Facts about the Tragically Hip as the band launches farewell tour

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This article was published 22/07/2016 (3739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VICTORIA – Canadian rock band the Tragically Hip begins what is being billed as its final tour after lead singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with a deadly brain cancer. Here are some facts about Downie and the band:

Current members: Gord Downie, Paul Langlois, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay.

Inception: Downie, Sinclair, Fay and Baker have all been with the band since forming it in 1984 while in high school in Kingston, Ont. The band also originally featured a saxophone player who left two years later. Langlois joined in 1986.

Origin of band name: Members say it was taken from a line in a 1981 movie called “Elephant Parts” by Michael Nesmith, a former member of the Monkees.

Debut album: The band released a self-titled EP in 1987 after signing with MCA and put out its first full-length album in 1989. “Up to Here” produced some of the band’s most famous singles, including “Blow at High Dough” and “New Orleans is Sinking.”

Mainstream success: While the band established a fan base with its debut album, the release of “Fully Completely” in 1992 took things to the next level thanks to hits like “Courage” and “At the Hundredth Meridian.” Canadian references were plentiful on the album.

Trivia: The Tragically Hip was the first band to play a show at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, the city’s primary concert venue. They also appeared on “Saturday Night Live” once at the insistence of fellow Canadian Dan Aykroyd, although big success in the U.S. was largely elusive.

Honours: The band won 14 Juno awards, secured a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2002, was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and is featured on a Canada Post stamp issued in 2013.

Other notable albums: “Day for Night,” “Trouble at the Henhouse,” “Phantom Power” and “Inviolet Light”

Other notable songs: “Bobcaygeon,” “Fifty-Mission Cap,” “Nautical Disaster,” “Ahead by a Century,” “Poets” and “Wheat Kings,” which references the wrongly convicted David Milgaard.

Quote: “I haven’t written too many political lyrics. Conversely, nor have I written any pro-Canada lyrics, any kind of jingoistic, nationalistic cant … That stuff doesn’t interest me and I don’t even know if I could write that if I tried, because I don’t really feel it.” — Downie in an interview with The Canadian Press in 2014.