Vancouver, British Columbia, is one of Canada's largest cities and foremost cultural centers.
History
Music has been an integral part of Vancouver's First Nations for thousands of years however it is not clearly documented when it flourished.
European arrivals in the nineteenth century established numerous amateur orchestras, ensembles, churches, and ethnocentric choirs. By the 1920s there existed local choral societies and orchestras that regularly presented the major works of European composers to Vancouverites.
The first known musical entertainments (other than those provided by First Nations residents, and informally by mill workers, sailors, loggers, and tavern keepers), in what would later become Vancouver, were Methodist church services led by a Mrs. Sullivan in Gastown, who was of West Indian origin. Her son Arthur became popular with Vancouver impresarios as a Master of Ceremonies and his career as a singer, actor and host bridged the pre-railway Gastown era with the glitter of Vancouver's nightlife in the '20s and '30s. The city has had a sometimes vibrant musical culture since the days it was on the worldwide circuit known as "Grand Tour", which included clubs in centers such as New York, London, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Cairo, Sydney, San Francisco and even Dawson City. Artists such as Enrico Caruso and Anna Pavlova trod the boards in Vancouver. The city regularly feted musical notables, since the Canadian Pacific Railway terminus was on the main route from London, UK to the Orient. Attached to the Canadian Pacific's Hotel Vancouver (demolished) second Hotel Vancouver (now the location of the Toronto-Dominion Tower on Georgia Street) was an opera house in neo-Egyptian Art Deco styling fronting on Granville Street. When this theatre closed and was demolished to make way for the new Pacific Centre in the early 1970s it was known as the Lyric Theatre, but originally known as Orpheum Theatre. The current Orpheum is a restored vaudeville house a block farther down Granville, which houses one of the last large Wurlitzer theatre organs installed back in the silent movie era.
The Lyric (the original Orpheum) was home to the city's first resident orchestra. When the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) was founded, it performed in the Capitol Theatre). The city also had several professional and amateur musical theatre companies. In the 1920s, the "Lyric" premiered Atlantis, a lavish original musical styled on British auteurs Gilbert and Sullivan. It anticipated a world tour, but got mixed reviews. Other theatres with stages for live theatre, opera and music were the Vogue (still standing), the Strand, the Coronet (all movie theatres in their last days, the Strand opposite Hudson's Bay Company across Georgia, the Coronet opposite Hudson's Bay Company across Granville). Two now vanished opera houses stood on Pender Street, one near Howe Street, the other at what is now Carrall and Pender (then named Dupont Street). The now-derelict stretch of Hastings Street between Main and Cambie was known as "the Great White Way" because of its many theatres, restaurants and bright neon decor. It was home to the Beacon and Lux theatres and the original cinema of the continent-wide Pantages chain. (The Pantages family founded the city's annual Polar Bear Swim at English Bay.)
The first movie theatre was the tiny Savoy (1902) on Cordova Street (approximately where the Telecom building meets the newly rebuilt Woodwards garage). That location in the 1890s and early '00s was the city's main social and shopping promenade. The Lyric and the greatly expanded Hotel Vancouver, the second by that name, were intended by the CPR's property division to attract commercial life up out of the older part of the city. As a result, restaurants, stores and other theatres quickly opened in the same area, giving birth to the strip once known as "Theatre Row", is now prosaically retitled the Granville Entertainment District, also known as Granville Mall. Its southern three blocks, known as "theatre Row" with the Lyric, Strand and Coronet theatres, extended to Dunsmuir Street. Other stages and movie theatres typically were found in each of the city's local commercial areas – the Park, Stanley, Hollywood, Rio, York, Dunbar and others. An important stage for musical theatre, the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park, was built by the Malkin family, who made their fortune in wholesale groceries. Malkin Bowl's resident company, Theatre Under the Stars (often called TUTS), was a popular, critical success for many years (rain and fog permitting). Its successor in the 1970s was the less-successful Theatre in the Park. Subsequently, a revamped and improved company adopted the "Theatre Under The Stars" as its name.
Complementing mainstream entertainment and high art, it follows naturally that a city that began life as a nearly all-male seaport, fishing, and lumbering town would have a tradition of burlesque, and also of popular music. No doubt musical entertainments were to be had in the old bordellos of the pre-railway days, as also in private gentlemen's clubs, but those artists apart from erstwhile singer-actress Lulu Sweet (the namesake of Lulu Island (the City of Richmond) and purported mistress of a former Mayor of Vancouver). Folk music in general went unrecorded in western Canada until the work of Vancouver folklorist Philip J. Thomas, who first published Songs of the Pacific Northwest in 1979.
Throughout Vancouver's history, Chinatown was the site of Chinese opera and other traditional Chinese music; Chinese benevolent organizations had their own private orchestras. In "Little Yokohama", aka Japantown, Japanese musical and theatrical arts were practiced and performed. Other ethnic communities formed their own musical groups: the Sons of Norway choirs, the Vancouver Welsh Choir, and folk-dance troupes of all backgrounds (but notably Ukrainian). In some areas such as West Broadway's Greektown or Commercial Drive's old Italian-Portuguese days, ethnic dinner restaurants often had orchestras. Most of Vancouver's many ethnic community present popular and classical entertainers from their home countries. Cantopop and Bhangra very popular. Scottish bagpipe bands are very much a part of local culture. Indeed, many pipers are from non-Scots backgrounds: from Ukrainians to the Chinese. In later years, the Irish folk-pop band the Irish Rovers established the first in their onetime worldwide chain of Irish pubs in Vancouver, partly because of the popularity of that style of music in the city (still to be found today at the Gastown pubs the Irish Heather, the Blarney Stone and elsewhere). World musics remain popular in Vancouver today, and are part of both the highly successful annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival at Jericho Beach and the Commercial Drive countercultural/alternative district. Recently, Gandharva Loka World Music Instruments opened a store on Granville Island, with music and instruments from around the world.
Jazz music came to Vancouver relatively early, in part because of the role of the city as a residence or turnaround for the typically African American/Canadian customer service employees of the railways (porters, stewards, waiters, cooks, trainmen). Another factor was the "Grand Tour" which brought Jazz celebres through Vancouver while en route to somewhere else. A shantytown on Union and Prior Streets east of Main, known as Hogan's Alley after one its first black residents, became home to illicit music clubs, often harassed and shut down by the police. Despite its slum reputation, the neighbourhood was home to superb "session players", but it was not until later years that black musicians were allowed to play in the house bands of the city's mainstream dinner clubs. Over the years the city became home to a strong community of blues, funk and soul performers, and is known for being home to blues singer the late Long John Baldry. The city's blues scene also is home for other blues notables such as Koko Taylor, Jim Byrnes, Jerry Doucette, and Randy Bachman and funk/soul singers Lovena Fox, Theda Marie and others.
It is noteworthy that neither the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra nor the Vancouver Opera have ever had music directors who were Canadian-born or female, whereas the Vancouver Cantata Singers and the Vancouver Chamber choir have been led by locally-born musicians.
Popular music
1960s Vancouver pop music developed its own "sound" in the late 1960s. From the folk music played in the coffee houses of Kitsilano's 4th Avenue, people would come to see hippies wandering – and hear acoustic music- filling the street. Another major venue was "The Retinal Circus" on Davie St. where famous and infamous "psychedelic " rock bands played regularly. The "West Coast Sound" grew from a fusion of hard rocking music mixed with wailing guitars and visual light shows. Vancouver was a place to be 'in the music' which shaped the youth of the day. Noted bands abounded: The Poppy Family, The Collectors later Chilliwack which had the major hit "Crazy Talk," In Vancouver's psychedelic movement there flourished High-Flying Bird, United Empire Loyalists, My Indole Ring, Black Snake Blues Band, Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck, Painted Ship, Mock Duck, Papa Bear's Medicine Show, Hydro Electric Streetcar, Seeds of Time and Spring. The "Rhythm and Blues" scene in the '60s included The Nighttrain Review, Jason Hoover and the Epics, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers featuring Tommy Chong on guitar. The Vancouvers were signed to Motown by Berry Gordy and had a #5 hit on the U.S. R&B charts with "Does Your Mama Know About Me?", written by Chong. Bobby Taylor's "King of Clubs" was home to "The Coasters" and other great R&B bands. Vancouver had it all, Eric Burton and the Animals, Long John Baldry, The Doors and several other southern bands came to play in the very creative milieu created by the Vancouver Rockers of the '60s and early '70s. Several recording studios, notably Mushroom Records and Little Mountain Sound Studios, recorded and produced many great record albums. In the mid 70's Heart went on to international stardom with hits such as "Crazy On You," "Dreamboat Annie" and "Barracuda."
1970s Such superstars as the Beatles (who first played in Vancouver in 1964), the Rolling Stones (who opened their infamous 1972 tour at the then-brand new Pacific Coliseum) and Elvis Presley performed at the outdoor Empire Stadium, partly to keep the "undesirable element" associated with rock'n'roll out of the city core but also because of the expectedly large number of attendees. Canadian rock band Bachman–Turner Overdrive, which had a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" in 1974, made Vancouver their second home. Lead singer and guitarist Randy Bachman still lives on Saltspring Island) while the Poppy Family began and ended their career in Vancouver. Certain touring British and American bands (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Yes, Alice Cooper) developed avid local followings. Some non-Vancouver bands such as Heart, Van Halen, Mötley Crüe and Bon Jovi, resided and recorded in Vancouver regularly. Singer-poet Joni Mitchell continues to maintain a residence in Pender Harbour on the Sunshine Coast. One-time Georgia Straight music critic Bob Geldof went on to form the new wave band The Boomtown Rats.
The 1970s brought bands such as Sweeney Todd, which featured Nick Gilder, who would go on to enjoy solo success with his Billboard Hot 100 #1 song "Hot Child In The City" from 1978, Loverboy, Nicky Chug Company, Winter's Green, Trooper, The Hometown Band, Holy Smoke and Prism to the scene. Many of these acts began their lives as cover bands and played high school dances, before hitting the big time. Folk music also began to develop and performers such as Valdy, Smiling Jack Smith and Pied were regulars at folk festivals like the Easter Be-in held in Stanley Park and coffee houses.