- Parachute Club (band)
Infobox Musical artist
Name = The Parachute Club
Img_capt =
Img_size =
Landscape =
Background = group_or_band
Alias =
Origin =Toronto, Ontario ,Canada
Genre = Pop,Soft rock
Years_active = 1982–1989
2005–present
Label =RCA Records
Associated_acts =
Influences =
URL =
Current_members =Lorraine Segato Keir Brownstone Billy Bryans
Dave GrayMystic Walsh Miranda Walsh Ashley Wey
Past_members =Lauri Conger Margo Davidson Julie Masi
Steve WebsterThe Parachute Club was a Canadian band formed in Toronto in 1982 out of several members of the band
Mama Quilla II . [http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Pop_Encyclopedia/M/Mama_Quilla_II.html ]The band consisted of
Lorraine Segato on vocals andguitar , Lauri Conger on keyboards and vocals, Billy Bryans ondrum s, Margo Davidson onsaxophone and vocals, Julie Masi on percussion and vocals, Steve Webster on bass and Dave Gray on guitar. Their first album was produced byDaniel Lanois . The song "Rise Up" from that album won a Canadian Juno Award for Single of the Year.Steve Webster left to perform with
Billy Idol and Keir Brownstone replaced Webster on their second album "At the Feet of the Moon" in 1985, produced byMichael Beinhorn . They received a Juno Award for Group of the Year the same year.In 1986, they released their third album, "Small Victories". The album included the song "Love is Fire" featuring Segato singing a duet with
John Oates ofHall & 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, they composed and performed four songs for the Canadian and U.S. versions of the
anime series, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". After a final non-album single in 1987 ("Big Big World"), the band members went their separate ways in 1989.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-soakeddance 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."Reunion and reconstitution
On
May 14 ,2005 , the band performed a reunion show in Toronto, co-headlining withMartha and the Muffins . OnSeptember 3 , 2005, a reconstituted Parachute Club, including Segato, Bryans, Gray and Brownstone, with new members Mystic Walsh and Miranda Walsh (daughters of Eric Walsh, lead singer of Toronto reggae bandMessenjah ) on vocals and Ashley Wey on keyboards, headlined theCity Roots music festival. The band has made a number of appearances since then, usually at political or cultural events in Toronto. The summer of 2008 will see them playing at Toronto'sLuminato arts festival, concerts at gay pride events in Toronto and Hamilton, and a possible tour of Eastern Canada.In 2006, The Parachute Club was inducted into the
Canadian Indies Hall of Fame .Discography
ingles
Albums
* "The Parachute Club" (1983)
* "At The Feet of the Moon" (1984)
* "Moving Thru the Moonlight" (1985)
* "Small Victories" (1986)
* "Wild Zone: The Essential Parachute Club" (2006)References
*
Greg Quill , "Ready to rise up", "Toronto Star ", 1 September 2005, page G1
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.