The small-town band that united Canada

A brand new documentary sequence premiering at TIFF explores the legacy of the group adored by hundreds of thousands of Canadians – however largely unknown to the remainder of the world.

Canada is not resistant to creating musical megastars, from Leonard Cohen and Shania Twain to Justin Bieber and Drake. However there’s one much less globally well-known band that has encapsulated their dwelling nation in a means different artists have not: The Tragically Hip.

Over a mammoth 33-year-career, the five-piece, usually known as “The Hip”, had 9 primary albums in Canada. Their lyrics tackled the nation’s historical past, whereas the band travelled the size and breadth of the huge nation in an effort to play its most distant cities and cities, which concerned 12-hour ferries and in a single day drives. In return, Canadians purchased the band’s music, to the determine of greater than six million albums, making them Canada’s best-selling band between 1996 and 2016, and confirmed up in droves to their gigs, which generally offered out inside minutes of being launched. 

This devotion was cemented in 2016, when The Hip’s lead singer Gord Downie was sadly identified with terminal mind most cancers. The band’s farewell tour offered out in minutes and their last present was streamed by 11.7 million individuals at dwelling, making it one of many nation’s most-watched occasions. Within the days after Downie’s passing in October 2017, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wept on tv, venues across the nation dimmed their lights and audiences at hockey video games stood silent.

It is this journey – of how a small-town band from Kingston, Ontario grew to become nationwide treasures – that’s now the main target of a four-part Prime Video documentary No Gown Rehearsal, premiering on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant this month. Directed by the late singer’s brother, Mike Downie, it is a thoughtfully-curated behind-the-scenes have a look at the band’s highs and lows.

For Mike Downie, the expertise of placing the sequence collectively was cathartic. Combating again tears, he tells the BBC: “It is actually arduous to specific, however engaged on it for the previous three years, it has been a companion, it made me miss my brother and it made me admire him and the band.” Regardless of being so well-loved of their dwelling nation, The Hip are far much less acquainted to individuals exterior of Canada. The documentary explores why – beginning with lead singer Gord’s dedication to telling the story of the nation, one thing different Canadian artists have prevented, maybe out of worry of alienating worldwide followers.

As Downie explains: “Gord had a pocket book, and he can be writing down impressions he had from touring the nation. He was at all times studying Canadian literature and newspapers. He questioned what’s it that makes a Canadian, Canadian, past the clichés of maple syrup and as Gordy would say, ‘donuts and hockey sticks’.”

This method resulted in songs like Fifty Mission Cap, which tells the true story of Invoice Barilko, a Canadian ice hockey participant who died when his aircraft mysteriously disappeared in 1951, and Wheat Kings, about David Milgaard, a Canadian man who served 23 years in jail for against the law he did not commit. The identical music begins with the decision of a Loon – a widely known native chicken.

For Mike Downie, it was clear Canadian crowds liked the lyrics. “I simply suppose there was only a sense within the viewers of, like, ‘oh, wow, you are singing about us’. I actually felt the audiences have been able to be represented.”

Canadian tradition journalist Andrea Warner agrees, saying that the band bought the tone proper. “They have been by no means a nationalistic band,” she tells the BBC. “They actually rejected that form of fervent patriotism. They needed to carry the nation accountable by way of their lyrics and to try this you have to tackle its errors, its flaws, its difficult items.”

Many artists’ final aim is to interrupt the US, however that wasn’t prime of The Hip’s record. It is one thing they have been criticised for by the press, in accordance with their guitarist Paul Langlois, who describes it as “lazy”. He tells the BBC: “We at all times felt that means, and also you attempt to let go of issues, however it might be bothersome.” He intersperses his recollections of their Canadian achievements with recollections of being reminded they hadn’t made it huge in America. As No Gown Rehearsal makes clear, the band selected their street to the US in a means that was natural and genuine to them.

The documentary remembers the time The Hip was supplied a giant US contract, in return for taking part in on the roof of a giant US-owned report retailer. They declined, in favour of being loyal to their Canadian report label. As an alternative, they approached native US radio stations and venues independently.

As Langlois explains: “We ended up taking part in venues all throughout America and we did that on our personal, with the assistance of actually cool radio stations.” He provides: “if anybody appeared into it, they might see we performed all the finest rooms in America and Europe and we felt these successes, and we have been pleased with them, as a result of it was type of like we have been on our personal.”

Canada is the world’s second-largest nation and never the best to get round. Simply driving throughout the province of Ontario, dwelling to Toronto and Kingston, takes 18 hours, a journey the band commonly made. “Between most of our places was a ten, 9 or eight-hour drive,” says Langlois. “So we might be leaving after one present and drive by way of the evening as a result of days on the street value cash, so we simply needed to preserve driving, or for Newfoundland we might get a 12-hour ferry journey.”

For many artists touring Canada, it is common to play the key cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, however The Hip made it their mission to transcend that, a lot to the delight of their followers. “We felt that appreciation, particularly going to locations like Newfoundland the place numerous bands and artists have reduce it out,” says Langlois. One of many huge causes the band toured so relentlessly was to meet their mission in the direction of, as Langlois explains, “turning into the tightest band”. Impressed by 70s and 80s artists like The Conflict, it was vital that they may ship in particular person, Langlois explains. “To try this you need to play loads. We primarily based every thing on our reside present, as a result of there’s simply one thing completely different about being in a membership that is full of individuals, it is only a very highly effective factor.” It appears the rehearsing paid off, as a result of by 1995, the band have been opening for The Rolling Stones, in addition to Web page and Plant.

Regardless of being revered by business greats, The Hip’s catalogue was principally appreciated again dwelling. Maybe this documentary will introduce the band to new followers? Mike Downie is hoping their expertise will probably be recognised. “I need individuals to see that this was a extremely nice band. They went by way of 35 years of making a report each couple of years they usually have been distinctive,” he explains. “I believe audiences will actually get a way of why, alongside the best way, they meant a lot to so many Canadians, and why so many Canadians noticed one thing in their very own expertise up there on stage.”

Warner thinks the documentary will probably be a reminder of the legacy Gord Downie needed to go away behind. “Within the final years of his life, his focus was Indigenous rights and the atmosphere.” She highlights a second from the band’s last gig, the place Gord challenged Justin Trudeau to decide to serving to Canada’s Indigenous communities.

“Issues like guaranteeing indigenous individuals had the identical entry to wash water, to fundamental human rights, getting the companies that they deserve and may have. He publicly obligated the prime minister to conform to these issues.”

“This documentary will remind us all of that philanthropic legacy.”