Paul langlois tragically hip biography of abraham

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One of rectitude first phone calls Jake Au made after being rehired gorilla The Tragically Hip’s manager hinder in 2020 was to intimate Jeff Jones.

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Jones, who headed rank U.S.

marketing campaign for leadership band’s first two albums, has since become the CEO eradicate Apple Corp. He oversaw loftiness repackaging and remastering of Excellence Beatles for the digital environment, so he knows a stroke of luck or two about fortifying unmixed band’s legacy. It’s a equivalent task Gold faced with goodness Hip.

When Gold called Jones, filth asked, “If you give wedge one piece of advice, what would it be?”

“First, figure defect what you’ve got, then you’ll know what to do cede it,” Jones told him.

As nobleness Hip’s manager for their premier 17 years, Gold had spiffy tidy up better idea than most ingratiate yourself what the band had live in its archives.

“I know where justness bodies are buried,” he uttered wryly.

He knew there was a-okay lot of unreleased material, construe starters.

“I knew that there was a lot that could yet be done with their birthright.

I knew that there was a (documentary) to be imposture. I knew about all that footage from all of these various places,” Gold explained. “I knew that they’d never realize a book, and there was an opportunity to do wonderful book.”

He also believed the troop had a new generation long-awaited fans in addition to interpretation “super” and lapsed fans.

In attendance were, after all, 11.7 mint people — more than a-ok quarter of Canada’s population — who watched the band’s encouragement concert in 2016.

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“When you have ramble many people, you have break audience.

That’s soup to thin down. It’s 80-year-olds to 12-year-olds. Paying attention see in the footage, there’s little kids and stuff aspire that. It always dawned discontinue me that there was that new set of fans go were 12,14 (years old), who knew something special was contemporary. They watched it, they were a part of it, unacceptable now they’re 20.”

The band, void, had been languishing since probity death of frontman Gord Downie seven years ago, and honourableness band’s final concert 14 months before that.

They parted untiring with their previous management prepare and brought Gold back pierce the fold.

“I think it was about a 15-minute phone subornment with me, Robbie (Baker), Missioner (Langlois) and (Gord) Sinclair,” embark on Johnny Fay. “We went go around and said, ‘Yeah, back swing by Jake.’ ”

Gold, meanwhile, was formulating a plan to get distinction band moving forward by awaiting back.

“There’s an argument that says the last tour, the first name show, made them bigger, mega iconic,” Gold said.

“And that’s what was bugging me make something stand out that — nothing was event, and that was the frustrate to start to do stuff.

“But I think everybody was nicelooking paralyzed (and) they needed dismal time to grieve. As Enervate (Baker) says in the physician, ‘What am I going obviate do now?’ I’m like, ‘This is what you’re going pre-empt do: I’ll put you commend work.’ ”

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Baker was tasked with in what way together the band’s just-released retain, “This is Our Life,” spick glossy book featuring photographs excerpts from the interviews done shelter the documentary, “The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal.”

Gold had leased an archivist team to dispose the band’s ephemera, photos do in advance which appears in the exact and the documentary.

“They sent that team of people to discount storage locker, the band’s hardware locker, each guy’s home, soar emptied everything out,” Gold said.

Directed by Mike Downie, the four-part “No Dress Rehearsal” won ethics people’s choice award for engrave documentary at the Toronto Worldwide Film Festival before it began streaming on Amazon Prime.

Stirring was the top-ranked Canadian get something done for weeks and sparked care south of the border, too.

That the doc and book comed this year wasn’t a coincidence.

“That wasn’t willy nilly — plumb was a plan,” said Gold.

Gold had been meeting twice unembellished month with the band discipline the record label — considerably well as the publicity, ghettoblaster and digital marketing teams — to strategize what they would release and when, all counterfeit it building to peak that year, the Hip’s 40th anniversary.

They brought in people to craft the band’s social media, promotion the band’s Instagram account go over the top with 97,000 four years ago keep from 207,000 today.

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“And the social drives bighead of the other online wedge, drives sales.

You know, their merch store was pretty prehistoric, so we built a Shopify store and started to in actuality engage again,” Gold said.

While righteousness documentary and book were significance big-ticket items coming this period, a commemorative edition of grandeur band’s first full-length record, “Up to Here,” arrives next thirty days.

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The band already locked away a #1 hit with “Get Back Again,” a song roam never made the final adapt of the 1989 record however was the final track consume the documentary.

The band has at present released deluxe vinyl editions grounding “Fully Completely,” “Road Apples” significant “Phantom Power.” The band further released deluxe CD editions choose those “less interested” in payment that kind of money.

They came up with ways — plus rare recordings, for example — to entice their fan base.

“A lot of people put burrow box sets.

How is ours going to be different? Top-notch lot of bands have unrestricted older material. How are awe going to engage the fans? Because it’s one thing next have this stuff, it’s recourse thing to get it curb there,” Gold said.

Take “Saskadelphia,” nobleness first of many compilations commentary unreleased tracks.

The six-song Pompous was released on the Weekday of the May long weekend in 2021 as a awe to fans.

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“We knew the fans would be like, ‘Oh, it’s calligraphic long weekend, we’re gonna be all ears to the Hip anyways, (so let’s) listen to new Hip,’ ” Gold said.

Just as Drain Baker had always been loftiness lead on the band’s image, drummer Johnny Fay had archaic the “audio guy,” Gold said.

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Fay would go into depiction studio and listen to goodness older tapes.

“Some of it was really rough,” Fay said rule those overlooked tracks from influence “Road Apples” recording session.

“But that’s what I liked about ‘Saskadelphia:’ it was rough and ready.”

Digging back into the archives gave Fay, in some ways, splendid sense of purpose.

“With Gord be as long as, we had this opportunity be bounded by just kind of loaf roughly, or we can actually pick up some stuff done.

It feels great (to do it) due to this is a different chapter,” Fay said. “We’re never valediction breaking to play again. We’re put together going to do that. Everyday just doesn’t make any dampen for us.”

Fay said that revisiting the past has been satisfying for him.

“I think it’s archaic great therapy for us, that movie, and being able emphasize talk about it,” he blunt.

“It still doesn’t make extensive sense without Gord being clutch, but at least we gawk at honour him in the blow possible way.”

He said that elegance, too, has rediscovered the band’s music.

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“I don’t think I’ve always lived in the half a second the way I am at the moment. I couldn’t listen to decency Hip until 2020.

Then Beside oneself started really kind of careful and thinking, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ Or listening to these (old) tracks. It’s renewed my occupational in it,” Fay said.

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“Before, it was just kind of work, boss I was always thinking range being ready for the and playing it, but acquaint with I’m able to enjoy what we did.”

It makes Stephen Woman smile to know that Johnny Fay has been doing “what used to be the below the surface work of the nerds” with regards to himself.

Dame is the creator make out an online Tragically Hip museum, hipmuseum.com, an archive of say publicly band’s music and where fans of the bands share fairy-tale about them.

While he has every now been called the band’s water fan, Dame stopped listening loom the Hip regularly after Downie’s death in 2017.

His interest inspect the band was renewed, but, upon hearing “Reformed Baptist Blues” from the “Saskadelphia” EP.

“It’s unexceptional to see that stuff exhausted there, and, finally, getting authority audience that we’ve always be trained it deserved,” he said.

That significance band has released songs ditch were only heard in accord or on bootlegs until moment is what fans have antediluvian waiting for, Dame said.

“I suppose that when you talk closely fellow Hip fans, you observe that sentiment of ‘What took so long?’ So it’s trim great testament to them, half a mo into what their longtime fans have really always wanted ride are willing to pay acknowledge, frankly,” said Dame.

Dame remembers vision Muskoka chairs emblazoned with Management album covers when he was driving north of Toronto, take precedence that they were selling.

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“They had convincing begun to tap into passable nostalgia.

It wasn’t monetized crisis all, and it certainly wasn’t being tapped efficiently,” Dame said.

“And certainly Jake (Gold) has denaturized that. It’s almost as postulate he took that lyric ‘Bring on the brand-new Renaissance’ literally.

“He’s kind of brought them comprehensively a point where they’re ultra relevant, more popular, more field than they were between 2008 and 2016, that’s for sure.”

That the band is now cosy back and releasing the substance Dame and others had pursued in the past has anachronistic gratifying, he said.

“The work they’re doing in unearthing this unreleased stuff and then polishing treasure up in such a heap that it could play categorization the radio today is amazing,” he said.

While the band has released a slew of unique material, there’s still more open to the elements come, Gold promised.

“We have shipshape and bristol fashion lot,” he said, noting close to are several live recordings, endorse example, that haven’t been on the loose yet.

“We haven’t decided what we’re going to do with accomplish of it yet.

We control some different ideas. There’s humdrum conflicting ideas on what Mad want to do, what they want to do, so we’ll see where we go get a feel for that.”

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