Wideboy rocks WAAB Stock

Times Reporter

 

The WAAB Stock Summer of Rock had 14 bands and Jebb Fink come out to entertain the masses in late August. One band came all the way from London, England to take part in the weekend of festivities. 

Wideboy Generation members Aiden Eggenton, Joe Finnigan and Luke Godfrey flew in from England to help promote the festival and themselves. 

“It’s cool for us, we’ve been running around giving out flyers and CD’s trying to do a bit of promotions for us and the festival cause we’ve got a couple of gigs as well,” said Eggenton. 

The band said their style is rock similar to The Who. Finnigan is the lead singer and guitar, Godfrey rocks the drums and Eggenton is the bass guitarist. The boys did a preview show at Sinbad’s on August 18 and were said to have rocked the house.  Besides wandering around handing out flyers and demos the boys did an interview with Gerry Forbes on CJay 92. 

“Everyone seems to be interested. Back home it’s a bit like you give out a CD and it’s like, oh you’re just another band but here, it’s like ‘oh you’re in a band’ and everybody here is a bit interested and a bit more welcome which is cool,” said Eggenton.

Mark Oliff has been friends with Jim Dale for over 30 years. Dale is the owner of AAB Steel. The festival took place on his property, approximately 10 kilometres east of Strathmore. Oliff and Dale have been friends for over 30 years and a few months ago Dale contacted Oliff about WAAB Stock, which he has organized for the past three years. 

“It got bigger and better and he wanted a band from England. I work with bands back in England and he phoned me and said do you got any good bands in England that will come over and play,” said Oliff. Oliff is also friends with Wideboy’s manager for the past 10 to 15 years and after inquiring about a band to play the festival, he was told to come check the boys out. 

“It’s my first time in Canada. It’s brilliant,” said Godfrey. 

“I was here on a Rugby tour when I was 15, about four years ago, in Toronto and it was a school trip, but it was great,” said Finnigan. 

“It’s a lovely country, we’re quite enjoying it,” said Eggenton. 

Finnigan and Godfrey had been in the band for a number of years before Eggenton joined the clan. 

“Then we changed the format and the formula and the name and we became Wideboy Generation. We changed it because we were musically growing and changing the styles and we needed something to fit the bill. We was mates with Aiden and he played bass and that was it,” said Finnigan.  All three of the boys are hoping they will get a chance to come back to Canada again and maybe tour the country. They also said anyone who decides to visit England should check them out on MySpace and see if there are any gigs they are able to get to. 

“Check out Facebook and you can listen to the songs, and if you like us we’ll happily fly back out here,” said Finnigan. The boys are hoping to come back again to play at next years WAAB Stock, and from some of the comments during the festival it looks like they may be invited back.