Ron Obvious

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ron Obvious (Ron Obvious Vermeulen) is a seminal Vancouver punk-rock producer, engineer and studio designer.

After completing an electronics degree in Toronto, He started working in the recording industry, September 1976 at "The Little Mountain Sound Studios" in Vancouver. Working as a technical assistant to John Vrtacic, also working in the dubbing room and assisting on recording sessions. In the following years he was the engineer on many jingles and assisted on various movie soundtracks.

In the evening hours Ron along with Bob Rock and Mike Fraser, started recording the early punk bands in Vancouver around 1977. These included Tim Ray A/V, Pointed Sticks, D.O.A., The Subhumans, Bob Coulter, Go Four 3 and UJ3RK5. Also recording the first albums by Brandon Wolf (Barney Bentall) and Spirit of the West. After assisting on the 1984 Loverboy album "Lovin' Every Minute Of It" on the newly installed SSL 4048 E in Studio B, he made the move to a full time technical future.

Upon leaving LMS in 1991, he went on to design and build studios for Bryan Adams "The Warehouse Studio", Jim Vallance "Armoury Studios", k.d lang (private), Bob Rock (private), Colin James (private), and Mutt Lange (private), Ron also completed the acoustic and technical design for a number of recording schools in British Columbia, Canada.

Ron retired from the recording industry as technical director of The Warehouse Studio in August 2003, and now owns and operates Mermaid's Kiss Art Gallery, in Gimli-Manitoba.

Designing his own mobile recording studio, "Dragonfly Mobile Recording" Ron can now be found recording various small projects, in the Manitoba Interlake area.

He is a longtime friend of Katie Sketch, lead vocalist for The Organ and recently has been helping record the Manitoba based band The Papsmears

[edit] Monty Python

Ron Obvious is also a Monty Python character played by Terry Jones. [1] In the sketch, Ron Obvious, encouraged by his manager Luigi Vercotti (Michael Palin), undertakes several impossible tasks for publicity:

Jumping the English Channel. In the opening portion of the sketch, Ron Obvious from Neaps End is shown running along the seashore in a track and field uniform. The announcer (John Cleese) says that Obvious hopes to become the first man to jump the Channel. A group of Frenchmen are shown standing under a sign that reads "Fin de Cross Channel Jump" as traditional accordion music plays in the background. When asked how he plans to jump 26 miles (Obvious said that his longest jump so far is "almost 12 feet, unofficially"), he says "You see if you're five miles out over the English Channel, with nothing but sea underneath you, er, there is a very great impetus to stay in the air." Obvious has his passport checked, and carrying a bag full of bricks, he sprints toward the sea and jumps, splashing into the water only a few feet from shore. His manager explained beforehand that the Chippenham Brick Company pays all the bills, so in exchange Obvious will carry half a hundred weight of their bricks on his jump.

Eating Chichester Cathedral. Obvious is shown brushing his teeth, putting on a bib and flexing his jaws before biting into the corner of an old building and screaming loudly.

Tunnelling to Java. His manager shows a map illustrating the route he will use while digging his way to Java. When the announcer asks him how far Obvious has gotten, after a couple of evasive answers the manager yells, "Ron, how far you gotten?" Obvious sticks his head out of a very shallow hole and replies, "Oh, about two-foot-six." and inquires if there is a spade he can use.

Splitting a railway carriage with his nose. Vercotti and the announcer are walking along a railroad track as they discuss his next endeavour, and allegations that Obvious' manager is exploiting him. The sound of an approaching train is heard, followed by a loud scream.

Running to Mercury. Obvious' manager explains that once he gets out of Earth's atmosphere, he should be able to run straight to Mercury. Obvious, wrapped in head-to-toe bandages from his previous exploits, is shown jumping off a wooden ramp with a crutch under his left arm. The frame freezes in mid-jump, and another loud scream is heard. The next scene shows his tombstone with the legend "Very Talented", and his manager says that he hopes to break the world record for remaining underground.