Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 25, 1975, Winnipeg, Manitoba It Winnifer Fott less tuesday november 25, 1975 joins of Ford Force movement Choquette touts support for new Quebec party by Jolln Wildgust Quebec former Justice minister Jerome Cho Quette has been grinning i lot in the past two weeks As he replies to questions about his general political leanings seeing he has emerged As the Star per former of a third Force party Road show touring the province. The Choquette kindly tolerant expression of a Man replying to Well intentioned but naive cracked across his round jut Jawed face whenever the topic swings to his reputation As a hard liner in the Liberal Cabinet of pre Mier Robert Bourassa. Some people have even called him a right Winger which practically sets or. Choquette s ears wiggling with grinning school masterly assurances that he is for solutions to human and social and while he is calling for a return to traditional values and some sort of "order0 in society or. Choquette has made it Clear he also believes in leftist Type solutions when they Are expedient or Nec Essary. His first real Outing with two other spotlighted stars in the movement to set up a new political party in Choquette has suggested the name parti nothing less than a Success. An audience of 5m turned out for a sunday afternoon rally in the relatively impoverished Rural town of St. Georges de Beauce. South of Quebec City. Although fallen Roy now one of the Thini Force stars after being drummed out of the Provin Cial credit Ste party was the Hometown favorite in the seat of his National Assembly constituency there was obvious excitement in the audience Over or. Choquette. Or. Choquette from Montreal s fashionable Outremont Riding received a roaring Welcome which came within a Decibel of the one Given or. Roy. The Power broker in it All the chief organizer for the once great but badly mauled Union National party Clement Vincent received an appropriately polite but less than wild round of applause. As the third Force movement stacks up at present there seems to be Broad based albeit not numerous by declared support for an alternative to what now is basically a two party system involving the Bourassa liberals and the separatist parti quebecois. Or. Choquette joined the ranks of the informal Jerome Croquette third Force movement about a month after his Resig nation As education minister in the Bourassa govern action he said was necessary because of a crisis of conscience Between his interpretation of the official language act and that of Cabinet colleagues seeking a Way out of a Sticky political problem. A Choquette speech in Montreal brought it All out into the open with the former minister sniping away at of leadership in the Bourassa government failure of much touted reforms in education and so Cial legislation and the general technocratic air of a government which won 102 of the 110 legislature seats in october 1973. The number two Man in the Polit icly Freaky show which sees or. Choquette aligning himself with the old line Union National is the social creditor or. Roy or. Roy s personal reputation like that of or. Choquette has not suffered in the seemingly endless Parade of political scandals in the province although some have unkindly suggested that is simply be cause he in t Bright enough to be dishonest. Or. Roy was turfed out of the Rolliement Credi taste do Quebec for having suggested a third Force party might be a Good idea. The relatively silent in the menage a trois however is or. Vincent whose Union National party is to meet at the end of this month to decide whether it will throw its entire support including organization membership and a Campaign account behind formation of a new party. The in which formed the government until Defeated by the liberals in 1970, was virtually wiped off the electoral map until aging party Leader Maurice Bellemare won a 1974 by election following the resignation of a Liberal Bac Bencher involved in a conflict of interest scandal the third Force idea took off after years of rumours with a push also from an ostensibly non partisan group operating under the title Comite de re Gro Pement poli Tique do Quebec. Raymond Martin a Sherbrooke chartered accountant former in Campaign organizer and now pres ident of the new committee says the group has 120 members in More than 30 of the province s 110 constituencies while he says most of the members Are former in supporters there Are also members who were former liberals credit stes or parti quebecois. The other members of the committee of nine Are lawyer Gaetan Grenier notary Armand Bol due both of Sherbrooke Mcgill University professor and former in candidate Marcel Cote Fernand Doyon Maurice Breton and Marcel Patoine All of the Beace Region Quebec City lawyer Jean Forter and a newspaper reporter named Pierre Bender of Porchester in the Eastern townships Region. Or. Martin said the committee formed three months ago sees its mandate As encouraging forma Tion of a new party although it might continue to act As a watchdog body after a new party is set up. What sparked the committee said or. Martin was a feeling that voters had to the Liberal policies or the destruction of that s not a another name mentioned in the Flury of publicity surrounding the third Force Takeoff has been that of Jacques o Bready the dynamic 39-year-old mayor of Sherbrooke in the Eastern townships where Stron Gest support for the new party is forming. While he won t commit himself As Man Date As mayor continues until o Bready is ready to endorse the idea that a new political move ment is necessary in Quebec. That Strong support in the Eastern townships is due to the fact the territory was strongly Union National in the own family has a Long in has often considered it self a Region apart from the rest of the province a area with a special flavor. Political tendencies Are More conservative Here than in other areas of he said noting that the Region elected or. Bellemare in the provincial by election and sent to Ottawa progressive conserva Tives Heward Grafftey in Brome missis quoi and Claude Wagner in St. Hyacinthe. A Montreal Riding was the Only other in Quebec to elect a conservative to Ottawa. The attention then has focused on the platform a new party might take and the Choquette Roy Vincent trilogy has already started to attack the government for its big it is no longer capable of relating to individual citizens. Or. Roy suggested something would have to be done to have More recognition for Quebec within confederation and said or. Bourassa seems to have interpreted his election landslide Victory As a carte Blanche to drop provincial policies in favor of those emanating from Ottawa. Or. Vincent emphasized that any new party must be if that is possible in politics. With More and More Ink and air time being de voted to the peregrinations of the third forces the questions being posed Are bound to become More and More pointed. And it remains to be seen How Long or. Quette s Grin will get him out of Comers about being a right Winger. A lot of ear to ear tooth Ness also will be. Required to convince Quebec s English speaking population generally believed to be fed up with the Bourassa government after passage of the official language. Act Bill that or. Choquette could interest them. When he resigned from the Cabinet and the Liber Al party to sit As an Independent it was because he Felt English language schools should be reserved for students whose Mother Tongue was English and that All others such As should simply be sent to French schools. While that would circumvent the complicated testing quota and Appeal processes under the present Law it seems far from the free Choice position advocated by Many English Quebe cers. But says or Choquette with a big warm Grin at least his position is Clear Cut somebody should appreciate that. T King Clapton Dodges in and out of stardom the los Angeles times Eric Clapton is a shy Man not at All the fiery personality one might expect from Rock s English born celebrated King of the electric guitar. While it May be that very de Mureness that accounts for his impassioned musicianship i t has also proved a constant Nemesis throughout Clapton s 15-year career. "1 guess i be always backed Down from incredible he admitted recent visit to los Angeles. Only i Don t know which one i m scared of Success or failure. Probably now a Youthful looking 30, Clapton is still stricken by stage fright before his con certs. Once on stage his Only spoken words Are a mumbled thank you. Even his infrequent interviews Are. Almost always plagued by one or two sentence answers. It s not that i Don t like he insists in a Gruff resonant tone. I Don t mind that part at All. I m just not Gonna slag off bands or make judgments on other guitar players. Most of the time that s All that interview ers want to hear. I Hope it in t a. Cliche thing to say he shrugs. But the Only thing that really mat ters is the music. Everything else tends to get in the save for one extended absence of nearly two years the music has been Eric Clapton s top priority since he was booted out of Art school at Kingston on thames Surrey at 15. My parents always wanted me to be a commercial he recalls of the two departments available Fine arts and graphic Art i was sent to the latter. All did was take exams. Every bloody Day. Then i d go to the canteen for a cup of Tea and see All these Happy peo ple walking about covered in paint. It broke my heart. After that i d go to class for half All hour and then sort of creep off. I did t take Long for them to kick me out which was the whole not until he heard and Felt enchanted with a Leadbelly record a Short time later was Clapton s course set. He persuaded his parents to buy him an acoustic guitar and worked alongside his Brick layer father until he was proficient enough to join a band. Clapton s first two bands the roosters and Casey Jones and the Engi neers quickly became too pop and foppish for his blues conscience. In 1964, he joined a More progressive outfit the Yar Birds. The Yar Birds noteworthy for establishing the twin Lead guitar format and 1 a u n c h i no the careers of Jimmy Page and after Clapton Jeff Beck were responsible for his initial reputation As Well. After a year and a half though Clapton rebelled once again and left the group. The authorized explanation for his departure that the Yar Birds had taken too Sharp a commercial turn Clapton now dismisses As a what i be always told everyone that they were getting too top Fortish. It was a Tan Trum actually. Definitely a Tantrum on my part. It was sort of spite. I won t go into Why it s very Clapton Bellows in mock anger but i still hate All of in the Cream nevertheless Clapton re surfaced in his most underground configuration yet against the Wall. Other peo feel fit. I m going Back to John May alts blues pie completely shut off. And we d like to Wake you up. Among other things Wake up Calls just one of the services we provide. We can answer your Telephone when you re unavailable and take the messages for you. Just like your Secretary. We can Send and receive telex messages for you. Forward your mail when you re away or Page you on the Job. And Well work 24 hours a Day for you if you wish. We re the other Telephone answering company Wilh what we know is a better answer. Big enough to offer a Range of services but adding a personal touch. No contracts except pocket pagers use us the months you need us. Rates very competitive. The other answering service secretarial Telephone answering service 100-416 main Street 947-1661 Breakers. It was t Long be fore Mayall found himself performing before crowds of Clapton fanatics. The now in famous cult slogan Clapton is god began cropping up on Graffiti filled Walls throughout Britain. After two years with Mayall Clapton was finally ready to make his big move from the dues paying club circuit he joined two Well known British musicians bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker in the now legendary Power Trio Cream. Their first major debut at the 1966 Windsor festival was a tumultuous Success. Suddenly it was official. Eric Clapton was a superstar. Such resulting albums As fresh Cream Disraeli gears and wheels of fire Are still regarded As three of Rock s most important albums. On stage Cream was a equally electrifying Force. One of the first bands to improvise on stage Materi Al often stretched into All night jams. Clapton gained another nickname slow hand. For the baffling effortless Ness of his guitar technique. Yet that band too crumbled in the inimitable Clapton tradition. 11 we ran out of ideas and creative he says. The last year were like zombies. Just going through the motions. And that was very very painful. We Actu ally travelled in separate limousines and everything so we did t have to speak to each other. Did t even have to see one another at All until we got onstage. It was something i could t find a Way out of. I was probably too Young to know what to do about it. I Don t know i was powerless. And when you re exhausted from touring and dealing with the situation you really Haven t got the mental Energy to summon up the courage to say listen i m splitting Clapton finally did Bow out in late 68 and retired to his Surrey Home to contemplate his most daring if ultimately catastrophic project. I wanted to recapture the magic that Cream had in the beginning and thought that these were the musicians who could do it. On paper there was no Way we could Blind Faith which included bassist Rick Grech and then sex traffic pianist guitarist vocalist Steve win Wood besides Cream mates Ginger Baker and Clapton recorded one successful album and proceeded to play a disastrous unto Ether american tour before disintegrating. I really enjoyed working with s t e v j e Clapton stresses. That s How Blind Faith started. That was the ambition behind it. The two of us playing together. Then pressure started coming at us from every direction be fore Ive had even developed a rapport of any kind. We were forced to do an album and rushed on to the Road. That s the last thing you can do to a very very shy person that s what happened with Stevie and me. We were both very unhappy Over the whole thing it s a shame too because i heard the other Day that Stevie just completely quit playing. He s a Farmer Clapton cheered himself out of depression by hiding and hanging out with de Laney and Bonnie the South Ern blues Rock band which had toured with Blind Faith. He a recorded a live album with the band then returned to los Angeles with the same musicians to make his first Solo album Eric Clapton. Even though he admits it s a True Solo the album is still an Effort he s not especially proud of. I Don t think i was being my self truly As much As still living under of Delaney Bramlett who produced the i was trying to please him More than any one else. More than myself 1" now Layla the same year 1970, clap ton launched himself for the first time As a group Leader with sex Delaney and Bonnie s i d c m e n Bobby Whitlock Jim Gordon and Carl Radle. Just before taking the stage for their first concert a or. Spock civil liberties they came up with a name Derek and the dominoes. While their firse album Layla sold Well it was Dis missed by reviewers at first. Not until a year later with the Success of the title track single did they take another listen. The present consensus is that Layla is Eric clap ton s masterpiece. I did t give a Damn about whether the critics liked he declares. I knew it was Good. You always know when., you be done Well. And if the press does t care for it stuff Eta. It s Only when you re in doubt about what you be done that a bad review throws you. They. Can. Make you want to give up some which is basically what Clapton did after Layla confident or not. His Home in Surrey once a sunny place where musicians like Stephen stills could drop by talk Jam and learn from Clapton was All but boarded up. Over the next three years Clapton left it Only rarely. Once to perform at the Bangladesh Benefit another time a the insistence of the who s Pete Townshend for a sin Gle concert at London s rain Bow theatre and later to appear in Ken Russell s Tom my film. The reason Clapton now explains easily was heroin addiction. With acupuncture treat ments electronic gadgetry and the to kick Woching for him. Clapton removed himself from the temptations of London and travelled to a Friend s farm in Wales. After a month of baling Hay driving a tractor and working myself he picked up a guitar and started re teaching himself. I decided then of upon his return to London Clapton made arrangements to record 461 Ocean Boule Vard his first album since Layla while the album was generally Well received a single from it Bob Marley s i shot the sheriff became his first no. 1 some argued that Clapton was t playing enough guitar. He agrees. It s not easy to get your chops he laments. Plus i was still trying to get the band Carl Radle Bass Dick Sims keyboards Jamie maker Drums George Terry guitar Yvonne Elliman vocals and now Singer Marcy Levy to Gether. So i was underplay ing a lot. I mean i m still not keen to project myself As a guitar Star. If you really want to do that sort of fast draw bit there s too Many others who can top you. There s always someone faster. It s Best to just try and play Well. Not necessarily lately Clapton is anxious to counteract the Laid Back image he s acquired from his last studio album the Low key there s one in every crowd. I Complete Stock ladies car Coats Coats jackets wed. Thru sat. Off everyday Low prices textile Iii will i Centre fashion fabrics at fair prices 764 Mcdermot Avi. 1254 Ombina Hwy. 131 Regent w Cottonwood Village Northdale shopping Centre like Stevie. Some people i be had enough of Here. Excel when they re forced up had enough country air. I j ;