died, Sep­tem­ber 7, 1978. At the height of punk rock hys­te­ria in Van­cou­ver in mid-79s, I was taken on by The Province news­pa­per. My punk rock sym­pa­thies resulted in a few unpop­u­lar reviews but I’ve per­se­vered to the point where I am now an elder states­man, which I find both inevitable and ironic. I con­tin­ued to drum with a band of North Van friends, the Pota­toes, with whom I learned I could sing. I got mar­ried, to Kerry, in Lon­don, Eng­land in 1983. Kerry, who also worked at The Province, and I took a leave of absence for six months. When we got back to Van­cou­ver, I became the singer for a band called Bruno Gerussi’s Medal­lion. We signed to Warner Bros. Canada in 1989, released an album, In Search Of The Fourth Chord, toured a bit, and enjoyed a lit­tle notoriety. Dur­ing this time, I hosted or co-hosted a cable­vi­sion TV show, Sound­proof, which played videos and fea­tured a slew of local bands. I also helmed Demolis­ten, which for two hours each week played demo tapes and even­tu­ally Cds of local bands on CFOX. This devel­oped into the annual Seeds com­pe­ti­tion, but I was long gone. Bruno Gerussi’s Medal­lion changed its name to Lit­tle Games and released an album, Gui­tar Dam­age. It was poorly pro­moted (by us) and didn’t sell. Too bad, it’s a good record, Later, I made a solo album, Five Guardian Gen­er­als, that is unre­leased. Too bad, it’s a good album. Bruno Gerussi’s Medal­lion reunited for one night in Octo­ber 1998 and recorded a live album. Not many were pressed. Too bad, it’s a good album. I had a stroke in 2000. That’s a long story in its own right. I went back to work a year later and even­tu­ally joined another band, Lumpy. We made an album, my first of the era of down­load­ing, MySpace, CD Baby and You Tube. It’s a good album. My father died in 1994 of can­cer. My mother died in 2005 of a heart attack. My sis­ter died of can­cer in 2009. It some­times is strange to real­ize you’re the old­est liv­ing Har­ri­son. Any ques­tions? Around the same time, Jimmy Walker joined (Tom Harrison’s) Bruno Gerussi’s Medallion, first as bass guitarist, then as lead guitarist when Tom’s brother Don left to form Sons of Freedom. BGM put out two records, the first with WEA Canada (on CD and Vinyl LP & 45) and the second under the new name Little Games (which was originally released in Germany on Bellaphone Records – finally a Beatles connection! Check out Beatles Live at the Star Club – it’s on Bellaphone!). The Little Games Guitar Damage CD featured the song “Faith In The Season” which was one of CBC’s David Wisdom’s favourite Christmas songs and is still being played on the radio every holiday season to this day. BGM also opened up for some legendary acts – DOA, Art Bergman, Prism, Trooper, Odds, Katrina & The Waves, NRBQ, Savoy Brown, Los Lobos and Nazareth to name a few, and recorded a video for MuchMusic, and a Molson Canadian Rock’s segment for CFOX radio. One of the band’s high points was being invited to play at The Beachcombers TV wrap party in Gibsons BC. Bruno himself became a full fledged member and sang with BGM that night and stole the show, and it was all captured on video by CBC – a night to remember! He even told Jay Leno on the Tonight Show, when asked how popular he was in Canada, that he was so popular back home that he had a band named after him! A few nights opening for the Tragically Hip in Edmonton and Calgary and a successful tour back east in Ontario and Quebec introduced BGM to many new fans. A few years back they recorded a live album at Vancouver’s (sorely missed) Press Club. The band has never officially broken up, so who knows what the future holds for Bruno Gerussi’s Medallion. In the early‘90s Jimmy joined the Rockolas on lead guitar, with (future BobCat) Bob White on bass/vocals and the lovely Mary Orban on vocals/percussion. They played around Vancouver in various pubs, Royal Canadian Legions, and Army/Navy and Eagles clubs (if you see Mary, ask her about “Whole Lotta Boots Breakdown”. Led Zep meets Nancy Sinatra – in a Legion!). One Friday evening years later Bob was doing a single at a local West End pub, the Dover Arms, and Jimmy and Danny dropped by to sit in (and Jimmy to show off his brand new Hofner Cavern Beatle Bass guitar). The rest is, well you know . . . Bruno Gerussi’s Medallion (featuring Georgia Straight journalist Tom Harrison) In Search Of The Fourth Chord album for sale by Bruno Gerussi’s Medallion was released Jan 04, 2005 on the Bullseye label. Recording information: Blue Wave; Bullfrog; Ocean; Profile. In Search Of The Fourth Chord buy CD music Photographer: James OMara. In Search Of The Fourth Chord songs Personnel: Tom Harrison (vocals, percussion, background vocals); Jimmy Walker (guitar, E-bow, keyboards, background vocals); Don Harrison (guitar, background vocals); Ron Scott (guitar); Mike Schmidt (drums). Audio Remixer: Joel Van Dyke. Têtu Les 15 Ans = All the Things She Said [Extension 119 Club Edit] Bruno Gerussi’s Medallion / t.A.T.u.