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Sable Ridge headlines homecoming

Music lovers will get to ring in the town’s centenary with an old-fashioned arena concert July 2.
Westlock-area rock band Sable Ridge are reuniting for a special homecoming show. Pictured are Julia Walker, Sandy Johnston, and Rose Bain during a recent practice session.
Westlock-area rock band Sable Ridge are reuniting for a special homecoming show. Pictured are Julia Walker, Sandy Johnston, and Rose Bain during a recent practice session.

Music lovers will get to ring in the town’s centenary with an old-fashioned arena concert July 2.

Featuring local rock legends Sable Ridge, the homecoming dinner and dance to be held at the Westlock Rotary Spirit Centre as part of next weekend’s homecoming celebrations promises to be one for the ages.

Sable Ridge have been playing in and around the Westlock area since 1982 and have had a steady following through breakups and reformations over the decade, but one thing has remained the same for the group, said lead singer Rose Bain: a love for rock ‘n’ roll.

“When we started a lot of us were younger, then you get married, you have families,” Bain reminisced.

The seven-person outfit have broken up and gotten back together over the years, splitting in 1992 and then reforming in the mid 2000s at the request of the Westlock Hall Board, who asked the group to perform at a fundraiser for the Westlock and District Community Hall.

“We weren’t expecting 10 years down the road to get asked again. We had decided that if we lost an original member that we would call it quits,” Bain said.

Sadly that happened in 2007 when Clyde native and founding member Bob MacLaughlin passed away. Though the group had promised to pack it in, they decided that MacLaughlin would have wanted them to perform one last time.

“We weren’t going to do it because Bob had passed, but he loved music so much it was such a big part of that,” Bain said.

“We were going to do it in memory of him.”

After MacLaughlin passed, things weren’t quite the same for the group, but Bain said that his influence has lived on through their music.

“He knew us all individually. None of us knew one another in the beginning. He brought us all together. I was taking guitar lessons from him and he started to play a really old song and said you can sing. That right there made me the lead singer,” Bain said.

“We played almost every weekend in and around town.”

Most fitting, Bain said, will be the chance to pay tribute to the town’s 100th anniversary in the way MacLaughlin would have wanted.

“We used to play in the old arena a lot for the fair dances. Everybody will remember the band and knows Bob.”

Tickets for the event are available at the Rotary Spirit Centre and town office and are $35 for adults, while children 12 and under cost $20 and kids six and under get in for free.

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