Russell on Drums

Since I featured Sever's bass player Bev yesterday, I thought I may as well profile all of the band members. Here's Russell Wiesener, our drummer, who replaced original drummer Jason Hewitt when Jason moved away from Leduc. Come to think of it, during the Hewitt era the band was known as Sabotage. So I guess it's kind of a Pete Best/Ringo Starr/Quarrymen/Beatles thing.

Russell was a soft-spoken guy; his mom was one of the secretaries at Leduc Junior High School. I probably met Russell in grade 7 or 8; he wound up dating the vice-principal's daughter, Michelle, for a while. Grade school romance! How fraught with angst and import we were.

Russell was a gifted cartoonist, and he even drew the band members as superheroes at one point. I used to have a small collection of Russell's drawings, but I made the mistake of posting them on my dorm room door in university; they were defaced, and I threw them away. It's too bad - had I saved them and scanned them, I could have repaired the damage with Photoshop. I was particularly fond of the drawing of a giant fist squeezing me to death, with a word bubble screaming "I'LL CRUSH YOU EARL you rotten guy"

I last heard of Russell in the early 90s; I spotted a newspaper clipping indicating that he'd earned a degree, I believe, from the University of Alberta. Belated congratulations, Russell!