Ray Condo (May 16, 1950 – April 15, 2004), born Ray Tremblay, was a Canadian

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

singer, saxophonist, and guitarist.

Biography

Born Ray Tremblay in

Hull, Quebec Hull is the central business district and oldest neighbourhood of the city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa. As part of the Cana ...

, Ray grew up in nearby

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, the third of five children. Ray's two brothers, William (Billy) and Robert were younger; his two sisters, Eileen and Maureen were older. Condo taught himself to play the guitar at 11 and by the time he was 16 he had co-written and released his first recording, 'If You Only Knew' with a band in the style of the

British invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...

called The Peasants. Ray attended an elite vocational fine art & design high school specifically established by the Ontario Ministry of Education for those showing exceptional talent in fine art and design. An intense and rigorous 4-year program, many who started never completed the course but Ray seemed to thrive in this environment. It was during this time that his sister Eileen passed on. This shook Ray to the core but he continued on, graduating and finding himself on the road, heading west and away from Ottawa. Reaching Vancouver, Ray studied at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Not feeling all that challenged by their curriculum, after one year he dropped out and found himself drawn to a world he would eventually return to for good ... music! That started with him playing bass in a

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

punk rock group called The Secret Vs. He left for

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

to paint for a year, but once again got caught up in music, getting together with bassist Clive Jackson, banjoist Chris Dean, violinist Edgar Bridwell, guitarist Eric Sandmark, and drummer Peter Sandmark to form a band called

Ray Condo and his Hardrock Goners Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

, named for Hardrock Gunter, an early

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...

musician. The Hardrock Goners performed a variety of styles, such as rockabilly,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

, blues,

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whil ...

and

western swing Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance ...

. Their first recordings appeared on the Og label's compilations, "It Came From Canada". They then established their own record label, "Crazy Rekkids". He earned the last name "Condo" from friend Regan O'Connor, who also came up with the name of the band, Ray Condo and his Hardrock Goners. In 1991, he returned to Vancouver. The Hardrock Goners toured with him for another three years, and then he and his bassist merged in with a group called

The Five Star Hillbillies ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

, to create a new group called The Ricochets, named after how much they "bounced around". They made their last album in 2000. In 2003, Condo suffered from a minor heart attack. A year later, new band member Ian Tiles found Condo dead from a heart attack in his Vancouver apartment.

Discography

*1986 – '' Crazy Date'' (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) Pipeline Records *1988 – '' Hot & Cold'' (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) Crazy Rekkids *1990 – ''

Condo Country A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

'' (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) Crazy Rekkids *1991 – ''

'' (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) CD version Crazy Rekkids *1991 – ''

'' (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) EP version FURY Records *1993 – ''

Hillbilly Holiday Hillbilly is a term (often derogatory) for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in southern Appalachia and the Ozarks. The term was later used to refer to people from other rural and mountainous areas west ...

'' (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) FURY Records *1994 – '' Come On!'' (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) FURY Records *1996 – '' Swing Brother Swing'' (Ray Condo & his Ricochets) Joaquin Records *1997 – ''

Door to Door Maniac ''Five Minutes to Live'' is a 1961 American neo-noir crime film directed by Bill Karn. It was re-titled ''Door-to-Door Maniac'' for an American International Pictures re-release in 1966. The film stars Johnny Cash, who wrote and sang the title so ...

'' (Ray Condo & his Ricochets) Joaquin Records *2000 – ''

High & Wild High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

'' (Ray Condo & his Ricochets) Joaquin Records *2004 – ''

Sweet Love on My MInd/Big Dog Little Dog Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, ...

'' (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners/Ray Condo) Crazy Productions *2007 – ''

Top Hits! Party Favourites! A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be spun on its vertical axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect. Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few se ...

'' (Ray Condo & his Hardrock Goners) Crow-Matic Records *2017 – ''

Hot 'N Cold Hot or the acronym HOT may refer to: Food and drink *Pungency, in food, a spicy or hot quality *Hot, a wine tasting descriptor Places *Hot district, a district of Chiang Mai province, Thailand **Hot subdistrict, a sub-district of Hot District ...

'' reissue CD + 3 videos (Ray Condo & His Hardrock Goners) Super Oldies

References

External links

Biography by Carl Wilson on Official Site
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Ray Condo Live Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Condo, Ray 1950 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Canadian male singers Canadian rock guitarists Canadian male guitarists Canadian country singers Canadian rock singers Canadian rockabilly musicians Canadian saxophonists Male saxophonists Emily Carr University of Art and Design alumni Musicians from Gatineau Singers from Vancouver 20th-century Canadian guitarists 20th-century saxophonists