Being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame would be a career pinnacle for most bands.
Not The Tragically Hip.
The band are honoured to receive the recognition, but are accepting it with some trepidation.
"It's the odd part for us. It's great to have a pat on the back for what you've done, but we're about looking forward, not where we've been," says guitarist Rob Baker.
"I guess everyone expressed honour to be in the company of Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, The Band and Leonard Cohen, but at the same time if feels like you're being put out to pasture and given the golden watch, and we're not ready for that. We feel the best music is yet to come, especially after the last tour. We're better than ever. We're slow learners, I guess."
Baker believes last year's In Between Evolution -- their ninth studio album -- ranks with the best Hip material, and their new songs are even better.
"I think the songs we're writing now are more interesting and have more depth compared to what we were doing 15-20 years ago. We find ourselves in the curious position of having to compete with our own past. If we would have known that we would have made the first seven albums really s--y," Baker laughs.
The Kingston, Ont., quintet -- Baker, vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay -- will be inducted into the Hall of Fame during this weekend's Juno Awards for a career that spans more than two decades, nine albums, an EP and a live record.
Even more amazing: Their lineup has remained the same since the beginning. The five friends performed their first show in the fall of 1984 at a Queen's University party at the Kingston Artists' Association. They played three 14-song sets with eight originals mixed in with covers by groups like The Animals, The Monkees and Howlin' Wolf.
They took their name from a Michael Nesmith video featuring music and comedy sketches. In one skit people are asked to contribute to the Foundation for the Tragically Hip: "Poor, afflicted people in need of Jacuzzis, Lamborghinis and cocaine."
Within months of their first gig they were the house band at The Terrapin's Tavern.
"We played a lot around Queen's University, sweet 16 parties, high school dances, health clubs, a Jack and Jill Party, bikers' picnics --anyplace we could play," Baker says.
The band took over house band duties at a larger and rougher bar, The Lakeview Manor, which featured live music and strippers six nights a week. They also made frequent forays into Toronto and Ottawa.
"We would play anywhere anytime. We set a very simple limit: As long as we walked away with $50 cash in our pockets and drink for free, we'd play," Baker laughs.
They got to point where they were playing about four or five times a week and each earning $350. Sinclair and Baker graduated from university and convinced Downie to drop out while in his third year.
"We thought this was righteous money and keeps us in beer, albums and pot, so why would we stop going it? Let's just keep riding it and going as long as it's fun, and that's where we are today. We never did sit down and say, 'Let's make this a career.' We're still riding that wave," Baker says.
Their break came after impressing some BMG reps at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern, who wanted to release their five-song demo as is, but wanted two more songs.
The Hip recorded 22 more. The label picked two and released their seven-song debut EP in 1987.
"I still wonder to this day where the other 20 songs are," Baker says.
The band left southern Ontario for the first time on a western tour, playing clubs in places they fill arenas today, including Winnipeg.
After their one-year deal with BMG was up, negotiations on a new contract ended when they were asked to change their image.
"They told us they wanted us to dress up in fringe jackets and be a country rock band because that was the next big wave, so we walked away from that deal. Now I can't even believe we even had that conversation, but it happened," Baker says.
They did some demoing before they were picked up by MCA / Universal after the label's president Bruce Dickinson caught one of their Horseshoe shows.
He believed the band wouldn't have a lot of hit singles, but would build up a following through solid albums and their live shows.
But The Hip went on to prove Dickinson wrong. They became national stars with the release of their first album, Up to Here, featuring the singles Blow at High Dough, New Orleans is Sinking and 38 Years Old.
The songs never caught on with radio in the U.S. so the band eventually got out of their record deal there and worked on other markets, namely Europe and Australia, although they have a decent following south of the border, playing from 800 to 2,000 fans a show.
The band probably could have made a bigger impact in the States but it wasn't a priority, Baker says.
"Before the Barenaked Ladies had their hit they toured non-stop for two years down there. That's a huge commitment. The reality is we all have families and I'm not anxious to lose my family," he says.
The band had no problem in Canada, where they followed up their debut with Road Apples and the singles Little Bones and Three Pistols, among others.
Since then the albums and hits have kept flowing, leading to the inevitable greatest hits collection set for release this fall, despite the band's protests.
As for career highlights, Baker singles out their Another Roadside Attraction festivals, which crossed the country in the mid-'90s.
"For me that was a standout. It was a chance to assemble our favourite bands. We got Midnight Oil and World Party on stage with us and we got to be DJ for a day," he says.
The festival ran for three years until the original concept of setting up in a small city in the middle of nowhere and leaving the next day was corrupted by interfering music industry types and promoters.
The festival will probably be revived next year with its original vision intact, Baker says.
Other highlights include opening for the Rolling Stones during four shows in Europe and touring with Page and Plant for 30 days in the U.S.
The largest crowd they played for was 300,000 at the 1992 Parkpop festival in Holland, with the War Child Benefit concert at The Forks in 2000 also counting as one of their biggest, attracting anywhere up to 80,000 people, depending on whose count you believe.
The Hip's album sales have dipped since the early days, but their live shows are still a major draw. Last year's tour for In Between Revolution sold out arenas across the country.
Now Canada's unofficial national band is being rewarded with one of the highest awards a group can achieve, but once the weekend is over its back to work, Baker says.
"If you take your eyes off the road too long you're going to end up in the ditch," he says. "I'm most pleased we're still making music and we feel very good where we're at and where we're heading.
"Our next album should be out in the spring of 2006 and it should be the best album we've made, judging from the two songs we've recorded."
The Tragically Hip will be formally inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame next Saturday at a gala dinner and awards ceremony at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. They will also be saluted during the Juno Awards at the MTS Centre the following night, when they will perform two songs.
A ROCKY ROAD TO FAME
The Tragically Hip are one of Canada's most successful bands. But things started the same for them as any other band: poorly attended shows, cancelled gigs and getting ripped off by promoters.
And Winnipeg holds a special place in their history.
During their first cross country tour in support of their 1987 EP the band was booked in the city for six nights at the Diamond Club.
They performed their first set to almost no one except the bartenders.
Anyone else who might have had an interest in the band at the time was at the John Cougar Mellencamp concert, the band found out later.
"No one was there, so at one point Gord Downie was laying on the stage and the manager comes in, sees this and said, 'They're a punk band. No one told me they were a punk band. When they're done tell them they're fired,' " guitarist Rob Baker recalls.
The manager left, missing the band's last two sets when the bar filled up with a post-concert crowd that packed the dance floor. The Hip played three encores.
"When we finished the house guy came in and said, 'You guys are great, love your band, but you're fired,'" Baker says. "We only played our second gig and already we lost five gigs."
The band lost their hotel rooms too, so they took refuge at the Osborne Village Inn and managed to get gigs at the U of M and Donny Lalonde's former bar, Corner Boys, with the help of local music fans.
Since then the band has had a great relationship with Winnipeggers and still keep in touch with the people who stood up for them on that first tour.
"The fact other people jumped into the breach and did what they could to help a young band out was amazing and we were very appreciative. We'll never forget that," Baker says.
TRAGICALLY HIP DISCOGRAPHY
1987: The Tragically Hip (EP)
1989: Up to Here
1991: Road Apples
1992: Fully Completely
1994: Day For Night
1996: Trouble at the Henhouse
1997: Live Between Us
1998: Phantom Power
2000: Music @ Work
2002: In Violent Light
2004: In Between Evolution
