from the People section of the NORTH YORK MIRROR, Wenesday, October
2, 2002/3
(reproduced with the permission of Bernie O'Neill)
Strumming their own tune
By BERNIE O'NEILL
Mirror Staff
In the early 1970s he was the guitarist for the pop-rock
band Edward Bear, touring the country and the world.
Today, after quitting touring and raising two daughters,
holding down various jobs through life's twists and turns, Roger Ellis
is doing what he loves once again.
He's a full-time musician. Only now he plays in Toronto's
subways, a gig he's had for the past five years.
"I've always played music. I haven't always made
a lot of money doing it," says the smiling, softspoken musician
who seems at ease strumming, fingerpicking and singing along.
"People ask me what I'm doing and I say, I'm a folk
singer, that's what I do."
Down in the long yellow-tiled corridors of the Finch subway
station, the commuters get a nice sampling of his repetoire, which
on this afternoon features the Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood' and Bob Dylan's
'Blowin' in the Wind'.
And then he moves into the 1972 international hit single 'Last
Song', which he played in high schools and clubs from coast to coast
after joining Edward Bear.
"It's the last song, I'll ever write for you,it's
the last time that I'll tell you how much I care...," Ellis sings,
but in this case, no one throws any change.
The fact that the commuters don't know he was in the band that made
the song famous doesn't seem to faze him.
In between his Edward Bear career and today, he's worked
as a roofer, a factory worker, cab driver, post office clerk and driver
for a courier company. Now that his daughters are grown (one's in
college, the other works at Winston Churchill Collegiate, his alma
mater) he's able to be a musician for a living again.
Although Ellis calls the life of a subway musician "living
on the edge," he says it's something he enjoys getting up to and
doing every day. He's not alone.
Ellis is one of an army of 75 musicians who liven up our
subway system, from violinists to guitarists to pan flute players.
"There are lots of very talented people," says
TTC spokesperson Marilyn Bolton, who notes there are a lot of violinists,
guitar and keyboard players among the TTC musicians. They're appropriate,
she says, because the instruments are not problematic in terms of
volume.
"We don't do trumpets," she said."Too loud."
Bolton notes the musicians are strictly freelancers. They're not employees
of the TTC and are not meant to interfere with commuters, but rather
to be a nice bonus for the riders. She said she often hears musicians
at her Yonge and Bloor stop." It's so soothing, so pleasing. Who
could be against that?"
So how does one become a subway musician?
For one thing, Ellis auditioned for his job as he has
each year, down at Lumberjack Park the Ex. He earned himself a new
license, which becomes valid this Oct 8 and is good for a year.
Selected performers pay a $150 license fee, which is up
$25 over last year.
He says this year there may be a few new faces around.
He'd even heard a former member of Blue Rodeo had auditioned this
year.
What were the judges looking for? According to the TTC
literature, it's stage presence, musical or performance talent and
entertainment value.
Ellis thinks they're also looking for people who are friendly
and who will be good representatives for the TTC, which seems fine
with him.
"For me it's a full-time thing."
How much money can one make?
Ellis says you can play for 50 minutes and make five cents and then
play the last 10 minutes and make $10.
"You have to be out there, playing," he says,
lamenting that not all musicians who get licenses use the spaces that
are allotted to them.
Those who do play each day - he calls them "the grinders"
- know the best locations. When the rotation doesn't give the one
of the choice performance spots, he says they know who won't be showing
up at the other locales and one of the grinders will show up there
instead.
North York's Finch and Sheppard stations are among the
best in terms of the money one can make, Ellis says.
"Maybe because it's the end of the line, or because
people are generous here," he says.
Musicians will arrive there at 4 a.m. trying to get in
on the 6 a.m. to noon shift if they suspect the scheduled musician
is not going to show.
"When you play a certain station a lot, you develop
a following, make friends. People ask for songs," he notes.
People really give around Christmas. He added that at
World Youth Days the people who filled the subways were especially
generous.
Ellis also like the Eglinton station,"because it's
warm," he says, and suggests that some of the musicians simply
don't come out to the stations where it's too cold for their hands
to play.
Other than his subway playing, Ellis has played at recent
festivals in Bancroft and Cobourg. He says playing all the time in
the subway keeps him "gig ready." He recently received a
$300 royalty cheque for 'Last Song', which he did not write but on
which he was a session musician, after the song was used in a film.
He has also regularly done performances to honour homeless
people who died on the street.
He said he's working on a new CD that will feature a song
about an old friend of his, who holds a tragic place in Toronto and
North York's history.
The song, 'Rose for the Lady', pays tribute to a woman
Ellis knew, Linda Houston. The homeless woman who died on North York's
streets in 1997, the same day Mel Lastman, running for the mayoralty
of the megacity, declared on a radio program that there were no homeless
people in North York.
A man walks up and drops two loonies into his guitar case.
"I love the way you play and your selection of songs,"the
TTC rider says, and carries on his way.
"Well. I guess I better start playing," says
Ellis, who's spent the past 45 minutes talking to a reporter.
North York subway riders, one would guess, hope it's not
his last song.
