Watch Maine Music Legend Bill Chinnock Captured Live In Portland

Seeing his video has me flashing back to 1978-ish. Still today, I can't help but get a big smile when memories of standing in front of my mirror and singing "something for young and old...streets are paved with money, sidewalks paved in gold" into a hairbrush as my microphone.

I was trying my best to sound like the voice I heard on my Sony AM/FM receiver with built-in turntable and cassette deck.

The soulful gravel coursing through the airwaves that I was trying to imitate, was Maine music legend Bill Chinnock. In my 11-year-old mind, I sounded just like him.

If anybody else had been around to hear me, they likely wouldn't agree with that. Remember I was 11, still years away from becoming a baritone.

Look all I know is I loved hear Bill Chinnock on the radio. That's how I had always associated him. Because not only was I years away from my voice changing, I was even further away from being allowed to see him live. Most of the places he played back then were serving alcohol, so no shows for little Gu.

So this video I stumbled upon is especially cool to see as it includes electrifying live footage of Bill Chinnock and his band blazing white-hot at The Great Northeast Music Hall in Portland, Maine circa 1981.

YouTube

The video also features an some interview bits done by the Maine Broadcasting System. That was WCSH in Portland and WLBZ in Bangor.

Bill Chinnock was a gift to Maine rockers when he moved here in the 1970s and decided to call it home.

Sadly, he's been gone for 14 years now and we Maine music fans sure do miss him.