The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 9

JMIIIJUJ Ul 1 Entertainment, Women's, Comics Pages 9 to 16, Friday, December 28, 1973 APERITIF Doug Pringle leaving CHOM 11 Radio pioneer off to Yenev himself (Gazette, George Cree) artist on Marc Bolan's label By BILL MANN of The Gazette Progressive radio in Montreal was born at 11 p.m. on October 29, 1969, when a Sir George Williams student named Doug Pringle took the air on then-CKGM-FM. He did four hours a night of rock music on a predominantly Muzak station. Since then, Pringle has remained as more or less the cornerstone of the station, now called CHOM-FM (because it sounds like a mantra). He has seen it revolutionize the local music industry, and, more recently, fall from the immense favor it once enjoyed.

Tomorrow at noon, Doug Pringle will do his last FM show at CHOM, and it will be a landmark of sorts on the local radio scene. Pringle is well-paid, his ratings this month were the best at the station, and he has almost reached the status of a local legend: his name is known everywhere by young people. So why if he leaving? "To renew myself," he says. "I've done about all I can here for now." Pringle. 27, son of a British diplomat (and still a U.K.

citizen), is a person deeply committed to change, both intra- and extra-personal. So now the young man who brought the first heavy rock sounds to the Montreal airwaves has undergone substantial changes himself. "I'd say that the music I listen to at home is 90 per cent classical," Pringle says, changing a record on his show this week. FAVORITE COMPOSER Pringle is shirtless today as he tells you hos favorite composer of all time is not Lennon or McCartney or Dylan, but Wolfgang Mozart. "When I listen to radio in the car," he also tells you, "It's usually to an AM station, CFOX." And this comes from the one person who more or less personifies FM radio in Montreal.

But Doug Pringle isn't so much a paradox as the product of a spiritual consciousness that few people wholly understand. He got into meditation about five years ago (he has lived in Calcutta), and he answers probably the most-asked question about him candidly and without guile: "I haven't smoked grass in at hast three years it brings me down." Pringle, who has recorded a single in French and will soon release another, is heading off to England to pursue a musical career. But first he will visit Haiti, where he owns 10,000 square feet of land and hopes to build a house some day. "I'll be the first solo artist on Marc Bolan's LDANCO greatly people's awareness of music." "It's time to move on," he continues, sighing. "I'm leaving for my own growth.

I'm not taking a leave of absence. But I hope I'll always be involved with radio." "I feel I've always let it hang out. I've heard a lot of FM radio, but rarely are the jocks being themselves. I feel I always have, and it's not easy. It's too easy to hide behind a radio personality.

It takes courage to be yourself." "I have hardly heard any real people on radio." "I'll miss Montreal I feel it's my home now but London is where the greatest opportunity lies," he explains. "I've never thought of myself as an entertainer, though I hope I do entertain." It is Pringle's often painful honesty and attendant naivete, to be sure that has caused him to be a figure of controversy in his four years on Montreal radio. Lately, however, he has withdrawn somewhat, both on and off the air. No matter what one has thought of Pringle in the past, he has always been honest, himself. And positive.

He has never performed on a stage before, so it is a difficult task that lies ahead for him in London. Why can't Hollywood make more movies like The Sting? old friend is back old fashioned roast beef dinner atthe old fashioned the old crowd is waiting greet you.Come tonight. reservation call 845-1231 first solo Doug Pringle new label," he explains, putting another record on the turntable (the motion has become second nature to him, like driving is to many). Bolan is the leader of the hugely-successful English pop group T. Rex, and has been on personal terms with Pringle since 1968.

Bolan's manager will handle Pringle, and Bolan will produce Pringle's solo album. "I have about 150 songs I've written," says Pringle, who received feelers from record companies some time ago. "Money? (Pringle has been aided In personal investments by millionaire station owner and long-time spiritual companion Geoff Stirling). You can use it," he says, "Or it can use you." Doug Pringle sees most of life in terms of balance, flow, and change, or the natural relationship of things. Pringle has had many happy moments as the guru of local radio, and he's had the opposite: "Someone once threatened to shoot me a few years ago," he recalls, laughing.

"My happiest moments were when I was doing the spiritual hour," he racalls. "Getting to meet spiritual leaders like Ram Dass and Sri Chinmoy. "I also feel happiest about the way CHOM has changed the music market here. More, I feel, than in any other town. It has raised plays a master con artist in The Sting And that's all I can say about the plot.

But there have been other complicated crime films which don't reach the level of The Sting, principally because they fail to create an authentic enough atmosphere. Hill scores splendidly in this department. From the lilting ragtime musical score by Scott Joplin, through to the liberal use of 1930s cars (they must have raided every car museum in the States for this film) the whole movie gleams with an-authentic patina of life in 1930s Chicago. Even the sets, which are intentionally too realistic (so that you know they are sets) have a charm which is sym-tomatic of the careful attention to detail which Hill shows. Any more comment by me would be rebundant.

Just take the family, buy some popcorn and sit back. For the first time in a long time you'll feel every penny you've spent went to a good cause encouragement to people like Hill to make more movies like The Sting soon. RE mi An The And to For Prices: Sat. Sun. mum mjw Presentation Phil.

Maurice thing goes. The atmosphere is fifties: piano and drums playing Ray Conniff medleys and some people actually jive. A good place to escape from the scary seventies. Upstairs in the Seaway is the circular restaurant. La Ronde, where you can dine, dance or simply drink at the adjacent bar.

Atmosphere is friendly, with a glittery Thirties feeling. No cover charge, no minimum. Dancing from 8:30 to midnight, Tuesday to Sunday. No taxis were available, so we trotted through the snowy streets to the Chateau Champlain. Determined not to repeat our expensive Salle Bonaventure blunder of the previous evening, we skipped the Caf Cone, supper club and headed for L'Escapade on the 36th floor.

Despite the foul weather, L'Escapade was packed and jumping but waiters assured us it was a stow night. Fred and Ginger would have felt right at home with the dark blue walls, surrealistic scalloped windows reflecting starburst light fixtures, the view of the city and the lively band playing Glenn Miller favorites. There's also a buffet, which at $13 per person is in the splurge category for most married couples but at $2.00 per drink, you can drink and dance the night away fairly inexpensively. Dress to kill here and if you're planning to eat, make reservations at least a week ahead. Later, we learned that although Chateau Champlain's Caf Cone supper club can be expensive set menu of $11 plus a $6 cover charge per person there is a good bargain to be had here if you don't feel like eating.

In the club's upper tier, "Le Pou-lailler" (the roost), you can take in the show, drink and dance no cover charge but a minimum of $5 per person. After a dance and drink at L'Escapade, we hailed a surly cab driver and asked him to take us to the Ritz-Carlton. There, we learned that there is dancing from Monday to Saturday, from seven to midnight, in the Cafe de Paris but only if you're having dinner. So we moved on to Johnny's Bar in the basement of the Berkeley Hotel very early Fifties with its red vinyl booths and paintings of opulent nudes. There's dancing from 8 p.m.

to 1 a.m. Tuesday to Friday, and from 9 to 2 on Saturdays. The place caters to the 2540 age group and the music is also for listening or as a backdrop for conversation. No cover charge, no minimum. On we staggered through the snowdrifts to the Constellation, formerly the Sonesta, formerly the Royal Embassy, at the corner of Peel and Sherbrooke.

Back in the old Royal Embassy days this hotel used to have a deliciously tacky rooftop restaurant with a mirrored dance floor and a small pool into which guests were always being pushed. Now, you'll have to content yourself with dancing in the ground floor Touche Bar from 9 p.m. to 2 p.m. every night except Sunday. There are also a few places on the West Island where you can drink and dance.

At the Aeroport Hilton, there's a trio in La Barrique lounge, 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. week-nights, 8 to 2 on weekends. At Le Vieux Amsterdam, you can dance from 8:30 to 2:30 every night except Sunday. And there's dancing at the Holiday Inn, 6500 Cote de Liesse, in the wine cellar La Cave des Moines and in the cocktail lounge.

All right now, one-and, two-and Kathryn Murray, where are you now that we really need you? By BONNIE BUXTON All we wanted was to be like Fred and Ginger. To dress up in something elegant and go dancing cheek to cheek to a real live band. To fox trot, rhumba, samba, tango, begin the Beguine and finish the evening with cognac while stars shimmered high above the rooftops. We were bored with discotheques, with frenzied go-it-alone shaking to canned rock music. We had heard that there was a return to Togetherness.

To the Big Band sound. To graceful tripping the light fantastic. But even in Montreal, it wasn't the easiest thing to find. The first evening, we set out in a blizzard with another couple to explore the PVM-Bonaventure-Queen complex. Our first stop was the Hotel Bonaventure where we were suitably impressed with the fact that due to freak air currents around the building, the snow was falling up.

We weren't so lucky with the hotel's Le Portage, where we were informed that yes, there was dancing, but only during the floor show. Not exactly what we were looking for, so we moved on. To Salle Bonaventure in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, with Nick Martin and an eight-piece band plus stage show. We were already seated and had ordered drinks when we noticed to our horror that there is a cover charge of $5 per person, 6.50 on weekends (food is extra) and beverages were a whopping $2.50 each. After the so-so show, we left, having consumed a total of three alcoholic drinks and one club soda (after all, I was working) for a grand total of $35.00 plus tax.

We simply had to conclude that the Salle Bonaventure is for people with expense accounts only and that for the price of the very ordinary show we could have seen Marlene Dietrich at Place des Arts. But Altitude 737 in Place Ville Marie, also operated by the Hilton, would have lured Fred and Ginger from their scrumptious MGM sets. Perfect and in comparison with the Salle Bonaventure, oh, so cheap. Minimum charge is $3.00 per person (about two drinks each). The setting is filled with twinkling stars and skyscraper lights and the trio plays nice nostalgic music with a forties swing.

Dance from 9:45 to 1 a.m., any night of the week. Also in PVM is La Popina, where you can dance to a trio from eight p.m. to midnight every night. Mostly a dinner crowd here but if you choose only to drink at the bar and dance, that's okay. No cover charge, no minimum.

The following evening, the two of us set out through the snowdrifts to check out the rest of the downtown hotels that offer dancing. The Seaway, our first stop, has two places for dancing the blizzard away. On the ground floor is the African Village, a dark, cozy bar, perfect for lovers, somewhat overdecorated with fake trees, jungle and stockade, but when the thermometer hovers around zero who isn't grateful for a touch of the tropics? Friendly waitress Florence bears an astonishing resemblance to Rita king-size hoop earrings and all, and the house specialty is a lethal-looking bubbling green concoction called The Volcano, $3.00. There's dancing from and from 8:30 to 2 a.m., Monday through Saturday. Monday through Thursday, the Village is a hangout for people from Northern Electric and the few straealers still at the old CBC building.

Fridays and Saturdays, any By DAVE BILLINGTON of The Gazette It took almost a year, but it is a pleasure to report that yesterday afternoon at the Odeon Alexis Nihon Plaza I had the privilege to witness the "entertainment" movie of the year. For sheer pleasure, light humor and victory for the good guys The Sting wins i hands down. It's one of those rare afternoons at the movies that remind you what movies are all about. Last Tango In Paris was a brilliant, powerful film which left you staggering about wondering why you didn't just take the gas pipe and not bother for old age to claim you. Cries and Whispers was an even greater example of just how powerful a medium cinema is, both as an art form and as a vehicle for making telling points on the human condition.

But The Sting is a movie. It has no message, it has no point of view and almost no point. But it is the living proof that as long as we have actors like Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Robert Shaw around, and directors like George Roy Hill to orchestrate their talents, and a photographer like Robert Sur-tees to handle the camera, entertainment will still rank as the most important element in movie-making. In a sense this movie could be promoted with one of those old tag lines "from the team which brought Butch Cas-sidy. but the only similarity between The Sting and 'Cassidy' is the director and his two principle leads.

But Hill, Newman and Red-ford are far too intelligent to try a re-make of their first success too many others in the past have taken this route to disaster. What they have done instead is to pool their considerable resources into a completely different format and produce the same kind of film a knockabout piece of pleasure which would be criminal to miss. Before attempting to briefly outline what takes place it's important to warn you of two things A see the film from the beginning, and this means Paul Newman the very beginning, if you value never, repeat the ending someone you hate. The title of the underworld term when a makes his score moment when loses his money. to remember film is all about their methods.

their end so well end of the conned the audience, More on that be said. The plot opens a small time man accidentally out of $10,000 of The mob, headed Shaw in his best since he played killer in From Love, kills Redford's and Redford plots The tool of his Paul Newman, country's best con been waiting for this all his life. plan to hit Shaw million. and friendships NEVER disclose unless it's to film is the for the moment confidence man the precise the victim And it is important that this con men an! They achieve that, by die film too. subject cannot when Red-ford, street con cons a man mob money.

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