Cats Can Fly was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 synthpop

Synthpop

Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...

 band in the 1980s. They released one album in 1986.

Cats Can Fly began as a school rock band called Ethos at Elia Junior High School (now Elia Middle School) in North York, Ontario in 1971. The original members were Jim Longmuir on guitar, Alan Frizell on guitar, Frank Miller on drums and Peter Steele (later http://www.myspace.com/peteralexandre Peter Alexandre) on bass. It was formed under the supervision of School Board consultant Laura Lapedus. The following year Mitch James replaced Jim Longmuir, Alan left, David Ashley replaced Peter on bass and Peter switched to keyboards.

After a US-based band with the same name released an album the group changed its name to Scamp. Frank Miller eventually left the group and was replaced by Tom Davidson. Scamp toured Canada as a bar band and had limited success including touring with Burton Cummings

Burton Cummings

Burton L. Cummings, OC, OM is a Canadian musician and songwriter.He was the lead singer and frequent keyboardist for the Canadian rock band The Guess Who...

, winning the CFTR Talent Search and appearing on Global at Noon. Ms. Lapedus eventually became the band's co-manager along with Wayne Baguley and Warren Keach.

In 1980 Scamp recorded an album with producer Jack Richardson

Jack Richardson (record producer)

Jack Richardson, CM was a Juno Award-nominated Canadian record producer and Order of Canada recipient. He is perhaps best known for producing the biggest hit records from The Guess Who from 1969 to 1975...

 of Guess Who

The Guess Who

The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, they also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land"...

, Bob Seger

Bob Seger

Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...

 and Brecker Brothers

Brecker Brothers

The Brecker Brothers was the musical duo of Michael and Randy Brecker , who recorded commercially successful jazz fusion albums together in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. They had a notable hit single with "East River" in 1979...

 fame. Distribution could not be established, however, and the record was never released.

After a series of drummers including Geoff Geddes, Phil Knipe and Bill Hibbs, Eddie Zeeman became the band's permanent drummer in 1982. Scamp changed its name to Cats Can Fly shortly thereafter. In its final form it consisted of vocalist-bass

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

ist David Ashley, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

ist Mitchell James, keyboardist Peter http://www.myspace.com/peteralexandre Alexandre and vocalist-drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

mer Eddie Zeeman. One of the band's great strengths was the fact that all four members were talented vocalists. This allowed them to include strong vocal harmonies in their arrangements. They were signed after winning a cross-Canada talent search sponsored by a cigarette

Cigarette

A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...

 company, Craven A. (The same talent search also led to a recording contract for Belinda Metz

Belinda Metz

Belinda Metz was a Canadian solo recording artist from the early to mid 1980s who has since turned to acting. She also has credits as a choreographer and songwriter.- Biography :...

.)

Their self-titled album, released on CBS Records

CBS Records

CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...

, contained the Top 40 hits "Flipping to the A Side" (#16, 1986) and "Lies Are Gonna Get Ya". Despite their success, CBS dumped the band in a major housecleaning that preceded its 1988 takeover by Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....

. The band subsequently broke up.

Discography

• Cats Can Fly (CD, LP, Epic Records 1986)
• Touch Touch (Inde EP, 1984)
• Father Was a Foreigner/Touch Touch (single, Axe Records 1984)