From shaking hands with the Queen of England, and performing for Wayne Gretzky and his former Edmonton Oilers teammates, The Mudmen have built an impressive resume over the course of their careers.
And the Canadian celtic rock band from the Alvinston and Petrolia area can add the Wallaceburg Antique Motor and Boat Outing (WAMBO) to their growing list of accomplishments.
“You can expect a lot of fun,” Sandy Campbell, one of the bagpipe players in the band, told the Sydenham Current.
“We try to promote having a good time. Most of our songs are about having a good time. We try to make people leave feeling good. We are good too. Anybody that wants to meet us, we are very friendly.”
The Mudmen will be playing at the WAMBO beer tent on Saturday evening (Aug. 8,) starting at around 7 p.m.
Campbell said they have managed to do a lot of things over the course of their career.
“We have been pretty fortunate in our career. I think one thing that has helped us out is we’ve made friends with a lot of people over the years. That definitely helps. When that whole Hockey Night in Canada thing happened and they called us in to play on that, we didn’t know exactly what was going on or what was going to happen but when we made the top five finalist and then when Ron MacLean said ‘If you didn’t think it was Celtic, you wouldn’t say that to Rob and Sandy, Mudmen, we love them’ we were like, well that was pretty good,” he said.
The band was touring with the Irish Rovers back around 1993 with John McDermott a lot.
“John helped us out a lot. People would be surprised that we not only played on the CBC Governor General Awards in 1998 televised but we have also played a private party for the Governor General of Canada, a party for John Turner and a few times for Belinda Stronach when she was running. We have got to do some pretty fantastic gigs over the years.”
One of those gigs was played in front of the Queen of England.
“We got called up the second time that we played on Parliament Hill for Canada Day,” Campbell said.
“We played that number with Johnny Reid and then we did one of our own numbers that evening too. It was great you know because the Barenaked Ladies complimented us when we came off. The Queen was sitting on stage behind us during the number we did with Johnny. Ron MacLean again announced us as his good friends. That was pretty good. We got to stand in the line up to shake hands with the Queen after.”
He added: “Obviously the Queen was definitely one of the highlights of our career. To have her sitting on stage behind us during that number with Johnny Reid, that was pretty nice. We only got to shake her hand, it’s not like we got to have a long conversation or anything. Basically shook hands and hi.”
Campbell said they have played multiple gigs for the Toronto Maple Leafs too.
“When we came out, everyone thought we were crazy prior to that, but the next thing you know we got a standing ovation that night and every night. Next thing you know Tie Domi has us in his box at a Leaf game. Glenn Healy who was a back up goalie at the time, who also plays bag pipes wanted to meet us. So he had us play on the jumbotron for a Leafs vs. Boston game. He has us in the players room many times. Tie Domi had his Variety Village.”
Campbell added: “On that card, Alan Thicke was the guest speaker, Barney Bentall, Kim Mitchell, Jim Cuddy, Larry Gowan and of course Johnny Bower and The Legends were there too. A bunch of stars were there. John Allan Cameron, our friend took us right up to Allan Thicke’s room.”
Campbell said they got doing a lot of the Walk of Fame Ceremonies.
“We were the closing number once on the Walk of Fame with Eugene Levy, Martin Short, William Shatner, Gordon Lightfoot, the guests who all came for Gordie Howe. One of the things I don’t think people are even aware of is that we were doing pretty high profile stuff like that.”
He added: “Another one of the big things was Wayne Gretzky because we did that big Edmonton Oilers special last October. So they did the 1984 Edmonton Oilers Reunion. So they had the whole team there, managers and even the owner. We thought he might get booed but no. So we performed at that. Ron MaClean was there too. Ron MaClean has got to be the best celebrity we have ever met in our lives. For all the things we has done for us, its unbelievable you know. We haven’t done anything for him. We did a lot of Don Cherry, Rose Cherry events back in the day and we were on at least four ‘Rock em, Sock em’ videos as well but that’s more for Don. For Campbell Brothers, they played one of our songs in Coaches Corner and things like that. Don has been fantastic too. Ron even gave us his $280 per diem. When you have someone like that in your corner, that’s help out a bit.”
Campbell said the band got to meet Wayne Gretzky after the show in Edmonton.
“We got to talk to him for I’d say a good 30 minutes or so. He was a really nice guy so that was cool. You never know. Most of the stars we got to meet have actually been great, especially the big big ones like Celine Dion was fantastic. She had no reason to even stop to talk to us that particular day, but she did. Sarah McLachlan was great. You get people of that level, there is a certain level of being a star and then there is another level, so it’s nice when you get to find out that these people are decent people.”
Campbell said lately they have been doing a lot of theatres shows.
“We have been doing a little bit of everything,” he said.
“Last year we played a Country Festival one day, a Home Coming another day and than we were suppose to open for Five Finger Death Punch. They said to us they didn’t think we were wild enough anymore and I didn’t think that would be a problem if that’s what you want. Lately we have been doing more of the family sort of thing. More of the Rib Fests, Food Fests and we do a lot Highland games. One minute we might be doing a rowdy beer tent on a Friday or a Saturday but than you are doing a show with little kids and seniors on Sunday. You have to be able to kind of adapt to your situation. I imagine we will have quite a mix crowd on Saturday.”
Check out this video featuring The Mudmen below:
https://youtu.be/WC3bIU7kaxM
Also, check out their website here for more information.
