Men Without Hats May 12

Ticket are $15.00
Door is at 8:00
 
Before the formation of Men Withouts Hats, Ivan Doroschuk was experimenting with combining electronics & music. He played in several bands with brothers Stefan & Colin during the mid Seventies in Montreal . It was while in High School that he met Jeremy Arrobas. Along with the Doroschuks' other brother Igor, they played some concerts under the name of Wave 21. After graduation, Ivan joined the local pseudo-punk outfit Heaven Seventeen. Recognized as one of the hottest new acts in town. Not content with the group's sound, Ivan left in the summer of '78 and formed the basis of what would become one of Canada's most unique pop groups. The early lineup changed often, but was always a tight-knit group of friends who all came from the rather affluent side of Montreal. This upbringing formed the basis of Ivan's social view while writing his music.
They began rehearsing in Arrobas' garage and soon landed some gigs in some of the city's most 'happening' clubs, where their energetic and creative live show quickly caught on. They soon took the act to Toronto with manager Rick Dundas, who Ivan worked with while in Heaven Seventeen.
They returned to Montreal to record demos for the next album at Listen Audio studios and in the spring of '82 began peddling the tapes to practically every label in North America. Getting nothing but rejections, they continued playing shows to keep the publicity train moving when they received an offer from Statik Records in the UK.
With the success of the lead single "Safety Dance", they secured a deal at home with Warner and signed with MCA in the US. Remixes of "Living In China", "I Like", and "I Got The Message" were also released, and helped push the album platinum.
1984 saw the release of FOLK OF THE EIGHTIES, PART 3. The band followed up their initial album success with the new record's first single "Where Do The Boys Go" which quickly went gold and was followed by "Messiahs Die Young", backed by "No Dancing". . The band released FREEWAYS, a 5 song EP in '85
After switching to Mercury Records, the Doroschuk brothers recruited Lenny Pinkas as the new drummer and entered the studios to record their next album '87's POP GOES THE WORLD.
With the face of pop turning away from the synthesized-sounds that made Men Without Hats a household name across the globe, the band called it quits in '93. The name resurfaced again in '96 when a pair of greatest hits packages were released, COLLECTION in the US on the MCA label and GREATEST HATS in Canada on Polydor. Also in '97 RHYTHM OF YOUTH was remastered onto disc, which also contained the band's first EP and another version of "Safety Dance". Stefan released his first postMWH project in 1999, called The McKenzie-Parker Gang.
Men Without Hats were truly one of the few breaths of fresh air radio stations had to offer during the mid 80's. Bursting with energy, their live shows were events worldwide. Their videos, with their clever storylines and creative flair, were mainstays of the video stations and the numerous remixes of "Safety Dance", "I Like" and "Pop Goes The World" kept the nightclubs hopping. Many other artists have also covered the band's material, including Chinese Detectives redoing "Where Do The Boys Go" and Status Quo and Bang Bang both covering "Safety Dance", and Big Daddy and Weird Al also parodying the song. Colin Doroschuk once declared 'COMFORT BEFORE FASHION !'. Men Without Hats set the standard for keyboard-pop in the '80's, with many clones soon to follow suit. It was fashionable to be like them - and the band settled comfortably into the role.