Formation The Tragically Hip formed in 1984 in
Kingston, Ontario. Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker were students at
Kingston Collegiate and had performed together at the KCVI Variety Show as the Rodents. Baker and Sinclair joined with Downie and Fay in 1984 and began playing gigs around Kingston with some memorable stints at Clark Hall Pub and Alfie's, student bars on
Queen's University campus. Guitarist Paul Langlois joined in 1986; saxophonist Davis Manning left that same year. They took their name from a skit in the
Michael Nesmith movie
Elephant Parts.
1987–1991 By the mid-1980s, they performed in small music venues across Ontario until being seen by then-
MCA Vice President Bruce Dickinson at the
Horseshoe Tavern in
Toronto. They were then signed to a long-term record deal with MCA, and recorded the
EP The Tragically Hip, released in 1987. The album produced two singles, "Small Town Bring-Down" and "Highway Girl". They followed up with 1989's
Up to Here. This album produced four singles, "
Blow at High Dough", "
New Orleans Is Sinking", "
Boots or Hearts", and "
38 Years Old". All four of these songs found extensive rotation on
modern rock radio play lists in Canada.
Road Apples followed in 1991, producing three singles ("
Little Bones", "
Twist My Arm", and "
Three Pistols") and reaching No. 1 on Canadian record charts. During the Road Apples tour, Downie became recognized for ranting and telling fictional stories during songs such as "Highway Girl" and "New Orleans Is Sinking". Road Apples was planned to be a double album but was rejected by Universal. The
2008 Universal Studios fire resulted in the destruction of the masters for the second album. The six unreleased songs were rediscovered in another collection in 2020. In 2021 they were released as an EP titled
Saskadelphia, which had been the working title for
Road Apples. The sound on these first two full-length albums is sometimes characterized as "blues-tinged", although there is definite acoustic punctuation throughout both discs. Although the band failed to achieve significant international success with these first two albums, their sales and dominance of modern rock radio in Canada gave them license to subsequently explore their sound.
1992–1997 The band released another album,
Fully Completely in 1992, which produced the singles "
Locked in the Trunk of a Car", "
Courage", "
At the Hundredth Meridian", and three others. The sound on this album displayed less of a blues influence than previous albums. The Hip created and headlined the first
Another Roadside Attraction tour at this time, which also featured
Midnight Oil,
Crash Vegas,
Hothouse Flowers and
Daniel Lanois. The five artists on the tour collaborated together on the 1993 charity single "
Land", which protested forest
clearcutting in
British Columbia. Many songs from
Day For Night were first performed prior to their release during the 1993 Another Roadside Attraction Tour. "Nautical Disaster" was played frequently in the middle of "New Orleans Is Sinking", an early version of "Thugs" was tested, and Downie sang lyrics from many other
Day For Night songs, such as "Grace, Too", "Scared", and "Emergency", during this tour.
Day for Night was then released in 1994, producing six singles, including "
Nautical Disaster" and "
Grace, Too".
Trouble at the Henhouse followed in 1996, producing five singles starting with "
Ahead by a Century", which reached number one on the
RPM Canadian singles chart on 24 June and became their most successful single in their home country. "Butts Wigglin", the fifth single from
Henhouse, also appeared on the soundtrack to
the Kids in the Hall movie
Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy. The live album
Live Between Us was recorded on the subsequent tour at
Cobo Arena in
Detroit, Michigan. The band developed a unique sound and ethos, leaving behind its earlier
blues influence. Downie's vocal style changed while the band experimented with song structures and chord progressions. Songs explored the themes of Canadian geography and history, water and land, all motifs that became heavily associated with the Hip. While
Fully Completely began an exploration of deeper themes, many critics consider
Day for Night to be the Hip's artistry most fully realized. The sound here is typically called "enigmatic" and "dark", while critic MacKenzie Wilson praises "the poignancy of Downie's minimalism." On the follow-up tour for this album, the band made its only appearance on
Saturday Night Live, on March 25, 1995, thanks in large part to the finagling of fellow Canadian and Kingston-area resident
Dan Aykroyd, who appeared on the show just to introduce them. Aykroyd, who is a fan of the band, had personally lobbied
SNL showrunner
Lorne Michaels to book them as a musical guest. On the show, Gord Downie notably flubbed the start of the song "Grace, Too"—rather than the normal opening lyric, "He said I'm fabulously rich", Downie sang it as "He said I'm tragically hip". In July 1996, the Hip headlined
Edenfest. The three-day concert took place at Mosport Park, in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, just a few months after the LP
Trouble at the Henhouse was released. The concert sold over 70,000 tickets total and was attended by an estimated 20,000 additional people who gained access to the concert site after the outside security broke down.
1998–2003 In 1998, the band released their sixth full-length album,
Phantom Power, which produced five singles. It won the
1999 Juno Awards for
Best Rock Album and
Best Album Design. A single from the album, "
Bobcaygeon", won the
Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2000. The album has been certified platinum three times over in Canada. In February 1999, the Hip played the first concert at the brand new
Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In July 1999, the band was part of the lineup for the
Woodstock '99 festival in
Rome, New York. On the second day of three, they were the first band to take the stage. They were followed by
Kid Rock. Their next album,
Music @ Work, was released in 2000. It won the
2001 Juno Award for
Best Rock Album. The album featured back-up vocals from
Julie Doiron on a number of tracks, and reached No. 1 on the Canadian Billboard Charts. In 2002,
In Violet Light, recorded by
Hugh Padgham and
Terry Manning at
Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas was released, along with three singles from the album. It became certified platinum in Canada. On October 10, 2002, the Tragically Hip performed two songs, "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" and "Poets", as part of a
command performance for
Queen Elizabeth II. In 2003, the band recorded a cover of "Black Day in July", a song about the 1967
12th Street Riot in Detroit, on
Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot.
2004–2008 In Between Evolution was released in 2004 in the No. 1 position in Canada. It has since sold over 100,000 copies. At the 92nd
Grey Cup held November 21, 2004, the band provided the halftime entertainment in front of a packed house at
Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa. In 2004, in episode 15 ("Rock On"), season 2 of Canadian comedy TV series
Corner Gas, the Tragically Hip gave a cameo appearance as an unnamed local band rehearsing in Brent's garage. They play a rough version of the song "It Can't Be Nashville Every Night" from their
In Between Evolution album until interrupted and asked to leave by Brent, Wanda, and Hank. As they disappointedly go, Wanda demands that Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker leave behind their amplifiers. In October 2005, several radio stations temporarily stopped playing "
New Orleans Is Sinking", out of sensitivity to the victims of
Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated the city in early September of that year. However, it received considerable pirate radio and relief site play and gained some notoriety and praise in New Orleans due to its attitudinal proximity to the city's culture. On November 1, 2005, the Hip released a double CD, double DVD
box set,
Hipeponymous, including all of their singles and music videos to date, a backstage documentary called "Macroscopic", an animated Hip-scored short film entitled "The Right Whale", two brand new songs ("No Threat" and "The New Maybe"), a full-length concert from November 2004
That Night in Toronto, and a 2-CD greatest hits collection
Yer Favourites (selected on-line by 150,000 fans). On November 8, 2005,
Yer Favourites and
That Night in Toronto were released individually. In 2006, another studio album, entitled
World Container, was released, being notably produced by
Bob Rock. It produced four singles, and reached the No. 1 spot on the Canadian rock music charts. The band toured concert dates in major Canadian cities, and then as an opening act for
the Who on several US dates. A tour of Eastern Canada, Europe, and select cities in the United States occurred late in the year. On February 23, 2008, the Hip returned to their hometown of Kingston, Ontario, where they were the first live act to perform at the new
K-Rock Centre.
2009–2015 In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and
We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote
We Are the Same, the band invited
The Hour's
George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The
Bathouse Recording Studio in
Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada. On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (
CBC,
Global, and
CTV). in
Boston, Massachusetts, 2015. Single "
At Transformation" was released in May 2012 ahead of the band's twelfth studio album,
Now for Plan A. A second single, "Streets Ahead" came out in August that year, and the album followed in October. The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October,
Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015.
2016–2017: Downie's diagnosis, summer tour, and death In December 2015, Downie was diagnosed with
glioblastoma, a terminal form of
brain cancer. The band announced his diagnosis on May 24, 2016. The band also announced that, despite his condition, they would tour that summer. The album featured songs such as "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind", "In Sarnia", and "Machine". The final concert of the Man Machine Poem tour was held at the
Rogers K-Rock Centre in the band's hometown of Kingston on August 20, 2016. The concert was aired by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a live cross-platform broadcast on
CBC Television,
CBC Radio One,
CBC Radio 2,
CBC Music, and
YouTube. The concert featured 30 songs and three encore sets, with the band finishing with a performance of "
Ahead by a Century". On October 13, 2016, Downie gave an interview, his first since his cancer diagnosis, to the CBC's
Peter Mansbridge, in which he reported experiencing memory loss. On December 22, 2016, Downie was selected as
The Canadian Press'
Canadian Newsmaker of the Year and was the first entertainer ever selected for the title. On June 15, 2017, all five members of the Tragically Hip were announced as recipients of the
Order of Canada by
Governor General of Canada David Johnston. Downie received his honour on June 19; The band and the tour are the subjects of
Jennifer Baichwal and
Nicholas de Pencier's documentary film
Long Time Running, which premiered at the
2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It was slated to have its television premiere in November 2017 on
CTV, but following Downie's death the network moved the broadcast up to October 20. Gord Downie died on October 17, 2017. Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau, who is a fan of the Tragically Hip, released a tribute statement on his official website the morning after Downie's death. Later in the day, he held a press conference at
Parliament Hill at which he eulogized Downie as "Our buddy Gord, who loved this country with everything he had—and not just loved it in a nebulous, 'Oh, I love Canada' way. He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life." Following Downie's death, many of the band's albums climbed the
Billboard Canadian Albums chart, which is compiled by Neilsen Music. In the week ending October 19, 2017 (the day following the announcement of Downie's death),
Yer Favourites rose to No. 2 in the chart, with another 10 albums moving to the Top 200. Streaming also increased 700 percent, and many of the Tragically Hip's top hits remained on the Spotify Canadian Viral 50 as of October 23, 2017.
2018–present: Activity following Downie's death Before his death, Downie indicated in interviews that the band had unreleased material that may still be issued as one or more new albums; when accepting Downie's posthumous awards at the
Juno Awards of 2018, his brothers Patrick and
Mike also stated that more unreleased music is likely to be issued in the future.
A National Celebration, a concert film of the Tragically Hip's final concert, was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 8, 2017. In July 2018, guitarist Rob Baker told
Entertainment Tonight Canada that the Tragically Hip were no longer active as a touring or recording entity following Downie's death. He stated "When I say The Tragically Hip doesn't exist as a performing unit anymore because a key member is gone, I think [fans] understand that. We wouldn't be The Hip without Gord [...] The Hip has played their last note." Baker also revealed that Downie had encouraged the group to audition replacement vocalists, but the other members did not seriously consider the idea. In a July 2018 interview with the
Toronto Sun, Baker confirmed that at least three albums' worth of unreleased material was recorded with Downie before his death, but stated that the band had yet to decide how it would be released. On October 11, 2018, six days before the first anniversary of Downie's death, Fay and Baker joined
Choir! Choir! Choir! at Yonge-Dundas Square (now
Sankofa Square) for a live performance of the Tragically Hip's "
Grace, Too". On October 17, 2018, one year after Downie's death, a previously unreleased studio recording of the song "Wait So Long" was played on
CIKR-FM, a radio station in the band's hometown of Kingston. The Tragically Hip was among hundreds of artists whose material was reported to have been destroyed in the
2008 Universal fire but it later emerged that the band's master tapes had been transferred back to Canada in 2001, and had escaped the fire. On September 14, 2019, Langlois, Sinclair and Baker performed a set at Rockin' the Big House, a benefit concert on the grounds of the former
Kingston Penitentiary, with guest vocalists
Hugh Dillon and
Tom Cochrane. In January 2020, Sinclair announced that his own debut album as a solo artist,
Taxi Dancers, would be released on February 28. In June 2020, the band and manager Jake Gold announced that they were undertaking an "archaeological dig" to select music and memorabilia from the band's archives for future release. In early 2021, Rob Baker released a new album with his side band project, Stripper's Union. The band released
Saskadelphia, an EP comprising five previously unreleased and recently found
Road Apples outtakes and a live track (as the original version has yet to be found).
Road Apples was planned to be a double album, but was rejected by the label. Many songs were presumed to be destroyed in the Universal fire in 2008, but the masters were found and transferred to new recordings in 2019.
Saskadelphia was released on May 21, 2021. In a promotional interview on
CBC Radio's
Q before the ceremony, the band stated that they agreed to perform specifically because Feist had been proposed as the vocalist, with Langlois stating that "OK, so that's not going to be some guy trying to sing like Gord or some guy trying not to sing like Gord. It was a 'no' until Feist came up." The band also received the
Juno Humanitarian Award at the ceremony for their history of philanthropic work in Canada. In November 2021, the band released a 30th anniversary boxed set for
Road Apples. On June 24, 2022, the band released
Live at the Roxy, a live recording of their May 3, 1991 concert at the
Roxy Theatre in
West Hollywood, California. In September 2022, the surviving members again reunited to perform at the
Buffy Sainte-Marie tribute show
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Starwalker, supporting singer-songwriter
William Prince on Sainte-Marie's "
Now That the Buffalo's Gone". In October 2022, the band continued their reissue campaign with an expanded box set for the 30th anniversary of
Fully Completely. In November 2023, the band released a 25th anniversary boxed set for their 1998 LP,
Phantom Power. In 2024, the band released a 40th anniversary boxed set of
Up To Here. On September 20, 2024, the four-part documentary series,
The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, premiered on
Prime Video. On the same day as
The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal was released to streaming services, the previously unreleased song, "Wait So Long", an outtake from the
Up To Here recording sessions, was released digitally on streaming platforms. In October 2024, the band released an anthology limited edition book, entitled
This Is Our Life. ''It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken'', a jukebox musical featuring the music of the Tragically Hip, premiered at the Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, Ontario on April 22, 2026. In 2026, the band were inducted into the
Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. ==Legacy and influence==