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Meet the Hip - Stories - Printable Version

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Meet the Hip - Stories - WillyB - 12-12-2017

Hey all,
I like hearing peoples stories of their run-ins with the guys from the hip. Thought maybe we could share some here.
I have a couple, so here is one ...

Gord Downie - Ottawa Secret Path Show

After the show Me and my buddy were trying to avoid the congested exits as people were lining up at the doors to get out. We happened to spot a couple who were taking a different rout than the rest so we decided to follow them (maybe they knew something we didn't?).
After going through a couple doors and hallways (that all seemed to look the same) It was evident that these two had no idea where they were going.
We just passed a sign on the wall that said backstage entrance. I'm thinking to myself, we should NOT be here.
I spoke up and asked them if they knew where they were going. The gentleman turns around and its Gord Sinclair with his wife. He's lost and has no idea.
So we team up and finally find our way to an exit door of the NAC. Now At this point we just joined back in with that large crowd we were trying to avoid in the first place (too funny). I notice people around me are looking at Gord, not quite sure if that's him or not. They are whispering with each other and pointing. He's not giving anything away and just continues on. The crowd finally breaks up some and were off onto the streets of Ottawa.

Walked to the Westin Hotel with him and his wife. We went our way and they went theirs.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - direwolf74 - 12-12-2017

The first Hip member I ever met was Paul. My buddy and I were standing near the sound board tower at ARA '93 in Calgary, watching Crash Vegas perform early in the day. We look beside us and there's Mr. Langlois just hanging out and talking with one of the sound techs. We seemed to be the only people who recognized him, so we worked up the nerve to walk up and say hello. Super nice guy. We chatted with him for a good 5 minutes or so about some of the other bands on the bill and how the tour was going so far. I told him I'd love to hear them play Cordelia, and he said that Sinclair wrote the setlists, but he'd see what he could do. Don't remember them playing Cordelia that night though, haha.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Gord Downie at the National Library in Ottawa in 2002 when he performed at a poetry reading. He did a meet & greet thing afterwards, and my friend and I hung around and waited in line to talk to him. I remember it took forever to get through the line because he spent so much time chatting with each person. Our moment arrived and I finally got to meet my musical hero for the first time. He talked with us for a few minutes, signed a couple of things, and thanked us for coming. We were in journalism school at the time and he asked us a bunch of questions about our program, how we were liking it, etc... He was such a wonderful, gracious, and genuine guy. It's still hard to believe he's gone.

Last but not least, I once stood beside Johnny at a Mahones show at the Republik in Calgary, sometime around '96 I think? Anyway, that's pretty much it. Unfortunately I've never met the other guys.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - MountainHip - 12-12-2017

I never really had a desire to meet any of the guys, simply because I had no idea what to talk to them about, I did have an opportunity come up though with a connection, so I took it. Paul through a family connection afforded us some after party access at the ACC. So when I saw Paul (a year or two later) at a hotel bar I was working at, I had to personally thank him for extending the passes. I let him know our '6 degrees of separation' connection and said "thanks for that" he was super cool, and nice. I almost got the impression he wanted me to hang out for a bit, I was of the opinion that he wanted to be left alone, however I was wrong, we talked just very briefly and I got the hell outta there motivated by nervousness really.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - WillyB - 12-12-2017

MountainHip Wrote:I almost got the impression he wanted me to hang out for a bit, I was of the opinion that he wanted to be left alone, however I was wrong, we talked just very briefly and I got the hell outta there motivated by nervousness really.

Im sure he did want you to stay and hang out. Paul is super nice and likes to chat.
I've met him a few times from a family connection who's neighbors with him.
We've had some bondfires (Beer & acoustics) with him.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - sean.bonner - 12-12-2017

I have a couple I suppose from over the years, some intentional, some accidental. I'll share a few here when I have some more time to type out a story.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - schaggs - 12-13-2017

They say we should never meet our heroes.
I've never met anyone from the hip and I'm not sure I'd approach them in public. That being said, a bondfire sounds pretty sweet. I'd probably do that, given the opportunity.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - WillyB - 12-13-2017

schaggs Wrote:They say we should never meet our heroes.
I've never met anyone from the hip and I'm not sure I'd approach them in public. That being said, a bondfire sounds pretty sweet. I'd probably do that, given the opportunity.

That's true, but the guys in the Hip are a pretty safe bet to meet and not be disappointed. I don't think they would turn you off.
Im a big fan of Chris Robinson and the Black Crowes. Now there is a guy I probably would pass on the opportunity to meet, because he can come off as a dick.
Likely to ruin my love for their music.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - SRK - 12-13-2017

I have a few from growing up in Kingston, which I think I've probably shared here before.

1) Paul - first time was at the Syl Apps celebrity golf tournament on the base when I was 14. I had a Leafs t-shirt that I was getting all the old alumni to sign (Bobby Baun, Ted Kennedy, Paul Henderson etc), and Paul looked at it, flipped it over and wrote "the hip are behind ya!" on the back. I still have that shirt and chuckle every time I see it. I had a 5-minute chat with him when he was hanging out at the bar before his solo show at zaphods in Ottawa a few years ago, and told him that story. He laughed.
2) Robby - at the same golf course a few months later, I was caddying for my dad, who hit an errant shot and drilled another man in the head with his ball, who turned out to be Robby's dad, and Robby was with him. That was...odd. I also saw him on the street a bunch, especially when we headed downtown for lunch from KCVI.
3) Gord S. I *also* ran into him on the way out of the Ottawa Secret Path show, as the crowd was filing out. He was melting into the crowd, and I felt compelled to say a quick "thanks for the music, Gord." He looked over, mildly startled, and realized I wasn't going to make a scene or anything, and smiled and said "thank you". Nice moment.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - NWOntario - 12-13-2017

I used to live around the corner from Rob Baker; I've bumped into him in all sorts of situations, including the milk fridge at Bedore's corner store, and the one time I actually talked to him I got so tongue-tied I couldn't say anything beyond, "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

I met Paul after a Big Wreck gig at Alfie's on Queen's campus in 2001. He was a gem. He chatted with my friend and me for five minutes, and when he said he had to go said: "I didn't catch your name. I'm Paul." I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

I "met" Gord outside a Hold Steady gig in Calgary in 2009. I'd seen the Hip at the Jubilee the night before; they played "Thugs," and it was my only time hearing it ("Thugs" has been my favourite Hip song from the moment I first heard it). I was walking behind the venue, and Gord was out back. I patted him on the shoulder and said, "Hey, thanks for playing 'Thugs' last night." He smiled and said, "You're welcome." And that was that.

Never meet your heroes, but Paul shot that one to shit. Not sure I'd want to meet Eddie Vedder in case he was having a bad day; pretty sure I wouldn't want to meet Pete Townshend. But most Canadian musicians I've met have been cool as hell, the Hip members included.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - direwolf74 - 12-13-2017

NWOntario Wrote:I "met" Gord outside a Hold Steady gig in Calgary in 2009. I'd seen the Hip at the Jubilee the night before; they played "Thugs," and it was my only time hearing it ("Thugs" has been my favourite Hip song from the moment I first heard it). I was walking behind the venue, and Gord was out back. I patted him on the shoulder and said, "Hey, thanks for playing 'Thugs' last night." He smiled and said, "You're welcome." And that was that.

I was at that same Hold Steady show and I remember Gord's presence created quite a buzz. That was at the Warehouse, right? Does that place still exist?

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - Escape@Hand - 12-14-2017

My friend and I were at the Rochester show right at the end of the World Container tour in 2007. We were looking for a place to eat dinner and ended up at a hotel restaurant (maybe the Delta Rochester, iirc). We sat down and soon after Gord S. came in with about 10 other people. My friend had a note he wanted to pass to Gord Downie (thought they might have known each other as young kids...long story) and I jokingly said he should pay for their bill, in order to get Gord S. to pass his note to Gord D. My friend then asked the waiter for their bill, and the waiter said "Are you sure, it's a good one?", but it ended up not being too bad, about $180 USD. So my friend covered their tab and Gord came over to introduce himself and thank my friend for the dinner. Later that night we stayed late after the show and met the whole band. Gord S. recognized us and came right over to us; I talked to Robbie about guitars (I'm a guitarist) and he recommended we check out House of Guitar, which we did the next day.

Also, the next day was the infamous Hogansburg NY show, where they played on a reserve, in a converted cigar factory (or so I was told). That gig was a gong show, a highlight for all the wrong reasons! We stayed late again and met them that night too; unfortunately for my friend, it turns out he didn't know Gord D. when they were young.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - cochise - 12-14-2017

A couple chance meetings.

Ran into Rob at the RnR Hall of Fame in Cleveland back in 07. My girlfriend and I made the trip down to see them at the HOB, made a weekend of it and went the the hall on the Saturday. Being a huge Stones fan we were at their display, I was boring her ear off and a took a couple steps back and bumped into someone. Being the polite Canadian, I turned to apologize and here it was Rob. The hall was such a perfect spot to bump into him, especially at the Stones display. Such a nice guy, the epitome of a music lover and could talk for hours about his music I am sure. I didn't want to take up his casual downtime though, so I tried to make it short, but I get the feeling he would have been happy to have stood there for an hour and chat about the museum.

Also ran into Paul downtown Kingston one afternoon. I had taken my daughter and her friend down for a concert (Down With Webster). I dropped them off and was walking across the street from the K-Rock and there was Paul standing waiting for his wife to pick him up. I introduced myself and casually chatted for a bit, more about the show taking place that night. Again, not wanting to take up much of his downtime, I politely shook his hand and started to walk away, but this was about a year after "Fix This Head" had come out, so I turned back and just curiously asked if he was working on any more solo stuff. He told me that he was just finishing off and the new album would be out in September. He seemed to be happy I had asked him that aside from any Hip question possible and we stood and talked for about another 5 minutes about it. Super nice guy, you would never know he was a "star" of any sort, he was just as down to earth as your average Canadian guy.

Did run into Gord D once, very, very quickly. As some above said, I was actually too nervous to meet him as I didn't want it to affect what I thought of him, so it was a just quick wave and a "hey", he did the same back, and that was that.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - WillyB - 12-14-2017

Story # 2 for me

Kingston, Feb 4th 2013 - Now for plan A Tour (K-Rock Centre)

As mentioned previously I have a Connection (family member) who's neighbor's with Paul. He's attended some of our bonfire's in the past.

So me and some friends had 3 rooms booked at the Holiday Inn downtown K-Town. After the show at the K-Rock Centre we decided to head over to the Merchant Tap house (right next door from the holiday inn) for some brews. Were all having a good time and than In walks Paul, then Rob, Gord S. and Johnny follow shortly after. We chat with them for a while and as these guys get bombarded by people we decide to head back to one of our suites for some more beer drinking. There is about 8 of us in the room and we got talking ... wouldn't it be cool to get Paul to come up here for a while to hang out. Instead of sending our main connection (his neighbor) to go back to the bar to get him, we send down the drunkest guy with us, who's never even met Paul.
We are Laughing the whole time and expecting him to come back empty handed. All the sudden the door burst open and here's our drunken buddy with Paul, Rob, and one of the Hips crew members. I must say we were all Flabbergasted that he pulled it off in his state. So we had a bathtub full of beer on ice and 1 acoustic guitar for entertainment. I hung out with Paul for quite a while on our balcony smoking cigarettes and talking about all sorts of things.
Later I introduced myself to that Hip Crew member who was kind of chilling on his own and texting with someone. He started video taping the scene that was going on in the room from his cell phone and told me he's sending it to Gord Downie and inviting him over to join us. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?.

4:30AM and the party is still going strong, but its cold out and Paul doesn't want to smoke on the balcony any longer. He's willing to cover any fees we get for smoking in the room. HA. Knock Knock Knock on the door. Holiday inn front desk telling us we better settle down. Party's Over.

One of the best parts of this is that a buddy of mine who went with us to the show decided he was tired and went to bed after the concert. He was sleeping in the room right below the suite we were partying in. It took a while to convince him the next morning of what went down, but needless to say he was kicking himself for a while.

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - NWOntario - 12-17-2017

direwolf74 Wrote:
NWOntario Wrote:I "met" Gord outside a Hold Steady gig in Calgary in 2009. I'd seen the Hip at the Jubilee the night before; they played "Thugs," and it was my only time hearing it ("Thugs" has been my favourite Hip song from the moment I first heard it). I was walking behind the venue, and Gord was out back. I patted him on the shoulder and said, "Hey, thanks for playing 'Thugs' last night." He smiled and said, "You're welcome." And that was that.

I was at that same Hold Steady show and I remember Gord's presence created quite a buzz. That was at the Warehouse, right? Does that place still exist?

It closed about four months later. I wish I hadn't seen that show the night after hearing "Thugs," since it's the one time I've heard the Hold Steady play "The Cattle and the Creeping Things."

Re: Meet the Hip - Stories - schaggs - 12-18-2017

On my previous thoughts about never meeting your heroes, I found this cool story.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/steven-shehori/never-meet-your-heroes-unless-theyre-gord-downie_a_23249002/">http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/steven-she ... _23249002/</a><!-- m -->