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Hey, it’s jD — and this week we’re crossing the Atlantic for a pint and a playlist with Matt from Portsmouth, an accidental Hiphead turned full-blown evangelist for the cause. LimeWire started it (as it did for many chaotic musical awakenings), but a bootleg MP3 of New Orleans Is Sinking and a mini-disc later, Matt was hooked. His wife? Obsessed.
Their journey took them to London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2006, where Don’t Wake Daddy opened the show — and kicked off a lifelong connection. The gig, the crowd, the Canadians with recording gear… it was magic. A year later, Matt was helping organize Hip pilgrimages across the UK. A few years after that? He was interviewing Gord fucking Downiehimself.
That’s right — in 2013, backstage at the band’s final UK show at Coco, Matt found himself face-to-face (and recorder-to-recorder) with the man, the myth, the frontman. What followed was a half-hour chat about setlists, B-sides, and why Rob Baker’s “blocks of three” theory might be the secret sauce to the Hip’s live mystique.
We talk about nostalgia, transatlantic fandom, and In Violet Light as a white whale. We even tack on the original interview at the end of the episode — so stay tuned for that sonic time capsule. (And yes, we do talk about The Darkest One… eventually.)
🎙️ Next week: We plug in with Dan from Ottawa, frontman of Little Bones and one of the most seasoned Hip tribute performers out there. From cover gigs to real-life Gord encounters, he’s been carrying the torch since the mid-’90s.
💬 Pull Quote
👤 About Our Guest
Matt from Portsmouth is a UK-based journalist, lifelong music nerd, and founding member of the British Hip diaspora. He’s seen the band five times, reviewed shows for underground zines, and used to sneak Gord Downie quotes into gig reviews just to see who’d notice.
He’s also a longtime member of The Hipbase — the OG fan vault that helped international listeners connect before streaming made things easy. If you need a gig setlist from 1998? Matt probably has it printed out in a binder somewhere. Respect.
📬 Get Involved
🎙️ Leave us a voicemail: castfeedback.com/tthtop40
📧 Send us your Hipstory: [email protected]
💸 Kick in a few bucks: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40
All donations go to ALS Canada and get you into the membersHIP.
📡 Follow + Stream
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Instagram: @tthtop40
Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/tthtop40
🧠 Support the Cause
This countdown ain’t just for fun — we’re on a mission to raise $25K for the ALS Society of Canada in memory of our friend Matt Rona. Join the effort. Tell your friends. Buy us a coffee. We’re all in this together.
🎧 Transcript follows below.
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
2025-05-24, 8:51 AM
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
Join jD beginning Monday, January 6th, 2025 while he counts down the top 40 songs by The
Tragically Hip as voted by you! Every week on The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown, jD
welcomes a new guest to discuss their TTH origin story (hipstory) and dissec
Artist: jD
Year: 2025
Transcript
[0:00] On Friday, May 26th, Podlist 6 is coming to you from the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown.
Hey, it's JD here, and I am fucking pumped to be filling you in on the latest Podlist. What is a
Podlist, you ask? It's a podcast playlist. In this case, it's a playlist full of Tragically Hip cover songs
by our talented listeners. Here's the deal this year. You can only choose a song that ranked from
169 to 41. To be included in Podlist 6, you'll need to submit your WAV files either by WeTransfer or
by emailing JD at tthtop40 at gmail.com with Podlist in the subject line. Are you ready to shoot your
shot and become podcast famous? What are you waiting for then?
[0:58] A member of the DATC Media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown.
Today we are looking between the bars at the third track off the 2004 long play In Between
Evolution. Gus, the polar bear from Central Park. Tracy, what were your initial thoughts? My initial
thoughts were how ingenious it was with the lyrics anthropomorphizing this bear and saying, and
wondering, you know, no one's afraid of you anymore? Is that what it is? No one's afraid of you?
[1:30] Music.
[1:38] And welcome to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is an absolute fucking thrill to be with
you week over week where we're going to count down 40 essential tracks by the hip that you
selected with your very own top 20 ballots. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and a four-
sliced toaster I fashioned into a time machine to find the greatest thing before sliced bread. How
will your favorite song fare in the rankings? You'll need to tune in every week to find out. So there's
that. This week, I'm joined by the Tragically Hip superfan, Matt from Portsmouth. Matt from
Portsmouth, how the hell are you doing on this hiptastic day? Hey, JD, I'm good. How are you? I'm
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wonderful. Thanks for asking. It's a little rainy here right now. It's, you know, full disclosure, we're
recording this in the fall of 2024. Four uh it'll hit your ear holes you know sometime in 2025 but
yeah it's uh it's definitely autumn out there today for me how about you yeah 100 i mean it's it's
dark here now and it's uh i won't say it's uh it's warm but it's warmer than it will be when people are
listening to this so.
[2:53] Well what do you say we get right into things and i'm really curious especially with your accent
uh where the heck you began your tragically hip origin story i began by accident um as all the best
things do right right um 2005 uh lime wire to date it uh my now wife then girlfriend and i were kind
of fooling around it was just after hurricane katrina um i was looking for reasons probably related to
that to the old r&b song new orleans by uh gary bonds and this song new orleans is sinking came
up and it didn't say who the band was or anything sounds interesting downloaded it um and it was
my wife who got hooked absolutely hooked by this song and obsessed and she was listening to it
multiple times a day day day on end um and kind of looked up the lyrics it's this band called the
tragically hip don't know anything about them went on to limewire again as you did at that time um
found a few more songs um bob cajun was one of them that was the one that kind of stuck with me
initially and she just couldn't stop listening to these songs um and i date you even more than a line
where i'm pretty sure i put them on a mini disc for her oh wow i had a display yeah that that that
thoroughly dates it and um.
[4:18] I thought, she seems to really like this band. I was flicking through a music magazine a couple
of months later. I think it was Q. And there was an advert that the next year, the Tragically Hip were
playing in London at Shepherds Bush Empire. So I bought two tickets for us to go.
[4:32] And I thought, I'll put them in an album. I'll find her an album. And the only one that was
available in the UK was In Violet Light on Amazon, randomly. So I bought her In Violet Light on CD
and put the tickets inside and gave it to her for Christmas. What a wonderful gift. Yeah, absolutely.
And at the time, I didn't really think much more of it. And I listened to Bob Cajun and New Orleans
Is Sinking occasionally. They were on kind of mixtapes. And then we kind of six months rolled
around and 7th of July 2006, we were standing in the queue outside Shepherds Bush Empire. And
we walked into the venue and the support band played and they were fine.
[5:14] And then the band came out and played don't wake daddy and it was like an epiphany, i've
never seen anything like it and in that moment that was the the connection i needed from these
songs are good to this band is something special i was i was hooked um and i remember chatting
to a bunch of canadian guys who were there and they all had recording equipment which blew my
mind they were telling me the band um were quite open to people recording their shows and
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pointing me at hip face and that was kind of it it was i was like a junkie needing a fix and horus box
had been yeah a hundred percent um by by the next time they came over a year later i was kind of
helping people coming over from canada to organize itineraries where they would stay in london
where we'd go stuff like that really hooked in with everyone and it just just kind of snowballed i think
in the in the year between those two shows i bought everything and world container came out so it
was the first time i could experience a new hip album at the same time as everyone else, um and
what an album to have as as the first one that you kind of experience fresh.
[6:23] Um and and yeah i just i just became absolutely crazy about it i i've always loved music
anyway and i'd kind of written gig reviews for the local paper and i'd i'd ended up writing for a
couple of um kind of little underground magazines in the next few years and and whenever i could
i'd drop a hit reference into a review or a write-up or whatever and um, and it went from there i saw
them again in in 2009 and then the last time they came over was 2013 when we got two shows in
two days which was awesome what kind of venue So the first of the two, it was Canada Day. And
the Canadian consulate, they've started doing it again now, but that was the last time they did it for
nearly 20 years. They put on a huge festival in Trafalgar Square.
[7:12] Because the consulate backs onto trafalgar square so the hip were the headliners um and the
the rest of the evening bill was uh jan arden the arkels and the sheepdogs oh okay and then they
were kind of independent um or or kind of uh more out there artists in the afternoon old man ludica
is the only one i can remember off the top of my head because he had a fantastic beard um and i
as do you matt yeah for those watching along on the game um yeah and and the hip played that
and then the next night they they played their last uk show which is a venue called coco and um
and because i was writing for these magazines and because i kind of got to know a few people in
the industry uh i managed to wangle an interview with one of the band um i didn't know who it was
going to be till the day before when I got a message saying, oh, I thought it was going to be Johnny
Fay. And I kind of prepped for Johnny, which was really cool. And I got a message saying, oh,
change your plans. It's going to be Gord.
[8:17] Which was uh yeah quite the quite the change at the last minute yeah um so i duly kind of
appeared at the venue i think it was one o'clock in the afternoon or something thinking this feels
very early for musicians but there we are uh and there was me and a slightly disheveled guy with
long hair who came over and said hi i'm bob how are you doing i'm matt nice to meet you got
chatting away oh what are you here for i'm here to interview gord what are you here for i'm going to
record some some stuff with him later on and that was when i clicked it was bob rock holy shit um
and, it only actually this year dawned on me that they must have been kind of picking up some stuff
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that ended up on luster parfait because i know they were recording songs on and off for years that
ended up on that album right um and he was talking about kind of comparing notes with gorge for
songs and stuff um and then went into the venue uh I remember um Rob was playing uh foosball.
[9:18] With himself which was very odd um obviously bored and and then kind of interviewed Gord
um I was 35 but I sound like a 16 year old when I listened to the recording because I was just
completely in awe and and chatting away but it was just fantastic to sit down for about half an hour
and just pick his brains on half hour yeah it was talk to me about this a little bit more in depth it was
great i got to kind of ask him about what it was like going from huge arena shows in canada coming
to play kind of the venues that were playing in the uk and and around europe are kind of 2 000
people so a nice size venue you get a really good response but it's a completely different mix and
an audience that don't necessarily know the band as well though he was teasing me that there
were probably one or two Canadians in the audience at any given time, and then we got chatting
about other things I remember specifically asking him.
[10:18] About the the fact that the shows were taped and and there were so many songs out there
that weren't on albums um radio songs when i referenced and a few others and would we get a b-
sides and and his answer was well all the time we're pursuing the a-sides we're not too bothered
about the b-sides, sounds consistent with what i've heard as well that they're always driving forward
right they don't like to look in the rearview mirror very much but really that that acknowledgement
that yeah, we know that material's there and it will come out one day. It's not hidden from the world,
but we're just so focused on moving forward. But yeah, that was phenomenal. And the other thing I
remember asking him about was the set lists felt like they changed in structure. And he was saying
that Gord Sinclair had written the set lists for years and kind of rotated things and Rob Baker had
taken them over not long before. And Rob's way of doing it was to put songs into groups of three.
So he'd move a block of three songs in or out of the set on a given night. So he tried to pin, I don't
know whether it was kind of looking at songs that were thematically linked or musically linked,
maybe keys or things like that. But he would kind of make these little triples and then he could drop
the triples in and out of a set list to think about how it was constructed. What cool insight is that?
Yeah, it was fascinating. just to hear it and just to kind of.
[11:48] Just kind of be in his presence he's just uh i mean we we all know this right as well with
hands of this band he was just utterly captivating and really charming and quite shy is the way i
take like he captivated and commanded but at the same time he's very private he's soft-spoken as
well like sometimes you almost have to strain to hear what he's saying in a sense and yet there's
no problem doing that because you're desperate to hear what he's saying yeah absolutely you end
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up kind of almost head to head huddled over a table to get things recorded which was weirdly
intimate but um but yeah really really really cool and at the time i thought it's fantastic i can't wait till
they come back again and see if i can interview them again and and see where it goes and.
[12:36] Obviously didn't realize that would be the last time that they'd come over but it it it really kind
of yeah it was a an amazing memory and the only the only thing i regret is that we i didn't ask for a
photo i thought you know i've got to play it cool yeah um but yeah it was it was everything you'd
expect he was uh yeah he was god you've got the photo in your mind yeah 100 oh i got the
recording so i can listen back to me sounding like a an awestruck child while he just spouts wisdom
well and we've got a special treat because uh following the credits of this episode we're gonna
we're gonna tack on uh matt's interview with gourd and uh you'll be able to give it a listen as well
provided matt is uh in agreement with that yeah absolutely more than welcome yeah so stay tuned
after the credits on this episode and you'll get to hear that interview that'll be just fantastic.
[13:34] So, Matt, are there any go-to records at this point for you? Like, if you're having a day, you
know, which record do you sort of fall into? I think it depends on mood to a degree, but if I just
absolutely need to disappear into the music, it's day for night. Every time, I just...
[13:56] You can just wallow in it. At the moment nautical disaster hits, that's it. Just completely more
adrift in the music um but i've always had a soft spot for for world container and always will
because it's the it's the first time i got to experience that with people that didn't already know it and
weren't already going to me oh you know this track's really good you can skip past this one you all
got to discover it together yeah absolutely and and that was a an absolute joy but yeah i i think i
think day for night's about as close to as a perfect album as i've ever heard well what's fascinating
about that to me is you you came into it post 2005, so the record's 10 years old at that point and i
know that it was a great record in 1995, and i'm nostalgic about it uh and i still think it's a
masterpiece i think it's phenomenal but it's so reassuring to hear somebody discovering it you know
in 2006 or 2007.
[14:59] And realizing it's good as well it's not just the context of the time it's a fucking good record
yeah absolutely and it was the first one i got on vinyl as well i found a cheap copy on ebay and it
just works so perfectly i i i'm trying to get all i've got most of the albums on vinyl now and it's just,
There's the tactile thing of the disc itself, but just being forced to listen to the songs in the order that
they were intended and getting that warmth and that fidelity.
[15:37] It can pick you up when you're down. If you're in a good mood, it can boost it. There's
something on that album, whatever mood you're in, whatever you need to feel, it's there for you. I
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agree. I agree. there's something for everyone for sure but the collection of them is for everyone
you know yeah it's it's great what about the recently released uh hip docuseries did you get a
chance to watch that on prime or yeah absolutely yeah okay well yeah it's it's it's worldwide which is
awesome i was fearful it wouldn't be on there and i'd have to find other routes to watch it again, to
get my fix but yeah I loved it I loved how the first couple of episodes were just kind of uplifting and
joyous and yes and then you get that kind of the truth the truth that I think is George Stromboloff
who said it so well they never showed us that that side of the band the friction you knew it must be
there no band could be together for that long and everything be rosy every single day but i loved
how honest it was and then like everyone i got through quite a lot of, tissues just bawling my eyes
out at the last episode yeah the last episode was it was tough to watch and the third one was tough
in a different way yeah it's tough to see the strife you know yeah absolutely and and and to make
sense of it i mean i i.
[17:06] The moment they said, oh, and then Gord moved to Toronto. Okay. Yeah. Now it makes
sense. The physical distance. Yeah. Even though probably in a country as vast as Canada, it
doesn't maybe feel like a huge distance, but it's that disconnect. Two and a half hour drive from
here. You can't just knock on a door. No, exactly. Yeah.
[17:29] And especially at that time, I think now distance doesn't mean as much because we're
connected every second of every day. We sure are. It's, it's been a godsend for the podcast game. I
used to have to lug gear around, you know, and, and, uh, interviewing you would have been quite
the expensive ticket. Yeah, absolutely. Although we could have grabbed a beer, which would have
made it. Oh, that would have been, next time I'm over, I was over to watch Pavement, uh, a couple
of years ago. I followed Pavement around, uh, in the UK and, uh, got to London for a couple of
shows and got to Edinburgh and it was great. Yeah. So if I ever come back, we'll definitely, we'll go
to the Maple Leaf or whatever it's Called in London? Yeah. Yeah, I'll make it happen. Get a poutine.
Well, what do you say, Matt from Portsmouth? We get into the business of talking about the song of
the week. How do you feel about that? Yeah, let's go for it. All right. We'll be right back after this.
Hey, this is Paul Langlois from The Tragically Hip saying hello. Now on with the countdown.
[18:30] Music.
[23:08] If you've followed along through my podcast journey, you know that The Darkest One is a
favorite of mine. That said, Matt from Portsmouth, what did you think of the song the first time you
remember hearing it? I remember, like I said, I bought my wife the album and we played it. And The
Darkest One immediately hit me because it felt slightly tonally different to the rest of the album. And
again i guess i i reference it dave and i had a warmth to it it's there in the lyrics it's there in in in the
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song it's kind of welcoming and it ushers you in and i don't know it felt like a like putting on a cozy
jacket i guess um and then the more and more i i i delved into the hip it just hits everything that i
love about them it's it's so visual when you listen to the lyrics You can picture what Gord's talking
about, or at least your interpretation of it. And I think everyone interprets it differently, which is even
better. You can compare that to other people.
[24:19] I didn't see the video until I knew the song really well already. So by the time I saw the video,
that kind of just added another layer to it. Love Trailer Park Boys. Didn't know who Don Cherry was
at the time. Um had no idea who was actually until i went to toronto in in 2007 with some friends i
met through the hip get out of here um they they said come on come on over and we went over
they took us out to niagara for the day and then we were in a an irish pub somewhere in toronto
and uh the maple leafs for the senators was on tv oh so that was you've got the real canadian
experience yeah full on um a steak and a beer and then don cherry appeared on the screen and i
just remember turning around and going what the hell is that man wearing um oh you're chatting
away and and and uh the guy was with chris cutt-patrick who who used to run all of the kind of um
the kind of hip fans uh, kind of vault i guess you describe it he he hosted all of the the downloads
for live recordings and things like that uh he just turned around to me he's so he's don cherry he's
in the darkest one video and you're like i was like oh i like bob moment this is full of canadiana now
i now i get it um and then yeah it became a bit of a white whale i've never heard it live, uh seen the
band five times they never played it.
[25:48] I saw them on the Inviolet Light Tour. I'll have to look up the set list and see if they played it.
Because if they didn't, then I probably haven't heard it live either. No, I think that made it a bit more
special in some ways. Oh, yeah. I mean, I heard Fiddler's Green, which is pretty much a rarity, but
never got to hear that. Um and yeah it just again it in in my darkest moments when i'm when i've
been my most down that song just always lifts me back up every single time it does have an
uplifting chorus right like yeah just like tonally and structurally it's uplifting uh i think the lyrics are
absolutely gorgeous like to the chorus like i i think that that's just the best thing ever yeah but it's
not kind of happy clappy it's no you don't complain but you still do and you don't explain if you want
to explain it's so real and and relatable and i think maybe that's it it's kind of yeah we've all been
there we've all felt like that we've all had a relationship like that whether it's a romantic one or a
family one or a friendship or.
[27:01] Whatever we can all kind of nod along and go yeah yeah i know exactly what you're talking
about god yeah it's beautiful it really is a beautiful yeah i yeah yeah in i i is rarely a week goes by
when i don't listen to a decent chunk of the hip's music in one way or another even if it's just kind of
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just on headphones while i'm commuting or something um but even when i make a conscious kind
of right i need to to not listen for a little bit just just to enjoy it again when i dive back in it's really
rare i don't listen to that song, at least once a week it's on almost every playlist i ever make like it
really it just fits the bill whatever mood whatever vibe it doesn't feel out of place i think that's what i
love so much about it oh that's spectacular yeah that's tremendous i think um, yeah i think it's a it's
a monster of a song it's just yeah and i think um and they said on the documentary actually from an
album that probably doesn't get the love that it deserves.
[28:12] No, I don't think so. From, you know, it's so funny watching the doc to hear them react to
some of those later records. Yeah. And it doesn't sound like they gave them much love either. But
in talking with Johnny Fay last year, he made mention of the fact that he's been listening to In Violet
Light a lot lately. And he thinks it's pretty good. So to me, that was a tip off. if he's listening to it a lot
i think they're getting ready to do a box for i think so and in violet light had the hip club thing i think
as well so there were tracks that were only available if you're in the hip club so they've already got
those extra tracks there that they can bundle up and and trickle out and tease us all with that's right
i i know it doesn't fit the narrative of releasing it on an anniversary but i just think it would be uh it It
would be a nice dip into something that is a little less popular than up to here, Road Apples,
Phantom Power fully, you know? Yeah, absolutely. And they seem to want to do kind of a couple of
these releases a year. So I'm sure there's an anniversary for another album that they can hit and do
in Violet Light. Yeah, I think so too.
[29:28] Well, Matt, it's been an absolute blast hanging out with you this afternoon. Do you have
anything that you would like to plug at all? Are you still doing any writing? Uh not not really i mean i
do but not really about music anymore i i guess um i'll give the hip bass a plug i know you guys
have talked about it before but it it really helped me kind of become more of a hip fan than i was
and it was a fantastic community it's a lot quieter than it was naturally now now the band aren't out
on the road all the time and things like that but But it's still a phenomenal repository, in fact, to prep
for what was going to be in the first gig I went to. I wanted to double-check the set list. This is the
hip-based companion, the guy who ran it, Lance, basically made a book of every single concert the
hip have played. So it's just got all the set lists typed out, and then at the front of it, how many times
each song was played. Do you have your set list handy that you want to share it with us? The one
that you saw the first time? Yeah, I really helpfully just closed it on that page. Oh, shit. Sorry. No,
that's all right. That's me. But yeah, it started with Don't Wake Daddy.
[30:43] Um and then yeah don't wait daddy courage gift shop uh gus lonely end of the rink the
album wasn't out yet so that was a bit of a tease but standard uh lionized bob cajun nautical
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disaster you're not the ocean ahead by a century we'll go to uh it's a good life if you don't weaken
which i remember really blowing my mind um uh summer's killing us hundredth meridian springtime
in vienna Blow at High Doe, Music at Work, Poets Pretend, and Little Bones. That is, Pretend
would have been, because that was World Container, right? Yeah. So that would have been a pre-
release as well. Yeah. Ooh, that's a murderer's row. Yeah, it was, and I think that's why a lot of the
people who would come over and kind to follow them around they'd love the european shows
because they were they were more likely to throw in something new or something different because
they didn't have to just play the hits little unplugged gems as it were yeah literally sometimes well
that's what i've got for you this week everybody i want to thank matt once again for stopping by and
talking about it's uh part of me talking about the darkest one we just talked about it's good life if you
don't weaken and the and the show, so I got mixed up there because they are back-to-back on it by
that light.
[32:08] Matt, it's been an absolute pleasure, and I hope we can reconvene over a pint either in your
stomping ground or mine. That would be just lovely. Sounds perfect. Thanks for having me. Thanks
for stopping by. Pick up your shit.
[32:27] Thanks for listening to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. To email us, send an email to
TTH top 40 at gmail.com we're social find us on all the socials at TTH top 40.
[32:46] Music.
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5353 ratings
Hey, it’s jD — and this week we’re crossing the Atlantic for a pint and a playlist with Matt from Portsmouth, an accidental Hiphead turned full-blown evangelist for the cause. LimeWire started it (as it did for many chaotic musical awakenings), but a bootleg MP3 of New Orleans Is Sinking and a mini-disc later, Matt was hooked. His wife? Obsessed.
Their journey took them to London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2006, where Don’t Wake Daddy opened the show — and kicked off a lifelong connection. The gig, the crowd, the Canadians with recording gear… it was magic. A year later, Matt was helping organize Hip pilgrimages across the UK. A few years after that? He was interviewing Gord fucking Downiehimself.
That’s right — in 2013, backstage at the band’s final UK show at Coco, Matt found himself face-to-face (and recorder-to-recorder) with the man, the myth, the frontman. What followed was a half-hour chat about setlists, B-sides, and why Rob Baker’s “blocks of three” theory might be the secret sauce to the Hip’s live mystique.
We talk about nostalgia, transatlantic fandom, and In Violet Light as a white whale. We even tack on the original interview at the end of the episode — so stay tuned for that sonic time capsule. (And yes, we do talk about The Darkest One… eventually.)
🎙️ Next week: We plug in with Dan from Ottawa, frontman of Little Bones and one of the most seasoned Hip tribute performers out there. From cover gigs to real-life Gord encounters, he’s been carrying the torch since the mid-’90s.
💬 Pull Quote
👤 About Our Guest
Matt from Portsmouth is a UK-based journalist, lifelong music nerd, and founding member of the British Hip diaspora. He’s seen the band five times, reviewed shows for underground zines, and used to sneak Gord Downie quotes into gig reviews just to see who’d notice.
He’s also a longtime member of The Hipbase — the OG fan vault that helped international listeners connect before streaming made things easy. If you need a gig setlist from 1998? Matt probably has it printed out in a binder somewhere. Respect.
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📧 Send us your Hipstory: [email protected]
💸 Kick in a few bucks: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40
All donations go to ALS Canada and get you into the membersHIP.
📡 Follow + Stream
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🧠 Support the Cause
This countdown ain’t just for fun — we’re on a mission to raise $25K for the ALS Society of Canada in memory of our friend Matt Rona. Join the effort. Tell your friends. Buy us a coffee. We’re all in this together.
🎧 Transcript follows below.
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
2025-05-24, 8:51 AM
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
Join jD beginning Monday, January 6th, 2025 while he counts down the top 40 songs by The
Tragically Hip as voted by you! Every week on The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown, jD
welcomes a new guest to discuss their TTH origin story (hipstory) and dissec
Artist: jD
Year: 2025
Transcript
[0:00] On Friday, May 26th, Podlist 6 is coming to you from the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown.
Hey, it's JD here, and I am fucking pumped to be filling you in on the latest Podlist. What is a
Podlist, you ask? It's a podcast playlist. In this case, it's a playlist full of Tragically Hip cover songs
by our talented listeners. Here's the deal this year. You can only choose a song that ranked from
169 to 41. To be included in Podlist 6, you'll need to submit your WAV files either by WeTransfer or
by emailing JD at tthtop40 at gmail.com with Podlist in the subject line. Are you ready to shoot your
shot and become podcast famous? What are you waiting for then?
[0:58] A member of the DATC Media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown.
Today we are looking between the bars at the third track off the 2004 long play In Between
Evolution. Gus, the polar bear from Central Park. Tracy, what were your initial thoughts? My initial
thoughts were how ingenious it was with the lyrics anthropomorphizing this bear and saying, and
wondering, you know, no one's afraid of you anymore? Is that what it is? No one's afraid of you?
[1:30] Music.
[1:38] And welcome to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is an absolute fucking thrill to be with
you week over week where we're going to count down 40 essential tracks by the hip that you
selected with your very own top 20 ballots. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and a four-
sliced toaster I fashioned into a time machine to find the greatest thing before sliced bread. How
will your favorite song fare in the rankings? You'll need to tune in every week to find out. So there's
that. This week, I'm joined by the Tragically Hip superfan, Matt from Portsmouth. Matt from
Portsmouth, how the hell are you doing on this hiptastic day? Hey, JD, I'm good. How are you? I'm
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wonderful. Thanks for asking. It's a little rainy here right now. It's, you know, full disclosure, we're
recording this in the fall of 2024. Four uh it'll hit your ear holes you know sometime in 2025 but
yeah it's uh it's definitely autumn out there today for me how about you yeah 100 i mean it's it's
dark here now and it's uh i won't say it's uh it's warm but it's warmer than it will be when people are
listening to this so.
[2:53] Well what do you say we get right into things and i'm really curious especially with your accent
uh where the heck you began your tragically hip origin story i began by accident um as all the best
things do right right um 2005 uh lime wire to date it uh my now wife then girlfriend and i were kind
of fooling around it was just after hurricane katrina um i was looking for reasons probably related to
that to the old r&b song new orleans by uh gary bonds and this song new orleans is sinking came
up and it didn't say who the band was or anything sounds interesting downloaded it um and it was
my wife who got hooked absolutely hooked by this song and obsessed and she was listening to it
multiple times a day day day on end um and kind of looked up the lyrics it's this band called the
tragically hip don't know anything about them went on to limewire again as you did at that time um
found a few more songs um bob cajun was one of them that was the one that kind of stuck with me
initially and she just couldn't stop listening to these songs um and i date you even more than a line
where i'm pretty sure i put them on a mini disc for her oh wow i had a display yeah that that that
thoroughly dates it and um.
[4:18] I thought, she seems to really like this band. I was flicking through a music magazine a couple
of months later. I think it was Q. And there was an advert that the next year, the Tragically Hip were
playing in London at Shepherds Bush Empire. So I bought two tickets for us to go.
[4:32] And I thought, I'll put them in an album. I'll find her an album. And the only one that was
available in the UK was In Violet Light on Amazon, randomly. So I bought her In Violet Light on CD
and put the tickets inside and gave it to her for Christmas. What a wonderful gift. Yeah, absolutely.
And at the time, I didn't really think much more of it. And I listened to Bob Cajun and New Orleans
Is Sinking occasionally. They were on kind of mixtapes. And then we kind of six months rolled
around and 7th of July 2006, we were standing in the queue outside Shepherds Bush Empire. And
we walked into the venue and the support band played and they were fine.
[5:14] And then the band came out and played don't wake daddy and it was like an epiphany, i've
never seen anything like it and in that moment that was the the connection i needed from these
songs are good to this band is something special i was i was hooked um and i remember chatting
to a bunch of canadian guys who were there and they all had recording equipment which blew my
mind they were telling me the band um were quite open to people recording their shows and
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pointing me at hip face and that was kind of it it was i was like a junkie needing a fix and horus box
had been yeah a hundred percent um by by the next time they came over a year later i was kind of
helping people coming over from canada to organize itineraries where they would stay in london
where we'd go stuff like that really hooked in with everyone and it just just kind of snowballed i think
in the in the year between those two shows i bought everything and world container came out so it
was the first time i could experience a new hip album at the same time as everyone else, um and
what an album to have as as the first one that you kind of experience fresh.
[6:23] Um and and yeah i just i just became absolutely crazy about it i i've always loved music
anyway and i'd kind of written gig reviews for the local paper and i'd i'd ended up writing for a
couple of um kind of little underground magazines in the next few years and and whenever i could
i'd drop a hit reference into a review or a write-up or whatever and um, and it went from there i saw
them again in in 2009 and then the last time they came over was 2013 when we got two shows in
two days which was awesome what kind of venue So the first of the two, it was Canada Day. And
the Canadian consulate, they've started doing it again now, but that was the last time they did it for
nearly 20 years. They put on a huge festival in Trafalgar Square.
[7:12] Because the consulate backs onto trafalgar square so the hip were the headliners um and the
the rest of the evening bill was uh jan arden the arkels and the sheepdogs oh okay and then they
were kind of independent um or or kind of uh more out there artists in the afternoon old man ludica
is the only one i can remember off the top of my head because he had a fantastic beard um and i
as do you matt yeah for those watching along on the game um yeah and and the hip played that
and then the next night they they played their last uk show which is a venue called coco and um
and because i was writing for these magazines and because i kind of got to know a few people in
the industry uh i managed to wangle an interview with one of the band um i didn't know who it was
going to be till the day before when I got a message saying, oh, I thought it was going to be Johnny
Fay. And I kind of prepped for Johnny, which was really cool. And I got a message saying, oh,
change your plans. It's going to be Gord.
[8:17] Which was uh yeah quite the quite the change at the last minute yeah um so i duly kind of
appeared at the venue i think it was one o'clock in the afternoon or something thinking this feels
very early for musicians but there we are uh and there was me and a slightly disheveled guy with
long hair who came over and said hi i'm bob how are you doing i'm matt nice to meet you got
chatting away oh what are you here for i'm here to interview gord what are you here for i'm going to
record some some stuff with him later on and that was when i clicked it was bob rock holy shit um
and, it only actually this year dawned on me that they must have been kind of picking up some stuff
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that ended up on luster parfait because i know they were recording songs on and off for years that
ended up on that album right um and he was talking about kind of comparing notes with gorge for
songs and stuff um and then went into the venue uh I remember um Rob was playing uh foosball.
[9:18] With himself which was very odd um obviously bored and and then kind of interviewed Gord
um I was 35 but I sound like a 16 year old when I listened to the recording because I was just
completely in awe and and chatting away but it was just fantastic to sit down for about half an hour
and just pick his brains on half hour yeah it was talk to me about this a little bit more in depth it was
great i got to kind of ask him about what it was like going from huge arena shows in canada coming
to play kind of the venues that were playing in the uk and and around europe are kind of 2 000
people so a nice size venue you get a really good response but it's a completely different mix and
an audience that don't necessarily know the band as well though he was teasing me that there
were probably one or two Canadians in the audience at any given time, and then we got chatting
about other things I remember specifically asking him.
[10:18] About the the fact that the shows were taped and and there were so many songs out there
that weren't on albums um radio songs when i referenced and a few others and would we get a b-
sides and and his answer was well all the time we're pursuing the a-sides we're not too bothered
about the b-sides, sounds consistent with what i've heard as well that they're always driving forward
right they don't like to look in the rearview mirror very much but really that that acknowledgement
that yeah, we know that material's there and it will come out one day. It's not hidden from the world,
but we're just so focused on moving forward. But yeah, that was phenomenal. And the other thing I
remember asking him about was the set lists felt like they changed in structure. And he was saying
that Gord Sinclair had written the set lists for years and kind of rotated things and Rob Baker had
taken them over not long before. And Rob's way of doing it was to put songs into groups of three.
So he'd move a block of three songs in or out of the set on a given night. So he tried to pin, I don't
know whether it was kind of looking at songs that were thematically linked or musically linked,
maybe keys or things like that. But he would kind of make these little triples and then he could drop
the triples in and out of a set list to think about how it was constructed. What cool insight is that?
Yeah, it was fascinating. just to hear it and just to kind of.
[11:48] Just kind of be in his presence he's just uh i mean we we all know this right as well with
hands of this band he was just utterly captivating and really charming and quite shy is the way i
take like he captivated and commanded but at the same time he's very private he's soft-spoken as
well like sometimes you almost have to strain to hear what he's saying in a sense and yet there's
no problem doing that because you're desperate to hear what he's saying yeah absolutely you end
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up kind of almost head to head huddled over a table to get things recorded which was weirdly
intimate but um but yeah really really really cool and at the time i thought it's fantastic i can't wait till
they come back again and see if i can interview them again and and see where it goes and.
[12:36] Obviously didn't realize that would be the last time that they'd come over but it it it really kind
of yeah it was a an amazing memory and the only the only thing i regret is that we i didn't ask for a
photo i thought you know i've got to play it cool yeah um but yeah it was it was everything you'd
expect he was uh yeah he was god you've got the photo in your mind yeah 100 oh i got the
recording so i can listen back to me sounding like a an awestruck child while he just spouts wisdom
well and we've got a special treat because uh following the credits of this episode we're gonna
we're gonna tack on uh matt's interview with gourd and uh you'll be able to give it a listen as well
provided matt is uh in agreement with that yeah absolutely more than welcome yeah so stay tuned
after the credits on this episode and you'll get to hear that interview that'll be just fantastic.
[13:34] So, Matt, are there any go-to records at this point for you? Like, if you're having a day, you
know, which record do you sort of fall into? I think it depends on mood to a degree, but if I just
absolutely need to disappear into the music, it's day for night. Every time, I just...
[13:56] You can just wallow in it. At the moment nautical disaster hits, that's it. Just completely more
adrift in the music um but i've always had a soft spot for for world container and always will
because it's the it's the first time i got to experience that with people that didn't already know it and
weren't already going to me oh you know this track's really good you can skip past this one you all
got to discover it together yeah absolutely and and that was a an absolute joy but yeah i i think i
think day for night's about as close to as a perfect album as i've ever heard well what's fascinating
about that to me is you you came into it post 2005, so the record's 10 years old at that point and i
know that it was a great record in 1995, and i'm nostalgic about it uh and i still think it's a
masterpiece i think it's phenomenal but it's so reassuring to hear somebody discovering it you know
in 2006 or 2007.
[14:59] And realizing it's good as well it's not just the context of the time it's a fucking good record
yeah absolutely and it was the first one i got on vinyl as well i found a cheap copy on ebay and it
just works so perfectly i i i'm trying to get all i've got most of the albums on vinyl now and it's just,
There's the tactile thing of the disc itself, but just being forced to listen to the songs in the order that
they were intended and getting that warmth and that fidelity.
[15:37] It can pick you up when you're down. If you're in a good mood, it can boost it. There's
something on that album, whatever mood you're in, whatever you need to feel, it's there for you. I
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agree. I agree. there's something for everyone for sure but the collection of them is for everyone
you know yeah it's it's great what about the recently released uh hip docuseries did you get a
chance to watch that on prime or yeah absolutely yeah okay well yeah it's it's it's worldwide which is
awesome i was fearful it wouldn't be on there and i'd have to find other routes to watch it again, to
get my fix but yeah I loved it I loved how the first couple of episodes were just kind of uplifting and
joyous and yes and then you get that kind of the truth the truth that I think is George Stromboloff
who said it so well they never showed us that that side of the band the friction you knew it must be
there no band could be together for that long and everything be rosy every single day but i loved
how honest it was and then like everyone i got through quite a lot of, tissues just bawling my eyes
out at the last episode yeah the last episode was it was tough to watch and the third one was tough
in a different way yeah it's tough to see the strife you know yeah absolutely and and and to make
sense of it i mean i i.
[17:06] The moment they said, oh, and then Gord moved to Toronto. Okay. Yeah. Now it makes
sense. The physical distance. Yeah. Even though probably in a country as vast as Canada, it
doesn't maybe feel like a huge distance, but it's that disconnect. Two and a half hour drive from
here. You can't just knock on a door. No, exactly. Yeah.
[17:29] And especially at that time, I think now distance doesn't mean as much because we're
connected every second of every day. We sure are. It's, it's been a godsend for the podcast game. I
used to have to lug gear around, you know, and, and, uh, interviewing you would have been quite
the expensive ticket. Yeah, absolutely. Although we could have grabbed a beer, which would have
made it. Oh, that would have been, next time I'm over, I was over to watch Pavement, uh, a couple
of years ago. I followed Pavement around, uh, in the UK and, uh, got to London for a couple of
shows and got to Edinburgh and it was great. Yeah. So if I ever come back, we'll definitely, we'll go
to the Maple Leaf or whatever it's Called in London? Yeah. Yeah, I'll make it happen. Get a poutine.
Well, what do you say, Matt from Portsmouth? We get into the business of talking about the song of
the week. How do you feel about that? Yeah, let's go for it. All right. We'll be right back after this.
Hey, this is Paul Langlois from The Tragically Hip saying hello. Now on with the countdown.
[18:30] Music.
[23:08] If you've followed along through my podcast journey, you know that The Darkest One is a
favorite of mine. That said, Matt from Portsmouth, what did you think of the song the first time you
remember hearing it? I remember, like I said, I bought my wife the album and we played it. And The
Darkest One immediately hit me because it felt slightly tonally different to the rest of the album. And
again i guess i i reference it dave and i had a warmth to it it's there in the lyrics it's there in in in the
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song it's kind of welcoming and it ushers you in and i don't know it felt like a like putting on a cozy
jacket i guess um and then the more and more i i i delved into the hip it just hits everything that i
love about them it's it's so visual when you listen to the lyrics You can picture what Gord's talking
about, or at least your interpretation of it. And I think everyone interprets it differently, which is even
better. You can compare that to other people.
[24:19] I didn't see the video until I knew the song really well already. So by the time I saw the video,
that kind of just added another layer to it. Love Trailer Park Boys. Didn't know who Don Cherry was
at the time. Um had no idea who was actually until i went to toronto in in 2007 with some friends i
met through the hip get out of here um they they said come on come on over and we went over
they took us out to niagara for the day and then we were in a an irish pub somewhere in toronto
and uh the maple leafs for the senators was on tv oh so that was you've got the real canadian
experience yeah full on um a steak and a beer and then don cherry appeared on the screen and i
just remember turning around and going what the hell is that man wearing um oh you're chatting
away and and and uh the guy was with chris cutt-patrick who who used to run all of the kind of um
the kind of hip fans uh, kind of vault i guess you describe it he he hosted all of the the downloads
for live recordings and things like that uh he just turned around to me he's so he's don cherry he's
in the darkest one video and you're like i was like oh i like bob moment this is full of canadiana now
i now i get it um and then yeah it became a bit of a white whale i've never heard it live, uh seen the
band five times they never played it.
[25:48] I saw them on the Inviolet Light Tour. I'll have to look up the set list and see if they played it.
Because if they didn't, then I probably haven't heard it live either. No, I think that made it a bit more
special in some ways. Oh, yeah. I mean, I heard Fiddler's Green, which is pretty much a rarity, but
never got to hear that. Um and yeah it just again it in in my darkest moments when i'm when i've
been my most down that song just always lifts me back up every single time it does have an
uplifting chorus right like yeah just like tonally and structurally it's uplifting uh i think the lyrics are
absolutely gorgeous like to the chorus like i i think that that's just the best thing ever yeah but it's
not kind of happy clappy it's no you don't complain but you still do and you don't explain if you want
to explain it's so real and and relatable and i think maybe that's it it's kind of yeah we've all been
there we've all felt like that we've all had a relationship like that whether it's a romantic one or a
family one or a friendship or.
[27:01] Whatever we can all kind of nod along and go yeah yeah i know exactly what you're talking
about god yeah it's beautiful it really is a beautiful yeah i yeah yeah in i i is rarely a week goes by
when i don't listen to a decent chunk of the hip's music in one way or another even if it's just kind of
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just on headphones while i'm commuting or something um but even when i make a conscious kind
of right i need to to not listen for a little bit just just to enjoy it again when i dive back in it's really
rare i don't listen to that song, at least once a week it's on almost every playlist i ever make like it
really it just fits the bill whatever mood whatever vibe it doesn't feel out of place i think that's what i
love so much about it oh that's spectacular yeah that's tremendous i think um, yeah i think it's a it's
a monster of a song it's just yeah and i think um and they said on the documentary actually from an
album that probably doesn't get the love that it deserves.
[28:12] No, I don't think so. From, you know, it's so funny watching the doc to hear them react to
some of those later records. Yeah. And it doesn't sound like they gave them much love either. But
in talking with Johnny Fay last year, he made mention of the fact that he's been listening to In Violet
Light a lot lately. And he thinks it's pretty good. So to me, that was a tip off. if he's listening to it a lot
i think they're getting ready to do a box for i think so and in violet light had the hip club thing i think
as well so there were tracks that were only available if you're in the hip club so they've already got
those extra tracks there that they can bundle up and and trickle out and tease us all with that's right
i i know it doesn't fit the narrative of releasing it on an anniversary but i just think it would be uh it It
would be a nice dip into something that is a little less popular than up to here, Road Apples,
Phantom Power fully, you know? Yeah, absolutely. And they seem to want to do kind of a couple of
these releases a year. So I'm sure there's an anniversary for another album that they can hit and do
in Violet Light. Yeah, I think so too.
[29:28] Well, Matt, it's been an absolute blast hanging out with you this afternoon. Do you have
anything that you would like to plug at all? Are you still doing any writing? Uh not not really i mean i
do but not really about music anymore i i guess um i'll give the hip bass a plug i know you guys
have talked about it before but it it really helped me kind of become more of a hip fan than i was
and it was a fantastic community it's a lot quieter than it was naturally now now the band aren't out
on the road all the time and things like that but But it's still a phenomenal repository, in fact, to prep
for what was going to be in the first gig I went to. I wanted to double-check the set list. This is the
hip-based companion, the guy who ran it, Lance, basically made a book of every single concert the
hip have played. So it's just got all the set lists typed out, and then at the front of it, how many times
each song was played. Do you have your set list handy that you want to share it with us? The one
that you saw the first time? Yeah, I really helpfully just closed it on that page. Oh, shit. Sorry. No,
that's all right. That's me. But yeah, it started with Don't Wake Daddy.
[30:43] Um and then yeah don't wait daddy courage gift shop uh gus lonely end of the rink the
album wasn't out yet so that was a bit of a tease but standard uh lionized bob cajun nautical
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disaster you're not the ocean ahead by a century we'll go to uh it's a good life if you don't weaken
which i remember really blowing my mind um uh summer's killing us hundredth meridian springtime
in vienna Blow at High Doe, Music at Work, Poets Pretend, and Little Bones. That is, Pretend
would have been, because that was World Container, right? Yeah. So that would have been a pre-
release as well. Yeah. Ooh, that's a murderer's row. Yeah, it was, and I think that's why a lot of the
people who would come over and kind to follow them around they'd love the european shows
because they were they were more likely to throw in something new or something different because
they didn't have to just play the hits little unplugged gems as it were yeah literally sometimes well
that's what i've got for you this week everybody i want to thank matt once again for stopping by and
talking about it's uh part of me talking about the darkest one we just talked about it's good life if you
don't weaken and the and the show, so I got mixed up there because they are back-to-back on it by
that light.
[32:08] Matt, it's been an absolute pleasure, and I hope we can reconvene over a pint either in your
stomping ground or mine. That would be just lovely. Sounds perfect. Thanks for having me. Thanks
for stopping by. Pick up your shit.
[32:27] Thanks for listening to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. To email us, send an email to
TTH top 40 at gmail.com we're social find us on all the socials at TTH top 40.
[32:46] Music.
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