Look People 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 1985 in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

.Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, '' Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995''.

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canada, Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholar ...

. . They were known as "outlandishly quirky", and had a moderate hit in 1991 with a cover of

War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

's "Lowrider". They received five

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 ...

nominations for their CD ''Small Fish, Big Pond''.

History

The band formed in 1985 around the lineup of vocalist

Jaymz Bee Jaymz Bee (born April 13, 1963) is a Canadian musician, writer, emcee and radio personality based in Toronto, Ontario. Early life Jaymz was raised in North Bay, Ontario. He was a founder of the Al Waxman Fan Club at Inglenook Community High Scho ...

, guitarist Andy Flinn, bassist Walter K. Thut, drummer Mike Weilenmann and percussionist Gerry Scott, aka Great Bob Scott. Flinn left the band and was replaced by Fabio Marc Baltensperger; he left and was replaced by Longo Hai. Weilenmann quit before their first recording, leaving Great Bob Scott to fill the chair as drummer and percussionist. In 1986, Look People released the EP ''Stop Making Cheese'', which was recorded in Switzerland and released in North America on AMOK Records. By 1988, the band was down to Bee and Scott, who composed music with producer Walter Zweifel and played several shows with

John Bottomley John Bottomley (September 17, 1960 – April 6, 2011) was a Canadian singer-songwriter. He started in music in the early 1980s with the band Tulpa, which also included his brother Chris,Kevin Hearn Kevin Neil Hearn (born July 3, 1969) is a Canadian musician who is a member of Barenaked Ladies, and his own group, Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle. He primarily plays keyboard (instrument), keyboards and guitars. He is also a member of Rheostatics ...

, Bazl Salazar and "Aardvark Q. Dardknarbles" (Derek Orford). This lineup (with Richard Underhill on sax)), recorded the band's 1989 EP ''More Songs About Hats and Chickens''. Salazar and Dardknarbles then left the band, and guitarist Longo Hai returned. In 1990, Look People released their debut album, ''Small Fish, Big Pond'' (which includes an appearance by

Bob Wiseman Robert Neil Wiseman (born 1962) is a film composer, songwriter, author and music teacher. Wiseman discovered or produced many artists including Ron Sexsmith, The Lowest of the Low, Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall, Anhai, and former Canadia ...

). In 1991,

Hypnotic Records Hypnotic Records is an American independent record label specializing in electronic music. History Hypnotic Records is the sub-label to Cleopatra Records Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...

dates, and toured Canada twice. Tyson then left the band and was replaced by Chris Gartner. In 1993, Look People released their third album, ''Crazy Eggs'', and became the house band for the

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

Friday Night with Ralph Benmergui Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO 8601-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth ...

''. Following the cancellation of that series, Look People made one final tour of North America and performed their last show at the

Palomino Club (North Hollywood) The Palomino Club was a renowned music venue located in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Established in 1949, it was the most prominent country music club in the city for decades before its closure in 1995. The ''Los Angeles Time ...

, with an opening act of rock music performed by porn stars Madison Ivy, Raven, and

Ron Jeremy Ronald Jeremy Hyatt (born March 12, 1953) is an American former Pornographic film actor, pornographic actor, and actor. Nicknamed "The Hedgehog", Jeremy was ranked by AVN (magazine), ''AVN'' at No. 1 in their "50 Top Porn Stars of All Time" l ...

. Bee pursued

lounge music Lounge music is a type of easy listening music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place, usually with a tranquil theme, such as a jungle, an island paradise or outer space. The ra ...

, forming Jaymz Bee and the Royal Jelly Orchestra. Kevin Hearn, Great Bob Scott, Derek Orford, and Chris Gartner continued working together as Thin Buckle. Jaymz Bee and Great Bob Scott continued to collaborate on music in the bands "Bonzai Suzuki" and "The Tiki Collective". There have been reunion concerts; the band played a show at the 2013 Electric Eclectics Festival In 2019, Derek Orford became ill and the band played a fundraising concert for him at

The Dakota Tavern The Dakota Tavern was a live music venue and bar in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. History The Dakota opened in December 2006. It was co-owned by business partners Shawn Creamer and Shannon Kohlmeier. It is located in the Little Portugal, Toronto, ...

Discography

Albums

* ''Small Fish, Big Pond'' (1990), Quantum Records * ''Boogazm'' (1991), Hypnotic Records * ''Crazy Eggs'' (1993), Hypnotic Records

EPs

* ''Stop Making Cheese'' (1986), AMOK Records * ''More Songs About Hats and Chickens'' (1989), Quantum Records

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Look People Musical groups established in 1985 Musical groups disestablished in 1994 Musical groups from Toronto Canadian alternative rock groups 1985 establishments in Ontario 1994 disestablishments in Ontario