Parachute Club (band)

Infobox Musical artist
Name = The Parachute Club


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Origin = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genre = Pop, Soft rock
Years_active = 1982–1989
2005–present
Label = RCA Records
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Current_members = Lorraine Segato
Keir Brownstone
Billy Bryans
Dave Gray
Mystic Walsh
Miranda Walsh
Ashley Wey
Past_members = Lauri Conger
Margo Davidson
Julie Masi
Steve Webster

The 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 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. Their first album was produced by Daniel 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 by Michael 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 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, 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-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."

Reunion and reconstitution

On May 14, 2005, the band performed a reunion show in Toronto, co-headlining with Martha and the Muffins. On September 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 band Messenjah) on vocals and Ashley Wey on keyboards, headlined the City 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's Luminato 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