Throughout this Pictorial History I will be referring to the Blues Underground Network (Kamloops Chapter), which later became the Blues Underground Society, simply as the BUN as it was commonly called by most of it's early members.

Photo's in this article are Courtesy of Barbara Zimonick & Carol Vermilyea

The BUN got it's start in the Summer of 2002. It was started because of a lack of good live music, in Kamloops, especially the Blues. There was a Society at that time called the Kamloops Jazz and Blues Society, in which 2 of it's Members, Rob "Hazy" Heys and Tony Robertson, had the concern that Blues was not being emphasized enough with that Society, hence the creation of the BUN, which was decided in the basement of Lissa and Bruce Campbell, two outstanding original early members of the BUN. 

Rob "Hazy" Heys and Tony Robertson were considered by many to be the Founding Fathers of the BUN, certainly when I got involved with the BUN in the Fall of 2002, that was also my impression. Hazy was a Retiree, Tony Robertson was well known as not only an exceptional Guitarists with his Band the Vaqueros, but was also involved with the Blues Pub in Vancouver called The Yale, as their Soundman, as well as other duties. In the early days of the BUN, many of the bands and performers would stay out at Hazy's place in Del Oro, which was just past the Kamloops Wildlife Park. This helped greatly in reducing the cost of putting on Shows. 

The BUN was setup on a Membership basis and cost $20 to join. Members would get a discount to all the shows and advance notification of the upcoming shows via email or telephone. I joined the BUN in the fall of 2002, in response to them wanting to have have a website created and a webmaster to maintain it. At that time the Membership was at just over 55 members and the shows were now being done exclusively at the old Elks Lodge #44 in Kamloops, just below the previous location of Cactus Jacks on 4th and Seymour. The room in which the Shows took place was named the Blue Grotto.

The Original Blue Grotto 

The Old Blue Grotto had a funky underground vibe, Large Dance Floor, Warm Lighting, and Great Acoustics.

This is a Photo of The Old Blue Grotto Room as it looked when it was set up for a seated concert. When we had a seated concert we limited the amount of tickets sold to around 80, which allowed everyone to have a decent seat with a good view of the stage. When we had a regular musical event which is not a seated concert, we had all the tables removed that you see between the people seated in this photo and the stage. This allowed us to make available the dance floor which was usually packed solid from the start to the finish of evening.

This Photo shows The Old Blue Grotto setup up with the Dance Floor available. 
This particular Photo was the setup for a New Years Eve Dance.

This was the Control Center for our Sound and Lights for the Shows. Pictured here are Tony Robertson and Ellie Johnson, Ellie is one of the finest female guitarist I have seen live and often performed with Tony in the Vaqueros.

This was our stage area which was big enough for any group we brought in.
The setup that you see here was for the amazing Carlos Del Junco and his Band.

And so the evening begun with being greeted at the door by usually
either Hazy, Don, Vince, Kristi, or Dave, to name just a few of our Great Volunteers.

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