Hypno-Gogo

Hypno-Gogo were a Regina new wave and dance-rock band that paired synthesizer pop with rock guitar. They won Saskatchewan’s Battle of the Bands in 1984, worked the Winnipeg club circuit, and ended the decade as the CBS recording act White Heat.

Singer and guitarist Jim Galloway formed his first band, Avernus, at 15. After high school he drove to Edmonton with about 20 cassette demos and a 1976 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top, and he was soon making a living playing full time. A call from an old friend brought him back to Saskatchewan to join the newly formed Hypno-Gogo, with Wayne Young on keyboards, Dale Luedtke on guitar and Gregg Pretty on drums.

In 1984 Hypno-Gogo won the Saskatchewan Battle of the Bands presented by Prince Albert’s Power 99 FM. That year they released their only single, ‘In Your Eyes’ b/w ‘Flashing’, recorded at Studio West Canada. Young’s synthesizers lead ‘In Your Eyes’, while Galloway’s ‘Flashing’ stretches the B-side out to nearly five minutes.

The band then joined a Winnipeg agency’s roster and moved to Winnipeg, with Robin Froese on bass and Cam Kushnir on electronic drums. They played hundreds of shows across Western Canada, mixing current hits with their own songs and trying new material out on the crowds. This lineup recorded ‘Down in the Docks’ for Saskatchewan After Dark, the 1985 double album produced by Studio West for Saskatchewan Heritage 1985. Galloway wrote the lyrics, the band wrote the music, and Mitchell Barnett produced, engineered and mixed the track, which shares side two with the Northern Pikes, Mad Shadows and d’Carot ’n’ d’Boize. In 1987 they recorded ‘Come Back (Feels Like I’m Fallin’)’, a song that resurfaced two years later, reworked as ‘Got To Win Your Love’ on White Heat’s album.

Toronto management company Chart Toppers took notice, and the band became White Heat. Galloway and Young were joined by Allen Hunnie on guitar, Russ Goozee on bass and Alec Friesen on drums. In 1989 CBS Associated released White Heat’s album We Never Heard of You Either, recorded at Metalworks and Phase One in Toronto and mixed at Atlantic Studios in New York. Triumph’s Gil Moore produced and played drums on the title track, and ‘Crazy for You’ went out as a single.

Galloway later stepped away from music to raise a family and run a business in Oxbow, Saskatchewan. He returned in 2014 with his solo album These Are the Good Times, recorded and mixed in his home studio, and went on to play jazz with the trio 2 Sharps and a Flat and front Jimmy G and The Cable Guys.

-Robert Williston