| |
they
played around in various incarnations of
different groups while still in high school. In
'72 they started doing the Vancouver lounge
circuit as a duo named Winters Green.
Born in London, England, Smith moved to the
Canadian West Coast while still young. Growing up
in the same atmosphere as the Vancouver native
McGuire gave the duo common experiences to draw
from while writing. This period included the very
earliest versions of the Canadian party anthem
"Raise A Little Hell".
The two began augmenting their act with various
musicians before finally adding drummer Tommy
Stewart and bassist Harry
Kalinsky - Applejack was born.
Shortly after changing their name to Trooper
in late '73, the group was noticed by Randy
Bachman and signed with his Legend
label in early '74. Their self-titled debut came
out early the next year and contained the smash
single "Baby Woncha Please Come
Home", produced by Bachman.
it incorporated a tight but simple sound. "General
Hand Grenade" also found the
mark as an AM pop hit that year and their
straight ahead approach was hot on the fingers of
radio DJ's nationwide. TWO FOR THE SHOW
hit the shelves in '76 and picked up where the
debut left off the year before. The title track, "Ready"
and "Santa Maria"
all had an easy feel to them ensuring plenty of
radio play and making it their first gold record.
Replacing Kalinsky on bass was Doni
Underhill (ex of Fludd)
and with the addition of keyboardist Frank
Ludwig, they were now able to
broaden their sound in the studios and on stage,
taking some of the pressure off Smith's
guitar-weilding shoulders. The record also
contained "Boys In The Bright
White Sports Car", which
strangely wouldn't truly emerge as one of the
greatest 'fast cars & fast women' hits ever
written until their '79 greatest hits lp.
1977 saw the
release of KNOCK 'EM DEAD KID.
Three singles came from it, including their
biggest ever, the ballad "Oh
Pretty Lady" (my brother's
wedding's theme song incidentally). It was
quickly followed up by "We're
Here For A Good Time" and
"Long Time", both
straddling the fine line between ballad and just
good old no-frills rock, staying true to the
group's simple approach. By this time Trooper
were also becoming one of Canada's favourite
bands live, where they were gaining loyal
followings nationwide.
Their biggest
selling record to date came in the form of THICK
AS THIEVES in late'78. Backed by
their swan song ''Raise a Little
Hell", the epitome of teen
rebellion , the disc showed a maturity in the
writing, with Ludwig doing vocals on two of it's
hits, "Round Round We Go"
and "Moment That It Takes".
Conflicts with Bachman
however dissolved their relationship and for all
intents and purposes, were now self-managed. The
band's backstage problems were in the midst of
the release of HOT SHOTS.
Their first & only 'best of' to date, it
eventually was certified quadruple platinum, the
first Canadian album to reach 400,000 sales.
Incidentally, an unofficial poll conducted in
2000 revealed that 1 out of every 30 Canadians
between the ages of 25 & 45 owned a copy.
The time off from
the road was spent in the studios where a harder,
rawer approach was emerging in the form of FLYING
COLOURS. Immediate gold was the
reward for "3 Dressed Up As A
9", the first single as well
as a smoking cover of the Kinks' "All Day
And All The Night", the only non-original
the group's ever recorded. Mixed in for good
measure were the typical AM pop ballads Trooper
had become known for, including "Drive
Away", Ludwig's
"Quiet Desperation"
and the mega-hit "Janine",
which was later covered by country group SEAWEED.
Other noteable tracks included the hit "Go
Ahead & Sue Me" and
"Good Clean Fun". The
1980 Juno Awards also saw Trooper finally win
their first award for best group. However
conflicts with where the band was going caused
Ludwig to leave later that year to join Randy
Bachman's Ironhorse, then Union,
and then the group Body Electric
in the early 80's. A side note is he'd go on to
pen the score for "The
Urban Peasant" tv program for
the CBC.
With new
keyboardist Rob Deans
and now on MCA, an
untitled album hit the stores in the summer of
1980. Backed by the Canadian Rockers' Anthem
"Real Canadians", the record stayed on
the slightly new direction paved by FLYING
COLOURS, with "Are
You Still My Baby" and "Don't
Feel Like Dancing". It took
nearly two years for the next record to hit the
stores. MONEY TALKS
unfortunately didn't live up to the hype the
critics expected from something that took that
long to release. Even though "Only A
Fool" garnered respectable airplay that
summer, they couldn't seem to follow it up with "Just
One Kiss" or "It
Comes And It Goes". Although
the group did tour extensively across Canada and
into the States, problems with management were
sending Trooper back
down the ladder of success.
They re-emerged in
'89 on Warner Records with
THE LAST OF THE GYPSIES.
Despite "Boy With The Beat"
(written tongue-in-cheek about the now-departed Stewart
on drums) becoming an instant
staple on both the radio and in rock bars that
summer, they got trapped in between changing
musical trends, along with many other truly class
acts during the same period. The album also
contained the track, "Thin White Line",
about the toll of drugs on the 'rock & roll
lifestyle'. Their tenth album, entitled
appropriately enough, TEN,
was released nearly two years later and contained
the somewhat cynical take on the US called "American
Dream", "What
Day Is This?" and "What
The Hell's Going On?".
After several
line-up changes, the band regrouped in the mid
90's with new drummer Lance Chalmers,
Scott Brown on bass and
Gogo on keyboards. A
tribute album was released in 2001 called SPOT
SHOTS, composed of 31 Trooper
classics redone by 31 independant Canadian punk
artists. Brown released
an independant 3 track EP that same year, which
included a remake of Dobie Gray's
"Drift Away".
Chalmers also found
himself in the stores that year, when his outside
project Sump Oil released
their debut EEL WRESTLING,
a collection of all-original material which was
met with rave reviews. McGuire and Smith were
also busy writing, a new track called "Cold
Water" has made its way into
the Trooper shows and will likely be included in
a new Trooper disc, scheduled tentatively to be
released in 2003, as is a Trooper Box
Set. "Raise A
Little Hell" is a Canadian
anthem of a generation and "Pretty
Lady" one of the most powerful
love ballads written. It's often been posed that
if the Canadian record labels supported the acts
of yesteryear the way the Americans do (Kiss
and Aerosmith come
to mind when I say this), that Trooper
would again be on the lips of everyone who ever
appreciated good, solid pop music. They helped
define a generation's music, while carving out a
niche in Canadian rock whose sound is as distinct
as their career. (*Bio Courtesy of www.canadianbands.com)
|
|
Cheap Reseller Hosting 
