Chapleau's Lorne Riley will bring his band Mileage 51 from Dubai to Duggan's in Toronto this August to support Hospital for Sick Children

Chapleau's own Lorne Riley and his band Mileage 51 will be taking to the stage at  Duggan's on Toronto's Queen St W on August 2 to bring their brand of classic rock and blues to fans, friends and family in support of a good cause.  

Mileage 51 is well known in Dubai where Lorne currently resides. The band released an album "Stone Unturned" in 2015 and will play a selection of tunes from the album along with a list of well-known blues and rock favorites.  While admission is free, the band will be accepting donations for  Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.

 "We've heard from people in Chapleau, White River, Timmins, Sudbury, Ottawa, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Lethbridge and the Toronto area who plan to make the trip down to take in the performance.

"We're thrilled with the response and hope to have a full house. Playing on Queen St. W in Toronto is exciting.  It's Toronto's and arguably Canada's most renowned live music district. This is our first Toronto performance but not our last. We'd definitely like to tour up to Northern Ontario at some point as well...there's nothing like a northern crowd...I know that from experience!"

The band is named Mileage 51 after a place on the Canadian Pacific Railway west of Chapleau where Lorne spent much time with the Bouillon family. He advised that he still likes to make trips there when he gets back to Chapleau.

Lorne is the son of Jackie and the late Lorne Riley. A graduate of Chapleau High School he attended Carleton University graduating with an honours degree in Journalism and Law. He is currently Director of Corporate Communications at Dubai International Airport.

As an aside, Lorne's father, with Buddy Swanson and Tom Welch founded the Chapleau Junior "B" Huskies who won the International Junior B League and Northern Ontario Hockey Association titles in 1966-67 their first in the league.

In the 1978-79 season Lorne Jr played on the Chapleau Midget "C" team which won the NOHA title. As there was no Midget "C" title in Southern Ontario, they declared themselves "All Ontario Champions".

Lorne has been active on the music scene since he moved to Dubai over 9 years ago to work at the biggest international airport in the world. He has released three albums with three different bands (Mileage 51 "Stone Unturned", Monks on the Moon "When Worlds Collide" and Stereotypes 'Penny Earned'). Currently he is completing a series of singles that he will release under his own name.

"I've always been a fan of country music. So last fall I decided to write and release some original country songs. Three of them are just about done and more are in the works.  I'm really excited about them as it seems to be a genre that suits me.

" What I've learned since I started doing this almost a decade ago, is that while there is a lot of hard work and dedication required to write and produce the music, by far the hardest part is getting it played on the radio. I've had my music played in Dubai on the radio but not in the rotation. My goal with this country project is to finally crack that nut. 

"Before the end of the year I want to get an email from one of my old high school friends from Sudbury or Timmins or London or Sarnia or Toronto saying 'hey man, I just heard your song on the radio!'  That's the goal anyway".

If you are able to attend on August 2, you can let Lorne know on Facebook, or contact me at mj.morris@live.ca and I can forward messages to him. I am thinking about making the trip from Cranbrook!!!

Hockey team names:
Chapleau Midget "C" NOHA  Champions 1979. Back row from left: Martin Healey, Shane Gillham, Tim Morin, John Bernier, Robert Serre, Dan Tebbutt, Michael Tremblay, Paul Legros, Geoffrey Hong, Michael Payette, Mike Tangie. Front from left: Marc Trottier, David Freeborn, Yves Gervais, Lorne Riley, Randy Carroll, Gary Chambers, Shawn Russell. Absent coach Jamie Doyle