Stay Awhile, Scotiabank Paramount Theatre Vancouver, Monday, April 27, 7:30 p.m.
There tends to be a gap in the Canadian music industry timeline after the arrival of teen idol (and Ottawa native) Paul Anka and before the mainstream success of the likes of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young at the tail end of the 1960s.
But back when the Junos were the Gold Leaf Awards, and before the introduction of CanCon regulations, The Bells were touring from one end of the country to the other, and were the very first Canadian band to play the Copacabana in New York City, one of the top clubs in the world at that time.
Toronto filmmaker Jessica Edwards doesn't just want to remind audiences about an overlooked piece of Canadiana: in Stay Awhile she also wants you to get to know her parents, Cliff and Ann Edwards.
Cliff "had a little grit to him," according to band manager Kevin Hunter; South African-born sister act Ann and Jacki had an innocence onstage that was beguiling. "I couldn't even look at the audience at first," admits Jacki Ralph-Jamieson, a North Vancouver resident. Hunter saw a winning formula and put them together, in a band that started out as The Five Bells.
The group, including Gordie McLeod and Doug Gravelle, toured and played Bermuda for six months, Florida for three. They found success south of the border, but couldn't crack a vast Canada. A promo film for the band commissioned by the record company, Follow The Fun, showed The Bells touring across the U.S., having a blast in New York City. It was a charmed time.
The film shifts focus at about the 50-55 minute mark, approximates Edwards. "Up until then it's the band's story," the director says via phone from Toronto. After that point in the film "we reveal things to each other... marriages fail, bands get together and break apart... every person has their own version."
At first Clint had an eye for Jacki. But it's Ann he married, in Christchurch Cathedral in Montreal, 1967. And so The Bells' tight family unit went the way of Fleetwood Mac and Abba, with a husband-and-wife team throwing things off balance.
Peace song "Fly Little White Dove Fly" became a top-10 hit in Canada and then "Stay Awhile", a pillow-talk duet between Cliff and a breathy Jacki, hit No. 1 in Canada and No. 7 in the U.S. on the Billboard Top 100. The group found true fame right around the time that Ann became a stay-at-home mom, watching from the sidelines as The Bells performed on Merv Griffin and The Tonight Show, two times each.
Jacki became the sole female in the group. The new record cover made brother-and sister-in-law look like lovers, which didn't sit well with Ann, now tending two kids - soon to be three - alone at home on their Ontario farm.
Ultimately, Cliff left the band. He rejoined his family but was on the road a lot as a struggling solo artist. A TV show hosted by Cliff and Ann (and occasionally featuring the three kids) tided them over. "Every Christmas we'd have to go up on stage," laughs Edwards. "We were like the Christmas von Trapp family!"
One film clip shows the Edwards family singing Kenny Rogers favourite "The Gambler," with a toothy Jessica right in front. "I had totally blocked that out," she laughs. "Who's the idiot who put the mic in front of the youngest?" But it couldn't last, and the couple separated after 19 years of marriage. Ann left, moved out west to Vancouver, "more like a distant relative" to her children than a mother. Edwards isn't concerned that her mother, father and aunt may not have 'fessed up to the whole story, instead providing an "approximation of the truth," as her brother Chris says in the film. "I don't think hard-hitting questions would've achieved the same tone, and I don't think The Bells would've gone there."
Edwards says she was surprised by "who showed up for it and who was into it." Her aunt Jacki, in particular, was at the point in her life when she wanted to tell her story. "I had never heard her Playboy story!" Edwards says. "I loved her angles and her stories. I feel like I know her so much better, and same with my mom, I really loved her storytelling."
A wealth of news and archival footage sets time and place perfectly (right down to The Bells' performance on Tommy Hunter's show); musician Ron Sexsmith weighs in on the band's influence while Bells members reminisce.
When the film screened at the Whistler Film Festival, reality sank in. "They were all feeling 'holy s%#t, everyone is going to see this!.'But they understand that to make a compelling film you have to go places, and they feel like I made a balanced film, and that I did it with love."
The Bells' album comes out this week on iTunes and streaming platforms, available for the first time. And the band is somewhat nervously anticipating a performance to follow a screening at the Hot Docs film festival this week, their first time performing together in Toronto since the early '70s.
"Music heals all wounds," says Edwards. Here in Vancouver you can catch Stay Awhile on April 27, 7:30, as part of Scotiabank Theatre's Cineplex Front Row Centre Events. The film will be available on iTunes April 28.
