I remember visiting Halifax in the early 1990's, and going to Sam the Record Man on Barrington Street. On a recommendation, I purchased two cassettes. One by Brett Ryan and the other "We The Living" by Black Pool. I loved the cassette so much that I still have it.
The songs on We The Living are 1. Days and Days
2. Between The Tracks
3. Photographs
4. Graveyard Stones
5. A Man on Pier 21
6. Queen Street
7. We the Living
8. Was Lazarus Content
9. Down to the River
10. Rave On
"Days and Days", "We The Living", "A Man on Pier 21" and "Rave On" can be heard at Swamp Spruce Boys . I think the site is created by John Wesley Chisholm.
When I moved to Halifax in 1996, I found "The Seahorse" by Black Pool. Unfortunately, I no longer have that one. Another CD of the bands music "Scraps From The Table" was also released.
It's unfortunate that Black Pool never became more successful as a band. As a collection of individuals, however, they have done pretty well. Chris Murphy has been with Sloan for over 20 years. Chip Sutherland was Sloan's manager and is a successful Halifax lawyer. John Wesley Chisholm formed The Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra. He is still part of the Halifax music scene, doing solo projects and now with the Jubilee Swing Orchestra. He is also with Arcadia Entertainment, a Halifax based television production company. From what I can find, Phil Sedore is also still involved in the Halifax music scene, producing, playing and composing scores for Arcadia Entertainment.
If you have something to share about Black Pool, I'd love to hear it.
Blackpool also had an album called "Cemetaries" on vinyl, preceding the others. Several musicians did stints in Blackpool before finding acclaim with other projects. When I first saw them, opening for 54-40 at the Flamingo they were partially a covers band. It took me years to realize some of the songs they'd played were by Billy Bragg, The Clash, or Forgotten Rebels.
ReplyDeleteI liked Blackpool a lot. Still do.
Lots of other notable musicians went through the ranks of Blackpool. In some ways, it was like finishing school for Halifax indie rockers, and even Chris Murphy came along well after John Wesley Chisholm founded it.
ReplyDeleteTracy Stevens
Matt Murphy
Dave Marsh
Catherine McKinnon
Tim Brennan
Lukas Pearse
Benn Ross
And probably a few more! These folks are on some of the albums listed.
"We The Living" & "The Seahorse" are in my safe deposit box as precious, precious items that I demand to be buried with. LOVE Black Pool !!
ReplyDelete"We The Living" & "The Seahorse" are in my safe deposit box as precious, precious items that I demand to be buried with. LOVE Black Pool !!
ReplyDeleteI saw Blackpool open for The Alarm in Toronto way back when. They blew me away! I still have 'We the living' and 'The Seahorse' on cd. Would love to finish the collection! Great band! Still play it. Thanks for the memories!
ReplyDeleteRandAThor - I LOVED both bands, too !! Any chance that you can recall what year/tour/venue that Alarm (Black Pool support) show was?
DeleteI was a HUGE fan, but barely in highschool when cemeteries came out... been dying to find even an mp3 of any of that album, but no luck in 30 years- lolz - if anybody has any singles, even, be happy to hear from ya ;-)
ReplyDeletejjonestemp2@yahoo.it (thought it'd display) - CHEERS :-)
DeleteCame across this blog as I'm sitting here listening to Cemeteries and looking for additional details around them. Picked up the record in the $0.25 bin at my local thrift store on a whim and it's one of the great pickups. I'm outside of Moncton, NB and had never heard of them from back in the 90s. I have listened to a ton of Sloan. I remember them playing small under 19 venues in moncton
ReplyDelete