Vince Richard Ditrich (born April 4, 1963) is a Canadian rock musician, best known as the

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

and manager of the band

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 ...

. Ditrich is also the author of two novels featuring fictional musician Tony Vicar (''The Liquor Vicar'' and ''The Vicar's Knickers'').

Early life

Ditrich grew up in Lethbridge, Alberta. He began playing drums as a child, and performed in his father's local band as a teenager.

Career

Ditrich played drums with a variety of musicians, including pre-

Odds Odds provide a measure of the likelihood of a particular outcome. They are calculated as the ratio of the number of events that produce that outcome to the number that do not. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. Odds also have ...

bands with Doug Elliott and Steven Drake,

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 t ...

, and

Paul Hyde Paul Reginald Nelson (born 21 May 1955), known by the stage name Paul Hyde, is a British-born Canadian singer-songwriter. He co-founded the rock band Payola$ with Bob Rock, serving as the band's main lyricist and vocalist. He later performed and ...

. He went on tour in western Canada with

Sue Medley Susan Gayle Medley (born 1962 at Courtenay, British Columbia) is a Canadian rock musician. She released her self-titled debut CD in 1990. She won a Juno Award in 1991 for Most Promising Female Vocalist. Early years A native of Vancouver Islan ...

in 1990, and also played with

Mae Moore Mae Moore is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Her music is a blend of pop, folk and jazz. Her most successful album, 1992's ''Bohemia'', was an international hit, although her other albums have been successful mainly in Canada. Biography Moore gre ...

Great Big Sea Great Big Sea was a Canadian folk rock band from Newfoundland and Labrador, best known for performing energetic rock interpretations of traditional Newfoundland folk songs including sea shanties, which draw from the island's 500-year Irish, Scot ...

and

Doug and the Slugs Doug and the Slugs are a Canadian pop music group formed in 1977 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The band enjoyed a number of Canadian top 40 hits in the 1980s, most notably "Too Bad" (1980), "Who Knows How To Make Love Stay" (1982), "Making It W ...

. In late 1989, he joined

, and performed on their 1991 album ''Go Figure''. He has been a member of that band ever since. In 2001 Ditrich became the band's manager as well. He has also continued to record with other musicians as a session drummer, and released a solo album in 2002. Spirit of the West frequently performed a rendition of "

That's Amore "That's Amore" is a 1953 song by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Jack Brooks, and became a major hit and signature song for Dean Martin, who first recorded and released it that year. ''Amore'' () means "love" in Italian. History The song ...

" in concert, with Ditrich on lead vocals. Except for a live recording of that song on the band's 1999

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

compilation ''

Hit Parade A hit parade is a ranked list of the most popular recordings at a given point in time, usually determined either by sales or airplay. The term originated in the 1930s; ''Billboard'' magazine published its first music hit parade on January 4, 1936 ...

'', however, Ditrich did not normally perform lead vocals on the band's albums. In 2005 Ditrich took on a management role for the bluegrass band House of Doc. In 2010 Ditrich performed as part of the musical accompaniment for an original play, ''Debt the Musical'', in British Columbia. In 2011 he produced part of Calum Hughes' album ''And That's Okay With Me'' at the Vancouver studio The Warehouse. Until its disbandment in 2016, Ditrich continued to be the manager for Spirit of the West. By this time he had been suffering from kidney failure for several years, and missed some of the final performances."Final Regina show for illness-challenged Spirit of the West"
''CBC News'' · Mar 29, 2016 Ditrich lived in Vancouver until 1993, but after the birth of his first son, he moved to

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

and still lives there with his wife, Marion, and their two sons.

Discography

*''Supertonic'' (2002)

References

External links

Vince R. Ditrich: Official site

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ditrich, Vince 1963 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Canadian rock drummers Canadian male drummers Canadian folk rock musicians Musicians from British Columbia Canadian session musicians Spirit of the West members Bachman–Turner Overdrive members