Best
known for his role in the long running CBS
television series, Blue Bloods,
Len Cariou was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada on September 30, 1939. |

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There is no accompanying
history of the long forgotten musical act,
but its namesake just happens to have
returned home this week from New York
City.
Cariou says he was finishing his last year
at Miles Macdonnell Collegiate when he and
drummer Owen Clark put together the trio
in 1957 with guitarist Merv Bales and
piano player Cam Fairfield. The
former Holy Cross Church choirboy was
already a veteran of the burgeoning
Winnipeg music scene with The Starlights
but the formation of his own trio was the
modest on-ramp to singing stardom.
“I felt I could choose new material a
little more freely,” says Cariou, 70,
during a telephone interview. “I
just wanted to see if I could do it or
not. It was great fun.”
The band lasted two years after making the
rounds of high school dances, community
clubs, hotels and clubs like the Copa
Cabana.
“The group was good,” recalls Clark.
“We recorded but over the years the tapes
were lost.
“Even at his age, Len was so confident of
his vocal ability and how to deal with an
audience.”
Cariou sang from the pre-rock pop charts
of the day, tunes like Frankie Laine’s
Jezebel, Witchcraft by Frank Sinatra and
St. Louis Blues.
Clark remembers a gig at the Olympic
(curling) rink on Main Street at which
Cariou put a charge into the Platters’
version of the Hoagy Carmichael classic
Stardust.
“Len blew everyone away,” Clark
remembers. “Nobody in town was
singing with that kind of power and
confidence.”
Kevin Prokosh
Excerpt from BROADWAY
STAR GOT START SINGING AT SCHOOLS
DANCES as published in the
Winnipeg Free Press July 3, 2010
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