Red Robinson is a walking history of rock ‘n’ roll ELVIS ONCE shackled him to a shower rod at Empire Stadium. By EVELYN JACOB News Reporter While emceeing the Beatles’ Vancouver concert John Lennon told him to ‘‘get the f--k off the Stage.’” What’s so remarkable about these outbursts is that the object of both celebrities’ wrath was a cudd- ly, baby-faced deejay. But right from the beginning, North Vancouver’s Red Robinson found himself in the eye of the hurricane that was Vancouver's early rock and roll scene. And while Robinson, then a local celebrity in his own right, was usually treated with nore respect by rock ‘’n’ roll heroes, he wouldn't trade away a_ single memory, Back in the early ’50s when most local stations were jamming the airwaves with Doris Day, Perry Como and Frankie Laine, Robin- son was spinning out rhythm and blues hits to car and transistor radios. As he writes in his rock and roll encounters Rockbound, ‘Frank Sinatra had the older women swooning, but he didn’t have the kids dancing in the aisles.”’ Just a teenager himself, the gut- sy, freckle-faced deejay attracted and held on to a huge percentage of Vancouver’s audience share, turning thousands of teenagers on to musicians like Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, The Crewcuts, The Dave Clarke Five, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers and the King himself, and booked some of the biggest acts of the day. “The kids at school weren't listening to the music of the day, they were listening to stuff on the jukebox,’’ Robinson, now 53, ex- plains. ‘So I started playing Lloyd A. Adolfsen #500-145 W17th NVancouver Ph 987-4747 M. Nenadic #205-1420 Marine Dr. NvVancouver Ph 986-5668 20 - Sunday, May 6, 1990 - North Shore News Denture Services e Free consultations ° New dentures e Relines in one day e Repairs within 3 hours e Soft liners available ¢ Dental plans accepted All services performed by fully qualified North Shore denturists and licensed by the Province of British Columbia a a P Barker 231 Lonsdale NVancouver Ph 986-8515 >INFLUENCE NEWS photo Mike Wakefield RED ROBINSON couldn’t play a single instrument, but boy, could he spin those discs. Price and The Fortunes — R&B tunes. This was unheard of.” As for being handcuffed by Presley, Robinson chuckles and says it was done in good fun. ‘““We were stuck in the Lions changing room (at Empire Stadium) for an hour-and-a-haif waiting to go on stage. We were walking around and doing silly things. So Elvis goes out the door, sees a policeman and grabs his handcuffs. He said, ‘Come over here Red,’ and shackled me to a shower.”’ Sitting back in his smoke-filled Gastown office Robinson proudly shows off his collection of rock and roll memorabilia. Photos of the musical giants of the ‘50s and *60s cover every wall, and along with every celebrity is the grinning, goofy-looking Robinson. It’s hard to imagine how a scrawny kid from Comox became “Mr. Rock and Roll'’ — the dee- jay with that unforgettable voice. But Robinson credits his success to simple, hard work. LE. Lewis #30)-1124 Lonsdale NVancouver Ph 987-1944 V. Thorburn #208-1331 Marine Dr. WVancouver Ph, 922-3309 ‘*That’s how anyone gets good,”’ he says, ‘‘Just by showing up and working hard at your craft."* Today the North Vancouver res- ident has become an invaluable source of nostalgia, with an enor- mous music library (he's collected every charted hit since 1950) and thousands of interviews with rock and roll heavyweights stored away. “I’ve become a nostalgia mer- chant just by surviving,’’ he says, laughing. Born Robert Robinson in 1937, he attended General Brock School with business mogul-to-be Jimmy Pattison and graduated from King {OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEKII! C YCLERY Edward Secondary, the school that spawned local radioman Jack Cullen and actress Yvonne DeCarlo. He had no talent for music so he became a ‘‘purveyor of those who did.’ “I guess that was always a frustration. | couldn’t play an in- strument and I knew } couldn't.” He got his first radio job by im- personating actor Jimmy Stewart. “(Former Vancouver Sun col- umnist) Jack Wasserman wrote about it — ‘While in Vancouver, Jimmy Stewart phoned the after- noon teenagers’ show on CJOR.’ ‘“*T was only 16 and I got scared. 25% OFF *25% off all cycling shorts with the purchase of any new 1920 bicycle. Specializing in. *All specials valid at Reckiess Rider's North Yan location onty. The North Van outlet is a seasonal one, open April Istthru September 30th. NORTH VANCOUVER 1550 Marine Drive,(phone) 986-RECK I waited a couple of weeks and called back and did another imper- sonation. ‘Hello, this is Peter Lorre,’ I said. The deejay said, ‘Hey, you’re the guy who did Stewart,’ and invited me down to the station.’” The nervy Robinson got in, took over the show, changed its name to ‘Teen Canteen’’ and expanded its membership to a whopping 54,000 youngsters. He became Van- couver's top radio voice, and all because he dared to be different. Today’s deejays don't possess nearly the same amount of influ- ence, he says, because stations don’t give them the opportunity to perform. ‘Stations never give them the opportunity to fail — like they did in my time,’' he says, ‘‘Vancouver is very bland right now because stations aren't willing to take a chance, to experiment. I can’t get to love or hate any of them (dee- jays). The thing radio management hated about people like me was that we were always outspoken. We used to say, ‘love me or hate me, but for God's sakes don’t ig- nore me.”" These days the nostalgia mer- chant spends most of his time do- ing Red’s Classic Theatre on KVOS-TV and Entertainment Flashback — a radio show series featuring five-minute interviews with some of rock and roll’s hot- test stars. But the conversation naturally returns to the early days of rock and roll, and although Robinson clearly enjoys reminiscing, he feels awkward talking about himself at length. He doesn’t want to come across as self-important. “People have said to me, ‘Oh, you were a man of vision.’ I’d love to claim that, but 1 was, and still am, just a fan.’’ e aww TeRRaA