Here's the Hipstory.

Davis Manning was the fifth Hipster. He had come from B.C. with a saxaphone under his arm, Gord Sinclair explained, and when the band started up, the sax sound suited the style of music they were playing to campus crowds. Davis was older, quieter, he worked at Bubba's Pizzeria, he was enigmatic, ultimately cool and definately hip.

Besides having an uncanny knack for choosing eccentric yet understated atire, the Tragically Hip had also already developed an ease and an offbeat sense of humor in interviews, something that would serve them well later on.

I experienced this firsthand while working as the entertainment editor of the Queen's Journal 1985-86. Having been left breathless by several of their shows, I was convinced it was time to get an exclusive interview. I sent two reporters to find the Hip and get the story. It appeared October 1 1985, accompanied by a photograph of the band members dressed in identical shiny raincoats, dangling playfully from the monkey bars in Victoria Park. The headline read: Long-haired monsters? Just good clean boys.

'Forgets it'

Here's an excerpt from that interview:
Journal: How do you write your songs?
Bobby: Gord Sinclair writes the basic songs, I arrange it and Gord Downie forgets it.
Journal: What about musical influences?
Johnny: Andy Gibb has been like a father to us, Keith and Laurie Partridge gave us a home when no one else would.
Gord S.: We feel our biggest audience will be a pre-teen crowd.
Bobby: The freshettes really identify with Johnny, he's become the patron saint of Victoria Hall.
Journal: Will there be posters and T-shirts?
Gord S.: No but we're coming out with Tragically Hip pencil cases and lunch boxes.
Journal: What about a Saturday morning cartoon series?
Gord D.: It would be a deep and lasting honour to appar with Scooby Doo.
Johnny: What we really want to do is get on Gil Fisher's "Fishin' Musician" and go up to Scuttlebut Lodge for the weekend.
Bobby: I'd just like to get some fish and fry them up in beer.
 

Toward the end of the interview, Bobby Baker got serious and talked about the band's plans. "We're going to keep playing around town until Christmas. Then we've got some connections in Toronto and Ottowa for some gigs. We're going to stick together for a year anyway, make some demo tapes and see what happens." Of course, a lot happened within that time, but during the school year it was business as usual. The Hip started sliding more original tunes into their sets; the first Hip-penned tune was Evelyn.

Saturday, October 18 1985, Fleming Field, Queen's campus - The Tragically Hip open for Teenage Head. The following Tuesday the Queen's Journal healine read: Hip to Head in music and muck. (It had been raining and the ground was pretty muddy.) I sent a budding rock journalist to cover the event, and this is an excerpt from his report.

"The concert ws opened by Queen's own sensation the Tragically Hip. Unfortunately the Hip didn't have the audience they deserve. The majority of the crowd didn't show until after their short set was finished. The Hip were forced to head quickly for the Manor to put in a couple of sets.

"Vocalist Gord Downie's incredible stage presence made the band come alive. As a new twist, they brought out three stylish female dancers. Within minutes of arriving, the excitement of the 60's was recreated for you, live and in person."

One of the musical mainstays of the Terrapin, the Tragically Hip played at the club's wake. During the year the Terrapin was open, owner and manager Logan Murray had brought in some greata Canadian talent, trendy Toronto Queen Street acts, Montreal grunge bands the likes of k.d. lang, Blue Rodeo and, of course, the Hip in their early unsigned days, all played there.

Magical night

But on January 31, 1986, the hot spot for cool music closed it's doors. It was a wild and magical night, it felt like an historic event. People were standing on tables and chairs, local songstress Georgette Fry got up with the band for a few songs. Gord Downie sported a black turtleneck to mark the sad occasion.

One face you'd always spot at a Hip gig was that of Fraser Armstrong, who had attended Winston Churchill Public School and Kingston Collegiate with Bobby and Gord Sinclair and lived five houses down from them. When the band started up, he would help out lifting equipment and a little later did the lighting and started arranging for sound production.

"When they (the Hip) first got going, Kingston had a really thriving music scene," Fraser Armstrong says. "Before then, people were putting out a mediocre show and getting away with it. When the Hip started up, everyone had to make their act more professional."

CKLC music director Steev Jordan, who was an avid fan long before he started playing their records, agrees. "They kicked everyone in the (rear). It was the first time that a local band could consistantly draw huge crowds. People would even try to check out their out-of-town gigs. They really upped the stakes and the standards for other local musicians."

Mr. Armstrong remembers well some of the clubs the Tragically Hip played during the early road trip days: the Belleville yacht club, the Rainbow Bistro in Ottowa, the campuses of McMaster University in Hamilton and St. Lawrence College in Brockville.

He recalls one Toronto gig at Lee's Palace. "That was a novel show, because no one in the audience had any idea who they were; but you could see towards the end of the show that people's feet were tapping. They really liked the music." But Mr. Armstrong's most fond memories are of the Manor gigs, and one in particular. "I was doing lights. This woman was waitressing and dumped a tray of drinks on my head; that's how I met my wife."

The summer of 1986 held a lot of changes and a few surprises for the band. Sax -player Davis Manning left. The band gigged for a while as a four piece, hiring a sax player for the odd show. The Gords and Bobby had been living in a house on Brock Street with Gord Downie's high school buddy Paul Langois, who was constantly strumming on the acoustic guitar. In Auust of 1986 it seemed logical that he became a Hipster. Also during the summer, Fraser Armstrong passed along one of the band's demo tapes to his brother-in-law, a political cronie of pollster Allan Gregg who he knew was interested in developing new Canadian musical talent. Mr. Gregg and his business partner Jake Gold, of the personal management company Jacob J. Gold & Associates, wanted to check the band out and needed a place to hear them.

Jake Gold booked them into that famous Toronto club, Larry's Hideaway (also now long gone), opening for a Rolling Stones clone band. "Well, we needed a spot to see them," Mr.Gold explained. "We met them upstairs briefly, before they went on. After 30 seconds into the first set we knew we wanted to sign them. After the show we went out for beers at the Pilot Tavern and we signed them on our label."

And the rest, as they say, is Hipstory.

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