May 15: Books for Reading World Literacy Concert features George Olliver

Get ready for a Night of Classic R&B, Soul and Motown when the third annual Books for Reading World Literacy Concert takes to the stage on Saturday, May 15th, 2010 at 8 pm at St. Andrew’s Place in Sudbury.  The concert, which raises funds to support the shipping of a container of school supplies to a developing country, will feature the hits of Wilson Pickett, The Mandela, The Righteous Brothers and Earth Wind and Fire. Tickets, at $20 per person, are available at Records on Wheels, Prom Music, Octave Music, Jett Landry Music and Durham Natural Foods.

“This concert will feature George Olliver with classic rhythm and blues along with the Philip May Sudbury Saturday Night Orchestra,” says Books for Reading Co-ordinator Guy Campeau, Regional Director of Mission of TEARS. “We invite the entire community to join with us as we support world literacy and take a nostalgic journey though some of the best hits of our times.”

George Olliver

George Olliver is celebrating over three and a half decades as a professional Canadian recording artist, performer, writer and producer. He has several hit Canadian records with classic blues, rock, and R&B groups as lead singer of the legendary Mandala (with "Op-portunity" as a number one Canadian R&B single) and as lead vocalist of Natural Gas (which earned top 10 blues album from RPM Magazine and top 80 R&B album from Bill-board Magazine).

He has also earned accolades as a solo artist, including Much Records "I May Never Get to See you Again" and Quality Records "Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool Ya". He won a Juno nomination for his first solo album "Dream Girl", a 1987 best R&B recording.

George Olliver was music director and house band for Toronto’s number one R&B/soul restaurant "Club Bluenote" from the early 80’s to early 90’s. In 1984, Domenic Troiano produced “Live @ the Bluenote” for Quality Records, one of the best live R&B recordings ever done in Canada, featuring George Olliver and his special guests at the club. 

George Olliver is known as one of Canada’s finest R&B/soul entertainers and, during his long career, has opened for The Rolling Stones and worked with famous classic R&B/blues greats such as Martha Reeves, Junior Walker, Hock Walsh, Etta James, and Wilson Pickett, to name a few.

His current R&B/blues band, "George Olliver & Gangbuster", which was born at The Blue-note, is the hottest R&B/blues band in Toronto right now. George Olliver has performed in many of the most popular restaurants in Ontario such as The Hughs Room and Roc.n Docs in Toronto. He has also performed for major companies in Canada including Tim Hortons, Toronto Dominion Bank, Royal Bank, and Remax Realty.

In addition, he has played most of the major Blues Festivals in Ontario, including the South Side Shuffle Gala, Toronto Street Festival, Beaches Jazz Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Kitchener Blues Festival, and many others.  He has just recently headlined alongside Gordon Lightfoot @ CHUM’s 50th anniversary party at Nathan Philips Square.  The band performed New Year’s Clelebration/06 at Casino Rama, just before the final ap-pearance in Canada of the King of Soul, James Brown.

George Olliver was just recently featured revisiting his exploits as lead singer of the leg-endary Canadian rock/R&B group Mandala on the CBC TV special "Shakin All Over", which, due to popular demand, has aired an unprecedented seven times across Canada since January 2006. The TV show "One on One" on Rogers Durham has also featured George Olliver for the last three years. For more information, visit www.georgeolliver.com

The Philip May Sudbury Saturday Night Orchestra

Philip May has been playing drums professionally since the age of 14.  During that time, he has played in scores of bands and has appeared on countless records and CDs.  In addition, he has recorded for internationally syndicated radio and television programs. 

His live shows have included performances with such great musicians as Jeff Healey, Holly Cole, Ed Bickert, Reg Schwager, Richard Underhill, Robert Paquette, Paul Quar-rington, Hilario Duran, and, most recently, Patricia Cano. On the local front, he is the co-founder and leader of The Smokin’ Jackets and Broche à Foin. He has studied music at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston and at York University, where he was a member of the Oscar Peterson Workshop.

Concert sponsors include Greenwood Drum Studio, Taylor Beange Doors and Frames, Durham Natural Foods, Coffee News and Campeau Heating.
 
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Media Contact:

Guy Campeau – 507-5171

Philip May – 677-5971