Sat July 11 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Del Crary Park
Before Canadian rock learned how to behave itself, Lighthouse came blasting out of 1969 like somebody had kicked open the doors of a conservatory and let the horn section loose.
Rock, jazz, classical, big band muscle, festival swagger — Lighthouse didn’t so much fit into the scene as widen the room. At a time when most bands were still figuring out how many guitar solos they could get away with, Lighthouse arrived with a sound that was huge, ambitious and proudly impossible to file under one neat label.
The results were not exactly subtle. Between 1970 and 1974, the band picked up four Junos, nine gold records and three platinum albums, while songs like “One Fine Morning,” “Sunny Days,” “Hats Off to the Stranger,” “1849” and “Pretty Lady” became part of the national bloodstream.
They were also breaking ground while everyone else was still looking for the path. Lighthouse was the first Canadian rock band asked to headline the Newport, Monterey and Boston Globe jazz festivals. They were the first to perform with symphony orchestras and the first to collaborate with a classical ballet company. At the legendary 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, where the bill included The Who, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Chicago and The Doors, Lighthouse was the only act invited back for a second night.
Back home, their free concerts at Nathan Phillips Square reportedly drew crowds of 100,000. The band toured as many as 300 days a year, playing North America, Europe and Asia, while still making a point of hitting cities, towns and small communities across Canada. If you were alive in this country in the 1970s, there is a decent chance Lighthouse passed through somewhere near you, horns blazing.
After several reunions, the band came back together permanently in 1990 and has kept moving ever since, carrying that same hard-driving, free-wheeling sound into a sixth decade. Recent honours include induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and Canada’s Walk of Fame, while their latest release revisits One Fine Morning with a remixed and remastered vinyl double-album anniversary edition, paired with a second album of previously unreleased demos.
Led by co-founder Paul Hoffert, Lighthouse now features an all-star lineup that includes original 1970 member Russ Little, along with Dan Clancy, Doug Moore, Marc Ganetakos, Chris Howells, Simon Wallis, Michael Stuart, Peter Kadar and Paul DeLong.
More than 50 years later, Lighthouse remains what they always were: too big for the box, too loud for nostalgia, and still very much Canada’s band.