{"id":572742,"date":"2026-08-18T13:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T13:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/572742\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T13:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T13:22:09","slug":"ten-years-after-the-bands-last-concert-the-tragically-hip-is-still-open-for-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/572742\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten years after the band\u2019s last concert, the Tragically Hip is still open for business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, centre, leads the band through a concert in Vancouver, in July, 2016.JONATHAN HAYWARD\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

This May, the Tragically Hip jukebox musical It\u2019s a Good Life If You Don\u2019t Weaken<\/a> made its world premiere at Hamilton\u2019s Theatre Aquarius. During intermission, the lobby bar servers were busy filling glasses with Hip-branded wine and Road Apples alcoholic cider. <\/p>\n

Over at the merchandise table, vinyl copies of the band\u2019s Yer Favourites greatest hits album were available. Track 3 is My Music at Work, a song that makes an appearance in the musical. A decade after the culturally iconic Canadian rock band played its final concert, and nearly nine years since singer-lyricist Gord Downie died of brain cancer at 53, the music of the Tragically Hip is very much at work indeed. <\/p>\n

On Friday, the band releases Live July 22 \u2013 August 20, 2016, a concert album that documents its farewell tour. On Saturday, CBC Television replays and streams A National Celebration, the band\u2019s exultant and sorrowed final show in front of a crowd of 6,000 at the hometown hockey arena in Kingston. Millions more watched the original broadcast at home and public events across the country. <\/p>\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d Downie told the audience that included then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, \u201cfor keeping me pushing, and keeping me pushing.\u201d <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The album cover for the Tragically Hip’s Live July 22 \u2013 August 20, 2016.Supplied<\/p>\n

The Tragically Hip brand, if not the band, pushes still. This summer saw the unveiling of Tragically Chip ice cream, a maple whisky-flavoured concoction with chunks of chocolate and ripples of black cherry made by Kawartha Dairy in Bobcaygeon, Ont., a tie-in to the Hip song of that town\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

The musical It\u2019s a Good Life If You Don\u2019t Weaken moves to Kingston Grand Theatre in October, and the group has its own Tragically Hip Radio satellite and streaming channel on SiriusXM. It features not only the band\u2019s entire catalogue but unreleased live music from the vault. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re sitting on over 1,000 live shows recorded,\u201d Hip manager Jake Gold says. <\/p>\n

Gold is speaking from behind the desk in his downtown Toronto office. Among the many things crowding his shelves \u2212 a canister of tennis balls from the French Open, a copy of Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s Outliers, a framed photo of him with Trudeau \u2212 are old boxes of Tragically Hip rolling papers for doobie purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know our fans and they love this kind of stuff,\u201d Gold says.<\/p>\n

The papers were first rolled out when the band was still active, in 2002. The Hip later broke into the medical marijuana industry (in 2017) but are no longer weed kings<\/a>, having gotten out of the cannabis business a few years ago. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Gord Downie of the the Tragically Hip performs in Toronto on the renowned Canadian band\u2019s farewell tour, on Aug. 10, 2016. It has been nearly nine years since singer-lyricist Downie died of brain cancer at 53.Melissa Tait\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Gold first managed the Hip for 17 years until 2003, when he was let go. He was brought back in 2020 to supervise the band\u2019s archival releases and oversee its legacy. Tapping into his deep Rolodex of industry contacts, he reached out to Jeff Jones, the former chief executive officer of the Beatles\u2019 company Apple Corps who also worked with the Hip on its first two albums. <\/p>\n

\u201cJeff gave me valuable advice,\u201d Gold says. \u201cHe told me to figure out what you\u2019ve got, then you\u2019ll know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s first archival release was 2021\u2019s Saskadelphia<\/a>, an EP of outtakes from the Road Apples New Orleans recordings sessions in 1990. The studio tracks were among 35 unearthed reels of unmarked two-inch tapes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no idea what was there until we listened to it all,\u201d Gold says.<\/p>\n

Today, everything is catalogued \u2212 not just the outtakes and concert recordings but one of every Hip T-shirt and ephemera such as contracts, photos and handwritten lyrics from Downie. It\u2019s all in the hands of Inveniem, a U.S.-based archival content and IP management company whose clients also include Metallica, Rush, Def Leppard and Frank Zappa.<\/p>\n

Gold, who manages other artists including indie-rockers Broken Social Scene, says working with an inactive band in general comes with unique challenges. Managing and marketing the Hip, however, is trickier still.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Fans gather in Springer Market Square to listen to the Tragically Hip in downtown Kingston, Ont., on Aug. 20, 2016.Lars Hagberg\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Like Gordon Lightfoot, the Hip is a part of Canada\u2019s cultural identity and a source of national pride. Unlike Lightfoot, Downie died young, lending an added measure of emotionality to the band\u2019s legacy. Fans can be sensitive when it comes to how a Hip song is used, for example, in a television commercial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s complicated,\u201d says musician and radio broadcaster Talia Schlanger, who has one of the lead roles in the It\u2019s a Good Life If You Don\u2019t Weaken musical. \u201cThere\u2019s a responsibility, and I have to trust that the people making these decisions on Gord\u2019s behalf are doing it in the spirit of Gord.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick Downie represents his brother and sits in on Hip meetings. <\/p>\n

Respectful covers of the beloved ballad Ahead by a Century have been used in advertising campaigns for Canadian Tire and Bank of Nova Scotia. Last year, the Terry Fox Foundation commissioned a reimagined version<\/a> of the popular 1992 song Courage (for Hugh MacLennan) for a video marking the Marathon of Hope\u2019s 45th anniversary. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Hip is being careful about where these songs go and how they\u2019re being used,\u201d radio broadcaster and consultant Alan Cross says. \u201cThey\u2019re mindful of the image they want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Tragically Hip’s performance is displayed on a screen during a public viewing of the band’s final concert, in Halifax on Aug. 20, 2016.Darren Calabrese\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, though, it\u2019s a business. The Hip no longer tours as a group; its chief source of revenue dried up after the final concert a decade ago. The box sets and archival releases (as well as the merlot, musicals and frozen desserts) keep the band earning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to make the revenues continue as much as they can,\u201d Cross says. \u201cThere are plenty of recordings available and there are plenty of fans who want to hear this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that respect, it\u2019s business as usual for a band whose final studio album was 2016\u2019s Man Machine Poem. The Hip\u2019s long-time label is Universal Music Canada, the country\u2019s biggest. The company treats the band as one of its marquee acts, just as always.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a big team that sits around a boardroom table and talks about how to best serve the band,\u201d says Julie Adam, president and CEO of Universal. \u201cAnd we serve the band in the same way if Gord was still with us and if they were actively touring and actively recording new music.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sept. 26, the Tragically Hip (and Leslie Feist, Roch Voisine and Loverboy songwriters Mike Reno and Paul Dean) will be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Downie used to say he wasn\u2019t the kind of artist who looks back on what he has accomplished. Would he be okay with the Hip keeping the train moving under the steam of the past? <\/p>\n

Gold believes so: \u201cGord would want his family fed.\u201d <\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Jake Gold manages Hannah Georgas. This version has been corrected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, centre, leads the band through a concert in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,14485,69],"class_list":["post-572742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-noastack","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}