XPost: alt.music.green-day, alt.punk, alt.celebrities   
   XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.showbiz.gossip, alt.music.misc   
   XPost: alt.music.canada   
   From: beauh@mts.net   
      
   Sorry this took awhile, but here is Green Day news out of Winnipeg, Manitoba   
   (MB), Canada on the band's, and Tre Cool's in particular, relationship with   
   filthy Canadian comedy act MacLean & MacLean and Cool's using of their   
   material for his upcoming dirty country album. Note that one of the MacLeans   
   passed away recently, but all of that is covered in the following story from   
   Winnipeg's alternative weekly paper, Uptown:   
      
   THEY COME BY IT HONESTLY   
   Green Day Antics Inspired By MacLean & MacLean   
      
   By John Kendle - Uptown, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, May 19, 2005   
      
   When Green Day first came across Canada on an arena tour in 1995, the band   
   told its promoter, Universal Concerts Canada, that they didn't want to come   
   unless they got to meet MacLean & MacLean. They were joking, sorta, but   
   Universal made sure the meeting happened anyway.   
      
   Drummer Tre Cool is a huge fan of the Winnipeg-based kings of toilet rock,   
   having discovered the disorderly duo as a kid through a bootleg cassette of   
   the MacLeans' Suck Their Way To The Top album.   
      
   So it was arranged that Blair and Gary MacLean met Cool, Mike Dirnt and   
   Billie Joe Armstrong in 1995 at the Winnipeg Arena. The duo exchanged   
   albums, t-shirts and CDs with their much younger peers.   
      
   Ten years later Blair MacLean and Cool renewed acquaintances backstage at   
   MTS Centre after Green Day's May 17 show. MacLean got a chance to tell the   
   Green Day drummer about the passing of brother Gary in 2001, and also   
   introduced him to two of Gary's sons, Travis and David.   
      
   "He knew about Gary, so we talked about that for a while. I gave him all of   
   our CDs, too, now that they're all available, and he looked at his   
   girlfriend and said, 'Guess what we're listening to on the way to Edmonton   
   tonight?'" MacLean said.   
      
   "He knew the whole Take The O Out Of Country Show by heart, even the   
   dialogue between songs, so we were doing them together for a while.   
      
   "He said he wanted the lyrics to I've Seen Pubic Hair because he wants to do   
   it for a dirty country album he's working on."   
      
   As for the show? MacLean said he enjoyed it and was struck by how the band   
   seemed to have complete control of the sold-out crowd.   
      
   "But my ears are still ringin'," he laughed. "I'm 62 fuckin' years old and I   
   can't take that shit."   
      
   ***   
      
   Word backstage at the Green Day show was that it very nearly didn't happen   
   because frontman Billie Joe Armstrong was suffering from a heavy cold and a   
   sore throat.   
      
   "They had a doctor come down and spray his throat so he could perform," one   
   insider said. "People were nervous for a while."   
      
   ***   
      
   Green Day's a band that has always had Winnipeg connections.   
      
   When the Berkeley, California trio broke through to the mainstream in 1994   
   with Dookie, its front-of-house soundman was Randy Steffes of Beausejour,   
   Manitoba.   
      
   Steffes, who was the guitarist in Bif Naked's first band, Gorilla Gorilla,   
   was even the band's co-manager for a brief period after the group parted   
   ways with Elliott Cahn & Jeff Saltzman in 1995. He now works with a number   
   of groups, including Bad Religion.   
      
   Winnipeg restaurateur Brad Linden was the band's touring chef at the time,   
   providing meals for the group and its crew throughout Europe and North   
   America.   
   These days Green Day's Winnipeg connection is maintained by Mike Dirnt's   
   bass technician, Micah Chong, who was introduced by Billie Joe Armstrong as   
   being "originally from Winnipeg."   
      
   To stretch this thing even further, Green Day's current sound mixer, Kevin   
   Lemoine, was recommended to the group by another former Winnipegger (and   
   another Gorilla Gorilla alumnus) Kent Jamieson, a Glenlawn Collegiate grad   
   (two grades behind me) who mixes sound for and co-manages Fat Wreck Chords   
   heroes NOFX.   
      
   The band's current tour manager, Doug Goodman, is also a Canadian, and all   
   the show's pyrotechnic effects, including the patented, 50-foot gas   
   flame-throwers called Dragons, are supplied by Toronto company Pyrotek   
   Special Effects.   
      
   People from our little village certainly do get around in this business.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)