It’s time for another roundup of some of my most recent written output. I am particularly proud of this batch of articles, all of which have to do with anniversaries, from a Canadian rock classic to a trip-hop/dub landmark to a milestone in the development of television.
Stooky Bill, the Ventriloquist’s Dummy Who Became the First TV Star
(Mental Floss, September 18, 2025)
John Logie Baird made history by transmitting the first television picture with a grayscale image on October 2, 1925. He couldn’t have done it without a little help from an uncanny source—namely, the disembodied head of one Stooky Bill.
Television wasn’t the invention of a solitary genius toiling in a laboratory strewn with gears and schematics. As with most paradigm-altering technologies, TV wasn’t so much invented as it was developed, with a number of individuals making their own crucial contributions.
At the beginning was Baird. If not for the Scotsman’s unswerving dedication, the world would never have been able to watch in awe—and in real time—as Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon in 1969. We never would have had 60 Minutes or Monty Python’s Flying Circus or Breaking Bad.
And without a ventriloquist dummy named Stooky (sometimes spelled “Stookie”) Bill, Baird’s wild dreams of a televised world might never have come true.
45 Years Ago, Vancouver Rock Legends Loverboy Bet Big on Themselves
(Montecristo, September 24, 2025)
It takes a hell of a lot of chutzpah to watch the top rock acts of the day perform and then announce, “I could do that.”
According to Loverboy guitarist Paul Dean, that was precisely the reaction he and bandmate Mike Reno had when their manager took them to Los Angeles in 1979 for a two-day rock-music festival featuring the likes of Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and AC/DC.
Not that the fledgling Loverboy seemed likely to join their rarefied ranks any time soon. Having already tasted some success as a member of Streetheart, the Vancouver-born Dean connected with singer Mike Reno and keyboardist Doug Johnson while living in Calgary. The trio moved to the West Coast, bringing with them a stack of songs and big-league ambitions. With drummer Matt Frenette (also formerly of Streetheart) and bassist Scott Smith rounding out the lineup, the band was complete—and itching to make a record.
“We auditioned for a bunch of labels, some of the U.S. labels,” Dean says, calling from a tour stop in Salt Lake City. “They turned us down. One guy at Capitol Records said, ‘There’s no attitude here, sorry.’ But Mike and I went down to L.A. with our late, great manager Lou Blair, a great friend of ours. We went to a big concert in the Coliseum.”
At that show—the CaliFFornia World Music Festival, which took over the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on April 7 and 8, 1979—Dean and Reno found their confidence renewed.
“All our favourite bands were playing: Eddie Money and Cheap Trick and Van Halen,” Dean recalls. “Halfway through the show we looked at each other and we went, ‘You know, I think we’re okay, regardless of what this guy at Capitol Records says, because this is us onstage. We’re listening to our style, our vibe.’”
Dub producer Mad Professor remains an analogue soul in a digital world
(September 24, 2025)
No Protection, Mad Professor’s landmark 1995 album of Massive Attack remixes, is quite possibly the best-selling dub record of all time, although that’s hard to determine, since no one actually maintains a chart for the genre.
What’s indisputable, however, is that the LP sparked a resurgence of interest in dub production in the mid ’90s, and was a staple of dorm rooms, chill-out lounges, and so-hip-it-hurts coffee shops for years.
There are even those who claim that they have listened to No Protection more times over the subsequent decades than they have to the source material—Massive Attack’s 1994 trip-hop release, Protection—but Mad Professor himself is skeptical on that point.
“People tell me that all the time, but I don’t really believe it,” says the producer, known to the taxman as Neil Fraser, when Stir reaches him via Zoom in Costa Rica. “Because the original is the original, and I just played around with different tracks. I’ve got a lot of respect for the band, and I thought, yeah, let me give it another twist, you know?”
John Lucas 
Leave a comment