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Canadian rock band, Trooper, was developed in the 1970s by lead vocalist Ra McGuire (born Ramon McGuire, 1950) and guitarist Brian Smith (b. 1949). Ra McGuire and Brian Smith played in a band called Winters Green, which then changed their name to Applejack in the early seventies.[3] The band included drummer Tommy Stewart and bassist Henry Kalensky.[3] Applejack began touring British Columbia, but it wasn’t until 1975 that the band would start to get noticed. Randy Bachman had heard Applejack perform and immediately signed them to Bachmans “legend” label.[2] The band then changed their name to Trooper and released their first hit “Baby Woncha Please Come Home”. Later that year, the band produced their first self titled debut album.[2]
Trooper went on to produce more successful albums: Two for the Show (1976), Knock ‘Em Dead Kid (1977), Thick as Thieves (1978), Hot Shots (1979), Flying Colors (1979), Untitled (1980), and Money Talks (1982). Their last albums recorded were The Gypsies (1989) and Ten (1991).[2] Hot Shot sales exceeded 500,000, and several other albums of theirs topped 100,000, making Trooper the most popular Canadian rock band of the 1970s. [4] I believe Trooper became so successful because of the 1970 CanCon regulation. The regulation states that a certain amount of Canadian content must be played on media outlets. [5] As we see above, Troopers success comes after 1975, once the CanCon regulations are already in place.
Tommy Stewart and Henry Kalensky left the band and were replaced with keyboardist Gogo (born Paul Gogo, 1965) in 1995, bassist Scott Brown (b. 1964) in 1996 and drummer Clayton Hill (b. 1965) in 2006.[1] These members have remained with the band ever since and are still very active. Trooper continues to perform their collection of hits with at least 100 shows per year throughout Canada and the United States.[1] Without a doubt, we can say that Trooper has become a Canadian legend.
Personally, I have always liked Troopers music. Their songs are catchy and upbeat. If you want to see Trooper live, they will be preforming in Saskatoon August 19th, 2018 at the Rock the River event.
[1] http://www.trooper.com/index.php?page=band
[2] https://www.allmusic.com/artist/trooper-mn0000746841/biography
[3] http://www.canadianbands.com/Trooper.html
[4] https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/trooper-emc/
[5] https://lsslib.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/the-rise-and-fall-of-cancon-throwback-thursday/