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Tuning into Xmas

Quirky release gives golfers a course of carols

lan Nobie

News Reporter
jan@nsnews.com

MUSICIAN Dan Lonsdale
has taken all the typical
steps musicians take.

But until che North Vancouver
resident married his music with his
golf hobby to come up with Danny
and the Divots, success has been

- elusive.

Lonsdale, now 36, did earn a
glimpse of glory with his first band,
The Four Ones.

The group became, in
Lonsdale’s words, one of the mast
seen bands in the Lower Mainland,
playing 120 gigs in 18 months in
venues such as the Town Pump, the
Arts Club, and the Railway Club.

The band won a university battle
of the bands contest in °88. But
after five years, the gig was up.

“We were The Four Ones, so we
went our separate ways,” he jokes.

Lonsdale floated into a Top 40
band, but decided after six months
that wasn’t what he wanted to do.

For the past few years, he’s
played coffee houses, th: odd festi-
val and started dabbling in graphic
design. More importantly, he tcok
up golf. He admits he’s a dutter,

chev were in their prime.

The idea for . summer Top 40
golfing hits album germinated in
the musician's mind.

After he had put four or five
songs together, including Golfin’
USA and Puttin’ Woman, he dis-
covered that the original artists
weren't interested in ietting him use
their tunes for golf parodies.

“We gat mos on al! cf them,” he
said. “We got 2 little distressed and
it sort of took a back seat.”

Siill, when his band received
studio time, members recorded a
comedy piece revalving around a
fictiious conmmercial for a fictitious
album called The 18 Holes of
Christmas.

“Tr was a lark,” said Lonsdale.

Band members sent out 25
copies to golf pros and golf maga-
zines to see what if they would get
a response. They did.

Three peeple called wanting to
buy 2 copy.

Lonsdate told the first person
thar the aibum didn’t really exise.

“Then [ thought wait a second,
don’t say that,” remembers
Lonsdale. “So I started telling peo-
ple rhat actually we made 500
copies and we seld out.

“My girlfriend pushed me and
said, ‘You knew there is a demand

DANNY and the Divots play Christmas cut-ups on their album
The 18 Holes of Christmas and Otiier Classic Golfing Carols.
The Divots are (bunker to fairway} North Van's Gan Lonsdale,
Gerry Gagnon, Ronnie Way and Steve Scherf.

tion of the campy numbers listeners
will hear on the 30-minute album.
Lonsdale said the songs he
wrote the lyrics for have been
receiving airplay on radio and 1,60
CDs and cassettes have been sohd
-— far more than the 100 or so
copies Lonsdale was lucky to fog
over a much longer period while
with The Four Ones. Still, he’s
breaking even, not getting rich.

Friday, December 19, 1997 — North Shore News — 27

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“Pm smiling. } was the class clown,
so anything to get a laugh is sore of
worth it.”

Many record stoces, including
HAV Park Royal, sell the album, as
de golf retailers such as Nevada
Bob's and Riverside Golf, which
bath have North Shore outlets.

Lonsdale hopes to use The 18
Holes of Christinas to change the

minds of artists so he can still make j
‘vied BX

ecstatic to break 100. His handicap
is his swing, but he’s hooked.

for this Christmas album, Maybe
you should really think about doing

“To be abie to say we've sold a
thousand or 1,500, yeah it’s great,”
said the former Richmond residenz.

the Top 40 album. Look for titles
such as Fifly Ways to Lose Your Gulf
Baffin the future.

#104-2419 Bellevue Ave.,

“L love to play. [love to read

abort it. F love the history of it,”
“ says Lonsdale.

At times, he’s glued to the Golf
Channel, watching the black-and-
white images of greats such as Jack
Nicklaus and Amold Palmer when

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a Christmas golf album,’ he said.
The result is Danny and the
Divots — The 18 Holes of Christuszas
and other Classic Goifing Carols,

Song titles such as Whack the
Balk, O Stupid Tree and Jolly OF
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