[Barilko]

During the time of Road Apples, I attended a club show by The Hip in London, England. It was wild. Seemed that every single attendee was an ex-pat wearing something that indicated they were from Canada. But I cannot seem to find any indication of this gig. I don't recall the date (guessing 1990 or 1991) or venue but am hoping someone can fill in these details for me.

[YYZDave]

Sorry I wasn't here in the UK at that time (I arrived first in '96 and again in '02 until present) but you describe pretty much EVERY HIP gig here in the UK. All small club shows, typically in London (I remember having tickets to a show in Wales that was eventually cancelled) and all full of ex-pats wearing typically Canadian garb. I've always arrived extra-early to secure a great spot near the front of the stage, and while in line my wife and I like to play the "spot the Canadian" game, ha-ha. From the clothes people wear or the styles in general. Some of the subtle ones (like baseball shirts with Canadian Tire or Century 21 logos on them) are great to see. I'll miss not being able to see The HIP over here, but I guess it's pretty unlikely at this point. I've seen them 3 times here in England, and it would have been 4 if not for my wife's early labour with our first born. I still tell her, aged 6, that she owes me a HIP concert, ha-ha. I guess that's one debt I'm never going to see repaid, which is a real shame as I'd have loved for her to have had The HIP as her first live experience. Sorry to add all this info you weren't asking about, just figured I'd share my UK HIP experiences.

[gillcash]

Wow, I was at that show too. I was backpacking through Europe and before I left Ottawa I saw a Hip concert schedule on Much Music that had them in Europe at the same time. I don’t remember the name of the club but I’m pretty sure it was June 1991. Yes, it was 90% drunk Canuckleheads in the crowd. I’ve also looked for info on that show and can’t find anything.

One of my best Hip stories is about this show. I don’t remember how or when we (my buddy and I) got the tickets but ended up at the venue around 2pm. The venue was split into two sections – a pub at the front facing the street and the club in the back of the building. You had to walk outside and down an alley at the side of the building to get into the club.

My buddy and I decided to have some pints in the pub, and at 2pm we were the only ones there. At some point a van pulls up to the front of the pub and the band gets out. We can see through the big glass windows and are like school kids – that’s the band! Rob Baker and Paul Langois then walk into the pub and come straight for us asking where they’re supposed to go. We ended up chatting briefly with them and giving them some directions to the club entrance. Sometime after that we could hear music coming from the club, obviously a sound check. Luckily we had a few pints in us to summon the courage to sneak through the kitchen that connected the pub to the club and ended up watching the sound check/rehearsal for a good 30 minutes. Just standing there with a pint in our hands, no one around, knowing how lucky we were. That was sweet, but wish I could remember which songs they were playing.

So, it was a great time, but yes, it was Canadians who were all drunk (me included) dancing and moshing in our red and white gear. Handful of Brits were standing off to the side watching us like we were a circus act.

The second part of the story is that I saw them in Amsterdam about a week later. The London show was fun and the band was great, but it was a shit-show because everyone was so loaded. While London was mostly Canadians there were hardly any of us at the Amsterdam show.

It was a small club, probably 300 people and it was sold out (I know this because we had went with a third guy who couldn’t get in). I talked to some Dutch people trying to explain what they were about to see, but that’s a pretty difficult task. I still to this day remember the stunned looks on their faces during the show like they were both mesmerized and jubilant – we’ve all had that look. At the end of the show these two guys come up to me shaking their heads, and muttering “holy shit” over and over. Unlike the London show, there was no moshing, everyone paid attention to the band and I can actually remember the music. Gord was on fire – there was some sort of giant bird hanging from the ceiling of the club and he kept yelling at it. I think he called it the Vulture Creature. I wish I could find the setlist because I think they played a 10-minute version of On The Verge to end the night, but maybe I’m dreaming that part.

I think what happened in Europe was The Hip did a handful of shows for Road Apples in early summer of ’91 and those turned out to be successful so they went back in the Fall to play some larger venues like Paradiso in Amsterdam.

Until the Kingston show a few days ago that Amsterdam show was the best I’d ever seen them.