RTH Promo - July 25, 2001 Big Wreck To Perform With Symphony Orchestra and Taiko Drummers by Karen Bliss Big Wreck will perform two special shows with a symphony orchestra, Taiko drummers, a theatrical element and various other collaborations during its extensive Canadian tour this September and October. The rock band will play with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on Sept. 13 at the Winspear Theatre and with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall on Oct. 6. Both shows will include the Uzume Taiko Ensemble, plus marquee artists still to be determined. "I can't wait," enthuses Big Wreck's singer-guitarist Ian Thornley. "I think we're going to do 10 or 12 songs from both records (1997's In Loving Memory Of and new The Pleasure And The Greed) _ half and half, with the orchestra. And then we're going to try and do some with a jug band kind of feel, just try to boil it right now. Then I think we want some just with us. And then we're going to try and pull out some surprise guests and things of that nature." Manager Bernie Breen said the opportunity for the two shows was presented to Big Wreck by its booking agent Jeff Craig at S.L. Feldman & Associates, who was working on The duMaurier Concert Stage series. "It really is something different," says Breen. "We wanted to give the fans more than just a great rock show. So it's kind of a boundary-stretching spectacle of rock and soul and orchestration, really trying to show the band's versatility and the depth of the body of their work. "It's not all symphony all the time," Breen adds. "They'll be breaking it down to some component elements where they will play with the orchestra. They'll play something with the Taiko drummers and then they'll probably do a scaled down acoustic thing, and then a full-blown rock show and then the finale. So it will incorporate all elements, but they're not all going to be going at the same time." Toronto's Jim McGraw has been working on the music charts and has just completed copies of the songs Overemphasizing and Oh My with the strings temped in with Big Wreck's music. The orchestras will get the charts in advance and Thornley, drummer Forest Williams, guitarist Brian Doherty and bassist David Henning will rehearse with them in their respective cities. "We have to start working on some of these songs that we haven't played in years, start throwing them into soundcheck and stuff like that," says Thornley, whose only performances with an orchestra were as a French horn player back in junior high school. "We'll spend a day rehearsing (with the orchestra) the day before each show. It's going to be a good mix because a lot of our music lends itself to being pieced together. That's kind of what we do in the studio, so it will be interesting to have guys do it for real with things other than electric guitars." The result will be majestic, bombastic and sophisticated, Thornley hopes. "It will be a pretty heavy experience, and in the middle of it noodling (on guitar) is going to be just great." Tickets are tentatively scheduled to go on sale Aug. 9. A Webcast component, various contests and other details will be announced in the coming weeks.