The Hard Rock Miners are a Canadian

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

/hillbilly/country/folk band based in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

History

In 1987, members of The Hard Rock Miners started out

busking Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...

on the streets of Vancouver, particularly on trendy

Robson Street Robson Street is a major southeast-northwest thoroughfare in downtown and West End of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Its core commercial blocks from Burrard Street to Jervis were also known as Robsonstrasse. Its name honours John Robson, a ...

in the city's Downtown West End. Their music could be best described as eclectic. As they moved to gigs at Vancouver venues, their instrumentation included acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, fiddle, washtub bass, washboard, tambourine, harmonica, and drums amongst others. This essentially electrified bluegrass lineup played standards, including 'Pistol Packin' Mama', the Brothers Johnson's 'Get The Funk Out of My Face', Nancy Sinatra's 'These Boots Were Made For Walkin', 'Rock Island Line', 'Wasbush Cannonball' and speedy punked up and humorous versions of other country and western, funk, punk, and pop classics. The band was officially formed in 1987. The original members were singer and guitarist Michael Phillips, bassist and vocalist Scooter Johnson, vocalist Oliver Metson who also played the washboard, singer Ingrid Mary Percy, singer Michael Turner on guitar and banjo, percussionists and singers Peter Carr, and Bill Ryan.

Later Developments

Michael Phillips moved to Toronto and co-founded the "motorgrass" band Jughead. He later left Jughead, moving to Muskoka and later

Huntsville, Ontario Huntsville is a town in Muskoka. It is located north of Toronto and south of North Bay. Of the three big Muskoka towns, it is the largest by population (21,147 per 2021 census) and land area (710.64 km2). Huntsville is located in the ...

. He now performs and records under the name The Mighty Lopez. Turner later became an author, penning several books, including ''

Hard Core Logo ''Hard Core Logo'' is a 1996 Canadian mockumentary adapted by Noel S. Baker from the novel of the same name by author Michael Turner. The film was directed by Bruce McDonald and illustrates the self-destruction of punk rock. Released in 1996, ...

'', which was about his experiences while fronting the band. Carr went on to producing film and television including Gough Lewis's 1997 controversial Sundance Festival winner "SEX: The Annabel Chong Story". After retiring from the band in 1993, Ingrid Mary Percy completed a bachelor of fine arts in visual arts at

Emily Carr University of Art and Design Emily Carr University of Art + Design (abbreviated as ECU) is a public art university located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The university's campus is located within the Great Northern Way Campus in Strathcona. The university is a co-e ...

, Vancouver, British Columbia and a master of fine arts in visual arts at the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...

, Victoria, British Columbia. Percy went on to become a contemporary Canadian visual artist and to teach visual art at the post-secondary level. She currently lives and works in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador where she is an associate professor in the School of Fine Arts, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University as well as a practicing artist. Percy is also involved in arts advocacy and serves as president of Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC), the national voice of Canada’s professional visual artists, based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In 1991 Carr and Johnson opened a comic, cult video and cappuccino bar called Pop Media Culture. The store featured independent press comics, fanzines and cult videos. The store also served as a hub for up and coming bands who would perform at their "make rent" parties. Turner and Percy left the band in 1993. The band performed several cross-Canada tours, both headlining and opening for international acts such as The 'Proclaimers', 'Country Dick Montana', 'The Pixies', 'D. O. A.', 'The Pogues' and continued to perform with fluctuating membership. All of the band's original members eventually left; replacing them over the years have been long time stalwarts Rob Thomson (

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

), Ike Eidsness (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

) and Paul Gould (

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

), as well as Keith Rose ( Roots Roundup),

Ford Pier Ford Pier (born 1970) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father is a professor of music. In addition to his solo albums, he has been a member of Jr. Gone Wild and D.O.A. as well as Roots Roundup. He has a ...

(

SNFU SNFU was a Canadian hardcore punk band formed in Edmonton in 1981, relocated to Vancouver in 1992, and disbanded in 2018. They released eight albums, two live records, and one compilation amid many lineup changes and several temporary breakups. ...

D.O.A. DOA may refer to: * Dead on arrival * Dead or Alive (disambiguation) Film * ''D.O.A.'' (1949 film), a ''film noir'' * ''D.O.A.'' (1988 film), a remake of the 1949 film * '' D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage'' (1980 film), a documentary on the gene ...

) and

Linda McRae Linda McRae is a Canadian folk-roots-Americana musician. A multi-instrumentalist ( clawhammer banjo, acoustic and electric guitars, accordion, bass, and Porchboard stomp box) singer-songwriter, she is a former member of Spirit of the West. S ...

(

Spirit of the West Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which ma ...

). The band also features guitarist and fiddler Sexy Pierre Lumoncel who joined the band in 1990 and toured and recorded with the band throughout. In 2017, the Georgia Straight named The Final Frontier (1992 Sony/Epic) one of "The 50 albums that shaped Vancouver" in the past 50 years. The Hard Rock Miners performed frequently at Vancouver's Railway Club; in later years, the band hosted a monthly singalong there. Currently, the band performs very energetic and successful sing-along events and upon request for music industry functions and charity events.

Discography

* ''Making The Bedrock'' (cassette) * ''The Final Frontier'' 1992 (Einstein Bros./

Sony Music Canada Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

)" Hard Rock Miners The Last Frontier"
''AllMusic''. Review by Roch Parisien * ''Rock 'n Roll Welfare'' 1995 (Hypnotic/

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

) * ''Play City Billy'' 1990

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hard Rock Miners Musical groups established in 1987 Musical groups from Vancouver Canadian alternative rock groups 1987 establishments in British Columbia