Don Delorme and his grandson Leo Miller Delorme impressed the Capitol Centre crowd at the Centennial Sounds event Nov. 23 that celebrated 100 years of North Bay music.
Delorme, 73, said it was a fantastic gathering because local talent rarely gets the “play in the Capitol Centre on the big stage with big sound.”
The acts participating, as well as those honoured with highlight tributes, covered every decade since the city’s incorporation in 1925. See the full script with photos and videos or check out the Winter 2025 edition of the Back in the Bay Magazine.
Musical motivation hit Delorme as a young teenager during the time of the Beetles with friends Sammy Veltri, Robert Souliere and Steve Marleau forming their first band. He said it helped having a Dad who played guitar and a piano at home.
As Chippewa music grads, Delorme left home at 18 years old with a newly formed hard rock group called The Stop, which included Rick Cappadocia, Al Reynolds and Tiny Lauzon, along with organizer Richard Bean. He said Jake Thomas, another North Bay talent, was also in Toronto at the time.
Delorme played with groups called the Minstrels, (lead singer was Dan Chretien ) Variety boys, Country Comfort, Blues Brothers Cover Band out of Sudbury performing dances, bars and festivals, and now the Don and Friends band. Don and Friends band members are brothers Don and Greg Gibbings, supported by friends Shawn Kettner, Mike Foisy, Jules Guillemette and Bill Vrebosch. A 2016 inductee into the Great Northern Opry, he is also on the Nipissing Country Music Association Wall of Honour.
It was a bit “unnerving” at first having grandson join him on the stage in front of so many friends and family. But he’s ‘doing really well with his stage presence for nine years old … it was a proud moment for me and others.”
Delorme said the event “went very well”, especially considering the short time the volunteers had to organize it and there was “a good selection of music and eras covered.”
As for stirring up thoughts of the good old days, Delorme said the truth is that bands in the 60s and 70s had more venues and the “reality is … we got paid better.”
Playing small venues and private parties is their current reality and “we do it for the love it and we do have a lot of fun,” he said, noting gigs at the Callander Legion, Sturgeon Falls, Barclay House, Golden Age Club, etc. Don and Friends band members include Rich Cappadocia, Al Reynolds and Tim Lauzon.
Delorme, who retired after a career working for Public Works Canada as a federal building property manager, said North Bay has a strong music culture and they have many “colleagues … everybody in North Bay is very supportive of each other.”
Writer, photographer and proud father. My mom's family is from the Soo with its Algoma Highlands, dad hailed from Cobden in the Ottawa Valley and I spent my teen years in Capreol. Summers were at the beach on the Vermillion River and winters at 'The Rink.' Born in East York but Toronto never was my thing. Ever since a kid looking out the window on long trips, I imagined living on the highway in a little house with a big yard and trees growing all around me.
