Lindsay Christopher Mitchell (born 28 May 1949) is an English-born Canadian musician and songwriter who achieved success as the guitarist and founder of the Canadian

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Prism Prism usually refers to: * Prism (optics), a transparent optical component with flat surfaces that refract light * Prism (geometry), a kind of polyhedron Prism may also refer to: Science and mathematics * Prism (geology), a type of sedimentary ...

Early life

Born on May 28, 1949 in

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nort ...

, England, Mitchell emigrated to

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada with his family in 1957, finally settling 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, ...

in 1962. He developed his guitar skills by emulating instrumental

surf music Surf music (or surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental s ...

bands such as

the Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

the Ventures The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the ...

the Astronauts ''The Astronauts'' ( Polish: ''Astronauci'') is the first science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem published as a book, in 1951. To write the novel, Lem received advance payment from publishing house Czytelnik (Warsaw). The book b ...

, and

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on b ...

artists including

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

and

the Yardbirds The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band's core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist and later bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwell ...

Musical career

After graduating from high school in 1965 at the age of 15, Mitchell joined local Vancouver pop-rockers "William Tell & the Marksmen", which later morphed into "Paisley Rain". Following that, Mitchell became a member of the

psychedelic era The Psychedelic era was the time of social, musical and artistic change influenced by psychedelic drugs, occurring from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s. The era was defined by the proliferation of LSD and its following influence in the development of p ...

band, the "Seeds of Time". During his tenure with the Seeds of Time Mitchell toured and played with venerated bluesmen

Willie Dixon William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...

, Albert Collins, and

T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''Roll ...

, experiences which helped reinforce in Mitchell a deep-seated and lifelong love for the

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

Prism

In 1973, Mitchell left the Seeds of Time to join guitarist/singer/songwriter

Tom Lavin Tom Lavin is a Chicago-born musician and record producer and founding member of the Juno Award winning (1981) Canadian group, Powder Blues. Leader, Tom Lavin has written many of the band’s best-known songs including ‘Doin’ It Right’ a S ...

and his brother Jack as a member of the house band at Rohan's Rockpile, a live music venue in the Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver. in 1974, he joined Bruce Fairbairn's

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

band "Sunshyne", after being recruited to assist in helping to transform their sound from

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

into

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre that combines elements of blues and rock music. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock (electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums, sometimes w ...

. To maximize their chances of securing a record deal, Mitchell voluntarily withdrew as lead vocalist and was replaced by Ron Tabak, whom he discovered while fronting the band "Not Fragile". The project was renamed

, and their self-titled debut album was released on the

GRT Records GRT Records was the name of both a U.S. and a Canadian record label, both created by General Recorded Tape, a California-based company that existed from 1965 to 1979.Richard GreenGRT of Canada, Ltd. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2013-02-26. ...

in 1977. The album achieved platinum status in Canada, a first for a debut Canadian artist. Following the departure of drummer

Jim Vallance James Douglas Vallance (born May 31, 1952) is a Canadian songwriter, arranger and producer. He is best known as the songwriting partner of Canadian musician Bryan Adams. Vallance began his professional career as the original drummer and main song ...

in 1978 (replaced by Seeds of Time drummer Rocket Norton) Mitchell assumed the role of principal songwriter composing numerous Prism hits, including "Armageddon", the title track for the band's third album and one of the band's most recognizable songs. He later received a

SOCAN The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a Canadian performance rights organization that represents the performing rights of more than 135,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. The organization collects ...

Song of the Year award for "Night to Remember", a ballad written for the Armageddon album. Night to Remember also received an award from the Canadian Performing Rights Organization (PRO). Prism disbanded temporarily in 1982 but reformed again in 1987 with new singer Darcy Deutsch, former lead singer Ron Tabak having died as the result of a brain injury on Christmas Day, 1984. Mitchell continued to perform with Prism until 2005 when he left the group following a dispute with sole remaining core member, Al Harlow.

Recent work

Mitchell was part of the legendary "Billy Mitchell's Trainwreck," a much celebrated rockabilly vocal and instrumental group formed in 1983 with the late

Bill Cowsill William Joseph Cowsill Jr. (January 9, 1948 – February 18, 2006) was an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the lead singer and guitarist of The Cowsills, who had three top-10 singles in the late 1960s. From the ...

(of the Cowsill family band), and upright bassist Elmar Spanier. Other memorable collaborations include close friends British blues legend

Long John Baldry John William "Long John" Baldry (12 January 1941 – 21 July 2005) was an English musician and actor. In the 1960s, he was one of the first British vocalists to sing the blues in clubs and shared the stage with many British musicians including ...

, and

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

-born actor/musician, Jim Byrnes.

Personal life

A graduate of the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

, Dr. Mitchell holds a PhD in

Curriculum studies Curriculum studies (CS) is a concentration within curriculum and instruction concerned with understanding curricula as an active force of human educational experience. Overview Specific questions related to curriculum studies include the followin ...

(2010), an MA degree in

Adult Education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralp ...

(2002), and a BA in

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

(1998). UBC Alma Mater Society Ombudsman from 1998 until 2002, he presently resides in

Penticton Penticton ( ) is a city in the Okanagan Valley of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada, situated between Okanagan and Skaha lakes. In the 2016 Canadian Census, its population was 33,761, while its census agglomeration The ce ...

, British Columbia.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Lindsay 1949 births 20th-century Canadian composers 20th-century Canadian guitarists Living people Musicians from London British soft rock musicians English emigrants to Canada Canadian rock guitarists Canadian songwriters Canadian hard rock musicians Canadian male composers Canadian male guitarists Canadian soft rock musicians Musicians from Vancouver Prism (band) members University of British Columbia alumni Writers from Vancouver