Artist / Band

Cal Cavendish

Origin Calgary, Alberta, 🇨🇦

Websites

calcavendish.cluster2.hgsitebuilder.com facebook.com

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Biography

Alberta's legendary rebel singer-songwriter and blue collar man. Cal Cavendish has been performing folk festivals since the early 1960's. He cut his first album, "Mountain Road" in 1969. Cal's probably best known for his 1971 hit, "U-Haul Trailer". It was used for many years in commercials for U-Haul.

Cal is wild and wooly, notorious in the Canadian folk and country music scene. Cal's lyrics and melodies have been used commercially by big Nashville stars. Cal was even the subject of a movie by the National Film Board called "Cavendish Country" in 1973.

To make recordings through the years, I have worked many jobs to put food on the table and a roof over my head. It has allowed me to be close to the people I write about. I have driven over 3 million miles trucking, worked on oil rigs, and with other oil patch services. At the same time I have worked with Nashville publishers, CBC and NPR to promote my music. I have lived many places and moved many times and identify with those starting new lives in other towns. The U-Haul company graciously adopted my song for a video about moving to another place.

"This year has been a year of discovery in a all fields of Canada; in music, it's Cal Cavendish"
- Music Industry Review, 1969

"There's no denying the sheer wackiness of the Cal Cavendish story. It's the ridiculous, rebellious, decidedly Albertan tale of the Mad Manure Bomber"
- Calgary Herald, Heath McCoy

"Calgary is built on tall tales, and Cal Cavendish has a whopper."
- Drew Anderson, Ffwd Weekly

Cal Cavendish, the 'Mad Manure Bomber,' tells his story
Frustrated by his music career, former Calgary musician had a seriously impressive tantrum
CBC News · Posted: May 07, 2015 2:18 PM MDT | Last Updated: May 7, 2015

Cal Cavendish even flew lower than the observation deck of the Calgary Tower on his mad manure run back in 1975. (Submitted by Mark Salkeld)

The Mad Manure Bomber struck without warning one spring day in 1975.

One minute, everything was normal on Ninth Avenue. The next minute Cal Cavendish was screaming over the street in his airplane, pouring 100 records and 100 pounds of cow manure out the side door.

Musician Mike Tod joined the Calgary Eyeopener last week to talk about Canadian folk music and spoke about the incident, prompting questions for listeners.

So the Eyeopener tracked down Cavendish to get his first-hand account of the events.

"I was a pretty good pilot," said Cavendish from his rural Montana home.

"So what I did, I held the door open with my right foot and I leaned the bag over with my arm and just dribbled it down the side of the airplane as I went flying down Ninth."

Career frustration taken out on Calgary
Cavendish was upset, looking at his cousins who were lawyers and doctors and then looking at his own moribund music career. He was living in Calgary at the time, and thought he would share his anger.

Most of the poop ended up in the business district downtown, while the records spread mostly throughout Inglewood, where "the RCMP and the city police had all kinds of helpful people pick up the broken records and they showed me them in court."

Cavendish carried on flying east, and as darkness fell and his gas gauge dropped. He managed to land on a dark highway before taxiing in a hurry through an open gate in the Old Dutch potato chip plant near Brooks.

'Fuzzy' plans
"I was going to go into town," he said. "It was pretty fuzzy what I was going to do, and sure enough there was a Mountie waiting for me there."

Cavendish informed the officer, who was looking for the crazed pilot who had buzzed Calgary, that he was responsible for the stunt but the Mountie didn't buy it at first.

After a second attempt, Cavendish was taken into custody.

"They fined me $4,000. And my licence was already gone, so they made damn sure that it stayed gone for years and years and years," said Cavendish.

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