Early September, 1996: Jonathan is asked to replace Jason Boucher as bassist for the band Haities, which included Scott and Lance Purcell. They practiced twice and had changed thier name to Black Rose.
Late September, 1996: As Black Rose prepares for thier first gig, Jonathan finally pipes up and complains about the bands name. He suggests Welfare. And the name Welfare has stuck ever since.
Mid-October, 1996: Welfare plays thier first gig in a church hall. The show goes well but the band is unsatisfied with thier preformance.
Early November, 1996: Lance leaves the band to persue other intrests. It was a sad day (too bad we can't remember which day it was!).
Mid-November, 1996: Mr.Destructo, then known as Neil, joins as our brand-new drummer.
November 23rd, 1996: A school band trip introduces Michelle Comeau to the band as a singer. Although Jonathan was against it, Neil and Scott, for whatever reason, thought it would be a good idea.
December 13th, 1996: 3/4ths of Welfare play an excellent show in thier school gym.
December 20th, 1996: The day of the school variety show. Jonathan spends most of the day paniccing while Scott is rushed to the hospital because of a little accident he had with a window. Welfare plays cover of November Rain by Guns & Roses featuring Michelle on piano, and Scott on vocals rather than the guitar. Jonathan took the mike for a cover The Grunge Song by Radio Free Vestibule. The next day Jonathan expirienced heavy dizziness due to, as he was told, stress.
Early 1997: Welfare decides that it would be good to teach Michelle to play the bass and put Scott back on permanent vocals.
Weekend of Easter, 1997: The band records thier first recording in Neil Isenor Sr.'s Restaurant and Lounge, Toddy's (great food, low price!). The recording took about eight hours to do and went on to sell almost all of the one hundred tapes.
May 18th, 1997: Welfare plays a really bad show at Caf� Ol�, a local club. Michelle had just gotten her wisdom teeth pulled, but insisted on playing. The crowd had come to see Apex, an excellent band, and was booing most of the preformers off the stage. Welfare didn't get booed, but they didn't get much applause either.
Late Summer, 1997: Welfare again plays at Caf� Ol�. It was an amazing preformance, but only about sixteen people had come to see it.
Early September, 1997: Michelle leaves the band for personal reasons and Neil follows. They later came back after Jonathan had layed a heavy guilt on them.
October 19th, 1997: Michelle again leaves the band, this time to persue another interest. ;)
This time she doesn't come back. None of us have talked with her since.
Mid-November, 1997: Jonathan moves to the bass to facilitate Mike as our new lead guitarist. The band is whole once again!
December 19th, 1997: Welfare plays really crappy cover of Another Brick in The Wall pt.2 due to muscle spasms in Scott's right arm. Neil and Jonathan preform thier infamous vocal-cover of The Macarena, with special guest, Kevin MacPherson. Unfortunately, they'd run out of time before they could preform thier show closer, a metal version of Wipeout.
January 9th, 1998: The official Welfare homepage goes on-line.
Early-February, 1998: The Welfare homepage is forced to find a new server due to accessibility problems with Gaetz Brook Junior High.
February 8th, 1998: A new site is found! The home page now has 10 megabytes of space as opposed to 3 and is now accessible from GBJH. (Hooray!)
Today: You've been added to the list of people who've visited our site and cared enough to view it to it's fullest. Congratulations, you've just made history! We love you.