Nick Urech - The Village S.T.O.P.

Beginning :

Born close to Manchester England. I Came to Hamilton at 1 years old. Grew up walking fields, skating and swimming on ponds. My parents played piano. My dad played a bit of guitar and chromatic harmonica too. One summer afternoon in '64 my 2 best friends Paul and Jim came to my back door saying they were starting a band like The Beatles, or The Rolling Stones and I could learn to play bass. Only Paul knew a bit about guitar. I started with learning bass lines from Paul on my old man's Gibson acoustic (which I still own).

A very early photo of Village S. T. O. P. prior to Loveman joining.

A photo from Hamilton Spectator.

Jim only had a snare and high hat at this point. Once he got a kit we moved from Paul's attic to my dad's garage. Our first gigs were at local churches, we made our guitar cords and straps and clothes. Steve made them all. From flowered bellbottoms to frilled shirts, capes and robes. We all started to let our hair grow like the Beatles. We started painting small things on our faces like flowers and peace signs. We were also listening to Frank Zappa 's Freak Out album. This escalated into painting our whole bodies, buying a double bank of “black lights” to illuminate the fluorescent paint we started using. And playing the Freakout side of the LP and an Animal's song. We were hanging out at the YWCA because there were dances there and at the Kiwanis Club. We met AL Pope our first singer there because he lived near by.

Jim Hall.

Circa: Sept. of 1968 featuring members Fraser Loveman on drums and Nick Urech on bass during their live “Freakout” set.

By this time the son of the Director of the Kiwanis Club was our manager. We started practicing there in return for doing some dances. We were in The Battle of the Bands Nights where we saw a lot of other great bands like The Magic Circus, The Rising Sons, The Pharoahs, The Midnight Riders. Local bands were everywhere. None of us were in any other band before The S.T.O.P.. We learned as we went. One night we were walking home and talking about renaming the band which was called The Fates then. We needed something different. As we walked by a stop sign Steve said "Why not The STOP?” Then just for fun we added the periods. And thought of something to fit. Screeching Tires On Pavement? No. We settled for Sounds Typical Of People. Ha. Then later our manager came up with The Village S.T.O.P. Our manager George Featherstone's dad (recently passed R.I.P.) was also in show business before managing the Kiwanis Club, so he passed onto his son the best way to go about things. George Jr. and Sr. were the great people and business end of the band.

Jim Hall.

“We started painting our whole bodies but the fumes were so bad by the time we got done our eyes would water and sting so much we could barely see! Ha. Hence the body stockings, then we only had hands and face and Fraser's feet to paint” - Urech

Paul Marcoux and Steve Urech.

So George had us booked in New York City pretty soon at a club in Greenwich Village called Harlow's. We stayed in a big local hotel called The Albert Hotel. Other more well known own bands stayed there too. After AL our singer left and we got Fraser Loveman we played in a big club on Broadway called The Space Club. Us and another band were the house bands all week playing alternate sets, then on the weekend they would have bands like John Fred and the Playboys, The Rascals, Booker T. and the M.G.s and Mountain. Our amazing manager George talked the owners of Buddah Records into giving us a recording contract. Wow!

The only problem was we didn't have any original songs to do and the ones they had were a new type of music that was coming out called "Bubble gum". We declined. Something happened now that was really cool. One of the owners of Buddah Records' girlfriend was a singer just starting out named Melanie. They asked us if we would be her backup band! But since her song Brand New Key was this new Bubblegum we declined again. Aaarrghh! She was at Woodstock! After playing around the eastern states for a year and using Allentown Pennsylvania our base we finally broke up and came home for a rest. I stayed with Fraser for another local band, but it didn't last.

The band’s manager Georger Featherstone signing their Buddah Records contract/ From the left: Nick (bass), Paul (guitar), Steve (Nick’s brother - guitar), Fraser (vocalist) and Jim (drums).

After The S.T.O.P. :

I joined a band called Tranquility Base just as Ian Thomas and his close friend the bassist, Steve Hogge were leaving. Stan Rogers was in the band at that time. Just before he went to the east coast and reached his stardom with his fishing nautical songs, he was honored on a stamp. After Tranquility Base, who taught me how to sing harmonies, I found myself in Toronto playing in a funk band called The Biggy Twiggy Band. After some intense rehearsals with the 3 brothers? Keyboard, sax, drums, 2 singers and a guitarist we started in Elliot Lake and didn't stop til we hit Vancouver and Victoria.

At the ride for sight campground in Mindon Ont.

Family get together in Manitoulin Island. - “That guitar was stolen from my room along with an electric in Red Deer Alberta. While I lay asleep in bed right beside them!”

I lived in Calgary during the 70's and joined my final big band called Punch and Judy. We cooked! The sax player and trumpet player went right into a band on TV in Edmonton called The Tommy Banks Show when we broke up. We toured all over western Canada even into the Yukon and North West Territories. I did a single act for a few years once I got back to Hamilton. Old 60's stuff. Now I teach guitar, bass, ukulele and harmonica in Simcoe along with some great people at Erie Music. I also enjoy writing my own songs and posting them on fb. A final Thank-you to any fans of the Village S.T.O.P. PEACE AND LOVE!

Motorcycle camping trip from Calgary through Banff, then logging roads down to Glacier National Park on the U.S. border.

Nick on a weekend camping trip with his band buds in the Rockies circa: 1979. - “We don't need no stinkin' tents!”

Dakota Brown