The Parachute Club

Last updated

The Parachute Club
The Parachute Club 1984.jpg
The Parachute Club, circa 1984
Background information
Origin Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres Pop, new wave, Caribbean
Years active1982 (1982)–1988 (1988), 2005 (2005)–2008 (2008), 2011–2014
LabelsCurrent Records, licensed to
RCA Records
BMG
EMI International
Past members Lorraine Segato
Dave Gray
Lauri Conger
Julie Masi
Steve Webster
Art Avalos
Billy Bryans
Margo Davidson
Keir Brownstone
Rebecca Jenkins
Aaron Davis
Evelyne Datl
Mystic Walsh
Miranda Jackie Walsh
Ashley Wey
Chendy Leon Jr.
Glenda del Monte
Rebecca Campbell
Chris Brown
Vicki Randle
Rachel Oldfield
Website pclubblog.wordpress.com

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", [1] "At the Feet of the Moon" and "Love Is Fire" (which featured guest duet vocals from John Oates). 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.

Contents

"The Chutes", as they were known, broke up after touring to promote their third and final album, and played their final gig in the summer of 1988. A reconstituted version of the Parachute Club (including four of the earlier band members) played a number of live shows between 2005 and 2008. The band reunited again in 2011 and remained intermittently active through 2014.

History

Formation and early years (1982–1983)

The original Parachute Club band consisted of Lorraine Segato on vocals and guitar, Lauri Conger on keyboards and vocals, Billy Bryans on drums, Margo Davidson on saxophone and vocals, Julie Masi on percussion and vocals, Steve Webster on bass and Dave Gray on guitar. Davidson at the time was one of very few female saxophonists playing professionally; Segato, Conger and Bryans had previously been associated for several years as the nucleus of Mama Quilla II, a band that gained respect in Toronto in the late 1970s and early 1980s for their integrated musical and sexual politics—elements that would continue with The Parachute Club. Billy Bryans had also been a well-known percussionist and producer in Toronto since the early 1970s, primarily associated with the Downchild Blues Band during this period.

Segato and Bryans first met in 1979, and started to collaborate musically. By 1982, they were both members of the Toronto band V, which was formed while Mama Quilla II was then on hiatus. In the late summer of 1982, Bryans was offered a chance to play at Toronto's inaugural Festival of Festivals, which later evolved into the Toronto International Film Festival. With other members of V unavailable, Bryans approached Segato to form a new one-off band to play at the festival. They added Lauri Conger from Mama Quilla II, as well as local musicians Margo Davidson, Dave Gray and Steve Webster. The band was well received at the festival, and shortly thereafter received and accepted an offer for both a management and recording contract with Current Records. Adding Jule Masi to the ranks, The Parachute Club was thereby formed, while Mama Quilla II made their 'hiatus' permanent and disbanded.

Early success (1983–1984)

The Parachute Club's eponymous first album, released in 1983, was produced by Daniel Lanois, who had previously been the recording engineer of Mama Quilla II's sole release, an EP released in 1982. [2] The group had to write material for the album rather quickly, and consequently recruited poet/artist Lynne Fernie to assist with some of the lyrics. Though Fernie would never be an official member of The Parachute Club, she would contribute lyrics to all their albums, and function as an unofficial honorary member of the group.

The song "Rise Up", from Parachute Club's first album, won a Canadian Juno Award in 1984 for Single of the Year, while the group won a Juno award for Most Promising Group of The Year.

During 1983, Steve Webster, a co-writer of Parachute Club's best known song, "Rise Up" left the band, to perform with Billy Idol. On their 1983/84 touring dates, bassist Russ Boswell stepped in for Webster; he would then leave the band to join Corey Hart's backing band. Keir Brownstone, formerly with Bob Segarini, became the band's new permanent bassist in mid-1984.

The band's second album At the Feet of the Moon was released in October 1984, and the title track became the group's second Canadian Top 40 hit. This album (and single) was produced by Michael Beinhorn.

Later success (1985–1987)

In 1985, the group received the Juno Award for Group of the Year, as well as the equivalent CASBY award. [3] An album of remixed tracks, Moving Thru The Moonlight, was also issued in late 1985.

In 1986, The Parachute Club released their third album, Small Victories. The album included the group's third and final top 40 hit, "Love is Fire", featuring Segato singing a duet with John Oates of Hall & Oates. Oates produced the single, as well as several other Small Victories tracks; The Parachute Club and Mike Jones were credited as producers on the remainder of the album. In 1987, the group's video of their single, "Love Is Fire" received the Juno Award for Video of the Year. Julie Masi left the band after their Canadian tour in support of the album, and was replaced on a session basis for live dates by singer Rebecca Jenkins.

In 1987, the group composed and performed four songs for the Canadian and U.S. versions of the anime series The Wonderful Wizard of Oz . During 1987, Lauri Conger also left the band, and Aaron Davis of Canadian jazz-fusion band Manteca was brought in as the group's new session keyboard player.

Winding down (1988–1989)

The band (now officially a quintet of Segato, Bryans, Gray, Davidson, and Brownstone) recorded a final non-album single in 1988 ("Big Big World"). Bryans produced; guests included Aaron Davis (keyboards), and vocalists Rebecca Jenkins, Holly Cole and Micah Davis. The band's final performances were in July 1988 at the Ontario Place Forum in Toronto, [1] where the remaining band members were rejoined by Lauri Conger, filling in for an ill Davis.

In early 1989, the original Parachute Club formally disbanded, with band members going their separate ways. Some members, such as Lorraine Segato and Billy Bryans, continued as professional musicians, while other members, such as Margo Davidson and Lauri Conger, substantially left the music business. Davidson, who died in 2008 at the age of 50, became a creative writer and community activist for the homeless, [4] serving as a director of St. Clare's Multifaith Housing Society and as an outreach worker at Eva's Phoenix. [5]

In 2005, critic Greg Quill wrote in the Toronto Star that "No musical collective bespoke this city during a specific period as powerfully as Parachute Club did in the 1980s. Their infectious, inclusive, soca-soaked dance music carried important messages about the social changes Toronto was experiencing at the time, about sexual and personal politics, about the need for hope and courage in an age of confusing, impersonal rhetoric from local policymakers and world leaders." [6]

Advertising controversy (1998)

In 1998, the Parachute Club song "Rise Up" was licensed by EMI Music Canada to McCain Foods Limited for a television commercial for self-rising pizza dough. Members of Parachute Club publicly opposed this commercial use of the song. [7] In a news release issued at the commencement of litigation, band members stated that "(a)s a result of its use on the ad...the song, the people who believe in it and the reputation of its creators have suffered damage within the sphere of public credibility and our personal reputations." [8] A settlement resulted in the band members recovering their music rights from EMI. [9]

Reunion and band revival (2005–2008, 2011–2014)

In 2005, a reconstituted Parachute Club commenced performing, co-headlining a reunion show with Martha and the Muffins and headlining at Toronto's City Roots Festival. [6] The reconstituted band included original members Segato, Bryans, and Gray, as well as Brownstone (who was a member of the band for their second and third albums). Masi, Conger, Steve Webster and Davidson were not part of this revived line-up. New members of the revived line-up were Mystic Walsh and Miranda Walsh (daughters of Eric Walsh, lead singer of Toronto reggae band Messenjah) on vocals, and Ashley Wey on keyboards. [6] By 2008, these new members had been replaced by Chendy Leon Jr, Glenda del Monte and Rebecca Campbell (although Miranda Walsh subbed for an absent Campbell at one 2008 show).

In 2006, The Parachute Club was inducted into the Canadian Indies Hall of Fame. Founding member Margo Davidson died May 17, 2008, aged 50.

Through 2008, the reconstituted band performed on a regular basis, although they did not release any new material. The Parachute Club did not play any dates after August 2008, and the band's website was not updated after this time. "Rise Up" was given the SOCAN Classic Award in 2000.

Segato performed "Rise Up" at the state funeral of Jack Layton on August 27, 2011, with the choir of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. The Parachute Club reunited again on September 30, 2011, for a free show in Toronto's David Pecaut Square to celebrate their induction to Canada's Walk of Fame. [10] The band line-up for the reunion consisted of original members Lorraine Segato (vocals), Dave Gray (guitar), and Steve Webster with new recruits Chris Brown (keyboards), Art Avalos (drums) and Vicki Randle (percussion, backing vocals). Billy Bryans, too ill to perform for the entire show, did join the band on drums for their last two numbers, including "Rise Up". [11] Bryans, one of three musicians to be part of every Parachute Club line-up, died April 23, 2012, at age 63, following a long battle with cancer.

Partly at Bryans' insistence that the group continue without him, The Parachute Club decided to stay together to perform gigs. During the 2012 Edmonton (Alberta) Folk Music Festival, the band performed on August 11, 2012, at the volunteer after party and at Stage 2 on August 12. They also played at the Niagara Co-op Expo on October 13, 2012, in St. Catharines, Ontario. [12] For these shows, the Parachute Club now included founding members Lorraine Segato, Dave Gray, Julie Masi, Lauri Conger and Steve Webster. Prior to this reunion, Steve Webster had not played with the group for 27 years, Masi for 25 years and Conger for 24 years.

In 2014, the surviving band members released a contemporary dance remix of "Rise Up", in conjunction with Toronto's hosting of the 2014 edition of WorldPride. [13]

Segato resumed her solo career with series of solo shows in 2014 and a new album in January 2015. Though the band has issued no formal announcement concerning their current status, The Parachute Club has been inactive since 2014. In 2018 and 2019, Segato produced two new supergroup versions of "Rise Up", one by various Canadian country musicians credited to The Common Cause Collective, [14] and a pop version credited to The New Parachute Collective. [15] In November of 2019 the song Rise Up" was inducted into the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame. 2023 saw The Parachute Club inducted into Canada's Rock of Fame along with several other notable 70's and 80's bands.

Discography

Albums

Singles

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"23Small Victories
February 1987"Love and Compassion"81
May 1987"Walk to the Rhythm"90
January 1988"Big Big World"88Non-album single

Compilation appearances

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.

The CASBY Awards were a Canadian awards ceremony for independent and alternative music, presented annually by Toronto, Ontario radio station CFNY, currently branded as 102.1 The Edge. CASBY is an acronym for Canadian Artists Selected By You.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tears Are Not Enough</span> 1985 single by Northern Lights

"Tears Are Not Enough" is a 1985 charity single recorded by a supergroup of Canadian artists, under the name Northern Lights, to raise funds for relief of the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia. It was one of a number of such supergroup singles recorded between December 1984 and April 1985, along with Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in the United Kingdom, USA for Africa's "We Are the World" in the United States, "Cantaré, cantarás" by a supergroup of Latin American and Spanish singers, Chanteurs sans Frontières's "Éthiopie" in France, and Fondation Québec-Afrique's "Les Yeux de la faim" in Quebec.

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.

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 1985, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 4 November 1985 in Toronto. The ceremony was hosted by Andrea Martin and Martin Short at the Harbour Castle Hilton Hotel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salome Bey</span> American-born Canadian singer-songwriter (1933–2020)

Salome Bey was a U.S.-born Canadian singer-songwriter, composer, and actress who lived in Toronto, Ontario, since 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caribbean music in Canada</span>

Caribbean music in Canada has existed since the early 1920s, becoming increasingly prominent after the 1960s as Caribbean immigration to Canada increased. Anglo-Caribbean genres such as reggae, soca and calypso are especially prominent in English Canada, while French Caribbean genres such as cadence-lypso, zouk and konpa are more prominent in Quebec.

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.

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.

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

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Down with Webster</span> Canadian rap rock band

Down with Webster is a Canadian rap rock band from The Beaches area of Toronto who signed with Universal Motown in April 2009. The band first achieved commercial success with the release of the 2009 EP, Time to Win, Vol. I which consisted of the singles "Rich Girl$", "Your Man" and "Whoa Is Me". Their major-label debut album, Time to Win, Vol. II (2011) featured the track "She's Dope". The 2014 follow-up album Party for Your Life included the songs "One in a Million" and "Chills." The band has been nominated for Juno Awards, MuchMusic Video Awards and Canadian Radio Music Awards.

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.

Tchukon was a Canadian funk and R&B band, active from 1978 to 1990. Best known for winning CBC Television's 1985 music competition Rock Wars and being named Best Vocal Group in the 1986 edition of Star Search, the band ultimately released just one Juno Award-nominated album before dissolving.

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.

<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 for Best Reggae/Calypso Recording 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. The album was distributed in the U.S. by Holly Near's Redwood Records.

References

  1. 1 2 "Parachute Club". Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  2. KKK//Mama Quilla/Angry Young Woman (Tupperwaros); see Canadian Pop Encyclopedia,Biography of Mama Quilla II [usurped] ; www.jam.canoe.ca.
  3. Kirk LaPointe (May 11, 1985). "CASBY Awards: The people speak". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 74–. ISSN   0006-2510.
  4. Michael Badawoy, Margo Davidson, Juno Award Winner, Dies Archived July 27, 2009, at the Wayback Machine , May 23, 2008; www.cd989.com
  5. St. Clare's Multifaith Housing Society Annual Report 2003 Archived April 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine at p. 6.
  6. 1 2 3 Quill, Greg (September 1, 2005). "Ready to rise up; Parachute Club reunion a programming coup for the City Roots festival at Distillery District: Mixture of new and old band members rekindle dance music with a message". Toronto Star . p. G1.
  7. SPIN Media LLC (August 1998). "Exposure: This month's lessons". SPIN. SPIN Media LLC: 36–. ISSN   0886-3032.
  8. "UPDATE: 'Rise Up' composer would welcome partnership with WorldPride". Daily Extra. January 22, 2013. Andrea Houston
  9. "Soaring with Parachute Club". Winnipeg Free Press, John Einarson October 19, 2014
  10. "Canada's Walk of Fame". Canadaswalkoffame.com. August 24, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  11. "Lorraine Segato remembers Billy Bryans | CTV News". Ctv.ca. April 24, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  12. "Iconic band Parachute Club plays St. Catharines co-op event | Events | St. Catharines Standard". Stcatharinesstandard.ca. October 13, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  13. "The Parachute Club releases remix version of 'Rise Up'". Toronto Star , June 23, 2014.
  14. "Canadian Country Music Stars Cover '80s Anthem 'Rise Up'". iHeartRadio Canada, September 8, 2018.
  15. "New Versions Of 'Rise Up' Released". iHeartRadio Canada, July 12, 2019.
  16. "RPM Top 100 Albums – November 12, 1983" (PDF).
  17. "RPM Top 100 Albums – February 9, 1985" (PDF).
  18. "RPM Albums of 1984 – January 5, 1985" (PDF).
  19. "RPM Top Albums of 1985 – December 28, 1985" (PDF).
  20. "RPM Top 100 Albums – December 27, 1986" (PDF).
  21. The Parachute Club (2023). Big World (LP). Toronto, Ontario, Canada. OCLC   1418759089. 19658852851.