They may be famous for Shaking The Foundations, but Carole Pope and Kevan Staples are more interested in running the tables these days.
That is, if you believe Pope's explanation for resurrecting the duo's legendary Toronto band, Rough Trade, who play a reunion show at the Phoenix tonight.
"I'd read so many articles about '80s bands playing in gambling casinos," Pope says, tongue planted in its most favourite of places -- her cheek. "That's what appealed to me."
Staples doesn't miss a beat: "Carole just wanted to play at Casino-Rama with Joey Heatherton."
The lure of Vegas and Orillia aside, there's also a clear and present reason for Rough Trade's return -- the recent release of Pope's tell-all autobiography, Anti-Diva (Random House). Apart from divulging/confirming some undeniably hot gossip -- most notably, Pope's affair with late British soul legend Dusty Springfield -- the book details the rise of a challenging and uncompromising rock band who, if only for a brief tryst in the early '80s, made Canada's music mainstream a daring place with hits such as High School Confidential and Crimes Of Passion.
Not surprisingly, the book sparked a flood of requests from promoters for a reunion tour. Pope and Staples, who first started gigging together as The Bullwhip Brothers in 1968 but embarked on a decade-long career as Rough Trade in 1975, settled on a trio of dates -- here, Ottawa and Montreal. The duo regrouped as Rough Trade for a CBC radio performance and Vancouver gig in 1994, and played a songwriting workshop at the Art Gallery Of Ontario in 1998.
Another source of inspiration was Shaking The Foundations, a well-received 1999 musical at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre that lifted its name from Rough Trade's 1982 album and offered cabaret-style interpretations of their songs.
"That had a strong effect on both of us because we were able to sit and listen to these songs that we'd always played, but never listened to," Staples says with a laugh. "Carole's lyrics came right out on a different level."
Still, Pope admits that it took a bit of cajoling to get old friend Staples on board. Now a busy composer and film-scorer, he rarely gets the chance to play guitar and, he jokes, "There was the physical stress of having to develop calluses again."
Says Pope: "We thought we were going to have to get a Kevan-clone."
Pope and Staples aren't revealing any long-term reunion goals and are just concerned with re-learning the Rough Trade ropes for tonight. "At least we've had a whole month to prepare," says Pope. "Last time, it was only a week. Typical Rough Trade. You never knew what to expect."
Staples, however, does have one suggestion for the future.
"I think it would be neat to do a whole set of songs that nobody's ever heard, like the esoteric stuff that we did when we first started out. Our lyric content was even more humorous than it was later. And we'd have the same resistance from record companies now as we did back then. No way are they going to release a single called Dyke By Default!"
