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Artist
Cameo Blues Band
7+ albums
bluesrhythm and bluesbluesrockguitar blues
about
The Cameo Blues Band is a Toronto-based blues band, originally formed in 1978. It is particularly notable for its association with several of Canada's leading blues singers, including Richard "Hock" Walsh, Tony Flaim and Chuck Jackson, all of whom were also associated with the Downchild Blues Band. The band is named after the Cameo Lounge of Toronto's Hotel Isabella, as it then was, in the 1970s and 1980s. The Cameo Lounge featured primarily local blues artists and, as of 1978, had a regular house band, initially led by Richard "Hock" Walsh, during one of several periods when Walsh was either fired or quit as the lead singer of the Downchild Blues Band. Walsh was soon joined by former Crowbar keyboard player "Rabbit" Ray Harrison who, along with guitarist John Bride, became the core of the group during its over three decade history. Other initial band members included Billy Bryans, later of the Parachute Club, on drums, and Omar Tunnock, later of the funk and blues band Fathead, on bass. Hock Walsh soon left the band to return to Downchild, and was briefly replaced by Fraser Finlayson, of the band Cueball, prior to the band finding a replacement in Tony Flaim, whom Hock Walsh had replaced in Downchild. Billy Bryans was replaced on drums by Paul Armstrong, while Wayne Mills joined the band as a tenor saxophonist. Harrison, Bride and Mills had previously played together in 1970, as founding members of The Greaseball Boogie Band, playing 1950s rock and roll. The Greaseball Bo
