The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 42

D8 THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, THURSDAY, JUNE "4 1. 1993 lie asettc -jV -J -J ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: LUCINDA CHODAN 987-2568 r- v-n 1 gtm yvff; 1 Americana top dog laps it up Fred Eaglesmith gets boost from U.S. 7 V. i If ij 1 I I Mr 7- 3 "it ft a dt Queasy rider? Not Normand St. Pierre, sitting in the Monster yesterday.

St. Pierre plans to ride the La Ronde roller-coaster to a world record. 13 record nae and a good cause Firefighter takes KATHRYN GREENAWAY The Gazette Normand St. Pierre will have his share of ups and downs this summer. When La Ronde opens June 20, the Brossard firefighter will board the Monster La Ronde's fastest ride and and the world's highest wooden double-track roller-coaster and, he hopes, ride it for 30 consecutive days: 600 hours and 8,000 circuits.

And hang on to your stomachs for this one he just might read a newspaper article or two while doing it. St. Pierre is testing his endurance to raise money for the Children's Wish Foundation of Canada. He also wouldn't mind breaking the world endurance record for the longest roller-coaster ride, held by American arch rival Richard Rodriguez. Rodriguez has been king of the coaster since 1994, when he rode one at England's Blackpool Pleasure Beach for 549 hours.

The two have been batting records back and forth since the early '80s. Rodriguez set the mark at La Ronde in 1981, which St. Pierre broke in 1983 by riding a coaster at Belmont Park for 503 hours. Not only did St. Pierre read while he rode his first marathon, he also slept "The feeling is hard to describe," St.

Pierre said recently. "But your body has no choice after a few days. It MARY LAMEY The Gazette The night was cold, the crowd small and the sound system not up to the job, but that didn't stop the band then known as Fred J. Eaglesmith and the Flying Squirrels from pouring it on during a memorable set at the Yellow Door Coffee House a few years back. The fellas unplugged everything except the electric campfire that cast a cheesy glow on the few dozen diehard fans.

Eaglesmith and company filled the tiny basement club with driving acoustic roots music and sent their audience home with something to talk about A few things have changed since then. Eaglesmith has dropped the mid-. die initial but not the band. Nowadays he's a top dog on the so-called Americana or y'alternative music scene. Ea- glesmith's most recent album, Lip-J stick, Lies Gasoline, is his first to re- ceive country-wide distribution in the I U.S.

and has earned the unassuming I resident of Alberton, Ont, critical I raves south of the 49th parallel. (His previous release, Drive In Movie, was a Juno winner and also released on a small U.S. label.) Montrealers will have a chance to check out the new and improved Eagle-! smith who, according to the man him-! self, isn't much different from the old model, Sunday at Cafe Campus. "This whole Americana thing has been a big bonus for me," Eaglesmith said. "I used to be such a fringe artist to everybody.

Now, I'm in the centre of something." 'CHIPPING AWAY' At least in the States, where the band i has put in most of the 150 or so dates I they've played so far this year. Canada has been slower to cotton on to the mu- sic, which gets limited airplay outside of community and campus radio. "That's OK, though. We're chipping away at the wall. We're seeing a lot of younger kids at the shows, looking for something different." Sunday's show was put together by I fledgling Billy Bob Productions.

Suits by day, music fans always, the boys of 1 Billy Bob are so hungry to hear rootsy i rock that they're willing to bring in the acts themselves. Their first venture was last year's show by Texan Jimmy LaFave. Eaglesmith, a onetime farmer and tulip vendor, can't remember a time when he wasn't consumed by music. Even his memories of childhood build on the Americana myth. Little Fred, worn out from a day of baling hay, clutched a small tube radio to his ear under the blankets and listened to mu-I sic drifting north from Wheeling, I WVa.

"That early country music was a big influence, especially Hank Williams and Elvis." Can't get much more coun-I try than that, the reporter observed. "That's what we think now, but back in their day both Hank and Elvis were i revolutionaries for mixing black mu-! sic into country. Did you know that at first Hank Williams wasn't allowed to play the Grand 01' Opry because he had drums in his band?" Eaglesmith I asked. The singer pays tribute to both ti-; tans, as well as Gram Parsons and Ja- nis Joplin, on the self-explanatory Al-, cohol and Pills. Pleasesee EAGLESMITH, PageDU Eaglesmith: critical acclaim for latest release south of the border.

vKSfif. mvi'i 'ff 1 or on Monster adapts." St. Pierre's body adapted very well the first time around. All he experienced afterward was a little stiffness and some minor lower-back pain. "But I was 17 at the time," St.

Pierre said. "I'm 32 now; there's a difference. "And back then, the ride only went 50 kmh. The Monster can go up to 100 kmh." A single ride on the Monster lasts 165 seconds. "The feeling is hard to describe.

But your body has no choice after a few days. It adapts." St. Pierre may read and sleep and listen to his Walkman while riding, but he draws the line at eating pizza. Le Commensal restaurant will provide healthy high-fibre foods to be eaten in small quantities. To limber up for the experience, St.

Pierre has been training at a gym three times a week since last November. He works on the suppleness of his joints and jogs to improve his stamina. A doctor has given St. Pierre a clean bill of health, and a medical technician will check out his vital signs on a daily basis for the duration of the marathon. St.

Pierre can take a five-minute break every hour or save up his minutes as he pleases for a total of two hours of rest every 24 hours. something that is lacking in the market," said CKMI news director Benoit Aubin, citing the success of Salut, Bon-jour, the TVA morning show that focuses on local news and information, such as weather and traffic updates, that English-speaking Montrealers get from radio. "Canadian and American research suggests that TVA is right on the money," Aubin said. "The growth of morning television is undeniable. And it's clear that a locally produced and locally oriented package is what people need.

We're going there because it's a virgin market." Plans for the deflowering have not been finalized. Aubin would not say whether BOONE RADIO the new morning show will feature the hosts of canceled programs: Orchard, late-news anchor Andrew Peplowski or sportscasters Richard Provencher and Paul Graif. In sketching the broad outlines of the morning show, Aubin said it will appeal to Montrealers who "wake up and want to plug in to the global village," He cited several questions that the Global morning show will answer I low do you dress for the day? What do the kids wear? Is Highway 20 for fame A trailer will be parked close by for showers. During the day, he'll use a few precious break minutes to go to the bathroom. During the night, he plans to use a small chamber pot on the roller-coaster itself.

The ride will run as usual during the day, which means St. Pierre will have the company of strangers to keep his spirits up. He'll have a cellular phone and a radio transmitter with him at all times. A special cabin has been constructed, with double-cushioning on the seats, an extra seatbelt, an air deflector, side panels and a retractable roof to make the ride as comfortable as a roller-coaster ride could possibly be. La Ronde technicians will give the ride regular checkups.

Each hour completed will be recorded in a log book. The number of circuits completed will be tabulated electronically. St. Pierre can't pin down exactly how old he was the first time his father took him for a roller-coaster ride at Belmont Park, but he has loved the sensation for as long as he can remember. He even worked at Belmont Park for a while and, in 1991, he went on a month-long excursion to the United States to sample 25 of the country's best roller-coasters.

Is the father of two preschoolers at all daunted by the challenge? "No. Absolutely not," he said. "The only thing that makes me a little anx i fun ma 7. mm Orchard: magazine dropped. blocked? Was there a big fire or a major happening in town overnight? Who won the game?" The last hour will Include "news you can use" features on fashion, cars and seasonal hobbies such as gardening.

"Everyone has a TV set in their bed-1 room or in the kitchen or both," Aubin added. "Before they leave home, they have 20 to 30 minutes to get certain types of information." Aubin described morning viewer- JL ious is not seeing my children or hugging them for a month. When I see them again will they call me 'uncle'?" St. Pierre is very much involved with the upbringing of his young family. When he's not working part time as a firefighter for Brossard, he's looking after the kids.

(His wife, Manon, owns the Be-Bop restaurant in Saint-Bruno.) He took a leave of absence from his job to complete the challenge and said his colleagues are behind him 100 per cent. In fact, his fellow firefighters will work his hours while he's gone and donate the pay to the Children's Wish Foundation. Over the last 13 years, the foundation's Quebec-west chapter has granted wishes to 1,300 children suffering from life-threatening illnesses. The average cost of granting a child's wish is $4,500. That's how much it costs to send a family of four to Disney World the No.

1 request. The foundation hopes to raise at least $10,000 during St. Pierre's marathon. You can donate to the Children's Wish Foundation by calling 289-1777 or (800)267-9474. There will also be barrels on site at La Ronde to receive donations; an on-site electronic board will keep track of donations.

The foundation has also solicited 200 corporations for per-circuit donations. ship as a "high-churn" audience that will include few Montrealers plunking themselves down to watch a complete news recap from beginning to end. "You'll come in at the time you want to come in," he said, "and you won't feel penalized by tuning out. You'll get all the essentials during the time you watch a user-friendly package." Although Global's local programs have uniformly dismal ratings, Aubin said the schedule overhaul was not driven by numbers. "We've been on the air only nine months and we didn't anticipate rat-' ings windfalls for our shows," he said.

"Of course, if the programs had been on long enough to become established hits, their revenues would have fi- nanced things like a new morning show. As it is, we can't launch some- thing new without moving people and budget from shows that will end." Aubin said moving Global's evening news was an acknowledgement of Montrealers' preference for watching newscasts at 6 p.m. He conceded that In going head to-head with Pulse. CKMI will be taking on "a colossus." And what will Global schedule to fill vacuums at 5:30 and 1 "Frankly, I don't know yet," Aubin replied. "We're evolving at breakneck speed." Global shakes schedule After nine months on the air, CKMI46, Montreal's new Global television station, has canceled several of its locally produced programs and reallocated resources toward launching a daily morning show and moving its supper-hour newscast into direct competition with Pulse and Newswatch.

The station has canceled its 11 p.m. sports wrap-up and the 11:30 late local newscast Global Tonight, Jamie Orchard's weeknight entertainment magazine, will disappear at the end of July. The changes were announced at a CKMI staff meeting on Tuesday night. In September, Global will move its supper-hour news MIKE TV program, currently telecast weekday afternoons at 5:30, to 6 p.m., a slot vacated by the cancelation of Global Tonight Global's Montreal staff were told no layoffs are planned and resources freed up by the program cancelations will be reallocated to the autumn launch of a new weekday morning show. The program will air between 6:30 and 9, replacing Global's current lineup of children's shows.

"We want to offer English Montreal rr.