John McGale was one of my hometown guitar heroes. He was a couple of years older than me & my neighbourhood pals & was playing in a working band around the time I learned to ride a bicycle.
He was very popular both in the neighbourhood & at our highschool where he was elected to the student's council as social convenor. He would often entertain us at school assemblies playing guitar, flute & singing.
It was while he acted as social convenor at Widdifield Secondary Highschool that he connected with various booking agents while he booked bands like A foot in Cold Water, Edward Bear, Copperpenny etc. to play our dances.
It wasn't long after he graduated that John hit the road as a pro guitarist/singer & before long he was in the Quebec Juggernaut known as Offenbach. This band was already established as an iconic Francophone band before he joined but they had their biggest success with John on Guitar & Saxophone. He learned to speak French in no time & became a successful songwriter with Offenbach as well.
Long after the original lead singer Gerry Boulet passed away, John carried the Offenbach banner & was the president of all things business related for the band until the day he died in a car crash on his way home from a Halloween gig on his 66th birthday on October 30th 2022. He was not only a major infuence on me as a musician, he was a good friend.
In this memorial edition, I spoke with three of John's closest musical friends about his legacy.
Rest in peace John McGale

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