the HARD MONEY band was actually a fairly successful rock show with an exciting array of lighting and electronic sounds doing Alice Cooper, Jethro Tull, Stones, and some exciting original music. The founding members were Dan Ciuriak, Ange Christou, Martin Wilneff and John Dukarich. Things were going swimmingly along until, that is, someone came up with the idea of adding local faves Graeme Brechin and Randall Cousins. Till this day, many fingers are pointed in many directions and any concrete evidence has surely slipped thru the cracks or been tampered with. The culprit remains unpunished but the others rest assured that someone, somewhere has to live every day with this on their conscience, and that indeed must be a slow and painfully eroding process.
As a 6 piece rock extravaganza they enjoyed immediate success and things quickly became very chaotic onstage and off. Much of it is still a blurr and it is very difficult to speculate the reasons for the demise of the band as it was just on the eve of the legendary Maritime tour. Some say it was a result of the 5 day fast in Chappeau, Quebec while others have said it was due to the band truck exploding in Havelock. The band had a bar bill that was triple their weekly salary the first week in Pembroke and a valuable lesson was learned about "band bar tabs". In a short 5 weeks they had that cleared up and enough money extra to buy burgers and greasy fries in a truck stop near New Liskeard, Ontario. The group's entourage had grown to epidemic proportions, and the constant police investigations wore on the members. The group did make it to the Maritimes, only as a 4 piece act and single-handedly supported the Newfoundland economy with massive truck repair bills and lobster dinners.
John Dukarich, Diver Dan Ciuriak and Anne the Hat
Ange with an ardent rock fan in what looks like a hotel room
Hard Money enjoyed great success doing "highschool" dances and grungy bars throughout Ontario and Quebec and developed quite a following with their original show. We have agents actively searching for some more pics and we will post them hopefully soon.
Marty Wilneff wandering aimlessly in downtown Pembroke
The "Mouse" terrorizing sleeping Hotel Pembroke patrons. He was later doused with a fire bucket after an awesome display of vulgarity and profanity when discussion of the "Bar tab" was initiated.
Randall playing requests for the walls, afterhours in Quebec
