Mike Campbell
It was Mike’s idea to open The Carleton. Well, truth to tell, it was originally going to be in a different space and was going to be called The El Kabong, but that’s another story entirely… Suffice to say, The Carleton location had a little too much history – and dignity – for that tag. Anyway, back to Mike…
He’s been in the music business for a lot of years and has worked in pretty much every aspect of it from retail (Treble Clef Records in Ottawa and A&A Records in Toronto), the record label end (Attic Records), independent promotion before there really was such a thing in Canada (Fire For Hire), music television (18 years at MuchMusic as host of three shows – Mike and Mike’s Excellent X-Canada Adventures, MuchEast and Going Coastal), event production (the 2006 JunoFest in Halifax for instance), artist management (he was involved in the management of the sensational Joel Plaskett) and pretty much anything else he could find to do in the business.
Mike handles the bookings and the music at The Carleton. If you’ve got ideas about that, bug him. If you want to know more than any right-minded human needs to know about him, please feel free to peruse the history farther down this column…
Mike Rhodes
Mike met Mike Campbell when they were both working at MuchMusic. Before that, Mike was a producer for a number of TV shows: Peter Gzowski Live (CBC), That’s Life (Global) and Toronto Rocks (CITY-TV). Mike went from producing/hosting RockFlash at Much to producing/hosting the Mike and Mike show with Campbell.
Rhodes left MuchMusic in 1993 and worked on a number of other TV shows he’d rather not talk about now.
He moved to Halifax in the summer of 2007 to work on what is now The Carleton on the strength of some fast talk from Campbell. During the building process, he threatened to kill everybody associated with the place but now that we’re open, he’s digging the owner thing – just do not ask him about drywall, EVER.
Mike isn’t currently part of the day-to-day at The Carleton but he is, still, a pretty awesome guy.