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• #TRAGICALLY HIP GORD DOWNIE SERIES#

The band’s 2012 album, “Now for Plan A,” was lyrically influenced by Downie’s wife and her successful battle with breast cancer.ĭownie also produced three solo albums since 2001, as well as a collaboration with fellow Canadian indie darlings The Sadies.ĭownie is survived by his wife and four children.The singer and the band put on a brave face throughout his illness, which was announced in May of last year concurrent with an announcement that the group’s surviving members - Paul Langlois, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay - would undertake a final summer tour “for Gord, and for all of us.” The last concert of the tour was broadcast nationally across Canada on CBC.

They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 14 Juno awards, the equivalent of the Grammy in Canada. Since then they have released 14 studio albums, two live albums, one EP and 54 singles. Their first self-titled EP was released in 1987 and their breakthrough debut full-length album, “Up to Here,” was released in 1989. While at university, he met Paul Langlois, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fray, and they formed The Tragically Hip, which started out as a cover band. He said his “Secret Path” project was aimed at Canada’s decades-long government policy of requiring aboriginal children to attend residential schools, where physical and sexual abuse was often rampant.īorn in Amherstview, Ontario, Downie said he “always had a keen ear for music” and while all the other kids were spending their allowance on baseball trading cards, he was buying records “from the fathers of rock ‘n’ roll.” But through it all, Downie remained the consummate showman, rocking out on stage in distinctive leather suits.ĭuring his final show, Downie called out to Trudeau, who attended the concert, to help fix problems in Canada’s aboriginal communities.Ī few months after that concert, Downie released a solo album with an accompanying graphic novel and animated film inspired by the tragedy of state-funded church schools that Canadian aboriginal children were forced to attend from the 19th century until the 1970s.

#TRAGICALLY HIP GORD DOWNIE SERIES#

that he needed six teleprompters during the concert series so he would not forget lyrics. Millions tuned in.ĭownie later told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Tickets for the 2016 summer tour sold out almost immediately, culminating in a national broadcast of the band’s final tour stop at Kingston, Ontario. That same day, the band said it would mount a Canadian tour despite Downie’s cancer. When the band made the news public the following May, expressions of sorrow poured in from across the country. “There will never be another one like you, Gord, Rest in peace my friend,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted.ĭownie was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive and incurable brain cancer, in December 2015. While Canadian musicians Drake, the Weeknd and Justin Bieber have made waves internationally, the Tragically Hip built a huge following of die-hard homegrown fans.