Neil Merryweather

Neil Merryweather has had a most colorful and interesting career, spanning more than 40 years.

The Canadian rock singer, bass player, songwriter and producer has recorded and played with a who’s who of the rock world including Dave Mason, Steve Miller, Rick James, Howard Roberts, Kal David, Randy California, Billy Joel, James Newton Howard, Charlie Musselwhite, Bruce Cockburn, Kim Fowley, Lita Ford and many more.

Neil was born Robert Neilson Lillie in Winnipeg, Manitoba to Canadian mother Kathleen and American father Robert Lillie, a sailor in the Merchant Marines. After his mother remarried, Neil was raised by his grandmother in Toronto. Neil never knew his father who was killed while serving his American country.

Neil began his career in Toronto as Bobby Neilson then Neil Lillie, playing with a handful of bands throughout the 60s including “Just Us”, “The Tripp”, “The Mynah Birds” (with Rick James), and “The Flying Circus” (with Bruce Cockburn), eventually becoming Neil Merryweather after moving to Los Angeles in 1968. That’s when Neil’s career as “Neil Merryweather” was launched, spawning a number of bands and albums.

Neil formed his first band in high school and played with a handful of bands throughout the 60s. He was awarded an art scholarship and attended the acclaimed Centra Tech Art School in Toronto. But the lure of music was too strong. Gigs quickly took precedence over art, and Neil left art school to make music his sole endeavor.

Neil’s first band was called “The NightTricks”. Their agent, who referred to his other band, “Gary Mear and the Reflections”, as his “A” band, got the better gigs. Neil turned up at one of The Reflection’s rehearsals, but Gary wasn’t around. Neil sat in on vocals and wound up as the lead singer, joining forces with Edward Roth (keyboards), Robert Ablack (drums), Bill Ross (guitar), and Brian Hughes (bass). Neil used his first two names, Bobby Neilson, and the band became “The Ookpics”, named after a native Canadian stuffed toy owl that was a souvenir sold to tourists.

The band got a deal with Quality Records and recorded a lone single. The Canadian government owned the rights to the “Ookpic” name, so the band changed their name to “Just Us”, as suggested by Ed Roth’s mother. “Just Us” appeared on a local “American Bandstand” type show promoting the single “I Can Tell”, with the flip side “I Don’t Love You”, and went on for a year or so playing the Ontario circuit. Brian Hughes left the band to go to college, and Neil and Ed let the always angry Bill Ross go.

Neilson, who now went by the name Neil Lillie, befriended ex-“Mynah Birds” singer and keyboardist Jimmy Livingston in Long and McWade’s music store where he worked in the backroom as an amp and guitar repairman, and asked him to join a new lineup of “Just Us”, (the Mynah Byrds frontman was Ricky James Mathews, later known as Rick James). To complete the new lineup, Neil recruited former “C.J. Feeney and the Spellbinders” member Stan Endersby on guitar and Wayne Davis on bass.

“Just Us” became a popular draw on the Toronto scene. Wayne Davis dropped out to join “Bobby Kris and the Imperials”. “Just Us” was booked to open for “The Byrds” at Varsity Stadium. Neil got a bass and learned to play the band’s set in two weeks. They opened for “The Byrds” as “Group Therapy”, but for a short while, went on as “Just Us” to fulfill already-booked dates.

At one of the gigs, the band played on a bill with a group called “Richie Knight and the Mid-Knights”. Neil befriended the piano player Rick Bell (who went on to play with Ronnie Hawkins, Janis Joplin’s band “Full Tilt Boogie”, and “The Band”), and persuaded him to join. Neil had a concept for a new band with two keyboards. He designed red Edwardian suits and came up with the name “The Tripp”. The band signed with manager Tom Wilson, who headed up the Big Land Agency. “The Tripp” had a successful run, playing the top clubs and concert venues on the circuit. One night, they opened for Toronto’s top band at the time, “The Mandela”, and blew them away! The Mandela’s manager, Raphael Markowitz, signed them to his management company (“Riff” Markowitz went on to produce shows including “The Hitchhiker”, and is currently the producer of the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, one of the only surviving and profit-making vaudeville shows worldwide).

In order to make the management legal, they pretended to disband to get a release from their management and contract with Tom Wilson. The breakup made the Toronto Star newspaper’s entertainment page, complete with a pencil portrait of “The Tripp” that Neil had sketched.

“The Tripp” played on the first episode of CBC TV’s “Sunday Show”, the first variety show to broadcast nationwide in Canada. Also on the show was a French Canadian band called “The Fleur-de-Lis” and included band member Rene Angelil, the now famous husband of Celina Dion. “The Tripp” also played an outstanding set at the Canadian sound show concert at Maple Leaf Gardens.

As all good things come to an end, so did “The Tripp”. Rick Bell was nabbed by the legendary Ronnie Hawkins, and Neil was approached by Rick James to take Bruce Palmer’s place in a new lineup of the “Mynah Birds”. Neil Young and Bruce Palmer left the Mynah Birds, sold the group’s equipment and drove to Los Angeles to form the “Buffalo Springfield” with Stephen Stills and company. Neil and Rick recruited Bill Ross (“Just Us” and “Ookpiks” original guitarist). He had just left David Clayton Thomas’s “Bossmen” along with Al Morrison who joined on drums. This new lineup became the “Myna Byrds” (as it was now spelled), returned to Motown Records, and resigned. R. Dean Taylor, a fellow Canadian, was assigned by Motown to produce. The band recorded three tracks, one of which was Neil Young’s “It’s My Time”. It was to be a single. The band was recording at Motown’s Hitsville Studio and rehearsing at Motown’s Goldstar Studio. Bill Ross’s temper reared up again, and Rick and Bill had a major blowout during a rehearsal. This was unfortunate as the band had booked upcoming dates with “The Supremes” and “The Four Tops”.

That version of the “Myna Byrds” band lasted one month. Neil and Rick went back to Toronto to reform a new group. The second day back, Rick was arrested on a breaking and entering charge. Apparently, Rick and a couple of other guys broke into a clothing store a few months earlier. Neil talked to Rick every day while Rick was being held pending charges and deportation back to Buffalo, New York. During the time Rick was being held, Neil recruited Marty Fisher (keyboards) and Gordon MacBain (drums) from “Bobby Kris and the Imperials”, and was looking for a guitarist to make up the new “Myna Byrds”. Neil ran into a couple of members from an Ottawa band called “The Staccatos” (later to become “The Five Man Electrical Band”). They told Neil the guitarist for ”The Esquires” in Ottawa had just quit. Neil called and arranged a jam. The guitarist was Bruce Cockburn.

The new “Myna Byrds” was set and waiting for Rick James to be released. The original “Mynah Birds” had acquired John Craig Eaton (of Eaton’s Department Store fame) as a backer. Neil arranged a meeting wit Eaton and got him to attend a rehearsal. He agreed to support the band during the time Rick was being held.

One month went by and the band had been playing some of Cockburn’s songs. A sound developed. Neil came up with the name “The Flying Circus”. He painted the drums like circus props and designed posters, creating an image around the new sound. The band picked up Harvey Glatt as manager. Harvey owned a music store in Ottawa and promoted major venue concerts. “The Flying Circus” opened for Wilson Pickett at Massey Hall in Toronto and for Pickett and Roy Orbison at the Capitol Theatre in Ottawa, as well as headlining The Riverboat in Toronto and Le Hibou in Ottawa. The group recorded a number of unreleased tracks in Toronto, including Cockburn’s “She Wants To Know”, “I’m Leaving You Out”, and “Mother” as well as Neil’s “Last Hoorah” and Fisher and MacBain’s “Where Is All The Love”. At the same sessions, the band also recorded songs by Cockburn’s former Children cohort, Bill Hawkins, such as “Merry Go Round”, It’s A Dirty Shame”, and “Little Bit Stoned”.

The band continued on for awhile, but Neil was not happy with Cockburn’s folk/rock style and wanted to play heavier music. In the end, personalities clashed. Neil felt it was becoming less of a band and more Cockburn, and that he had a different direction in mind – south.