Gord Downie diagnosed with terminal brain cancer

[Axeman33]

Wow, just wow. As a huge Hip fan, this news is tragic.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...ncer-1.3596839

Gord Downie, lead singer of iconic Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, announced this morning he has a form of terminal brain cancer.

News of Downie's illness was posted on the band's website.

Downie, 52, and his wife Laura Leigh Usher have four children.

The statement says the diagnosis came "a few months ago."

It goes on to say: "Since then, obviously, he's endured a lot of difficult times, and he has been fighting hard. In privacy along with his family, and through all of this, we've been standing by him."

The statement also says the band is going to do one last tour. "This feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us.

"What we in The Hip receive, each time we play together, is a connection; with each other; with music and it's magic; and during the shows, a special connection with all of you, our incredible fans.

"So, we're going to dig deep, and try to make this our best tour yet."

The Tragically Hip's frontman has long established himself as one of the country's great songwriters, his lyrics giving a voice to Canada's land, its history and, at times, its official winter sport.

"You write about what you know," he told CBC's Wendy Mesley in 2012. "And I love this country. I love my idea of this country.

"Where I go and the people I've met, underlying everything is that commitment to finding the common good."

His music has given him a chance to bear witness to that, travelling from St. John's, N.L., to Attawapiskat First Nation to Vancouver since the Tragically Hip began playing the Kingston, Ont., bar scene in 1983.

Downie, and The Hip — now Gord Sinclair, Johnny Fay, Rob Baker, Paul Langlois — swiftly ascended from playing cover songs for Queen's University students, following a gig at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern three years later.

That led to a record deal with MCA and the release of their self-titled 1987 EP, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame says.

Downie's evocative lyrics didn't break out into the mainstream, however, until Up to Here, the group's first full-length album, was released in August 1989.

That album gave birth to the bluesy-rock single New Orleans is Sinking — which claimed the No. 1 spot on the Canadian content chart — and earned The Hip the first of its 14 Juno awards. They won Most Promising Group of the Year in 1990.

The next three full-length studio albums — Road Apples, Fully Completely and Day for Night — cemented the group's reputation as commanders in the Canadian rock scene, as they quickly graduated to arena-sized venues and were so popular they regularly hosted their own outdoor festival, Another Roadside Attraction.

The Hip have been among a select few acts who could garner heavy airplay on both alternative and classic rock radio stations around the country. While Downie was adept at writing something universal like My Music at Work or more enigmatically in the case of Little Bones and Locked in the Trunk of Car, quite often the band's songs were infused with Canadiana — the hockey anthem Fifty Mission Cap, the contemplative Bobcaygeon and Wheat Kings, in part about wrongfully convicted Manitoba native David Milgaard.

Former cast member and fellow Kingston native Dan Aykroyd, clad in a Canada sweatshirt, famously introduced them on Saturday Night in Live in 1995, where they performed Grace, Too and Nautical Disaster.

Downie channeled his lyricism inward on the band's 2012 album, Now for Plan A, released a year after his wife received a breast cancer diagnosis.

"The band, we rallied," Downie said in an interview on CBC's The Hour in 2012. "We're a big family and rallied around my wife, Laura, and helped her through it."

The Hip's frontman can turn a microphone into a bucking bronco in one minute and a fishing spear in the next, his inimitable footwork earning him a Dora award for choreography.

Anyone who has ever seen Downie on stage is used to his perpetual handkerchief, both a prop in his elaborate ballet — and a necessity given the stage lights, his energy and athleticism.

"His improvised antics are a major part of the show, completely transfixing the audience," the CBC's Jesse Kinos-Goodin wrote in 2013. "One performance and yet it yields, easily, 100 or more separate dance moves; such is the spontaneous genius of one of the most captivating frontmen in Canadian music."

Although Downie has also produced three solo albums since 2001, as well as a collaboration with indie darlings The Sadies, his legacy is unquestionably tied to The Hip. The group got inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and has been the recipient of the Governor General's National Arts Centre Award.

Man Machine Poem, their 13th studio album comes out in June, although the single In a World Possessed by the Human Mind, has already been released.

It's unclear whether the band has a tour planned, but performance has always been one of Downie's great loves, he's told the CBC.

"Enjoy those one-night moments. We'll only be here tonight, this bunch of us in this room," he told The Hour in 2006. "Let's try and find some point of transcendence and leap together."


While the band has appealed to countless fans through their sound and the stories they've told through song, Downie's singular stage presence looms large.

[Eskimo Brother]

That is really sad news. I'm a big Hip fan as well, and actually had a chance to meet Gord once. I worked for a summer at the same place one of his daughter's did, and he stopped by a few times, with his baseball cap pulled down low for some anonymity. I can't say I know them extremely well, but it hits a little harder when there is a personal connection.
My thoughts go out to him and his family.

[STONE.]

Brutal. Been a long time since I've listened to them (they don't get American radio play), but I always liked their stuff. And the few times I've seen him in concert, he was fantastic.

[Dobber]

Terrible news. My favorite band for 20 years before their newer stuff started changing too much for my taste. I have their first seven CDs, saw them in concert a couple of times.

The Tragically Hip got me through a lot of great times and a lot of tough times. In fact, playing any Hip song from Trouble in the Henhouse or earlier, and it will pretty much pull me out of any bad mood. This is really shitty.


I think any Hip fans should post their favorite Hip song here. As much I would love to post 50 other songs, I truly get pumped the most when this song plays. Still.

[Goldendelicious]

Wow, just wow. As a huge Hip fan, this news is tragic.

No pun intended???


I was devasted to hear this on my way to work this morning. Going to be near impossible to get tickets now to go see their final tour. I saw them a couple times while living in Kingston...fantastic performers.

[Axeman33]

No pun intended???


I was devasted to hear this on my way to work this morning. Going to be near impossible to get tickets now to go see their final tour. I saw them a couple times while living in Kingston...fantastic performers.

It wasn't intended, but certainly fitting.

Hard to nail down my favorite Hip song but my two favorites are probably Blowing at High Dough or Locked In the Trunk of a Car. Maybe Long Time Running too. Damn, I don't know.

A good friend of mine used to play in a Hip tribute band here in NS and I used to go over to their practices and jam with them on my acoustic. I used to love picking 38 Years Old and Wheat Kings on that old acoustic. I still play those songs when I dig my guitar out at kitchen parties and camp fires.

[havanablast21]

And the hits to the music industry just keep coming. Admire the strength and determination to continue on and attempt another tour.

[Goldendelicious]

And the hits to the music industry just keep coming. Admire the strength and determination to continue on and attempt another tour.

It also shows the importance (I feel) that if you get a chance to go and see a great band, artist; one of favourites...jump on the chance and go. Don't think twice.

[Grapes]

Very fortunate to see The Hip a couple of times here in the Okanagan. Fantastic band on vinyl and live on stage.
Iconic frontman Downie is in a league of his own.

Another reason to live for today, you never know what tomorrow brings.

Too many great tunes to pick a favourite ; Grace, too. Gift Shop. At the Hundredth Meridian. .....

[Godin]

Very sad to hear the news this morning. I seen them last year and was really looking forward to see them again. Damn.

[Rodgort]

It stinks. So glad I Finally got to see them after missing them for about 5 straight times. His stage presence/personality was one of, if not the best, I ever saw.

[burnsy00]

I have so many favorite Hip songs that I can't list them all but here are a couple I couldn't decide over so both are getting put up. What a load of bad news for a great musician.

https://youtu.be/e8Fi46BFAF0

https://youtu.be/aGRNEJiD3PY

[PrairieDog]

Really sad to hear this - have been a fan of theirs for a long time. Like Dobber I kind of lost interest in their new stuff about 10-12 years ago, but the older stuff still gets me.

Favourite (probably tied with Fifty-Mission Cap):

[Crazy Joe Davola]

I am legitimately down by this news. The Hip are my all-time favourite group and Gordie D is a gentlemen and a legend. His stage presence is second to none

I'll be forking out to see them again this summer given the opportunity.

[Axeman33]

Press conference is on right now -Gord Downie's brain tumour is very aggressive: Surgeons say part removed by surgery, remainder shrunk by radiation, but diagnosis is 'incurable.' Asked about a "miracle cure," Dr. Perry says about the tumour: "Unfortunately it will come back. Details of Tragically Hip summer tour to be announced tomorrow morning. No international dates, just select Canadian markets.