Chalk Circle was a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band formed in 1982 in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. The band originally consisted of lead singer and guitarist Chris Tait,

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

Brad Hopkins,

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

Tad Winklarz and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Derrick Murphy.

History

Formed in Newcastle, Ontario, Hopkins and Tait were paired with Terry Miller and Stani Veselinovic in 1982 as The Casualties. The band briefly changed its name to The Reactors and then to New Addition in 1984, and finally settled on the name Chalk Circle, taken from

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

's play ''

The Caucasian Chalk Circle ''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'' () is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than the baby's wealthy b ...

''. The band recorded a demo single "The World" (b/w "Black Pit") on cassette and played the Toronto area, subsequently winning the

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 ...

for Most Promising Non-Recording Group in 1985. After signing to

Duke Street Records Duke Street Records was a Canadian independent record label"Barren ground for Canada's gutsy record labels". ''Edmonton Journal'', May 10, 1990. established in 1984 by Andrew Hermant, but the record label ceased operating in 1994. The Universal M ...

in Toronto,Alan Niester, "Go slick and commercial". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', January 20, 1986. their 1986 debut release was a six-song EP called '' The Great Lake''. Produced by

Chris Wardman Chris Wardman is a Canadian music producer, musician and songwriter. Wardman was a founding member of Blue Peter, and was their lead guitarist and main contributing songwriter. Wardman was also a member of Breeding Ground in the late 1980s. Ward ...

, it was recorded at Manta Sound in Toronto and Quest Recording Studio in Oshawa. The band's style saw them positively compared to British and Irish

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

bands of the era, including U2, Echo and the Bunnymen and

The Smiths The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...

. The lead single " April Fool" became a hit single in Canada, along with another single "Me, Myself and I". The band produced videos for both tracks which were regularly featured on

MuchMusic Much is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. It is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in what was o ...

, and the EP went on to become Duke Street's biggest seller at that time. They received a

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

nomination for Most Promising Group at the Juno Awards of 1986. Their second release was a full-length album entitled ''

Mending Wall "Mending Wall" is a poem by Robert Frost. It opens Robert's second collection of poetry, '' North of Boston'', published in 1914 by David Nutt, and has become "one of the most anthologized and analyzed poems in modern literature". Backgroun ...

'' released in 1987, with the inspiration for the title coming from

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American Colloquialism, colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New E ...

's famous poem. Recorded entirely on digital equipment, the crisp sounding album featured another Top 10 Canadian single "This Mourning", a blistering commentary about nuclear politics in the '

ray gun A raygun is a science-fiction directed-energy weapon usually with destructive effect.Jeff Prucher, '' Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction,'' Oxford University Press, 2007, page 162 They have various names: ray gun, de ...

' era ( Reagan Era) era of the late 1980s. The album would later be reissued with a cover version of T-Rex's "20th Century Boy", which also became a Canadian hit single. The band's final album was 1989's ''As the Crow Flies'', which spawned two singles, "Sons and Daughters" and "Together".Mitch Potter, "Not easy to corner Chalk Circle's psyche". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', December 20, 1989. It also included the song "Blue Heaven", which included guest vocals by labelmate

Jane Siberry Jane Siberry ( ; ; born 12 October 1955) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, known for such hits as "Mimi on the Beach", "I Muse Aloud", "One More Colour" and "Calling All Angels (Jane Siberry song), Calling All Angels". She performed the theme so ...

. The album was engineered by Michael Phillip Wojewoda, who received a Juno nomination for Best Recording Engineer at the

Juno Awards of 1990 The Juno Awards of 1990, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 18 March 1990 in Toronto at a ceremony in the Hummingbird Centre, O'Keefe Centre. Rick Moranis was the host for the ceremonies, which ...

. Citing 'creative differences', the band broke up in 1990, and Tait formed the indie band Big Faith with Fergus Marsh, Michael Sloski and

Ken Greer Kenneth William Greer (born 25 July 1954) is a Canadian guitarist and keyboardist. He is one of the founding members of the Canadian rock band Red Rider. Biography Greer is the youngest of seven children born into a musical family in Toronto ...

. In 2006,

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

released a Chalk Circle

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 creat ...

compilation as part of its 20th Century Masters series. The release prompted the band to reconvene after 15 years and in February of that year, they began rehearsals at the Cherry Beach rehearsal studios in Toronto in anticipation of possible reunion shows. On June 17, 2006, Chalk Circle played a reunion gig at

Lee's Palace Lee's Palace is a rock concert hall located on the south side of Bloor Street West east of Lippincott Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The two-floor facility in The Annex neighbourhood has a long history prior to being adapted in September 19 ...

in Toronto. In recent years they have played additional shows including on October 1, 2011 and December 12, 2015, with

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...

at the Phoenix in Toronto, and on November 12, 2011 in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

for the first time in 20 years at

Corona Theatre The Beanfield Theatre () (previously known as Corona Theatre), in Montreal, Quebec, Canada is located at 2490 Rue Notre-Dame Ouest in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood of the borough of Le Sud-Ouest. It is one of several vintage movie theatres in ...

. Most reunion concerts feature Jason Sniderman on keyboards instead of Winklarz. The band played a reunion concert on March 7, 2020 at a fundraising concert for

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

."What's On". ''

'', March 5, 2020. On July 29, 2023, the band played a reunion concert in Chris Tait's hometown as part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Newcastle Community Hall.

Discography

Singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chalk Circle Musical groups established in 1982 Musical groups disestablished in 1990 Musical groups from the Regional Municipality of Durham Canadian alternative rock groups 1982 establishments in Ontario 1990 disestablishments in Ontario Westpark Music artists