Music of Vancouver

The first known musical entertainments (other than those provided by First Nations residents, and informally by mill workers, sailors, loggers, and tavern keepers), in what would later become Vancouver, were Methodist church services led by a Mrs. Sullivan in Gastown, who was of West Indian origin.

Her son Arthur became popular with Vancouver impresarios as a Master of Ceremonies and his career as a singer, actor and host bridged the pre-railway Gastown era with the glitter of Vancouver's nightlife in the '20s and '30s.The city has had a sometimes vibrant musical culture since the days it was on the worldwide circuit known as "Grand Tour", which included clubs in centers such as New York, London, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Cairo, Sydney, San Francisco and even Dawson City.

The Lyric and the greatly expanded Hotel Vancouver, the second by that name, were intended by the CPR's property division to attract commercial life up out of the older part of the city.

Other stages and movie theatres typically were found in each of the city's local commercial areas – the Park, Stanley, Hollywood, Rio, York, Dunbar and others.

Malkin Bowl's resident company, Theatre Under the Stars (often called TUTS), was a popular, critical success for many years (rain and fog permitting).

Complementing mainstream entertainment and high art, it follows naturally that a city that began life as a nearly all-male seaport, fishing, and lumbering town would have a tradition of burlesque, and also of popular music.

Jazz music came to Vancouver relatively early, in part because of the role of the city as a residence or turnaround for the typically African American/Canadian customer service employees of the railways (porters, stewards, waiters, cooks, trainmen).

A shantytown on Union and Prior Streets east of Main, known as Hogan's Alley after one its first black residents, became home to illicit music clubs, often harassed and shut down by the police.

Despite its slum reputation, the neighbourhood was home to superb "session players", but it was not until later years that black musicians were allowed to play in the house bands of the city's mainstream dinner clubs.

From the folk music played in the coffee houses of Kitsilano's 4th Avenue, people would come to see hippies wandering – and hear acoustic music- filling the street.

Noted bands abounded: The Poppy Family, The Collectors later Chilliwack which had the major hit "Crazy Talk," In Vancouver's psychedelic movement there flourished High-Flying Bird, United Empire Loyalists, My Indole Ring, Black Snake Blues Band, Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck, Painted Ship, Mock Duck, Papa Bear's Medicine Show, Hydro Electric Streetcar, Seeds of Time and Spring.

The "Rhythm and Blues" scene in the '60s included The Nighttrain Review, Jason Hoover and the Epics, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers featuring Tommy Chong on guitar.

Such superstars as the Beatles (who first played in Vancouver in 1964), the Rolling Stones (who opened their infamous 1972 tour at the then-brand new Pacific Coliseum) and Elvis Presley performed at the outdoor Empire Stadium, partly to keep the "undesirable element" associated with rock'n'roll out of the city core but also because of the expectedly large number of attendees.

and lead singer Joey Shithead, the K-Tels (who were forced by the TV-marketing company to change their name, which became the Young Canadians), I, Braineater, Active Dog, the Modernettes, the Pointed Sticks, Secret V's, DayGlo Abortions, Subhumans and U-J3RK5 (pron.

Local bands Spirit of the West, The Nervous Fellas, 54-40, Slow, Images in Vogue, Strange Advance, Skinny Puppy, Sons of Freedom and The Scramblers were prominent in the 80s also.

On the alternative side, Nomeansno, Animal Slaves, Art Bergman and many others... very well documented on Last Call – Vancouver Independent Music (Zulu Records), a compilation of 48 bands active at that time.

Strain, Plains of Abraham, Reserve34, Shift, Burden, Self-Esteem Project, By a Thread, The Red Light Sting, Sparkmarker, Target, Closed Caption Radio, All State Champion, Black Rice, Operation Makeout, The Dirtmitts, Dissent, Witness Protection Program, the Attack, End This Week With Knives, A Javelin Reign, Goat's Blood, Blue Monday, The Black Halos and 3 Inches of Blood.

Such as: Daytona, Bob's Your Uncle, Big Tall Garden, Coal, 2 Left Feet, Shine, Rymes with Orange, Circle C, Sarcastic Mannequins, Custer's Last Bandstand, Catherine Wheel, Juice Monkeys, The Wingnuts, Dear God, and Pull offered an eclectic element to the local scene.

The station heavily promoted Vancouver's dance/pop music, discovering various artists and bands such as Son Dexter, Thomas Donovan, Soul Decision, Red Sector One, and The West End Girls.

A sample of Vancouver's independent music scene includes or included: Grimes, The New Pornographers, The Zolas, You Say Party, In Medias Res, Fake Shark – Real Zombie!, Marianas Trench, Big John Bates, Destroyer, Black Mountain, Mother Mother, Dan Mangan, Hey Ocean!, The Pack A.D., Japandroids, White Lung, Veda Hille, S.T.R.E.E.T.S, Ladyhawk, Dandi Wind, Fan Death, Bend Sinister, Kill Matilda, Apollo Ghosts, Blood Meridian, Rat Silo, The B-Lines, Culture Def, e.s.l., 29 East, Drawn Ship, Rococode, Art Kenyon, Hannah Epperson, Stef Lang, Hannah Georgas, This Side of Town, Sprïng, Synthcake, The Greenbelt Collective, On Holiday, Young and Sexy, Los Furios, Tough Age, Fighting for Ithaca, The Brass Action, Kung Fu Symphony, Fond of Tigers, The Psychic Alliance, Parlour Steps, Capitol 6, Rampant Lion, Lightning Dust, Cinderpop, The Orchid Highway, CR Avery, Ford Pier, Petroleum By-Product, The Doers, Run Chico Run, Young Liars, Said the Whale, Secret Mommy, Twin Crystals, Supermoon, and the Organ.

Vancouver's hip-hop scene includes: Powfu, bbno$, SonReal, Tommy Genesis, LNDN DRGS, Snak the Ripper, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Manila Grey, Boslen, Chin Injeti, Kid Koala, Threat From Outer Space, Swollen Members, Rascalz, Josh Martinez, Sweatshop Union, Social Deviantz, DJ Moves, Checkmate, Extra Terrestrial, No Luck Club, BZ Jam, Merkules, Birdapres and Moka Only.

During the 1920s, when Vancouver prospered as a "free port" supplying illicit whiskey to the US Pacific Northwest (either Canadian-made or shipped in by sea from Mexico), the city's night life boomed.

Another important dinner club was Isy's, near Bute and Georgia, although Hornby Street was the hub of the fancier end of city night life for many decades, from the 1920s to the early 1970s.

Certain celebrities are associated with Vancouver's nightclub history — Mitzi Gaynor and Robert Goulet appearing regularly at the Cave among many great names who played the stalactite-decorated dinner club.

Until the implementation of prohibition the lower Hastings area and the old city core at Carrall and Water was choked with licensed establishments, many offering live entertainment.

The famous and glitzy Orpheum near Smithe and Granville, now a civic institution and home to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra was built as a house of vaudeville, then quickly adapted to the age of silent film.

During the 1960s when popular youth culture flourished (in spite of all restrictive laws), clubs such as the Retinal Circus on Davie Street in the West End and Rohans Rockpile in Kitsilano were the hubs of the hippie scene.

Vancouver-born organists who were active elsewhere include George E. Chubb in Montreal and F. R. C. Clarke in Kingston, Ontario, where he headed Queen's University's music school.

The series included some of the world's leading concert organists: Marcel Dupré, Herbert Austin Fricker, Alfred Hollins, T. Tertius Noble, Louis Vierne and Pietro Yon.

The Rogue Folk Club is a part of the Vancouver scene, and puts on shows at the St. James Community Centre and the Capilano University Theatre for the Performing Arts.