Live Music @ The Hub On Martin featuring- THE GRAPES OF WRATH

THE GRAPES OF WRATH

Kevin Kane first met Tom Hooper in 1977 (when they were aged

13 and 11) after Kevin and Tom’s older brother Chris bonded

over a mutual love of The Beatles when the two had entered

junior high school in Kelowna, BC. Kane started hanging out with

the Hoopers in their basement for regular Friday night jam

sessions, where they essentially learned to play their respective

instruments together.

By 1983 – influenced in equal parts by the British Invasion of the

60s and the DIY attitudes and immediacy of punk and new wave

– the trio took the name The Grapes Of Wrath and began

working on the songs that would make up their debut EP (1984)

and first album (“September Bowl Of Green”) in 1985, released

by the fledgling Vancouver indie Nettwerk Productions. The band

were soon signed by Capitol/EMI for the albums “Treehouse”

(1987, with the breakout singles Peace Of Mind and Backward

Town), “Now And Again” (1989, building on their successes with

All The Things I Wasn’t and What Was Going Through My

Head), and “These Days” (1991, featuring the hits I Am Here and

You May Be Right). Thanks in no small part to the support of

MuchMusic, The Grapes enjoyed gold and platinum sales and

sold out shows at home in Canada, extensive radio play, and

toured Europe twice in support of albums that also saw release

in Japan, Australia, and South America. Then – with international

success looming and for reasons no one is entirely clear on – the

band disbanded in 1992.

Tom and Kevin resurrected the Grapes in the late 90s, releasing

the album “Field Trip” (2000) on the Song Corp label, who folded

immediately after it’s release. They came together again in the

summer of 2009 for a series of acoustic duo shows around BC,

celebrating their enduring friendship and the music they had

created together. The following year, an offer from a festival for a

full band reunion led to the return of drummer Chris, and the

original three recorded “High Road” (2013 – named after the

street the Hoopers lived on when they first started playing

together as kids), their first album of new material in almost 22

years. They have been gigging regularly ever since and are

arguably the longest-running and still-active “original lineup” in

rock.