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The Trials of Jayson Hoover
King Size / Baby I Love You - 7"
New Syndrome - 1969
Michael Panontin
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Unlike R&B-obsessed Toronto, Vancouver in the 1960s was more heavily affected by the electric sounds emanating out of northern California, with the Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service all having visited by the summer of 1966. Still, a smaller but equally cool soul scene was coalescing there around singers Bobby Taylor and Jayson Hoover.
Both Taylor and Hoover had their names on the marquees by the mid-sixties. Taylor, an American ex-pat, had teamed up with Tommy Chong as Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, while the Canuck Hoover was busy fronting an R&B band called the Epics. By 1968, three members of the Epics - Hoover, guitarist Jim Harmata and bassist Bob Kidd - had decided to take things to another level, with the deep southern soul of Wilson Pickett the most likely blueprint for their new sound.
And so as the rechristened Trials of Jayson Hoover, the three along with organist Steve Cartmell and drummers Ian Hood and (briefly) Randy Busby spent the latter part of 1968 gigging around the lower mainland at places like Diamond Jim's, Lasseter's Den and Pharaoh's Retreat. Their high point would come in December, when they found themselves on the bill at the Pacific Coliseum with the recently formed Led Zeppelin and the Vanilla Fudge.
Also around that time - various sites list it as either December 1968 or January 1969 - the guys issued their first piece of wax on Tom Northcott's New Syndrome label. Hoover and Harmata's 'King Size' was actually a holdover from their days in the Epics. With its down-and-dirty organ and hip-swinging guitar riffs, the song betrayed a gritty Stax-style sound and managed to spend a good eight weeks up on the local CKLG charts, reaching an impressive #8 position in the early part of 1969.
There were of course personnel changes and further successes - a follow-up single, 'We Were Happy', also cracked the top twenty in February '70. The guys even veered down rockier roads for a spell, issuing a string of singles as Anvil Chorus before once again reverting to their original name in November '70. A final single, 'Freedom Train', also charted the following year, after which the ever-talented Hoover, whose currency by then was at an obvious high point, launched a successful solo career for the better part of the seventies.
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