Ray Condo
Encyclopedia
Ray Condo was a Canadian
rockabilly
singer, saxophonist, and guitarist
.
, Quebec
, Ray grew up across the river in Ottawa, Ontario the third of five children. Ray's two brothers, William (Billy) and Robert were younger; his two sisters, Eileen and Maureen were older. Condo taught himself to play the guitar at 11 and by the time he was 16 had co-written and released his first recording, 'If You Only Knew' with a band in the style of the British invasion
called The Peasants.
Ray attended an elite vocational fine art & design high school specifically established by the Ontario Ministry of Education for those showing exceptional talent in fine art and design. An intense and rigorous 4 year program, many who started never completed the course but Ray seemed to thrive in this environment. It was during this time that his sister Eileen passed on. This shook Ray to the core but he continued on, graduating and finding himself on the road, heading west and away from Ottawa. Reaching Vancouver, Ray studied at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
. Not feeling all that challenged by their curriculum, after one year he dropped out and found himself drawn to a world he would eventually return to for good ... music! That started with him playing bass in a Vancouver
punk rock
group called The Secret Vs.
He left for Montreal
to paint for a year, but once again got caught up in music, getting together with bassist Clive Jackson, banjoist Chris Dean, violinist Edgar Bridwell, guitarist Eric Sandmark, and drummer Peter Sandmark to form a band called The Hardrock Goners, named after Hardrock Gunter
, an early rock and roll
musician. The Hardrock Goners performed a variety of styles, such as rockabilly, jazz
, blues
, country
and western swing
. Their first recordings appeared on the Og label's compilations, "It Came From Canada". They then established their own record label, "Crazy Rekkids".
He earned the last name "Condo" from "couch-surfing" around town so much that he was sometimes called a "one-man condo".
In 1991, he returned to Vancouver. The Hardrock Goners toured with him for another three years, and then him and his bassist merged in with a group called The Five Star Hillbillies, to create a new group called The Ricochets, named after how much they "bounced around". They made their last album in 2000.
In 2003, Condo suffered from a minor heart attack. A year later, new band member Ian Tiles found Condo dead from a heart attack in his Vancouver apartment.
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...
rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
singer, saxophonist, and guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
.
Life
Born Ray Tremblay in HullHull, Quebec
Hull is the central and oldest part of the city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa. As part of the Canadian National Capital Region, it contains offices for twenty thousand...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Ray grew up across the river in Ottawa, Ontario the third of five children. Ray's two brothers, William (Billy) and Robert were younger; his two sisters, Eileen and Maureen were older. Condo taught himself to play the guitar at 11 and by the time he was 16 had co-written and released his first recording, 'If You Only Knew' with a band in the style of the British invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
called The Peasants.
Ray attended an elite vocational fine art & design high school specifically established by the Ontario Ministry of Education for those showing exceptional talent in fine art and design. An intense and rigorous 4 year program, many who started never completed the course but Ray seemed to thrive in this environment. It was during this time that his sister Eileen passed on. This shook Ray to the core but he continued on, graduating and finding himself on the road, heading west and away from Ottawa. Reaching Vancouver, Ray studied at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
Emily Carr University of Art and Design is a public post-secondary University located on Granville Island in Vancouver, BC, Canada...
. Not feeling all that challenged by their curriculum, after one year he dropped out and found himself drawn to a world he would eventually return to for good ... music! That started with him playing bass in a Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
group called The Secret Vs.
He left for Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
to paint for a year, but once again got caught up in music, getting together with bassist Clive Jackson, banjoist Chris Dean, violinist Edgar Bridwell, guitarist Eric Sandmark, and drummer Peter Sandmark to form a band called The Hardrock Goners, named after Hardrock Gunter
Hardrock Gunter
Sidney Louie Gunter Jr. , known as Hardrock Gunter, is a singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music at the turn of the 1950s prefigured rock and roll and rockabilly music....
, an early rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
musician. The Hardrock Goners performed a variety of styles, such as rockabilly, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and western swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
. Their first recordings appeared on the Og label's compilations, "It Came From Canada". They then established their own record label, "Crazy Rekkids".
He earned the last name "Condo" from "couch-surfing" around town so much that he was sometimes called a "one-man condo".
In 1991, he returned to Vancouver. The Hardrock Goners toured with him for another three years, and then him and his bassist merged in with a group called The Five Star Hillbillies, to create a new group called The Ricochets, named after how much they "bounced around". They made their last album in 2000.
In 2003, Condo suffered from a minor heart attack. A year later, new band member Ian Tiles found Condo dead from a heart attack in his Vancouver apartment.
Discography
- 1986 - Crazy Date (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) Pipeline Records
- 1988 - "Hot & Cold (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) Crazy Rekkids
- 1990 - Condo Country (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) Crazy Rekkids
- 1991 - Condo Country (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) CD version Crazy Rekkids
- 1991 - Condo Country (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) EP version FURY Records
- 1993 - Hillbilly Holiday (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) FURY Records
- 1994 - Come On! (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) FURY Records
- 1996 - Swing Brother SwingSwing Brother SwingSwing Brother Swing is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the fifteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1949. The plot concerns the murder of a big band leader in London; the novel was published as A Wreath for Rivera in the United States....
(Ray Condo & his Ricochets) Joaquin Records - 1997 - Door to Door Maniac (Ray Condo & his Ricochets) Joaquin Records
- 2000 - High & Wild (Ray Condo & his Ricochets) Joaquin Records
- 2004 - Sweet Love On My MInd/Big Dog Little Dog (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners/Ray Condo) Crazy Productions
- 2007 - Top Hits! Party Favourites! (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) Crow-Matic Records