By Mike Morrison
St. John’s Newfoundland: an unlikely land of plenty. It seems the further east you get of Toronto, the harder it becomes for small business and arts and culture related endeavours, short of the actual making of music, to survive. This is a city, the easternmost in Canada, which defies this trend. An example of one such company dedicated to the promotion of younger, less traditional artists and bands is Alice Productions. Run by Adam Staple and Chris Batstone, both of whom play in the bands Drive and the Planks, Alice has released albums by both tof the previously mentioned bands and distributes others such as Gearbox and Lizband. Their newest release is a compilation of 15 Newfoundland bands covering 15 Newfoundland classics called Coverstory. This release coincides with Alice’s 1 year anniversary and, with the help of Halifax’s No Records, the company plans national distribution and release to radio all over the country. Album release and sistribution aside, Alice Productions is also involved in artist promotion through the ultimate medium, the live show. At this year’s ECMAs, Alice hosted a blowout show featuring bands from the rock as well as a couple of guests. Drive, Lizband, Gearbox and Spunk from St. John’s played and welcomed Flush from PEI and Shyne Factory from Halifax to share the stage. Not slowing down for a second, Alice Productions has at least two new projects in the works, a compilation of various artists called Calio’s Unplugged and a collection of “live stuff, rare stuff, unplugged stuff, and new stuff” from Drive called Drivel. Undoubtedly, these two releases will be of the same quality and caliber as all of Alice’s Productions.
