She hasn't always been known as Canada's Queen of Scream.

Vernon's Darby Mills, former longtime lead singer for Canadian rock group The Headpins, did actually sing before she learned to scream.

Now, a few months shy of 65 with no plans to retire, Mills has had to re-learn to sing as she and her new band, PressPlay The Revue, prepare to wow Vernon on Thursday, Oct. 17, doing a gig at the Towne Theatre.

Darby Mills and PressPlay The Revue, In Tribute to the Classics, will take the stage at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6.

"I used to sit with my parents on the couch in our basement and we'd watch Ed Sullivan, or Sonny and Cher, and I'd sing along," said Mills, admitting her music heroes growing up were Cher, Tina Turner, Bette Midler and Linda Ronstadt.

"I left Vernon when I was in Grade 7 when we moved to Kamloops. I was born here, and I listened to Vernon radio CJIB. Then NL Radio in Kamloops. Local AM stations. The songs we're (new band) doing, my brothers and sister listened to. They're great, old classic songs. And the guys playing these songs with me, they're playing their heroes from childhood."

Joining Mills in PressPlay The Revue are two men that she refers to as legends in the industry, and they are now working in a new drummer.

Dennis Marcenko plays bass and Jon Treichel plays guitar. 

"Dennis is an absolute God in the industry, playing with Colin James, kd Lang, and he's been on Johnny Carson twice. Johnny Carson!" gushed Mills. "Jon has been around forever, plays in about 15 or 16 bands, quads, trios throughout the Okanagan. He's another veteran of the industry."

The band has welcomed Rich A Graham on drums.

Mills left The Headpins in 2016 and began working on her own hard rock undertaking, the Darby Mills Project. She noticed, she said, the likes of Marcenko and Treichel in the Okanagan, and having known them for years, approached them about joining together to "do something locally in the wineries."

"I wanted to do something with my downtime because classic rock acts have a lot of down time," chuckled Mills. "I called up Dennis after he moved here and got married, and said we should try to put together a band, and in a different concept than anything I've done all of my life. He said 'I'd love to do that.'"

So a band was formed. They had three really good rehearsals and then, as Mills so succinctly put it, 2020 happened, the year of COVID. She and her mates did rehearse every second weekend and did two years of practice before they actually got a gig. They learned about 50 songs, having a ton of fun with no pressure.

But to get more work, the band needed to prove they had other gigs. So Mills, who learned to shoot video and edit during the pandemic, came up with a plan.

"My idea was to record these fabulous tunes, do a video, and shop up that way," she said. "We went into our recording space and I filmed it all. We listened to it and said, 'this is really good, this deserves to be heard.' So we started the process of getting it mixed and mastered, and the video was edited into a live show.

"The music is incredible. We finished our album and our celebration is to play it for the public on Oct. 17 at the Towne Theatre. We then hope to take it on the road in 2025."

The type of music is what she calls "classic classic." There are one or two songs from the 1950s, the rest from the 1960s and 70s. Very different from The Headpins and the Darby Mills Project.

"It's very different for me," said Mills, who said she's having the time of her life with her new group. "With this band, I've re-learned to sing, and not scream. It's what I used to do 45 years ago. I used to sing. When I joined The Headpins, I learned how to scream. This has been a wonderful rebirth. I'm so blessed to play with these incredibly talented musicians, and these are songs I can sing until I'm 80."

Mills, by the way, was four when she first ventured into the Towne Theatre. She's looking forward to a return with her new group.

"It's a full circle kind of thing," said Mills. "It's a theatre. It was made for sound. This concert is going to sound so good (with help from her original soundman with The Headpins, who has moved to the Okanagan). He won't crank it, crank it (sound). He will be quite respectful."

Tickets are available from the  online at thetowne.ca or in person.