Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ivar Hamilton's Exit Interview: Toronto Mike'd #1391

Episode Date: December 13, 2023

In this 1391st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Ivar Hamilton about his decades of service to Polygram / Universal Music Group upon his retirement. Bon Jovi, Bootsauce and Hip! Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

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hosted by FOTML Grego, and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, I was going to say making his first appearance of his retirement, but it's actually his second appearance. I'll explain in a moment. It's Ivor Hamilton. Hey, great to be here. Thank you for having me.

And thank you for coming to TMLX 14 on Saturday. I actually loved being there. I just want to say off the top, I was hosting my family on Sunday, extended family to put the Christmas tree up and I was going to buy some lasagna at a regular supermarket. And when I went to Palm, I was like, why not buy some here? I have to tell you, the food was phenomenal. My family were just floored how great it was. My nephew lives up in Mississauga, and his wife said,

we are now going to get all of our lasagna and pasta from Palma. Music to my ears, Ivor, and that's why you sponsored Toronto Mike right there. I realized I wrote this intro as if this was your first appearance since your retirement. Yes. Congratulations. You were vice president, uh,

at universal music Canada, and now you're just like a civilian. Absolutely. So I wrote that. And then I, cause we were going to do this last Wednesday before TML X 14. And then I called you up and said, hey, let's push this a week. Because I woke up Tuesday with zero energy and my voice was really crappy.

And I'm like, oh, we can push this a week. I'm glad we did because I feel great today. But that means that your first appearance post-retirement was actually TMLX 14 and not today. But today, we're going to dive in are you comfortable yeah absolutely and you had an event yourself uh i i honestly wanted to go but i was coming off an illness and then my daughter got sick and now my wife is sick and it's been like avoiding these like minefields here but how was your event um i have to say i was, I was thinking about this on the way down here this morning, and I was like, I couldn't have gone out on a higher note.

I will say that Universal Music Canada treated me unbelievably well on my exit. It was a night I'll never forget. It was absolutely fantastic. A lot of wonderful people that I worked with, people both at Universal Music and in the Toronto music business and in the radio business. All of, you know, a number of Spirit of Radio people were there and some artists were there. It was absolutely fantastic. I just, it was, I can't say, I can't say enough great things about what happened the night before last.

So here's a couple of nice things I'll say on behalf of FOTM. So Mike Hannafin wrote in to say congrats to a legend. Oh, fantastic. Mike was a great guy that we worked together at CFNY and he was in the news and sports department at the time and a great guy to work with. Robbie J, who was at your event, says that this episode of Toronto Mic'd is highly anticipated. Yes. So have you and I ever talked about

the highly anticipated phrase? I know we have, but remind me. Yeah, so highly anticipated was a lot of people at Universal when we were doing radio buys. So when they're doing radio buys on the Edge and Robbie Johnson, producer at the Edge and best known as the producer of alan's ongoing history of new music and he would write me and and he and i was running the marketing department at the time and he said if i get one more of your

persons telling me that a new record is highly anticipated i am going to lose my marbles so is highly anticipated. I am going to lose my marbles. So, and that was probably 20 years ago. So every time Robbie, Jay, and I have some kind of interaction, absolutely everything's highly anticipated. I love it. Love it so much.

Now, Matt Layden, love this guy, for years and years and years, this gentleman's in Edmonton, he tweets at me daily, who's on next, who's on next, but I never have any idea, like, does he care, is he listening, or is he just, like, there to set me up, who's on next, who's on next. But I never have any idea, like, does he care? Is he listening?

Or is he just like there to set me up, which I do appreciate, Matt. But he wrote in to say, please tell Ivor I offer my congratulations on his retirement. This is a big deal to get the congrats from Matt Layden. Thank you. Thank you very much, Matt. Thank you very much, Matt. Mark Nathan. Mark Nathan was on recently because he helped break in the CanCon,

the band CanCon. Yes. ConCan. You know, I made that mistake. I keep, Ivor, that name trips me up every time because I always use the expression ConCan all the time. C is right, ConCan, ConCan. and then the band is can con with k's but my brain says it is con can it is can con of course you're right i beg your pardon was a big hit mark nathan was behind that also um the bernica ladies were introduced to seymour stein at sire records thanks to mark

nathan i actually confirmed this two days ago with Steven Page, who was sitting in the basement here. Mark was a dear friend of Don Burns, and I promised Mark off the top, I would just seek from you, Ivor, any memories you have of Don Burns before we get into that.

Sure. Well, you know, Don was my boss. He was brought up from Buffalo by David Marsden to help oversee a lot of the music and be an assistant program director at CFNY. He was larger than life. He had a huge, huge laugh. And, of course, he had one of the best voices in the business. I mean, he was the, I guess, what's the word for it?

You know the the continuity guy like when you would hear all the spirit of radio imaging correct so don was the guy who did all the imaging and he was he was amazing and then whenever you needed a great voice over don was your guy he could do anything and he did it so well and you know later in life he did a lot of acting things i remember seeing him uh he was daddy warbucks on uh on annie i saw him at the rose rose theater in brampton shortly before he passed uh with my late mother and um kevin o'leary and his his girlfriend uh different kevin o'leary though a different kevin o'leary kevin o'leary he was the producer of beat and geats at cfny at CFNY. So Don was great.

And then at Universal, I used to hire him to do a lot of our voiceovers for either commercials or presentations and things. And just bigger than life, one of the funniest guys I ever worked with. And he was a great radio guy. And when the so-called mistake of 88 happened, he was certainly one of the guys who was with us in trying to save the radio station when it was going in a different direction.

Now, we're going to walk through very, very, very briefly your ongoing history of Toronto Mic'd appearances. And then I'll point out an interesting fact before we get into our topic of the day. So you made your Toronto Mike debut Ivor in February, 2016. Okay.

That was episode one 57. And I wrote a description at the time. Some of these themes might be re revisited, but Mike chats with CF and wise Ivor Hamilton about his days at the spirit of radio, his memories of Martin Streak, how he was responsible for the Bon Jovi banner at the Air Canada Center, and what he and David Mars interrupt to these days, which is still going. NYthespirit.com. Yes. Yep.

Still going. And David was at my retirement party the night before last. I think Robbie J wanted me to know what I missed. And he's like, Scott Turner was here. Yes, he was. And I'm like, oh, these are my friends. I should have been there. But it was honestly, if I could have been there,

I would have been there. That's for sure. OK, so that was February 2016. Then in August 2017, you came back and we kicked out the jams together. What a pleasure it was kicking out the jams with you, Ivor Hamilton. That was when we played

a ton of punk rock music. Great time. I introduced you to a couple of bands that you hadn't heard before. It was a lot of fun. And then October 2021, we're in the pandemic now. This was episode 933,

the inaugural episode of the Progressive Past of Modern Melodies. Toronto Mike, that's me, Brother Bill, Cam Gordon, and you, we played a game called CFNY Not. And we would ask you why were some songs left off the CFNY playlist and why were some songs on the playlist? We're still fascinated by this by the way i mean i look back on it and do do i have any regrets of songs that you know we should have played or shouldn't shouldn't have and there are some is there one on the top of that list that comes top of mind you know like i talked to tom wilson from he was at tmlx 14 did you see tom

wilson um you might have missed him i think I missed him because I was in and out fairly quickly. Going right out of my head. Like this was such a big jam everywhere and CFNY wasn't touching it. Yeah. I mean, I don't, I mean. You were gone by then. I was gone by then. So I can't, I can't say I'm, you know, I can't, I can't really speak to that one. But I, if I have a regret, it was in later years when I, my later years were, you know, 87,

88 that we sort of backed off on playing Rush. And to me, because of the spirit of radio and the affiliation, the station had with the band in the early days, we should have never left it behind and said, it doesn't matter what the rest of the music scene is doing. We should have never done that. And I think in later years, it kind of, you know, it was Rush were, they were upset about it. And I know that for a fact,

because I heard it from Alex Lifeson. He goes, yeah, like, you know, when there was the anniversary, you know, station anniversary coming up and they wanted us to come and do an interview and, but they weren't even going to play Spirit of Radio. They weren't going to play the cover version by Catherine Wheel.

That hurt. We'll start there because your last appearance was episode 1021 where you and many CFNY people from David Marsden to Liz Janik to Scott Turner,

Mae Potts, Fred Patterson, Leslie Cross, Alan Cross, Captain Phil Evans, Danny Elwell, Humble Howard Glassman, Robbie Jay,

Bob Ouellette, Jay Brody. That was March 2022, episode 1021. I'm glad you were a part of that. That was lots of fun. Great night. I mean, so many great stories from the early days, but even up to what was going on at the station in 2022. Yeah, Jay Brody was there at the time. Jay was a stand-up guy

putting up with all of our silly stories from way back in the day. Hats off to him for that. You know, four hours. So I just checked the time on that. We dropped four hours of content with all those voices I just mentioned and great stories

from people who couldn't be there like Don Burns and people we couldn't find like Chris Shepard. Any idea where Chris Shepard is? No. And this is a big part of the CFNY documentary, is that we could, after we talked to everybody we could think of

and searched high and low, and we're never able to locate him. So I have a, I'll tell you about it later, but I have a Costa Rica connection. And not that this will help you locate him, but I think that's where he is, Costa Rica. I heard that he's somewhere in the Caribbean, and Costa Rica is, who knows, but we couldn't get him for the documentary, and that was a shame. He is featured in the documentary, because we certainly were able to get some classic footage and some air checks and things like that.

Sure. That was one of the disappointments. Archival footage. Yeah. Okay, so we're playing Catherine Wheel. So come to Charlie, it's really just a question of your honesty. Yeah, your honesty. One last super league and the freedom of music. Are you behind this cover that appeared on the Spirit of Edge compilation?

Because it was the only way 102.1 was going to play this song, which really should be the anthem, right? Well, yes. I mean, the Spirit of the Edge compilations were my idea. And there was one of the marketing persons that I worked with at the time who was handling Catherine Wheel and had a very good relationship with them.

She went to them and asked them to do this cover version. And that's how it happened. And it's interesting on Catherine Wheel. I had dinner last night with some of the folks from PBS, The Bridge, and Buffalo. And we talked about Catherine Wheel at the dinner. And it was just the conversation, the direction of the conversation was bands that were very big in Toronto, but not big in the UK.

And Catherine Wheel was one of those. I went over to see them in the UK and I think it was 93. And it was place was probably as big as the Rivoli. And if they were playing here, it probably would have been a concert hall. So how come, Ivor? Why were they so much bigger here than at home? I would just say that, you know, this city picked up on certain things and Catherine Wheel was one of them.

There was a lot of instances of that. I don't want to spoil a documentary, a CFNY documentary, but there was a lot of discussion about bands who, bands that are interviewed who talked about that they played some of their biggest shows in toronto or where their careers kicked off in north america here so um it is something that happened but you know i know it also uh happens in other cities around the world too where bands are bigger here i mean there was just a whole a whole thing where bands built their careers around

focusing on north america and the audience is appreciating them much more than here something that went on since the 60s i've learned recently that there's a whole string of bands that were far bigger in north america than they ever were in their own home territory, starting in the 1960s and, you know, moving to today. Well, your next visit is going to be, we're going to kick out 10 great songs from acts from overseas that are bigger here. That's your homework, okay? Yeah, I'm happy to do that. Well, I got to come up with excuses to get Ivor back.

So one of the things, we ran through all your appearances on Toronto, Mike. Sure. And this is, even though I see we did touch on of the things, we ran through all your appearances on Toronto Mic. Sure. And this is, even though I see we did touch on the banner, which we might touch on again, but I was careful. I was conscious about the fact not to ask too many

Universal Music Canada questions and keep more of it towards CFNY and just general music questions. I was sensitive to that, but now that you're retired, I have no such sensitivity. Right. Okay, so we'll see how this goes.

We'll see what direction it goes in. I mean, you know. Yeah, well, I mean, you reserve the right to, you know, I'm not going to rough you up or anything. All right. And you look great, though. Are you still running? I haven't been.

Do lots of walking with the dog, but I think now that I'm retired, I'm rejoining a gym that i haven't been to for a few years and health is a priority number one because once you get into retirement you only have so many mobile years and i want to take a full advantage of that you're a smart man you're a smart man you still drinking beer uh not much not too much mostly non-alcoholic beer. I don't have any of that for you. The occasional one. The occasional one's fine. I will send you home with some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery.

And you loved Palma Pasta so much. I do have another large lasagna for you in my freezer. Oh, that is so kind of you. Taking care of you, man. We know you love your Palma Pasta and you got your Great Lakes beer. They pair well together. taking care of you man we know you love your palma pasta and you got your great lakes beer they pair well together please tell me how do you first come to uh work for universal music canada through polygram how does it work yeah so it it all sort of came about with you know when

there was the movement at cfny to make those changes in the programming when it was like when we were told we're going to go in a different direction and and I was sent to the Toronto Public Library to do research on chart hits and and we were going to start playing chart hits and um you know maybe my maybe I haven't got some of the dates right but but I recall it was over the Labor Day weekend in 88 was when they started making that move towards playing a lot of those, introducing some of those top 40 songs. Well, you might hear like Monkey by George Michael.

Yeah, I mean, there was just Paula Abdul. Madonna. Madonna. There was lots. was just you know paul abdul there was a madonna madonna there lots there was the but the edict was we have to play x amount of top 40 songs no matter what they sound alike sound like every week which and you know you could still mix in with some of the cfny songs but it was an absolute train wreck and it just didn't work you know so i was just like i can't be a part of this anymore i just was like finally it was like i've had i've had enough and i was

also told um that we would like to send you to hamilton to work on a tv show that we've got in production and it was like i never worked in tv i had, I had zero experience in TV. So tell me that's a hint that I'm out the door. So I needed to, I needed to find something else. And there was a trip that Polygram did to Russia, to Moscow in the fall of 88, that I was asked to go on as one of the last things I did at CFNY. And they took a pile of radio programmers and journalists and some TV people to Moscow to see big country. And so the guy who was the head of national promotion, Bob Ansell at the time, and I'd known Bob for many, many years. And so there was something that was coming up at Polygram. And I started the first week in, it was like last week in November, first week of December at Polygram here in Toronto. And it was only a regional office at the time. So I started in regional promotion.

And I, for the first, I think for the first six to eight months, I thought, what did I get myself into? What am I doing here? And it was, you know, everything, it was just, I thought, what did I get myself into? What am I doing here? And it was, you know, everything, it was just, you know, I suppose like starting any new job, it was just a complete, you know, complete change of environment, a completely different way of doing things. And, and I, you know, we say like working in radio, it was pretty loose. I mean, there was, it was pretty loose over the years and how things were done. And, you know, coming to work at a multinational corporation and all of a sudden things are quite a bit different,

quite a bit stricter. And I just had to sort of sit there and open my mind and retool, and away you went. If you want to belt this out with me, Ivor, there's no shame in that. Just listen to that emotional swell here. Holy smokes. As Romeo was bleeding But you can't see his blood

It's nothing but some feelings What lyrics. Beautiful. Wow. Jean Bon Jovi, what a talent. It's nothing but some feelings What lyrics? Beautiful. Wow. Beautiful thing. Jean Bon Jovi, what a talent. It's been raining since you left me Now I'm drowning in the flood Wow.

It's deep. You see I've always been a fighter But without you I give up Now I can't sing a love song Like the way it's meant to be Well, I guess I'm not that good anymore But baby, that's just me Yeah, I will love you

Baby Always Baby Always Is this your karaoke jam, Ivor? It screams karaoke. All right, so my ears are bleeding now. Is that one of the lyrics? Your ears are bleeding now. All right, this is probably, Ivor,

we're going to start with Bon Jovi. This is probably the biggest act of the late 80s early 90s that polygram had am i right yes absolutely they were so it was it was bon jovi and def leppard were neck and neck at the same time they were they were the big ones that we had when i started bon jovi makes def leppard seem like the beatles my opinion everybody okay go ahead i mean uh i was in the trenches with both those bands more makes Def Leppard seem like the Beatles. My opinion, everybody. Yeah, sure, sure. Go ahead, Albert. I mean, I was in the trenches with both those bands,

more so with Bon Jovi, though. I did a ton of work with Bon Jovi across Canada, lots of promotion, tons of radio things. At one point, I was very, very fortunate. I got to fly in their private jet with them on some dates, but had a great respect for those guys. I mean, John is a really great business guy, and I love working with those guys. I always had a great respect for them. And Def Leppard, not as much working with them, but Def Leppard you know not as much working with them but Def Leppard also I mean

the one thing about Def Leppard I will say um Joe Elliott has an incredible taste in music and he's got a radio show that's on Sirius and it is is that a British band that's bigger here than at home uh yes yes the thing is also but you go in a different direction Bon Jovi when they weren't doing so well in the U.S., they were doing huge business overseas. Oh, in Italy, right? No, I mean, Bon Jovi would play, you know, if they came here, they'd play Maple Leaf Gardens and they'd go to the U.K., they'd be playing, you know, two nights at Wembley Stadium. You know, so they worked the global markets when nobody else was, which was great. Okay, I'm glad you had a good relationship with these guys.

Now, listen, I did have Slippery When Wet in 1987. I had it on cassette. And there were definitely songs on Slippery When Wet I would play over and over again and add them to mixtapes and stuff. So this happened. But at some point, I don't know, maybe after Bad Medicine or something,

I just grew to despise this band. And if John's listening, it's not personal. I'm sure he sounds like you're telling me, Ivor, John's a nice guy, right? He was always good to you. Good professional man. Absolutely. They totally were. I mean, they felt it in the early

90s when the grunge, the whole grunge thing started to take foot. And they really felt that. But at that point, they made this keep the faith record and they kept working hard. They weren't that affected by what went on, even though it seemed like grunge completely took over. They found their lane. But what also irked me as I got more savvy and older, which means in the last couple of years.

I'm just kidding. Okay, so what's bugged me a bit was that they kind of tried to have this, like, blue-collar New Jersey thing. Like, they were a bunch of pals from Jersey coming together. And then I watched 60 Minutes one day, and John's up there talking about how, oh, no, like, he owns Bon Jovi Inc. And then he hires, like, Richie Sambora, and these people are, like, on the payroll to work for, like, Bon Jovi Inc. and then he hires Richie Sambora and these people are on the payroll to work for Bon Jovi Inc. It's not at all like you might hear if you talk to the Tragically Hip or

Pearl Jam or whatever. This is truly a business and he just hires these parts around him. Listen, there's always going to be bands like that and it's tough on relationships but it is what it is. I know it was the same thing for the Pixies. And, you know, everything in the Pixies is Charles.

And he controls it 100%. And you have bands that still have that. Like Smashing Pumpkins, for example. There you go. Right. Okay. So talk to me again, even if we have visited this in the past. Let's revisit it.

I was super furious to see a Bon Jovi banner erected at the Air Canada Centre, and then I found out this good guy, Ivor Hamilton, future FOTM, was responsible. Tell me about that story. That was just, we had a sponsorship with the Raptors in my time at Universal, and the Raptors took a sponsorship with the Raptors in my time at Universal. And the Raptors took a bunch of the sponsors to Atlanta to see a game. And there was a banner sitting up in the Atlanta team plays.

And it was from one of the local bands, or at least a band that had played there numerous, numerous times. I can't remember off the top of my head. TLC, maybe? No, no, no. It was more like one of the... Outkast? No, it was more of one of the jam bands. Okay.

So I was sitting there with a guy from... The Yellman Brothers? Are they from there? They were, but it wasn't the Yell the young i'm just gonna name bands into you anyway anyway i i remember sitting there with the guy the sponsorship guy from uh from maple leaf sports and entertainment and i said you know we should look at doing something there and look into it and i went and did my research and said who who had played played the Canada Centre more times or Scotiabank more times than anybody else, and it was Bon Jovi.

Really? More than the Tragically Hip? Yes. Okay. Yes. So anyway, I said, why don't we do something here? Like, you know, we're a sponsor, we're going to continue our sponsorship,

and it's like, let's see what we can do here, and, you know, let's see if I can get the band support on it and they love the idea so that's how that ended up happening i know the banner is not up there any longer but you know where the banner is i do not because i wanted to have like a a tmlx event where we burn it in a public park like exercise please please just i mean i learned i gotta tell you something man it's like you know i used to be an awful music snob earlier in my career but as i went along it's like i'm just i got to the point as we got older it's like people can just like what they want to like but i know you've got no you're 100 right i'm leaning in on the bon jovi for fun being your butt winking on you okay well

i have to be in my bottom about i gotta talk to you about another band too. Not quite as big as Bon Jovi, but I know you're responsible for some of this. Pardon me, but does your man get bad? Can you name that tune yet? It's a boot saw song. Love Monkey No. 9. There you go.

That is the song. All right. We touched on this at TMLX14, though, but you worked closely with Bootsauce, right? I was in the trenches many, many times with those guys. I think out of all the Canadian bands I've seen in my 45-year career, they're probably in the top five, mostly because I was working with them.

But the band I have seen the very most is Teenage Head. And that's because you love Teenage Head. I absolutely do. That's an authentic, organic, love it so much. And whenever we kick out the jams with Viber, there's going to be Teenage Head.

Boot Sauce, it's a professional obligation, I assume. So are you part of the team that needs to sell Boot Sauce to radio, much music? I was. I assume. So are you part of the team that needs to sell Boot Sauce to radio, much music? I was. I was. What can you tell me about, you know, signing the band and working with them

and trying to get them to fit? Like, anything you can. Boot Sauce comes up quite a bit on this program. I'm surprised. I've got to say, Mike, that I'm like, I mean, it isn't one of those bands canadian bands that a lot of people have forgotten about to be and uh but anyway i mean it was it was they were they were out of montreal it was the our head of a and r at the time was bob ansell and he had um

corky lang who was of mountain fame uh it was on his team who helped put it all together. And they were the ones who did the deal, too. I really didn't know an awful lot about them until I got there. But I was certainly entrenched into a lot of it. The same person, a woman named Livia Tortella, who did the Catherine Wheel Spirit of Radio song. She was the marketing manager on Bootsauce

and she worked her tail off on it for three records or whatever. And I honestly think that there was a changing of the guard at the company and there was some acquisitions that came in. So Bob and Corky left the company.

And I think when those things happen, there's many stories of bands that have one set of people supporting them, and then all of a sudden there's a changing of the guard, and then things sort of go their way. So in your experience, we talked about how Jon Bon Jovi was always very professional

and easy for you to deal with. How were the guys from Boot Sauce? You know, they were green. And, you know, they didn't have much money at the time. They didn't make a lot of money, but they were, you know, they worked hard. They did, they did the rounds. I mean, I saw them play in every small bar in Ontario and, and, you know, things like, you know, the edge fest and things like that. They, they did work hard. Their live

set was really, really great. Um, you know, I saw saw them at i mentioned on saturday i saw them you know they did a show at 4 a.m a showcase at cbgb's in front of about 10 people um you know and and so i you know they they kind of broke through and they did the you know everyone's a winner did did well and i i used to talk to them about their influences and things. And I said that they had this song called Scratch in the Hole. And I really thought it sounded like Captain Beefheart. That was my opinion, right? And so about three months later, I hear Drew Ling talking to them about Scratch in the Hole at a radio.

And he goes, oh, yeah, we're totally influenced by Captain Beefheart. There it is. There's the T. Okay. All right. All right. captain beefheart there's the there it is there's the t okay okay all right all right all right so boot sauce you know it's kind of a ridiculous name for a band but that's okay there were a lot of ridiculous names for bands uh in the 90s but there's another ridiculous name for a band that seemed to be corrected at some point i wonder if you have that story is a rainbow butt monkeys all right right so rainbow butt monkeys you know i think there was a period of time where they were just,

every time I go to, I don't know, an Edge Fest or any kind of music festival, I was going to see Rainbow Buttmonkeys slash Finger Eleven. They're a Burlington band. Yeah. But they were around, they were at Polygram trying to make it back. Yeah, they were.

I mean, they were only really had the one record. And then again, it was like, it didn't do an awful lot and i think they were getting ready to do the second or third i can't think maybe it was only the second one and and then they decided to to you know part ways go in a different direction so so so they're not at polygram when they become uh finger 11 no but i mean towards the end uh you know they had finger 11 back so you know somewhat goes around and comes around in certain instances and, you know, you get bands back. I mean, we had, I mean, the one thing that, you know, there's certain acts that I would say some of the sort of more heritage bands have been around for a long time and they have a little more leverage. It was like, you know, Van Morrison came and went like, you know, Van Morrison would do a record for Warner and he'd do a record for Polygram or do a record for, you know, Van Morrison came and went. Like, you know, Van Morrison would do a record for Warner

and he'd do a record for Polygram or he'd do a record for, you know, one of the Universal labels and then it would be, he'd come back and do something for, you know, a distributed label or something. And it was the same, like, Paul Weller went to Warner Music and then it was like one album, it was like, oh, Paul Weller's back with us. I'm like, oh, okay, great.

All right, you're being a very good sport about all this. Is Kiss like one of those recurring clients that would kind of come and go? No, Kiss were consistent through my entire career. I mean, when I started back in late 88, you know, Kiss were on the roster. And I think shortly thereafter, I think in 89, we had a Kiss album.

And throughout, I had a very good relationship with Kiss for many, many years and had some great personal time with Paul and Gene. And I mean, the thing is with Kiss, I mean, they played their very first shows outside of the U.S. in Edmonton. And every tour, you look through the history of Kiss, on every album cycle, there was always a string

of Canadian dates. And even on this last run, where unfortunately the Toronto and Ottawa shows were canceled, they went right across Canada. They played every market in the country. And I just think they were always great to Canadian fans. Although they were, I do recall at one point, they were really upset that much music wasn't playing their videos.

And Paul Stanley said on stage at one of the shows, and, you know, I mean, if you listen to, you know, Paul Stanley's stage banter is legendary. I mean, people do comedy acts on Paul Stanley's stage banter, you know, Paul Stanley's stage banter is legendary. I mean, people do comedy acts on Paul Stanley's stage banter, you know, and he was like, you know, every time we come to Toronto, it's like much music. They'll play our videos when they get here, but we know that we leave, they don't.

So much music, you can ask a large, large mooses, but you know what? And so anyway, but I mean at the you know at the same time like paul stanley was here for phantom of the opera yes gene simmons had a record label married a canadian i mean gene simmons brought family jewels to universal music canada to film and it was like it was i it was one of the greatest days i mean i just never forget it was great like they're actually going to film family jewels in a universal music marketing meeting and i never prepared so much for a meeting it was like just like unbelievable and and so and i sent the sent our agenda to gene and and he goes what do you think gene he goes oh this is great

like thanks for being so well prepared and i was like oh i feel great right so you know there's like 30 people in this boardroom and all of a sudden gene simmons walks in our agenda goes completely out the window right so and it's you know gene's a showman right he's a total showman and um i'll always remember and this is probably i i can't remember what the year was, but it was probably 10 or 12 years ago, maybe even longer. And there was a Canadian band that they had on Gene's label. They were called The Envy. And one of the marketing persons said to Gene, he said, Gene, we should do a free download to build the audience or whatever. And anything with Kiss, I mean, they're,

they are the absolute Kings of merchandise that they were, they did it. You can get a kiss casket, anything, anything to Ridley funeral home, but they were always never really much on free freebies. But his point was, he said,

he said, well, he goes, you know, my mother pays for kiss tickets. And I just thought, you know, he's making a good point here.

So we never did the doc, although I think they did the download later on, but I just thought, you know, he's making a good point here. So we never did the download. Although I think they did the download later on, but he just wanted to make a point that, you know, there's a price on everything, and he wasn't wrong, you know. So I have tremendous respect for him. I mean, we worked together when Detroit Rock City was being filmed here. I helped them get extras. Oh, Eddie Furlong, right?

I remember this. Yeah, and they filmed on the 407 that was at C&E and they did a bunch of the live scenes at Cops Coliseum in Hamilton. And the one thing that was so much fun was they called me and said, Ivor, we need some people to, extras. So could you help us out?

We need people to, and it was supposed to be, you know, set back in the 1970s. And, you know, we're going to make sure that every, you know, we'll have all the costumes there. And I said, well, I think you're going to be okay because you're filming in Hamilton and no disrespect to people in Hamilton, but you know, I mean, it's got a working class town or whatever, but I remember going down to the set and they're going, you're right. Like all of the costumes were sitting there like everybody was dressed by.

That's perfect. That's perfect. Are you glad that you got out just before the hologram era takes hold um i'm excited about the hologram era that's the one thing i mean i went to london you're retired now you don't have to say that no i don't and i and i i mean it sincerely and i and i say that because um in october uh i went over to london on a vacation i went over for the buffalo bills game and I went saw the undertones and the Tom Robinson band play and a wonderful time but I wanted to check out

this ABBA um hologram show and I have to say I mean it blew me away and I'm not really an ABBA fan but I went to this show it was a purpose-built theater in the east end of London, brand-new theater, holds 3,000 people, to see where the technology's gone because I'd read so much about it. And the tickets, it was like $185. But I went on a Monday night. It was sold out, 3,000 people there. And I would say it was about 95% you couldn't tell. And just to give you an illustration illustration at the end of the show,

ABBA as they are look now in 2023 came out on stage and a buddy of mine who was with me, it was a doctor by trade and he, and he just said to me, he goes, that was amazing that Adam, that ABBA were there to, to,

to, you know, thank everybody for being there. And I was like, no, that was a hologram. So I, you know thank everybody for being there and i was like um no that was a hologram so um i so i think that there is great possibilities once the costs come down um and now that kiss have announced it to to um have bands live on in perpetuity uh if it's done right and i will say on

the abba thing that they the entire show wasn't um you know just a complete live performance. They mixed in some orchestration. They had a live band that was augmenting some of the sounds. They had a video from Waterloo from the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest, and they did a couple of animation things. So I think it just really depends on the way they work it, but I think it's going to be a very, very exciting time for people to discover music from different eras.

And that ABBA show, they basically set it up so you were there at a 1979 ABBA concert. So very, very creative. BC Place, make some noise for Black Eyed Peas! Canada! Canada! Are y'all having a cool, great time? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it?

Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it?

Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you Grey Cup? Can you feel it? Wow, Ivor, black-eyedas, Grey Cup Halftime. Yes, sir. Talk to me about your role, if any, in these acts appearing as the Grey Cup Halftime Show. Okay. So it started, my relationship with doing things with the CFL started after going to a couple of Grey Cups as a fan. And so every year there was a couple of guys that we went out to Grey Cup games just for the hell of it.

Guys that we were all still single and the wives would let us go. Being a couple of them, it was like, God, the halftime shows are awful, right? And so Shania Twain, when the Up record was coming out and we had a group meeting, it was like, you know, there was like 20 people. Like, let's just get everybody together and let's do some planning around what we can do for Shania Twain. And so somebody came up with the idea. It's like, well, let's see, you know, what advertising we can do in the Grey Cup, because we always know that the Grey Cup is one of the, you know, biggest television

programs of the year. So I called the CFL out of the blue and said, you know, how much is it to advertise during the Grey Cup halftime i'm interested i'm calling from universal music you know talk to me about this right so they came back with some ridiculous and this is i think it was was it 98 or whatever and even then it was like yeah it's going to be a hundred thousand dollars for a 30 second commercial and i was like well i can't afford that and i said who have you got for the halftime show this year? And it was like some, you know, country band that sort of was okay. Was it Prairie Oyster? No, it wasn't.

It was not Prairie Oyster. Anyway, I said to him, I said, okay, what if I could get you Shania Twain to do your halftime show? And he goes, I'll kick the country band into the parking lot if you can get us Shania Twain. So then it just became like a bigger conversation and calling Shania's management team and asking them about it. And it was new ground. And the league weren't that prepared for it either. But in the long run, we made it happen because uh and shania wasn't sure either there's a management she was u.s management team they weren't sure what to do shania ended up

calling her sister and saying do you think i should do the gray cup and her sister was like absolutely i'm a big football fan you should do it and so the league called the nfl and said can we and so the league called the nfl and said can we potentially borrow some of your staging um that you use for great you know for some of the previous previous super bowls right so they did and um and we made it happen and it was you know and so that was the start of a you know a 20 year 20 plus year relationship with the cfl doing great cups. And we did basically all of them with the exception of, I think it was like there was one year that, you know, a reunited BTO did it one year that EMI came in and did Lenny Kravitz. And then this past year when Green Day did it.

So, so it was, you know, an absolutely great, great run. And, you know, it was always an incredible amount of work to get it done. And you're, and you're also dealing with weather conditions. Um, and so those, you never know what you're going to get. Um, so anyway, I, I love doing it. Um, you, this black eyed peas thing, the thing with black eyed peas was in the year that that happened in 2005, the Monkey Business record was the biggest selling album in Canada, hands down. It was absolutely huge around the world. And there was also another instance where Canada was leading the way with Black Eyed Peas. And they kind of, their

manager said to the band, he goes, you know, we really need to do something more for Canada. And so this is what they did. We got a huge amount of backlash, though, from the fans. But, you know... Oh, because they're American. Well, they were the very first American band to play the Grey Cup. However, in the press for business press, and said CFL blasting into the 21st century by having somebody like the Black Eyed Peas play the Great Cup. So that opened the door for lots of other international

acts to play the Great Cup. And I remember my boss at the time said to me, he goes, I want to do an award presentation for the Peas. How can we make this really big? And I said, all right, I'll make it big. And so right after they finished their performance, we presented them with their five times platinum on the field at BC Place in front of 50,000 people. So that was a real career highlight. Okay, wow. So these are some mind blows, I think, for some people that you're greatly responsible for this run of bigger acts,

I'd say, to play the halftime show at the Grey Cup. Yes, yes. And without you, maybe there is no Green Day in 2023. I had nothing to do with Green Day. I know the guy who... No, but you have to pave the way, right? Yeah, I mean, I had nothing to do with Green Day. I know the guy who, No, but you have to pave the way, right?

Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of standards. They changed, you know, they changed a lot of the way they were doing business, but anyway,

I mean, I think that people enjoyed it. You know, my former company had the opening act, so we always had, the year, even the years

that we didn't have the halftime show, we usually had the opening act or had some, you know, great music featured into the Grey Cop. And, you know, and we worked with a lot of the teams over the years. We had sponsors. We also had sponsorships with the Argos and the Tiger Cats. And, you know, we worked with the Lions.

And then also did, you know, some work with the MLSC and did some work with the Jays. And that was all, you know, that work with the MLSC and did some work with the Jays. And that was all, you know, that was all fun bringing music and sports together. And they still, and Universal Music still does that too. So yeah, you should, you should call me up. I love it when sports and music get married in some regard, like just two great passions.

And I love it when they intersect. Yes. So is this, you were VP of catalog and sports marketing. Is this when this falls on your lap? I was doing sports marketing for a number of years. I was just doing it anyway, and then it was added to my portfolio. But the catalog became much more important and a huge part of the business. So I stepped back from it, but I still, towards the last number of years,

stepped back from it but i still you know towards the last number of years i still you know contributed by putting in suggestions for you know music to go into you know blue jays games or nhl games and things like that like you know we put a lot of there was a lot of hip music into into those games or or you know it just depends uh you know what what we were kind of looking at as being um you know there was always a combination of like new acts and and uh you know, what we were kind of looking at as being, you know, there was always a combination of like new acts and, you know, some classic things, depending on what the teams wanted to do or the event was. So we will definitely be talking some Tragically Hip shortly, like on the business side. So as I drill into your career and I'm like, oh, it's the definitive Ivor Hamilton exit

interview. But so there's a little bit of nerdy stuff here, it's the definitive Ivor Hamilton exit interview. So there's a little bit of nerdy stuff here, but we should just address it. So you're with Polygram. Seagram buys Polygram in 1998. This is the Montreal Whiskey, the Bronfman family and everything. Then Polygram becomes part of it. I want to thank Mark Weisblad

for helping me understand all this stuff because he sees this stuff better than I do. Oh good, well say hi to Mark. I i will he's listening right now for sure so then polygram becomes a part of universal because the the they swallow up another this like a big gobble gobble so at that point now you're part of universal music group correct okay yeah so that was uh yeah i mean that was it happens. You know, I mean, when my days at radio, I mean, we changed ownership numerous times

and at Universal, when I started at Polygram, during the first couple of years that we were there, they ended up acquiring Island Records. They ended up acquiring A&M Records. Motown was acquired and then Def Jam was acquired. And it's like, wow, we're certainly getting to be a big company this is really really huge and then out of nowhere the the universal uh universal who was a smaller company at the time than um than polygram was managed to put it together to do the um the merger so it was a it was a whole you know it was a a seismic change for

right for everybody and we all had to interview you know re-interview for our jobs and and um start start new and um but you know it the transition i think was was pretty good no and you know i look back on the you know whatever that was 25 years ago. I mean, the company's just, you know, it grew in leaps and bounds and it's weathered the storm and they're the greatest music company in the world. So I will bounce around a little bit, but I wanted to cover that business

because it's interesting how they gobble each other up. So a couple of bands I want to ask you about that you worked with at Polygram. One was, you worked with Art Bergman in that there was that period of time where they're making Art Bergman famous. Yeah, I mean, it was a very short time. I mean, he was with Duke Street Records prior to that. And then when I started at Polygram,

the same team that signed Bootsaw signed Art Bergman. So I worked with Art on it. You know, I can't remember if it was one or two records. I mean, I just basically ran him around for press and did, you know, did some radio things with him. But so it wasn't. This is the album with Bound for Vegas on it. Do you remember?

This is the Bound for, because Much Music was playing Bound for Vegas. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I mean. I dig that. So, I mean, as I said, it was, it was kind of like a short term for me. It wasn't, it wasn't, you know, a long Yeah, okay. I dig that. So, I mean, as I said, it was kind of like a short-term, for me, it wasn't, you know, a long-term thing.

So my memories with Art are like, yeah, we had a good relationship. We did a lot of, you know, a lot of interviews together, you know, took him to a lot of interviews and worked his records to radio and things like that. But, yeah, so. And Lionel Richie was part of Polygram when you were there?

Well, yes. Lionel, you know, was on Motown. Lionel Richie, I mean, I have to say, you know, you get into, you know, my background coming from, you know, the CFNY and being an alternative guy and all this kind of thing. And you just end up having an incredible amount of respect when you sit there and hear their stories. And Lionel Richie was, you know, he was one of the most cordial guys you ever want to meet.

Great laugh, got a million stories to tell you back, you know, the days of his days of Motown and the Commodores and things like that. I got an incredible amount of respect for that guy. One of my all-time favorite guys to work with. Love to hear it. Absolutely. Now let me, uh,, I'm going to hold on to this one for a second, but just a couple more like kind of random names I'm going to throw at you. But you worked with Sarah Harmer? Yes. Yes.

Future FOTM is how I refer to her. Tyler did a good sales pitch at this Save Ontario Place thing that happened with the West End Phoenix. Right, right. So what was it like? Just tell me a little bit about Sarah. I've always respected her music. I think the thing with Sarah Harmer was, you know,

when you're working at a music company, a label, and you sign somebody, you're much more invested in it than you are for an international act. Although, you know, you shouldn't really, you for an international act although you know you shouldn't really you know international acts you get there as well but um when you're with a domestic act nothing is more satisfying than when you can take somebody from nothing and build it to um you know a gold record status or or you know something that helps either that breaks out internationally or what have you so i really you know i maybe sort of rephrase that because some of the international

acts i worked with it was incredibly satisfying too like you know when lady gaga started we you know she was nothing and she broke out of canada and that was incredibly satisfying but sarah harmer i i'll always remember when we presented her with her with a gold record and then it was like and our president uh at the time or the guy that i was working for steve kane he goes that this is this is a really good one this is so satisfying and i and i totally agree with him that it was sarah harmer was an absolute charm good to hear what about m grinder fotm m grinder um m grinder well the thing is with M. Greiner, you know, the company at the time, I mean, we had different departments and divisions, so I was never really directly involved with M. Greiner.

I knew her, and it was on the fringe. We'd see each other at shows every once in a while, and we'd help out occasionally with some stuff, but I never really had that much of a relationship with her. I will say it was, I think it was 2012, there was a Nick Drake tribute show, a couple of concerts that were done. There was one in Toronto and one in Kitchener,

maybe one or two other places, and she was a big part of that, and we had a Nick Drake anniversary reissue at the time, and so I did a little bit of work with her around that. I recently had Michelle McAdory, uh, to the basement here for a chat about Crash Vegas and more and, uh, Crash Vegas was, uh, signed to

Polygram. They were, they were signed to Polygram. Um, again, another, you know, I thought they were, um, a really great band. Um, we had a good run with them and, you know, I thought they were, um, a really great band. Um, we had a good run with them and, you know, wish them all the best. Yeah. She, she seemed frustrated. The follow-up album didn't quite seem to go anywhere.

I think that was also, uh, at the time I, and I, again, I, my memory may not serve me best on this, that there was a somewhat of a changing of the guard at that point, you know, and, and, um, so things might have just moved in a different direction so and that's a story you hear echoed quite often on this sometimes just your champion leaves or they're they want to uh maybe a label wants to push a similar sounding different act i mean it's it's no different than any than any business that you know when, when, you know, you had a Kyle Dubas leaving the, leaving the Leafs this past year, there was a change of the guard or when Lou, Lou Amarello leaves, leaves the Leafs, you know, it's a change of the

guard and things change and, you know, different things, you know, they move on to move on to different things. And, and, uh, you know, you like any business, if you're given, given the sets of, of, uh, priorities and things that your company's working on, you just go with it. like any business, if you're given sets of priorities and things that your company's working on, you just go with it. You know, that's what you get paid to do. Now, you, of course, worked at CFNY,

the spirit of radio, with David Marsden. But at some point in the mid-90s, you actually had a, I'm not sure how long it lasted, you'll tell me, but you had a show on the other guy's station, Q107. I did, I did. I did it for 11 months okay and i was uh danny kingsbury who was at cfny and then he ended up at q and said oh we want to do a new music show or whatever and and so for whatever reason i got asked to see if i could come in and

do it and uh i had a lot of fun doing it, but it, I have to say that they, they, they really did not have much of a, an understanding of new music and alternative on Q1, Oh seven. I, I know for a fact that I played bands on Q1,

Oh seven that were never played before and never played since. Wow. And, uh, but I would submit, like I would submit my playlist every week, say, this is what I'm going to play. Let me know if everything's okay on this. And, uh, but I would submit, like, I would submit my playlist every week, say, this is what I'm going to play. Let me know if everything's okay on this. And, and, uh, I never heard anything. And then I, I remember towards the end, it was like, Danny called me and he goes,

I listened to your show and I never heard, I didn't know one band that you played on your show. And I was like, well, clearly you don't know a lot about new music. So that kind of came to an end after about 11 months. But I really enjoyed my time. I mean, listen, I got a chance to do, they used to have the Steve Warden and John Derringer used to do whatever the rock report. Oh, was it the 6 o'clock rock report? 6 o'clock rock report.

And I got to do the rock report. Marco Senior. Got to do the rock report one week while they were away on vacation. And we had some great acts in. and I remember the Ramones coming in. I was like, this is great, you know? And, uh, so I, I, you know, I quite enjoyed my time at Q107 and I'm still friends with some people over there. And, uh, Joey Vendetta came to my retirement party the other night.

So we're still pals. I missed meeting the, he's somehow eluded my invitations into the basement. I wanted to talk to Joey Vendetta, who doesn't, right? And you got to put in a word for me, Ivor. That's some more homework for you. You got to tell Joey he should come on Toronto Night. I would be happy to reach out to Joey. He's a great guy.

He does a great job over at QN07. He's another guy who had incredible relationships with sports teams. When he had his time in Los Angeles at Live Nation, he used to put events together around NHL All-Star Weekend all over the United States. He was a very big part of that, knew all the hockey players. And for a lot of Canadians that went to L.A., which Jake Gold reminded me that Canada's third biggest city is L.A. with all the expats there.

So Joey was the go-to for most people who were new to LA and helping people get set up with like, oh, I need a place to live. I just need to get my life on track. And Joey was one of those guys who would just always help Canadians out. All right, Joey Vendetta, this is a call to arms. You're coming on Toronto Mike. Reach out, mike at torontomike.com. Let's get this in the calendar for 2024.

Would love it so much. Now, let me just thank a couple of partners here. I've been holding on to a segment here, my favorite band of all time, and get some of those stories. But Ivor, you're retiring. You're retired now. You need to finally learn how to plan, invest, and live smarter.

So I have a podcast for you. It's called The Advantaged Investor Podcast from Raymond James Canada. Whether you already work with a trusted financial advisor or currently manage your own investment plans, The Advantaged Investor provides the engaging wealth management information you value as you pursue your most important goals. And what are those goals now? Seeing lots of live music, traveling the world. What is next for you?

A lot of reading. I want to do a ton of reading. Certainly, we want to finish off the CFNY documentary. Alan and I are going to work on another documentary that I really can't get into many details about. Is it about James B? It certainly is not. Scott Turner and I are going to potentially work on a podcast.

Maybe there's a book in the works. You know, I've been talking to Scott Turner about having a podcast for Ask Him. I've been telling him for years, all these tidbits he puts on social media, 30 years ago this, 35 years ago that. Scott's amazing. Like Scott, Scott is phenomenal in record keeping, uh, better than anybody out there.

I know he does, he does a great job. So, so we've talked about doing some things together. Um, you know, I want to do some volunteer work in the community and, um, work with the Junos. I mean, I've, I've worked with the Junos for many, many years. I was, uh, I did, did, uh, uh, Juno auction. I was on the marketingos for many, many years. I did Juno auction. I was on the marketing committee for a couple of years, and I was on the adult alternative committee at the Junos

for probably the last 15 years. I'd love to help them out with their Hall of Fame because there's still a number of acts that deserve to be in there. Who's most deserving that's not yet in there? Well, in my opinion, Teenage Head are, but there are a few other ones that people have mentioned. Because Glass Tiger, I had Alan Frew here yesterday, and they just got into, is that the Rock of Fame,

or is that a different thing? That was the Walk of Fame, which is a different scenario. Because they call it Rock of Fame, and then April Wine got in, and then we talked about Miles miles but that's a different uh it is yeah so so i mean you know i think the thing is that there's some some acts you know like teenage head and like lighthouse is another one but they you know as as years go on you know the the people that are involved with their you know their mindset is a little bit more um let, let's say 90. So they're, they're looking forward.

So they're not thinking about sixties and late seventies bands. So anyway, um, we can, we can all be happy and get it done at some point. So, so on, uh,

the live stream, live.torontomic.com, there's lots of great feedback in real time happening there. I want to shout out Canada Kev. Canada Kev's wondering, uh, quickly here, did you work with Beastie Boys, The Cult, The Police, Queen,

Tears for Fears, Tom Waits, U2? I never heard of any of these bands. These are some obscure indie bands he's talking about. So I did work with The Cult a lot. I mean, you know, even in the starting at CFNY, I mean, I was a huge champion of that band.

And then, so when I got to Polygram, I mean, uh, Polygram had, uh, uniquely in Canada, they had a deal with 4AD Records and Beggar's Banquet, which, which were the, where the cult were with, even though they were different label elsewhere. But when the cult did, um, Sonic Temple, um, I worked with them extensively. We did lots and lots of work together um and i did the ceremony record um remember we uh presented them with a gold record on new year's eve at maple leaf gardens and atlanta kravitz was we're opening from them and and i recall when uh ian asbury coming into c and Y doing an interview and saying, and when they had guns and roses opening for them and he, and he was plugging guns and roses left,

right, and center, which I thought was great. Like he said, there's a great band that are opening for us. We think they're going to be big guns and roses. So, wow.

So, um, yes. Um, tears for fears. Yes. Uh, the,

the record that I guess it was most, uh, was the sewing, the Seeds of Love. And that was when I had just started with the company. So yes, worked with them. And then in later years, they'd re-signed to Concord. We did a bit of work with them on their last studio record as well. And one of the things I would love to see

on Tears for Fears is they recorded a live album at massey hall it came out for record store day a couple years ago and it and it was gone in a minute like nobody like nobody who's you know it just needs to be something like the wider public should be able to be able to have so hopefully that will see the light of day um because they they just and they shot videos here so they had such a strong affiliation to this city in this country so we deserve to have more tears for fears absolutely absolutely now uh i want to just give you my condolences because of course since we last talked excluding tmlx 14 hell harbor passed away yes and i know i have a

please help me, chimps for Burgess Meredith. What was the name of Hal Harbour's musical outfit? Stunt chimps. Stunt. I missed the stunt. Oh my goodness gracious. But he absolutely had a, like a cult,

a cult thing in there with Chris Shepard. I know they were buddies and everything. And I was sharing this, you know, far and wide when I learned the word, when I got the word that Doug Barron, a.k.a. we all knew him as Hal Harbourhead, passed away. He's also an FOTM, so I know you knew Hal. Great guy. We greatly missed.

And one of the other guys that passed away too, which it was from a distance, but I was very close with, was Brad McNally, who I got to go and visit in Australia in 2018. I was very, very thankful to spend some time with him. We did one radio show together, and I have some great memories of Brad. Absolutely, absolutely. I got corrected on the live stream,

just shouting out a few more FOTMs that are there. Basement Dweller is there, and he tells me Bound for Vegas was on Duke Street Records, so I messed up that. It's one of the many facts I'm going to get wrong during this episode. It happens, right? Early and often on this program, absolutely. Ian Service has been chiming in.

It's good to see Ian on the live stream. And VP of Sales was here. And Andrew Ward was here. And who else can I quickly shout out? Rosie is here. Hello to Rosie. We're going to close with Rosie and Gray. That's for you, Rosie.

Moose Grumpy is here. Lots of great people hanging out with you, Ivor, during your exit interview today. Thank you so much for being here and hope you enjoy what we've been talking about. Okay, so I gave you lasagna, I gave you beer. I want to give you a speaker. This is a quality Bluetooth speaker for you, Ivor, and that's courtesy of Moneris. Thank you so much.

And you'll enjoy that because you'll be listening to Season 5 of Yes, We Are Open, which is an inspiring and award-winning podcast from Moneris, hosted by FOTM Al Grego who was with us at TMLX 14 on Saturday. Al went out east.

He went to the Maritimes, land of Hal Harbor and he went to Newfoundland and he collected inspiring stories from small business owners and he shares them in season five of Yes We Are Open. So that's a free podcast. People should subscribe to right away. And Ridley Funeral Home, that's a to right away and Ridley Funeral Home that's a measuring

tape courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home thank you for that I will use that when I have upcoming renovations to do at home First thing we climb a tree And maybe then we talk Or sit silently And listen to our thoughts Illusions of some day

Cast in a golden light No dress rehearsal This is our life And that's where the hornet stung me And I had a feverish dream With revenge and doubt Tonight we smoke them out You don't mind if I just sing this song for the next few minutes, do you, Ivor? You're okay with that?

Any hip, any time. Well, now this is what I've been waiting for. Should I start recording our conversation? I'll start recording now because I want to hear Ivor Hamilton. Share with us everything you did with the Tragically Hip during your illustrious career on the dark side of the label there? Well, I mean, I did a lot with the Hip over the years.

It was, you know, I'll give it a little bit of a setup. When Universal and Polygram merged and we moved to the building, 2450 Victoria Park, which isn't there, we're not there anymore, the Universal's not there anymore but

so everybody who was left over from Polygram comes to the building and we're getting settled in and there was a welcome package that the president of the company at the time, his name was Randy Lennox, provided to every new person at the company and

in that package was a copy of Phantom Power by the hip. So in that package was a copy of Phantom Power by The Hip. So, you know, we knew, you know, once you got to Universal in Canada, everybody is on Team Hip. And, you know, it's... And over the years, like, one of the ones that I started on, I think, was We Are The Same. And then it moved to some other people.

But ever since my time in in catalog i was worked all the cat like all of their catalog projects but i had a you know quite a substantial hand in doing a ton of the reissues that have come out over the last number of years um especially since jake manager jake gold came back and you know we became very very tight um you know we probably talked seven or eight times a day and uh we did a lot of great things together you know and I'm very proud of that and I have a you know an incredible personal relationship with all the guys in the band which is just you know those guys are all amazing all of them. And so to me, if I could make any mark on Canadian music by bringing more hip music to the people,

then I'm proud of that. And you were the marketing person on the Man Machine Poem Tour, which sadly was the final tour. And that must have been heartbreaking. That was one of my, yeah, that was really, really tough. I went to the press conference when they announced that Gord had the cancer, the brain cancer, and I bawled my eyes out when he passed away.

But they're part of the Canadian landscape and, um, loved coast to coast and around the world. And, uh, I'm proud to have been a part of that. And, uh, even though I'm retired, I'm still, you know, going to do a few things with the guys because, uh, I just can't let that go. And, uh, um, you know, there were some wonderful messages from everybody at my retirement gig, retirement party rather, so. And, you know, earlier I asked you if you were still running

because you look like you're in running shape there, but your first marathon, right? You raised money in Gord's honor. I did, I did. I actually, and I had a, so I did for the Chani Wenjek fund, um, and the, um, the hospital that was associated with the, um, Gord's cancer treatment. Um, is that Sunnybrook or Sunnybrook? Yeah. So that's $4,500. I had a custom tragically hip

running shirt made for the marathon that had the, um, information on the back of the shirt and that and it was i was it was really proud to do that and um you know take it i took the money down to sunnybrook for that for that the whole thing and so it was a real it was a real satisfying thing for me to to do at the time so uh you know appreciate you bringing that up and um as i said some great memories and that was you know i was fortunate enough to be able to go to the uh the last concert in in kingston yes um i do have a bit of a you know a side story on that is a buddy of mine came up from the from the u.s um to see the show was a you know a guy who's uh knows more about canada than um than most can Canadians, but he's American. And so he had a Lotus, a classic Lotus car with Virginia plates on it

that said the hip on his license plates on his car. And so we were going on the 401 to that concert in Kingston, and we were going substantially over the speed limit. And, of course, we get pulled over by the OPP and I thought we're screwed we're gonna get like because he was probably doing I don't know 140 I don't know for sure what it was and um you know we had some beer in the car we weren't nobody was drinking it was just in the back of the car, but I just thought, you know what, this day could go very badly. And the cops came up to the car and said,

are you guys going to the hip show? I said, yes, sir, we are. And then he goes, well, just a cool car that you got there and neat plates. We don't want to bring you down on this great day, so just take it easy. And I just thought, you know what? Thank you so much. Like, it was just an amazing thing that that happened. Of course, we took it easy after that,

but that was just part of that hip day. The concert, to me, obviously, you know. August 20, 2016, right? Yes, yeah. And I just, it was one of the most amazing moments in in canadian music history and and the second most watched thing on canadian television after uh the golden goal golden golden goal in 2010 and so you know it obviously resonated around the world and and um it was just something that was amazing to be a part of and I'll always be thankful for that.

Yeah, I miss them. You know, once in a while you got to look up and go, you look up to the Gord above and say, hey man, thanks. That was quite the ride he gave this country and we will never forget Gord Downie. But, you know, I mean, I think the thing is that, you know, over the last number of years,

you know, they put out the Ouch EP and there was a... Sask there was the Saskadelphia album, the Saskadelphia mini album, and fully, completely came out on vinyl, and then Road Apple has expanded, and then recently Phantom Power. So there's a lot of hip stuff that has never seen the light of day.

They've been working very hard on unearthing and uh incredible amounts of memorabilia that fans can enjoy and um i think that they'll be and you know the other thing is that you know those guys also they ran tape on lots of those shows so i think you know at some point you'll probably see you know more like clement maybe has some stuff in the doug mcclement worked on many you know many Doug McClement maybe has some stuff in Doug McClement worked on many you know many shows and things I mean there's some great shows that you can see on YouTube that were were pretty legendary their their Woodstock appearance I mean they were actually one of the bands at Woodstock that there was no trouble during the set they were early enough yeah they

did a did a great set and um so and there was also a show in the early days at the misty moon a much show at misty moon in halifax which is an incredible show um so you know there's things like that and it's their 40th anniversary next year so they're they've got a bunch of things that are planned i mean the things that you probably already know about the biggest thing is this for there's gonna be a four-part documentary on Amazon Prime. And it's, man, oh, man, people will love it. That's all I can say. Okay, so this is a message for Jake Gold, who I know is listening.

He's a good FOTM. I don't chat with him as often as Ivor does, but I do chat regularly with Jake Gold. Jake Gold personally brought Paul Lang Langoine to this basement recently. And we had a great chat. Paul played live. So I just want Jake to know there are other members of the Tragically Hip who have never been in this basement. So, Jake, let's make it happen and promote the documentary and all this great stuff. And Iver, now that I know you're on the team, I'll be bugging you about it. Well, the guys, you know, the guys live, they don't live in the city,

so that's the thing, right? But I did see Rob Baker at the Junk House show last week. There you go. He hangs out here. They come in. It's just not as easy for them to get here as it is for me. No, right, right, right. But on the promotional tour,

when they go to breakfast television, the next stop should be Toronto Mike's basement. Absolutely. Thank you. We're in agreement. All right, quick hits now. I'm glad you spent so much time on the hip. I was hoping you would and that was wonderful, Ivor.

And wow, okay, so do you remember Cougar Cuts? Yes. Yes. Tell the great unwashed what Cougar Cuts were. I knew you were behind those Cougar Cuts. I mean, it's something that wouldn't come out today. I mean, we were just having some fun. It was just like, know songs for you know bar songs

or whatever that we put into a compilation and say hey let's do this come out today though i feel like you're not you know these are uh consenting adult women i wouldn't i wouldn't do it you know looking back on you know iver hamilton and whatever we did that and i you know late 90s or something right and i would never i wouldn't do it again today. I would think twice about it. I probably just wouldn't do it. It was fun at the time. It was a moment.

Okay, so Universal Swallows EMI. You did a Beatles launch with Roger Ashby, F-O-T-M, Roger Ashby. Yes, that was great to work with Roger. I mean, Roger is an absolute legend. We grew up listening to him in the city, and he's been retired since 2018, and the idea was to bring him in

and share his Toronto Beatles memories. And we worked with the Toronto Star, and the Star did this great supplement that had all things that happened with the Beatles in Toronto. And so I really loved it. My only, you know, I was too young for the Beatles at the time, but my only memory of the Beatles that I, you know, tried to get close to them was that when I was nine years old, when John Lennon was out in Mississauga

and stayed at Ronnie Hawkins' place, it wasn't far from where my grandmother lived, and we lived there at the time. So I went bounding through the fields with my grandmother's Brownie camera, hoping to catch John Lennon on a snowmobile, which never happened. So that's amazing. Roger was a, Roger was great, really loved working with him. And, and you know, who would have thought in 2023, you get a new Beatles record, a new Beatles song and a new Stones album. Yeah, what a time to be alive. Unbelievable. Now, great time to be alive.

It's December 13th we're chatting. It's a little afternoon now. And tonight I will be seeing this gentleman along with some other Canadian rock gods. Hey, cigarette tangles, makes me hot Kidnap me, throw me in the vacuum car Take me to your room, where the flowers hang like bats Poison me with liquor, then break out the party house Kiss me till you hurt me, then again until I'm numb Burn holes in my neck, with a bit of love you turned

Remind me again, how lucky I am right now Not that my body, but that turn off the lights I'm pulling out a cigarette dangle I'm pulling out a cigarette dangle. I have a body, but that turn off the lights, I'm pulling out a cigarette dangle. I'm pulling out a cigarette dangle. I want it out that way. I have a body, but that turn off the lights, I'm pulling out a cigarette dangle. I'm pulling out a cigarette dangle.

Underappreciated Pursuit of Happiness jam this is. I know you were involved quite a bit with Moberg and the Pursuit of Happiness. In fact, very recently the 30th anniversary release of Love Junk. I still love Love Junk, but we're going to close with just a couple of FOTMs, if you will. First being

Moe Berg and the Pursuit of Happiness. Well, for Moe, I mean, for me it all started at CFNY when the independent music that they had turned into a relationship with uh chrysalis records and um it's my understanding that chrysalis signed pursuit because of cfny in toronto and so yes the first version of i'm an adult now yeah that was like the 87 86 whatever yeah yeah right so So it was brought to their attention.

And of course, they had a great relationship and ended up working with Todd Rundgren, what have you. And so the reissue, to be honest with you, it was another guy that I worked with at Universal, Warren Stewart, who did the package. But I tried to contribute some of my memorabilia and some things that we used for some imaging in the package. So from a distance.

But I know Mo very well. We had a great time. We brought him out to a Blue Jays to throw a first pitch when we had a relationship with them. And he did some DJ work for us at some of our events and things like that. So love Mo. Great guy. And I know TransCanada Highwaymen is going to be a great show for you.

Yeah, can't wait, can't wait. And two of the members were here just a couple days ago, which was a great thrill for me. What about a gentleman who came by recently, just a sweetheart of a guy, came all the way from Montreal, Sam Roberts. Yes, so Sam Roberts, I mean,

right from the start, would you know was totally love sam roberts the band and their management team and uh um right from the first days of brother down and i worked on a number of their reissues over the years as well and uh um one of the things that we did with that was a lot of fun with sam was, uh, the very first winter classic was in Buffalo and Sam was the entertainment for that. And that was, I thought was just amazing. And I also remember they had a, they were selling merch that day and I kicked myself for never getting one. They had a, they had a t-shirt that said, uh, face off on the 50. And I just thought that was so cool. And I went, i saw it as i walked in and

then it was like afterwards i'm like i'll go get one and of course they were they were all sold out never got one again so they were they were a part of that um and you know great memories of seeing them at uh like key to balla a number of times and when we did the the reissue of the of the first record we did some work with alan cross on it and, and shot a bunch of stuff with that provided a bunch of extras. So, so Sam is absolutely great. Dave Spencer, who's managed them since day one, him and I are really good friends. And you know, he always invites me out to the show. So continue to, to support Sam Roberts in any shape or form.

Yeah. You know, he's in a super group with Chris Murphy, like Chris Murphy's addicted to being in super groups now, and there's a super group of, yeah, Chris Murphy and Sam Roberts and a guy from Colorado, and Monk from Tokyo Police Club. Cool. All great bands. Absolutely. Okay, so I'm going to

see if I can get a very thorough and accurate on our way out here. You've been amazing. I hope you enjoy retirement because you deserve it. And I'm going to find up reasons to get you back to just talk about music. Sure. I'm going to tap into that big brain of yours.

What a great resource that'll be for FOTMs. But what is the exact status of the CFNY documentary? Because many listeners are anticipating this in 2024. Somebody came on recently and suggested that you'll have trouble licensing the original music. So I need a big update from you, Ivor. this in 2024 somebody came on recently and suggested that you'll have trouble licensing

the original music so i need a big update from you iver um we will not have trouble license i don't know where people get that stuff right i think they're just like like looking for you guys to realize oh it's expensive to get how soon is now well listen this isn't wasn't my first rodeo and and um i you know there's a number of uh i've been in situations before where people have you know the best of intentions and people are you know produce amazing content there was a uh a documentary a few years back it was like what is classic rock and the guy who produced it daniel sarcusi and i a really lovely guy and we've stayed in touch and he sent me the first cut of this i was like

daniel this is phenomenal like it's just like everybody and anybody's in it and i said did you take care of all the music and he goes i i didn't have any i didn't have budget for music and so you know and of course the thing never came out till about two years later and it had about four songs in it and that was it you know so from the get-go on the cf and y documentary we've been very clear that we needed to make sure that we have budget to do the right things that need to to be in the movie um so i think that you know if there's things that don't end up there it's usually you know and some acts might not feel that they don't want to have you don't have their songs in there so that happens on occasionally too and you've got masters and a master use in publishing and, you know, you have to bring the two of those together.

So, so the answer is that we will have great music in is that you can't have a documentary on the spirit of radio without having great music. So that will happen. Absolutely. So the documentary itself, we're, we're at the point now where we're kind of getting into the final edits and we're just trying to make sure that we have all the facts correct and some continuity that's done properly. Because I think the thing is,

and for those of you that saw the Much Music documentary, there were some people that weren't happy about certain things and things got left out and and so and we absolutely know that you can never please everybody but we're going to do our best we're doing our best to make it so we people aren't going to lose their minds because we missed x x and x so are you glad that sean menard went first so you could just kind of you know adapt like was it good that they went first um i think it was you know there was a couple of learnings out of it i think we would have been fine without it but um i i think there was a couple of things that you know i like i love the fact that they took it across the country and and took it to

various communities for people to i mean the guy rented. I mean, the guy rented Roy Thompson Hall, for goodness sakes. That's a big swing. So they did some good things on it. And Much Music was a much bigger thing than CFNY was. It was a national footprint. People loved it around the world. I mean, for a great deal of years in my tenure at Universal Music, that Much was number one. It was like, if you weren't on Much, we got a got a problem right i keep saying that to the guys from lowest to the

low i'm like uh there was like a blind spot for this great shakespeare my butt album that i was hearing like crazy on cf and y and it it was always strange for young mike to it was in one universe where i was consuming all my music but it wasn't in the other one yeah yeah so anyway i mean so yeah menard was great but i mean we also there was there's been a lot of parallel um radio station documentaries that have been made that are out there from u.s places and some you know other places in other parts of the world so we all collectively looked at a bunch of those and you know had some learnings on it and but, but, but at the same time, we didn't want to do what they were doing.

We wanted to tell the spirit of radio story. And I think the other thing is that we've very been very conscious about when we need to end it. And I, and I think it's because, you know, realistically the bare naked ladies weren't spirit of radio era. That was after the fact right so we needed to just make sure that we're you know this documentary is about the spirit of radio years essentially 1977 up until you know alan will say up to 92 but really it's kind of up to about 1990 and that's where well this is i always wonder this when i think about it all like like

how does the spirit of radio era of cfny differ any from the david marsden era of cfny well are they not like essentially one in the same like your spirit of radio ends when marsden leaves well the thing is there's a there is a short time period um before and that that is like in 1977 david didn't get there to look at so like literally the end of 1979 so you had reiner schwartz and david pritchard running that radio station prior to that and that station was extremely eclectic and free form out there uh you know classical music folk music you name it blues all of these things that they were doing that so it wasn't really an alternative station it was like a everything radio station so but that's kind of like that set it up to go to move into the spirit

of radio which david kind of focused more when when he got there there's a little bit when david leaves i mean he was obviously frustrated with what was going on but there was certainly uh a base of employees who 100 supported the spirit of radio the spirit of of what they did so including don burns who was the program director after david so we were still were still able to carry on for a short period before the sales guys came in and did what they did. And the words of the prophet were written on the studio walls. Yes, sir.

Ivor, congratulations on retirement. And I love this 90 minutes we just spent talking about some of the highlights. If I missed anything you were dying to talk about, now is the time. Oh, okay. Like, I don't know, you're driving here thinking,

I want to make sure I tell my... my LL Cool J story. And then Mike didn't prompt for the LL Cool J story. Well, like Lionel Richie, LL Cool J, I love the guy. He was a great guy to work with he made some great records he had a

he charmed people all over the place the only regret I ever have is that we were never able to sign Russell Peters I really wanted the company to sign Russell Peters you were here with Russell. I forgot to put it on the list. You came on with Clayton Peters.

Of course. You talked about your reunion. Of course. So I really worked that one hard, but I couldn't get people to believe in comedy. And I didn't really have any backup on it because like, well, you know, give me, you know, give me some comedy sales or whatever. And they're just, you know, there weren't. But I believe, you know, Russell became such a superstar that there was probably, you know, give me, you know, give me some comedy sales or whatever. And they're just, you know, there weren't, but I believe, you know,

Russell became such a superstar that there was probably, you know, so we didn't get to do that, but whatever. That's, um, I'll, I'll always be there to support Russell too,

because he's a good friend and he's an amazing comedian. And that brings us to the end of our 1,391st show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm at Toronto Mike. Much love to those who made this possible. That is Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Raymond James Canada,

Moneris, RecycleMyElectronics.ca. That's where you go, Ivor, if you have some old cables, some old devices, some old electronics you need to get rid of. Don't That's where you go. Iver. If you have some old cables, some old devices, some old electronics you need to get rid of, don't throw it in the garbage. Those chemicals end up in our landfill.

Go to recycle my electronics.ca. Find a place near you. You could drop them off to be safely and properly recycled and Ridley funeral home. See you all tomorrow. When there is a new episode. We're going to fact check Randy Backman. This will be very interesting.

My guest for that episode is the man who knows more about the Guess Who than Randy Backman, Robert Lawson. See you all then. I know that's true, yes I do. I know it's true, yeah. I know it's true. How about you? All that picking up trash and them putting down roads.