Steve Blimkie (and the Reason)

Steve Blimkie & The Reason came together at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, where its members were students in the Music Industry Arts program. Blimkie, from Chalk River, Ontario, had sung in a string of groups through the mid-1970s before enrolling. At Fanshawe he met guitarist Angus MacKay, bassist Doug Ruston and drummer Dave Betts, all a year ahead of him.

MacKay was setting up a record label, Ready Records, with fellow student Andy Crosbie, and the two were looking for acts as punk and new wave reached Canada. Blimkie sounded like nobody else at the school. With guitarist Pierre Bruni he cut 'I Got This Feeling' and 'All I Want Is You Alone' as part of Crosbie's third-year project. The sessions went well enough that Betts and Ruston joined Blimkie and MacKay in a permanent band, and the two songs became Ready's second release, RR002, in 1979.

They spent the following months recording wherever studio time was cheap, playing live between sessions while Ruston finished his third year and Blimkie his second. In March 1980 they opened for XTC at Massey Hall in Toronto, and in May they shared a bill with the Ramones at Club Kingsway, a bingo hall on The Queensway in Etobicoke. 'You Can't Hold Me Anymore', produced by Jack Richardson and backed with 'Freaks On The Tube', came out that year as a non-album single. 'Break My Heart Tomorrow', coupled with 'Can't Say I'm Sorry', drew favourable reviews.

The debut LP, billed simply as Blimkie and produced by MacKay and Crosbie, reached stores in the fall of 1980. The band spent that fall and winter opening Martha and the Muffins' cross-Canada tour.

Running Ready took more and more of MacKay's time, and he left the lineup. Derry Grehan, another Fanshawe student who had played on Ruston's and Betts's school recordings, took his place. With producer Brian Christian the band made Chasing Paper Tigers, released in 1981 under Blimkie's name alone, with Kim Mitchell sitting in as a guest. 'Riding Into The Night' and 'Here Today Gone Tomorrow' came out as singles, and the second became the group's first video. Clips for 'Foto Magic' and 'Gimme A Taste' were shot on a shoestring by Canadore College students as class projects. A club tour took the band through western Canada.

Ready was in financial trouble, and by the end of 1981 the band had been dropped. Musical differences and outside interests ended the group soon after. Blimkie formed Viva la Beat, then left music and became a lawyer. Ruston, Betts and Grehan played briefly as the cover band Mars and spent the summer of 1982 backing Lisa Price. Grehan wrote 'No One's Business' and 'Heartache' for her 1983 EP Priceless. He then joined Honeymoon Suite, Betts followed, and both were in the band by 1983. Ruston became a session player in the Toronto area.

Angus MacKay died of cancer on June 15, 2010.

-Robert Williston