Mike and Mike

Mike Campbell

My name is Mike Campbell. I was born in Vancouver in the mid Fifties (and I'm not ashamed of that, by the way) and my dad was a Search and Rescue helicopter pilot in the Canadian Armed Forces. My family moved every two years and I attended thirteen schools over the course of my education. I was an honour student and a standout athlete - according to me. I've lived in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond, Courtenay, Comox, Red Deer, Penhold, Belleville, Summerside, Wolfville, Ottawa (three times), Toronto and Halifax (if you don't know which provinces those places are all in, go back to gradeschool please... I always had the best record collection of anyone I knew...

My entire working life has been spent in the music business. I've worked in record retail, I've worked at a record company and I've worked in independent promotion. I worked at MuchMusic for eighteen years, initially in the marketing department and eventually in the programming department where I was involved in no less than three nationally televised shows. The last two were based in Halifax and had to do with music (MuchEast and Going Coastal); the first one was Mike and Mike's Excellent Cross Canada Adventures and my co-host was a guy named Mike Rhodes.

I've been making a living producing events (JunoFest, for instance) and co-managing one of Canada's best artists - Joel Plaskett. I'm a director on the board of Music Nova Scotia (going on ten years) and used to be the chair of the Halifax Pop Explosion festival. I've jumped out of airplanes, I've flown in F-18s, T-33s and Tudor jets. I've been in more helicopters than I can count. I've bungee jumped, done an Olympic course 4 man bobsled run - not to mention the luge and skeleton bob - too. I've thrown a 50-yard pass from the middle of Taylor Field (home of the Saskatchewan Roughriders), hung with the RCMP's musical ride and built igloos in Iqaluit.

I've been to: the most westerly point in Canada (Beaver Creek, Yukon), the most easterly point in Canada (Cape Spear, Nfld.), the most southerly point in Canada (Pelee Island), the highest point in Canada (Mt. Logan), the lowest point in Canada (Deas Island tunnel) and as far north as a guy can fly commercially in a day (Resolute Bay, NWT). I've been to every province and territory. I've been to damn near every place in Canada with at least 5,000 souls and lots with half that number. I've been across Canada so many times I've lost count. Hmmm, 50 would not be an exaggeration.

I've pounded champagne out of the Stanley Cup and the Grey Cup - with teams that have won them. I've sipped from the original Stanley Cup in Kenora - home of the Rat Portage Thistles - who actually won the thing in the early 20th century. I've hung out with, and hosted at my house in Halifax, some of Canada's biggest stars in music (The Tragically Hip, Our Lady Peace, Sarah Harmer, Tom Cochrane, Colin James, Jeff Healey, Treble Charger, Wide Mouth Mason, Emm Gryner, Ron Sexsmith, Dan Hill, Snow, Danny Michel, Sam Roberts, Broken Social Scene, The Weakerthans, Gordie Sampson, Great Big Sea, Matt Mays, Joel Plaskett, Jill Barber, and on and on and on)... And that's just the tip of the iceberg... I'm as Canadian as a guy can be. In short, I've done a lot of stuff and I know a LOT of people - from everywhere.

Just as my life has been far from "normal," that life is still the only one I know. With that in mind, the bar/restaurant we've opened reflects a few things I've learned over this lifetime... First of all, I'm not interested in a place that "everyone" will be drawn to. If I were only interested in money, I'd have gotten myself a McDonalds or Tim Horton's franchise. My life does not reflect the "average" and I know there are plenty of folks out there who feel the same way. In a business climate where market research has given us hopelessly lame radio, TV and every other mass medium, I promise I will offer a respite from the "ordinary" and music is the ticket to that goal. I don't believe I need a $50,000 market study to suggest that, in a city the size of Halifax, we can successfully put together a space that will appeal to about 150 people. I don't. It's that simple. We're not trying to change the world, we're trying to establish a place where extraordinary people can eat, drink and be merry - in the company of other folks who at least think they're extraordinary.

We have our own ideas about music and literature; we are educated; we can carry a conversation and we are particular about our surroundings. In short, we have taste. If that sounds elitist - good. I'm tired of being treated like a piece of data and I'm tired of having my intelligence insulted and being forced to exist as part of some lowest-common-denominator, "ideal demographic," or any other statistical construct. I want to provide an environment where like-minded people - people who are interested in something that aspires to more than the usual dreck we're subjected to, day in and day out - can reasonably expect to be entertained, fed and "watered" in a professional manner, attended by a staff that actually cares about our experience....

If that sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, welcome to the new "club."

Mike Rhodes

My name is Mike Rhodes. My family had a nomadic streak; we lived in Victoria, Vancouver Edmonton Ottawa and Toronto. I have lived in Toronto for most of my life. Now that I have a Nova Scotia Health Card and Drivers Licence I feel I can call myslef a Haligonian. I haven't earned the moniker yet, but I am learning to complain about the weather and city politics pretty well.

After a couple of marriages, the birth of my son and the transformation of the television industry, the allure of Toronto has lost its luster. In the seventies I had the opportunity to travel to Halifax -- first with Peter Gzowski and company as we produced TV programs 'live' for the CBC -- and from the moment I first saw this city I felt strangely at home. Years later I discovered that my entire matriarchal lineage comes from that part of the country. Most of my career has been in television production. To those who don't know this supposedly glamorous field, I'll just say that it meant a lot of insanely long hours, crunch deadlines, painstaking editing and writing and real pride in the product.

I moved around in TV. Seven years with the CBC working on national programs like Gzowksi's "90 Minutes Live" and associate producing Toronto's "Barbara Macleod" talk show, followed by a stint with Global Television's "That's Life" as a field producer, traveling Ontario and Canada. I was the originating producer of City TV's "Toronto Rocks" which pioneered music television. I was part of the launch of Muchmusic -- which still calls itself "the nation's music station".

For seven years with Much I created, co-hosted, produced and directed "Mike and Mike's Excellent X Canada Adventures" That show gave me and my partner in fun, Mike Campbell the opportunity to travel to the far reaches of this great land of ours (not to mention to places like Egypt and Cyprus, Thailand and the Paramount Lot in Hollywood). We know the secret tunnels of Moose Jaw, we know the fighter jets of Cold Lake Alberta, we have hosted daylong concerts in Whistler and traveled all of Canada in one day with the fun loving guys in Spinal Tap. Atlantic Canada always seemed the sweetest place to visit. We found that Halifax was a perfect place for us. I kept it in the back of my mind that I would love to live in Halifax. Campbell in fact did move there.

In our discussions about The Carleton I stated that in fact Halifax is the only place where we could do this. I think this venture ties together all of my various talents, skills, interests, and passions. Mike and I created a series of famous early summer martini parties that drew large crowds from the media and music worlds and went on for years. We seem to have a touch for getting people together for a good time. We have taken our love of this country and her/his/its people and shared it with the television audience, acquaintances, friends and family. Now we have the opportunity to continue working together in our favorite city in this great land of ours, and to combine it with our passions of entertaining and music.

By the way if you have hung in all the way through this diatribe, may I suggest you have a look at my sister's lodge on Lake Nippissing in Ontario. It truly is one of my favorite places on this planet and a place I want to spend a lot of time. Check out Lakair Lodge at  www.lakair.com