The Rock Chick continued

The Maple Leaf Hotel in Timmins where Shania used to perform on Wednesday nights.
(photograph: Robin Eggar)

When trouble broke out, which it often did when drink took over the crowd, the boys protected her. One night at the Riv a serious bar fight broke out just as the band launched into Toronto's Looking for Trouble. Unlike the deep south where the stage is often surrounded by chicken wire the band had no protection, so the guitarists stood in front of their singer, using their $1500 instruments as shields, and as the battle overflowed onto the stage pushed the brawlers off with their feet. They never stopped playing.

On New Years Eve 1982, Eilleen's voice completely gave out, she could only manage to sing two songs, one of which was Auld Lang Syne. The boys went back to their oldest material including some AC/DC songs but nobody seemed to mind. By that stage it was already over for Longshot. They had decided to call it a day in the autumn but agreed to honour their commitments.

Longshot worked hard, perhaps too hard, for they seldom turned down a show. On the weekend of July 1 1982 they picked up their gear from JP's, went down to Hollinger Park for a Battle of the Bands, returned to JP's. The next day they played at a friend's wedding barbecue and ended up back at the park in the early evening. They played odd venues like a dance for a baseball team at La Ronde, the French Cultural centre, and the occasional bummer like the GV Hotel where they earned less than the waitresses.

The McDonald's in Timmins where Shania was working when she first met Longshot
(photograph Robin Eggar)

Longshot's final show at the Palmour Tavern on January 14, 1983 was not intended to be a permanent end. After 18 months spending almost very night together the members needed a break, time apart. They settled into jobs and girlfriends and after a few months thought about starting up again. Hartt called Eilleen and asked if she wanted to come back. Even though she was close to graduation and the money would have been useful Eilleen had seen them in their true colours. She said "No".

"We might have been the best band in Timmins but that was Timmins man," says Mike Chabot, aptly summing up a band that might have done something, "my dream was never North Bay or Sudbury. It was pure outright fun for me. I did think about making a living at it but drummers are a dime a dozen. When the band broke up I joined a band in Southern Ontario gave it a shot and it didn't work out. Eilleen went to a band down in Sudbury but she was already looking beyond that."