As a companion piece to our Music Club selection this week, here's a feature from the Daily News about the band out of Belfast, PEI who are creating a buzz in the Canadian Music Industry.
Band a dangerous mix of new talent
By Monica Lamb-Yorski
Special to the Daily News
Friday, February 23, 2007
A band that’s seeing rotation on Much Music and now Much Loud of its hit single Marching Machine makes a two-day stop in Prince Rupert this weekend.
The Chucky Danger Band, winners of the 2006 East Coast Music Awards for Best Pop Recording of the Year, will perform at the Lester Centre of the Arts.
The group is booked for school shows on Friday — for high school and Grade 7 classes — and Saturday evening it will play the Lester Centre as one of the Prince Rupert Concert Society’s season offerings.
It will be the band’s last stop on a month-long tour of Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii and the Northwest.
All in their early 20s, the four young men emerged on the Canadian music scene two and half years ago.
They began playing music together when John MacPhee (acoustic guitar and lead vocals) returned from a three-month stint overseas where he had been teaching Cambodian women how to cook western food.
“It sounds kind of strange but I had worked in restaurants and trained under a chef and this opportunity came up,” MacPhee said from Hazelton on Tuesday evening.
While in Cambodia, MacPhee wrote a collection of poems and what he described as semi-songs.
“They captured some of the feelings I was kicking around after being there for three months.”
When he got back to his home town Belfast, Prince Edward Island, he showed them to his older brother Rob MacPhee (bass) and long-time friend Colin Buchanan (lead guitar).
The three started turning the poems in to songs and with the addition of Dave MacDonald (percussion) from another Island community, Brudenell, it wasn’t long before they were ready to perform their first show on Canada Day in Charlottetown.
From there, the group began doing more shows, was asked to record a studio album by CBC’s Atlantic Airwaves, and by 2006 released a debut full-length CD, Colour.
“Our music is pop/rock but that doesn’t tell the reader much. I guess it’s a mix between modern rock, smart rock, rock ‘n’ roll and a little bit of folk. We’re also singer-songwriters with stories about each song,” said MacPhee.
While on this tour, the band’s found the response from the schools has been overwhelming. They’ve also noticed that radio requests for their music has increased since the tour began.
“The B.C. audience has a large appetite for live music,” MacPhee said. “The theatres seem to be really organized and we’ve sold out a couple of shows.”
The West Coast has inspired the Chucky Danger Band to write some new songs and over the last few days they’ve been finishing one called Queen Charlotte in tribute to the island after visiting there last week.
MacPhee said they want to show everyone how inspiring B.C. is in this song and may be trying it out when they perform in Prince Rupert.
Show time is 8 p.m. Feb. 24. Tickets available at Cook’s and the Lester Centre.
For more information about the band go to www.chuckydangerband.com
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