Bowser and Blue

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Bowser and Blue have written over thirty new songs for this show, and will be playing a number of them without amplification, so you may find their sound somewhat quieter initially.  This is because the first Troubadours played only acoustic instruments.  This is a new departure for Bowser and Blue, who previously maintained that "acoustic" was what you play pool with.

They started performing together in 1978 at Irish Lancer Pub, which has since been closed, and spent six more years playing 60’s folk-rock music in Montreal pubs.  The pub above bar Deja Vu is now named the "Bowser and Blue Pub," and they still have a tab there.

They began to play at colleges and universities in 1984 with a music and comedy show as part of the Molson Canadian Rocks program, just before a wave of political correctness stifled humour, funding, and cheap beer on campus.  The students loved their bawdy musical satire, and the Canadian Organization of Campus Activities voted them Entertainer of the Year in 1985, and Best Comedy/Variety Act in 1986 and 1991.

From 1990 to 1995, Bowser and Blue appeared weekly on CFCF-TV’s award-winning show Fighting Back as the show’s resident musical satirists, a task that led to the creation of many of the songs they have performed on Centaur’s stage.

Bowser and Blue have been a part of Just For Laughs, Montreal’s international comedy festival, every year since 1988 with Gala appearances in 1988 and 1994.  Also in 1994, they headlined the Arts and Entertainment Network’s Comedy on the Road, when that program visited Montreal.

For CBC radio, Bowser and Blue were featured on Definitely Not The Opera, a 1995 national comedy special; Montrealer Lorne Elliott’s Madly Off In All Directions; and Josh Freed and John Kalina’s The Anglo Guide To Surviving The Referendum.  Bowser and Blue songs have been heard on CBC Radio International around the world.

Bowser and Blue have recorded four LPs for Montreal’s Justin Time Records.  Their song Polka Dot Undies was voted one of the Top Funny Five of 1988 by the syndicated American radio show Doctor Demenio.  They have also written and recorded music for the National Film Board of Canada:  Scant Sanity, an animated film by John Weldon and featuring music written performed by Bowser and Blue, was released in 1996.  They now record for their own label, You Guys Records.  Some of these recordings are available in the Centaur Theatre lobby.

BLOKES, their first full-length theatrical production, had a sold-out run at Centaur Theatre in the spring of 1992.  CFCF Television then produced Blokes, a one-hour special which was also aired nationally on YTV in December 1994.  In 1993, The Best of Bowser and Blue was a hit for the Piggery Theatre in North Hatley.  BLOKES TWO, their second Centaur Theatre Company production, enjoyed a sold-out run in the spring of 1994, and was brought back for a second run in September, 1994.  They are post-season regulars at the Theatre Lac Brome.

Live appearances throughout 1995 culminated in a one-hour television special Something Bowser, Something Blue, to be broadcast in 1996 on CFCF-TV.

GEORGE BOWSER:  George was born in Sussex, England and was educated privately in one of those British schools where young boys sleep in rows of iron beds that sag in the middle, and are forced to take cold showers and go to chapel a lot in exchange for a pretty good classical education and lots of rugger.  He immigrated to Canada in 1970 - just in time for the October crisis, which he said was not his fault, although being British he was pretty sure that actually in a sort of way it was.  He played lead guitar with several Montreal bands, before joining Bowser and Blue, as Bowser.  He found working with Blue much easier than previous bands because Blue was also of British parentage and had been to a peculiar private school as well, so they had things in common.  Which Blue won’t tell you about because the big difference between the two is that while Bowser will happily drone on for hours about himself, Blue is rather less inclined to do so, and would rather watch.  George plays guitars and bass, and can make recognizable musical sounds with many other instruments, including his mouth.

RICKY BLUE:  The perennially youthful Ricky Blue was born in Liverpool, England, but raised in Maine, New Jersey, and Toronto.  He has an MA in English from Concordia University.  He has been involved in bands and media music for over twenty years.  In 1981 he won an international "Clio" award for excellence in advertising.  He once appeared on television naked.  His life had no real meaning, however until he began to play with Bowser and Blue.  Rick plays guitar, mandolin, and harmonica, and sings in a rather pleasant baritone when George will let him.