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Carnival Connection
Poster Man / Alfred Appleby - 7"
Capitol - 1968
Michael Panontin
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"We were entertainers," J.B. and the Playboys' singer Allan Nicholls told the Montreal Gazette. "We took it seriously."
Nicholls formed the group with guitarist Bill Hill in 1963. They may have gotten their start covering Everly Brothers songs - a 10-year-old Nicholls had even recorded a version of 'Bye Bye Love' with his older brother at a recording booth in Montreal's Belmont Park amusement park - but they cut their teeth with the Beatles.
Like the Fab Four, J.B. and the Playboys (Nicholls and Hill along with guitarist Andy Kaye, bassist Louis Atkins and drummer Doug West) honed their live chops at local proving grounds like the Rawdon Inn and the Rockcliff Inn, where bands often performed several sets a night into the early hours of the morning.
"Somewhere along the line, we got good," Nicholls said.
After an independent single in 1964, the group signed on with RCA Victor Canada International, who rifled off three singles simultaneously, no doubt hoping that one would stick. The strategy worked, as Kaye and Nicholls' 'My Delight', issued in March '65, eventually scored a #5 showing on the local charts. The guys updated their name to the Jaybees in 1966, but continued with that Beatle-esque sound for a few more records. Things began to change when they jumped over to Columbia and hooked up with Gary Paxton, who produced a couple of decent sunshine pop sides for them in the spring of '67.
But it was their final incarnation that would make the group's most interesting record of all. RPM reported in Sept. '67 that the band, who by then were Hill, Nicholls, guitarist Jean Pierre Lauzon, bassist Peter Carson and drummer Gaetan Danis, were working with PR man Dominic Sicilia, a "well-known New York touter of the group scene". They were rebranded the Carnival Connection (with Nick Katsos eventually replacing Danis) and by the following month were booked for a two-week slot at NYC's hip Electric Circus club.
Carnival Connection switched labels once again, this time to Capitol, and issued their swell 'Poster Man' single on both sides of the border in the summer of '68. 'Poster Man' was produced by future Woodstock promoter Artie Kornfeld and arranged by Jimmy Wisner (who had a #8 hit in 1961 with 'Asia Minor' under the pseudonym Kokomo and who co-wrote the Searchers' UK #1 single 'Don't Throw Your Love Away').
Kornfeld and Wisner wisely added strings and a backing chorus to 'Poster Man', transforming what is a rather ho-hum tune into a lush and dreamy popsike song. The single only reached #67 on RPM's national chart, but it naturally did much better in their hometown, where Nicholls and Hill's currency was much more valuable. In fact, by the end of September, 'Poster Man' had already cracked the top 20 at CFCF, CFOX and CJMS, with RPM writing that it was "moving up fast".
Perhaps even a bit too fast. That September, RPM noted that the boys had appeared in no fewer than eight episodes of CBC's Where It's At program, as well as on Cleveland's hugely influential Upbeat. What's more, Sicilio had managed to set up Nicholls, who had no prior acting experience, for the role of Claude in the Broadway production of Hair.
Nicholls went solo following the break-up of Carnival Connection, issuing a handful of singles throughout the seventies, including an interesting cover of a Cat Stevens obscurity, 'The Joke', in 1972. He also continued his acting career with small parts in some pretty big-name films, including a few for Robert Altman like Nashville, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson and A Perfect Couple. Hill also managed to get his own final taste of fame when he joined Freedom North, a Montreal group that achieved modest success with their single, 'Doctor Tom', which climbed as high as #17 on the RPM100 chart in the summer of 1970
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