Look People was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band formed in 1985 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

.Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, '' Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995''.

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholarly book ...

. . They were known as "outlandishly quirky", and had a moderate hit in 1991 with a cover of

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

's "Lowrider". They received five

CASBY Award The CASBY Awards were a Canadian awards ceremony for independent and alternative music, presented annually by Toronto, Ontario radio station CFNY, currently branded as 102.1 The Edge. CASBY is an acronym for Canadian Artists Selected By You. The a ...

nominations for their CD ''Small Fish, Big Pond''.

History

The band formed in 1985 around the lineup of vocalist

Jaymz Bee Jaymz Bee (born April 13, 1963) is a Canadians, Canadian musician, writer, emcee and radio personality based in Toronto, Ontario. Early life Jaymz was raised in North Bay, Ontario, North Bay, Ontario. He was a founder of the Al Waxman Fan Club at ...

, guitarist Andy Flinn, bassist Walter K. Thut, drummer Mike Weilenmann and percussionist Gerry Scott, aka Great Bob Scott. Flinn left the band and was replaced by Fabio Marc Baltensperger; he left and was replaced by Longo Hai. Weilenmann quit before their first recording, leaving Great Bob Scott to fill the chair as drummer and percussionist. In 1986, Look People released the EP ''Stop Making Cheese'', which was recorded in Switzerland and released in North America on AMOK Records. By 1988, the band was down to Bee and Scott, who composed music with producer Walter Zweifel and played several shows with

John Bottomley John Bottomley (September 17, 1960 – April 6, 2011) was a Canadian singer-songwriter. He started in music in the early 1980s with the band Tulpa, which also included his brother Chris,Kevin Hearn Kevin Neil Hearn (born July 3, 1969) is a Canadian musician who is a member of Barenaked Ladies, and his own group, Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle. He primarily plays keyboards and guitars. He is also a member of Rheostatics. Early life Hearn was ...

, Bazl Salazar and "Aardvark Q. Dardknarbles" (Derek Orford). This lineup (with

Richard Underhill Richard Underhill is a Canadian jazz saxophonist. A founding member of the jazz fusion group The Shuffle Demons, he has toured Europe and Canada to critical acclaim for over 27 years. Underhill won a 2003 Juno Award for his jazz solo debut ''Tal ...

on sax)), recorded the band's 1989 EP ''More Songs About Hats and Chickens''. Salazar and Dardknarbles then left the band, and guitarist Longo Hai returned. In 1990, Look People released their debut album, ''Small Fish, Big Pond'' (which includes an appearance by

Bob Wiseman Robert Neil "Bob" Wiseman (born 1962) is a film composer, songwriter, author and music teacher. Wiseman discovered or produced many artists including Ron Sexsmith, The Lowest of the Low, Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall, Anhai, and former ...

). In 1991,

Hypnotic Records Hypnotic Records is an American independent record label specializing in electronic music. History Hypnotic Records is the sub-label to Cleopatra Records Lollapalooza Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...

dates, and toured Canada twice. Tyson then left the band and was replaced by Chris Gartner. In 1993, Look People released their third album, ''Crazy Eggs'', and became the house band for the

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

Friday Night with Ralph Benmergui ''Friday Night! with Ralph Benmergui'' was a Canadian television variety show, which aired on CBC Television from 1992 to 1993.Greg Quill, "Friday Night! at first glance". ''Toronto Star'', November 3, 1992. The show initially aired at 10 p.m., fo ...

''. Following the cancellation of that series, Look People made one final tour of North America and performed their last show at the

Palomino Club (North Hollywood) The Palomino Club was a music venue in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. It opened in 1949 and was the best-known country music club in Los Angeles for decades, closing in 1995. It was called "Country Music's most important West Co ...

, with an opening act of rock music performed by porn stars Madison Ivy, Raven, and

Ron Jeremy Ronald Jeremy Hyatt (born March 12, 1953) is an American former pornographic actor. Nicknamed "The Hedgehog", Jeremy was ranked by AVN at No. 1 in their "50 Top Porn Stars of All Time" list. Jeremy has also made a number of non-pornographic ...

. Bee pursued

lounge music Lounge music is a type of easy listening music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place, usually with a tranquil theme, such as a jungle, an island paradise or outer space. The rang ...

, forming

Jaymz Bee and the Royal Jelly Orchestra Jaymz Bee and the Royal Jelly Orchestra is a Canadian lounge music and jazz band formed in Toronto. This group of about a dozen musicians, led by Bee (whose real name is James Doyle) released eight albums of cover versions of well-known songs, rein ...

. Kevin Hearn, Great Bob Scott, Derek Orford, and Chris Gartner continued working together as Thin Buckle. Jaymz Bee and Great Bob Scott continued to collaborate on music in the bands "Bonzai Suzuki" and "The Tiki Collective". There have been reunion concerts; the band played a show at the 2013 Electric Eclectics Festival In 2019, Derek Orford became ill and the band played a fundraising concert for him at

The Dakota Tavern The Dakota Tavern is a live music venue and bar in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. History The Dakota opened in 2007. It's co-owned by business partners. It is located in the Little Italy, Toronto, Little Italy neighbourhood of Toronto. The bar par ...

Discography

Albums

* ''Small Fish, Big Pond'' (1990), Quantum Records * ''Boogazm'' (1991), Hypnotic Records * ''Crazy Eggs'' (1993), Hypnotic Records

EPs

* ''Stop Making Cheese'' (1986), AMOK Records * ''More Songs About Hats and Chickens'' (1989), Quantum Records

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Look People Musical groups established in 1985 Musical groups disestablished in 1994 Musical groups from Toronto Canadian alternative rock groups 1985 establishments in Ontario 1994 disestablishments in Ontario