Dave Bidini
Encyclopedia
Dave Bidini is a Canadian
musician, journalist and author originating from Etobicoke, Ontario
. He is a founding member of the acclaimed rock
band Rheostatics
, and has published several books about (mostly) music and sports. He currently performs with his band, aptly named BidiniBand. The group's first album, The Land Is Wild, was released in 2009. Bidini's next book, Home and Away: The Story of the 2008 Homeless World Cup, will be published by Greystone Books.
, keyboardist Dave Crosby, and drummer Rod Westlake, Dave Bidini formed the Rheostatics
in 1979, After their first studio session, Westlake left the band, and Bidini recruited drummer Dave Clark
, which cemented the band's formative lineup. They released their first (independent) single, (financed by the band's parents') "Satellite Dancing/My Generation," and played their first few Toronto shows in 1980, notably opening for Popular Spies at Toronto's legendary Edge Club. When Crosby left the band in after 1981, guitarist / singer / songwriter Martin Tielli joined the band for the rest of their career.
Bidini performed with the Rheostatics through their career, up until their breakup in 2007.
Bidini's wife, Janet Morassutti—guitar player in Toronto noir-folk quintet The Billie Hollies—has received songwriting credit on the band's songs "Dope Fiends and Boozehounds", "Delta 88" and "Northern Wish", and was the narrator on the band's 1999 children's album The Story of Harmelodia
.
on drums, Paul Linklater on guitar, and Doug Friesen on bass. Their debut album, The Land is Wild, was produced by Kerr and was released on Pheromone Recordings
in 2009. Bidini's website describes the album features "more songs about dead hockey players, cannibalism and lesbian school teachers."
Bidini collaborated on music with Dave Merritt of The Golden Seals
. On his website, he released a song from these sessions entitled "Desert Island Poems", which presents a narrative in which the Rheostatics survive a plane crash in Drumheller, Alberta
, and are forced to "eat the drummer" in order to survive. The song appears on The Land Is Wild.
' s Swerve Magazine on Clara Hughes
, "That's good, Clara, that's good", won an honourable mention in the 2008 National Magazine Awards for Sports and Recreation. He previously won for the Saturday Night
piece, "Hockey Night in Dubai," which was later expanded into one of Tropic of Hockey' s narrative triptych.
Bidini championed Paul Quarrington
's novel King Leary
in the 2008 edition of Canada Reads
. King Leary won the competition.
-winning adaptation of Tropic of Hockey, called "Hockey Nomad", which was first broadcast on CBC Television
in January 2003. His follow-up film was "The Hockey Nomad Goes to Russia," which was nominated for a subsequent Gemini Award. The CBC also commissioned Bidini for a one-hour documentary on soccer entitled "Kick In The Head" for the 2008 Soccer Day in Canada.
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...
musician, journalist and author originating from Etobicoke, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. He is a founding member of the acclaimed rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Rheostatics
Rheostatics
Rheostatics was a Genie Award-winning Canadian indie rock band, active from 1980 to 2007.Although they had only one Top 40 hit, "Claire" in 1995, they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been...
, and has published several books about (mostly) music and sports. He currently performs with his band, aptly named BidiniBand. The group's first album, The Land Is Wild, was released in 2009. Bidini's next book, Home and Away: The Story of the 2008 Homeless World Cup, will be published by Greystone Books.
Rheostatics (1979-2007)
With bass player / singer Tim VeselyTim Vesely
Tim Vesely is a Canadian musician and songwriter. He is best known as the bassist for the indie rock band Rheostatics, in which he shared lead vocal duties with bandmates Dave Bidini and Martin Tielli...
, keyboardist Dave Crosby, and drummer Rod Westlake, Dave Bidini formed the Rheostatics
Rheostatics
Rheostatics was a Genie Award-winning Canadian indie rock band, active from 1980 to 2007.Although they had only one Top 40 hit, "Claire" in 1995, they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been...
in 1979, After their first studio session, Westlake left the band, and Bidini recruited drummer Dave Clark
Dave Clark (Canadian musician)
-Biography:Clark is a respected studio musician and live performer, and has collaborated with such artists as Charles Spearin, Gord Downie, The Inbreds, Jane Siberry, Julie Doiron, and the Sun Ra Arkestra. He is perhaps best known for playing drums in the indie rock band Rheostatics from 1980–1995...
, which cemented the band's formative lineup. They released their first (independent) single, (financed by the band's parents') "Satellite Dancing/My Generation," and played their first few Toronto shows in 1980, notably opening for Popular Spies at Toronto's legendary Edge Club. When Crosby left the band in after 1981, guitarist / singer / songwriter Martin Tielli joined the band for the rest of their career.
Bidini performed with the Rheostatics through their career, up until their breakup in 2007.
Bidini's wife, Janet Morassutti—guitar player in Toronto noir-folk quintet The Billie Hollies—has received songwriting credit on the band's songs "Dope Fiends and Boozehounds", "Delta 88" and "Northern Wish", and was the narrator on the band's 1999 children's album The Story of Harmelodia
The Story of Harmelodia
The Story of Harmelodia is a 1999 album by Rheostatics.Billed as a children's album, the album is a narrative detailing the adventures of Dot and Bug, two children from the land of Harmelodia who fall through a hole into the land of Popopolis...
.
BidiniBand (2007-Present)
After Rheostatics broke up, Bidini formed the group BidiniBand, featuring former Rheostatics member Don KerrDon Kerr
Don Kerr is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and record producer.He was a member of Rheostatics from 1995 to May 2001. He plays in Ron Sexsmith's band, and sometimes with The Kelele Brothers. He and Sexsmith released an album together, Destination Unknown, in 2005...
on drums, Paul Linklater on guitar, and Doug Friesen on bass. Their debut album, The Land is Wild, was produced by Kerr and was released on Pheromone Recordings
Pheromone Recordings
Pheromone Recordings is a Canadian independent record label, launched by Kim Cooke in 2008.In addition to artists releasing new music, the label has also issued a greatest hits compilation by Skydiggers and a 20th anniversary edition of The Lowest of the Low's classic 1991 album Shakespeare My...
in 2009. Bidini's website describes the album features "more songs about dead hockey players, cannibalism and lesbian school teachers."
Bidini collaborated on music with Dave Merritt of The Golden Seals
The Golden Seals
The Golden Seals are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1999 and based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.-History:The band is led by singer and songwriter Dave Merritt. Other members include Philip Shaw Bova, Matt Ouimet, Steve Boudreau and Mike Bonnell....
. On his website, he released a song from these sessions entitled "Desert Island Poems", which presents a narrative in which the Rheostatics survive a plane crash in Drumheller, Alberta
Drumheller, Alberta
Drumheller is a town within the Red Deer River valley in the badlands of east-central Alberta, Canada. It is located northeast of Calgary...
, and are forced to "eat the drummer" in order to survive. The song appears on The Land Is Wild.
Writing
Bidini was first published in The Sunshine News, a national highschool newspaper, and later, Toronto alternative rock magazine, Shades, for whom he interviewed Devo, The Dickies, REM, Katrina and the Waves, the B52s, Hunters and Collectors, Aztec Camera, The Specials, The English Beat, The Fleshtones, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Members, Lloyd Cole, and the Ramones. His first ever interview was in 1980 with Canadian prairie rockers Harlequin. Afterwards, he wrote for OP magazine as well as the Village Voice, which is where his first sports writing appeared, including "Why I Love Wayne," which later became "Why I Love Wayne Bradley," from The Five Hole Stories. He was a columnist in the Toronto Star between 1991–1993, and currently contributes one essay per issue for Maisoneuve magazine, and a weekly Saturday column for the National Post, called "Games People Play." He taught a songwriting course in 2010 at the University of Toronto's Continuing Education Program, and is currently helping to develop the screen version of his 2002 book, "Baseballissimo."Books
- On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian RockOn a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian RockOn a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock is a 1998 book by Rheostatics guitarist David Bidini. The book is a non-fiction account of what it's like for a Canadian rock band to be on tour. The book is published by McClelland & Stewart....
(1998) - Tropic of Hockey (2001)
- Baseballissimo (2004)
- For Those About to Rock (2004)
- The Best Game You Can Name (2005)
- The Five Hole Stories (2006)
- For Those About to Write (2007)
- Around the World in 57½ Gigs (2007)
- Home and Away: In Search of Dreams at the Homeless World Cup of Soccer (2010)
Plays
Bidini has written two plays, Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica and The Night of the Dogs, currently in development.Awards
His article in the Calgary HeraldCalgary Herald
The Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta.- History :The paper was first published on August 31, 1883 by Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser. It started as a weekly paper with only...
Clara Hughes
Clara Hughes, OC, OM is a Canadian cyclist and speed skater, and has won multiple Olympic medals in both sports. Hughes won two bronze in the Summer Olympics in 1996 and four medals over the course of three Winter Olympics...
, "That's good, Clara, that's good", won an honourable mention in the 2008 National Magazine Awards for Sports and Recreation. He previously won for the Saturday Night
Saturday Night (magazine)
Saturday Night was a Canadian general interest magazine. It was founded in Toronto, Ontario in 1887.The publication was first established as a weekly broadsheet newspaper about public affairs and the arts, which was later expanded into a general interest magazine. The editor, Edmund E. Sheppard,...
piece, "Hockey Night in Dubai," which was later expanded into one of Tropic of Hockey
Bidini championed Paul Quarrington
Paul Quarrington
Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.-Background:...
's novel King Leary
King Leary
King Leary is a novel by Canadian humorist Paul Quarrington, published in 1987 by Doubleday Canada.-Plot introduction:The novel's protagonist is Percival "King" Leary, a legendary retired ice hockey player living in a smalltown nursing home, who is invited to Toronto by a young hotshot advertising...
in the 2008 edition of Canada Reads
Canada Reads
Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC.-Overview:During Canada Reads, five personalities champion five different books, each champion extolling the merits of one of the titles. The debate is broadcast over a series...
. King Leary won the competition.
- His novel On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian RockOn a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian RockOn a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock is a 1998 book by Rheostatics guitarist David Bidini. The book is a non-fiction account of what it's like for a Canadian rock band to be on tour. The book is published by McClelland & Stewart....
was nominated for the 2012 edition of Canada Reads.
Films
Bidini wrote and hosted the Gemini AwardGemini Award
The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
-winning adaptation of Tropic of Hockey, called "Hockey Nomad", which was first broadcast on CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
in January 2003. His follow-up film was "The Hockey Nomad Goes to Russia," which was nominated for a subsequent Gemini Award. The CBC also commissioned Bidini for a one-hour documentary on soccer entitled "Kick In The Head" for the 2008 Soccer Day in Canada.