Lauri Conger

Last updated
Lauri Conger
Origin Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Genres Pop, dance
Occupation(s)Songwriter, keyboardist
Instrument(s) Keyboard
Years active1970s–1988

Lauri Conger is notable primarily as the keyboardist and one of the principal co-writers of most of the songs of The Parachute Club.

Contents

History

Conger is a native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, where she began her professional music career in the 1970s. She received early piano and dance training in Port Arthur, Ontario, prior to its merger into Thunder Bay, and was a graduate of Hillcrest High School. [1]

Conger moved to Toronto, where she and Lorraine Segato were members of Mama Quilla II. In 1982, Conger and Segato, along with percussionist Billy Bryans, formed the nucleus of what would become The Parachute Club. [2] Concurrently, in the early 1980s, Conger was developing a reputation as a solo and duo performer on the Canadian folk music circuit. [3]

Conger and Lorraine Segato, together with other band members and lyricist Lynne Fernie, wrote of most of the group's songs, including the song for which the group is best known, "Rise Up".

Conger was a band member during the production of its three albums, released between 1983 and 1986, but left the group in mid-1987. Her final performance was before the Duke and Duchess of York in Toronto. [1] She then trained in Santa Fe, New Mexico to become a registered massage therapist. She rejoined the band in July, 1988, for what would be its final performances [4] [5] at Toronto's Ontario Place. [2]

Following her departure from the group and despite her significant contributions to music, Conger did not continue in a prominent role as a professional musician or songwriter.

Discography

Singles (Parachute Club)

Release dateTitleChart peakAlbum
Canada
RPM
July 1983"Rise Up"9The Parachute Club
1983"Alienation"
1984"Boy's Club"
October 1984"At The Feet Of The Moon"11At The Feet of the Moon
February 1985"Act Of An Innocent"61
June 1985"Sexual Intelligence"
October 1986"Love Is Fire"24Small Victories
February 1987"Love And Compassion"81
May 1987"Walk To The Rhythm"90

Albums

With Mama Quilla II

  • 1982 KKK//Mama Quilla/Angry Young Woman Tupperwaros; EP.

With The Parachute Club

  • 1983 The Parachute Club Current/RCA
  • 1984 At The Feet of the Moon Current/RCA
  • 1985 Moving Thru the Moonlight Current/RCA; remixes
  • 1986 Small Victories (1986) Current/RCA
  • 1992 Wild Zone: The Essential Parachute Club BMG; reissued 2006 by EMI International [6]

With Other Artists

  • 1980 Heather Bishop, Celebration
  • 1980 Rodney Brown, When The Bay Turns Blue
  • 1981 Mendelson Joe, Let's Party
  • 1982 Heather Bishop, Bellybutton (Children's Album)
  • 1982 Heather Bishop, I Love Women Who Laugh
  • 1985 Soundtrack (with Michael Beinhorn), Dark Lullabies (Director: Irene Angelico and Abbey Neidik) (National Film Board of Canada)
  • 1986 Lillian Allen, Revolutionary Tea Party
  • 1988 Lillian Allen, Conditions Critical
  • 1988 Soundtrack, Calling The Shots, being profile of Jeanne Moreau (Director: Janis Cole and Holly Dale)
  • 1988 Soundtrack, Mile Zero: The SAGE Tour (Director: Bonnie Sherr Klein) (National Film Board of Canada)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorraine Segato</span> Canadian singer

Lorraine P. Segato is a Canadian pop singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist for and a principal songwriter of new wave and pop rock group The Parachute Club, with which she continues to perform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Parachute Club</span> Canadian band

The Parachute Club was a Canadian band formed in Toronto in 1982. They released three top 40 hits in Canada between 1983 and 1987, including "Rise Up", "At the Feet of the Moon" and "Love Is Fire". The band was well known for being one of the first mainstream pop acts in Canada to integrate world music influences, particularly Caribbean styles such as reggae and soca, into their sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Lights Festival Boréal</span>

Northern Lights Festival Boréal is an annual summer music festival in Sudbury, Ontario. It is one of Canada's oldest, continuous music festivals, having been staged every year since 1972 until the COVID-19 pandemic.

Devon Martin, better known mononymously as Devon, is a Canadian rapper who rose to prominence in 1990 for his song titled "Mr. Metro", a controversial single about police racism. "Mr. Metro" subsequently became an alias of the artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rise Up (Parachute Club song)</span> Song from Parachute Club

"Rise Up" is a pop song recorded by the Canadian group the Parachute Club on their self-titled 1983 album. It was produced and engineered by Daniel Lanois, and written by Parachute Club members Billy Bryans, Lauri Conger, Lorraine Segato and Steve Webster, with additional lyrics contributed by filmmaker Lynne Fernie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lillian Allen</span> Musical artist

Lillian Allen is a Canadian dub poet, reggae musician, writer and Juno Award winner.

The Juno Awards of 1984, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 5 December 1984 in Toronto at a ceremony hosted by Joe Flaherty and Andrea Martin of SCTV at Exhibition Place Automotive Building. The ceremonies were broadcast on CBC Television from 8pm Eastern Time.

The Juno Awards of 1986, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 10 November 1986 in Toronto at a ceremony hosted by Howie Mandel at the Harbour Castle Hilton Hotel. CBC Television broadcast the ceremonies nationally.

Messenjah is a Canadian-based reggae group that flourished to become one of the most successful and popular reggae groups in the history of Canadian music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillcrest High School (Thunder Bay)</span> Former high school in Thunder Bay, Ontario

Hillcrest High School was a high school in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It is part of the Lakehead District School Board system. The school was opened in 1928 as Port Arthur Technical School, and expanded several times in its history. The school's teams were named "Hillcrest Colts".

Mama Quilla II was a Canadian rock band that first performed together in 1977 in Toronto and dissolved in 1982. Although the band recorded only a single EP as Mama Quilla II, after 1982 a revised lineup evolved into the influential pop band Parachute Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margo Davidson</span> Canadian musician (1957–2008)

Margo Isabella Davidson was a founding member of The Parachute Club, for which she was saxophonist, percussionist and vocalist. and an advocate for the homeless.

William Taylor Bryans was a Canadian percussionist, songwriter, music producer and DJ, known as one of the founders of The Parachute Club, among other accomplishments in music. As a producer, he worked on projects for artists as diverse as Dutch Mason, Raffi, Lillian Allen and the Downchild Blues Band. He was born in Montreal, but spent most of his adult life in Toronto, and was particularly supportive of world music as both a promoter and publicist, focusing on bringing Caribbean, Cuban and Latin American music to a wider audience.

Julie Ann Masi is a Canadian musician, principally known as a percussionist and vocalist with The Parachute Club. She was also a co-writer of several of the band's songs. She is notable as being part of a female-driven movement mixing music and political activism, emanating from Toronto in the 1980s. She continues to perform and record on occasion.

Susan G. Cole is a Canadian feminist author, activist, editor, speaker and playwright. She has spoken out on a number of issues, including free speech, pornography, race and religion. As a lesbian activist and mother, she speaks out on sexuality and family issues and is a columnist.

Eria Fachin was a Canadian dance pop singer, best known for her 1988 single "Savin' Myself".

Steve Webster is a Canadian bassist, record producer, arranger, audio engineer and composer. A multiple Juno Award nominee and winner, Webster's career spans over 3 decades of music production and performance. Recent accomplishments include Juno Award nominations for Producer of the Year and Jazz Vocal Album of the Year for Emilie-Claire Barlow's album Clear Day.

Sean Merrick, known professionally over his career by the pseudonyms Jacky Jasper, H-Bomb and HDV, is a Canadian-American rapper, record producer and celebrity gossip blogger.

<i>Revolutionary Tea Party</i> 1986 studio album by Lillian Allen

Revolutionary Tea Party is an album by the Canadian musician Lillian Allen, released in 1986. It won a Juno Award, in the Best Reggae/Calypso Recording category at the Juno Awards of 1986. The album sold around 5,000 copies in its first year of release. Allen subsequently named her band the Revolutionary Tea Party Band.

References

  1. 1 2 Uncredited, Lauri Conger has left Parachute Club. Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal , July 28, 1987. As archived and summarized in Gateway to Northwestern Ontario History. Retrieved 2016-12-16.
  2. 1 2 Canadian Pop Encyclopedia, Biography of Parachute Club [usurped] ; www.jam.canoe.ca.
  3. Such as performing with Heather Bishop at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 1982: see List of Past Performers at the Winnipeg Folk Festival Archived 2010-03-23 at the Wayback Machine ; www.winnipegfolkfestival.ca.
  4. until a reconstituted version of the band, without Conger, commenced performing in 2005. See Parachute Club.
  5. Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, Biography of The Parachute Club;www.thecanadianeyclopedia.com
  6. Particulars via www.amazon.com; accessed 09-02-07.