The Tragically Hip

The Tragically Hip are a Canadian Rock band that formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984.
 
Originally consisting of Gord Downie on Vocals, Rob Baker on Guitar, Gord Sinclair on Bass, Johnny Fay on Drums and Davis Manning on Saxophone.
 
Davis Manning was replaced by Guitarist Paul Langlois in 1986 and this formation would remain in place permanently.
 
The band’s name comes from a skit by Mike Nesmith of The Monkeys, the film was titled Elephant Parts and the skit was titled for a line where someone says “Send some money to the Foundation for the Tragically Hip”
 
Between 1996 and 2016, the Tragically Hip were the best-selling Canadian band in Canada and the fourth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.
 
The Tragically Hip played their final show together on August 20th, 2016 at the K Rock Centre in Kingston, Ontario, Canada basically shut down for the day and 11.7 million people tuned in to watch the show.
 
We lost Gord Downie to cancer just over one year later on October 17th, 2017
 
Thank you to Paul Langlois of The Hip for helping me with some of these locations!

This photo, from very early in The Hips career was taken in front of Kingston City Hall and was very east to spot and line up
The most challenging photo was the one here with the band standing on rocks by water.
 
I was able to confirm with Paul Langlois (2nd from the left in the photo), that this picture was taken on the grounds of the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario.
 
The last picture in this post shows you the shore line that I had to work with, it is all rocks, many different sizes and shapes – 1,000’s of them!
 
Every spot where I stood along the shore could have been where the picture was taken, so I closely inspected the original photo and the one rock that stood out the most as being the easiest to find is the one in front of Paul’s right foot.
 
I as in search of a rock that seemed to be standing tall on its end with a specific indent on the top/front that appeared darker than the the rest.
 
This photo of the band would have been taken in the mid 1980s, lots could have changed, rocks could have been moved, there could have been road work, the chances that I would find this exact location were not looking good.
 
So many times, I thought I had it, but then nothing lined up. I walked back and forth along the shore several times when finally I spotted a rock that could be the one in front of Paul’s foot. Upon closer inspection, I realized I had found it – it had the exact same shape and placement and the indent was identical – the only difference was its not as dark and pronounced in person.
 
There was one small oddity, there was a new rock in the place to the right of Pauls rock thats not there in the photo. I was also trying to use the angled rock in front of Rob Baker (far right, squatting) as another landmark – that rock is now covered by a much larger rock.
 
Anyway – there we have it, a near perfect line up of a then and now comparison of a photo taken of The Tragically Hip in the mid 1980s at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario!

This photo, taken around 2012 was shot underneath the split of the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto,  The road to the left was the offramp from the Gardiner to Lakeshore towards the. Beaches and the road on the right is the curve towards the Don Valley Parkway.

In order to get this photo and line it up, I had to trespass onto a construction site as they were demolishing the Gardiner/Lakeshore offramp

“Live, Between Us”

In May 1997, The Hip released a live album, “Live Between Us” which is a play on words from a wall mural painted by former member Davis Manning.
 
Its said that while battling a decision to stay with his girlfriend, or sway with The Hip, he painted this mural on a wall in downtown kingston – “The Hip Live Between Us”

“Thompson Girl”

This photo was supposed to be something way better than it is!

Track #5 on Phantom Power is a song titled “Thompson Girl” and the lyrics include this line:

“Thompson Girl walking from Churchill
Across the icy world with polar bears it’s mostly uphill”

In June, 2026 I was on the train headed for Churchill and there was supposed to be an extended 4 hour stopover in Thompson.  My plan was to get off the train, head into Thompson and find a perfect “Thompson Girl” and ask if she would let me take some photos of her.

Due to significant delays along the route from Winnipeg, our stop at Thompson would be very short and would be at 1am (it was supposed to be a 4pm stop)

By the time I woke up and realized we were in Thompson, I only had enough time to run out and grab a shot of the train station.  Had I woke up just 5-10 minutes sooner, I would have had time to photograph the girl working inside the station and still got my photo of a “Thompson Girl”

“At the Hundredth Meridian, Where the Great Plains begin”

In “The Hundredth Merdian”, track #3 on Fully Completely, Gord Downie sings of a “courderoy road”, “weeds standing shoulder high” and a “ferris wheel rusting off in the distance”

While I haven’t been able to figure out where exactly along the Hundredth Meridian Gord is referring to, I do know that the meridian runs through Brandon, Manitoba.

With the help of some internet sleuthing and a few others who have chased down this same location, I found myself standing directly on The Hundredth Meridian, in Brandon Manitoba!