TIFF 2024: Tragically Hip series honors beloved Canadian band

TORONTO, Sept 5 – Surviving members of The Tragically Hip walked the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday for the world premiere of a docuseries that celebrates the Canadian rock band and the legacy of its late vocalist Gord Downie.

Downie, who lost his battle with cancer in 2017, stands at the heart of the four-part series, “The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal,” which honours one of Canada’s most acclaimed bands.

The series explores the band’s early days in Kingston, Ontario, when friends Gord Downie, Gord Sinclair, Rob Baker, Paul Langlois and Johnny Fay first formed the band in the 1980s.

It traces the Hip’s growth over 40 years into an outfit that could fill stadiums. Nine of its albums have reached No. 1 on the Canadian charts over the years and won numerous Canadian music awards.

The series also explores the band’s attempt to break into the U.S., where it never rose to the level of stardom it enjoyed in Canada.

The series opts to celebrate the band’s success and what it represents to Canadians rather than dwell in sorrow, offering fans an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse into one of the country’s most beloved musical acts.

For lead guitarist Rob Baker, watching the last episode of the series was heart-wrenching. He said he could not bear to view the scenes showing the band’s farewell performance featuring Downie.

“It’s still very emotional for me to watch,” Baker told Reuters on the red carpet. “I just can’t do that. I lived it, I can’t go back.”

The band’s popularity rests with its ability to capture the Canadian experience, said Mike Downie, brother of the late lead singer and the director of the series. “Bobcaygeon,” a song named after a small Ontario town, tells of a tale about escaping from the big city into rural Canada. Another fan favourite, “Wheat Kings,” is about a man falsely convicted of raping a woman in the prairie province of Saskatchewan.

“I hope people come to understand why this band mattered so much for so many people and the indelible mark they made on Canadian culture,” Downie told Reuters.

The Tragically Hip “came up at a time where I think many Canadians always looked to the States for affirmation,” Downie said, “and came out the other side where all of Canada was saying, ‘They’re ours.’”

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