Urban Vancouver

Ian Thomas - Coming Home (1978)

By Junos 2008 on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 09:18

Ian Thomas with his 1978 Canadian hit, "Coming Home". Released on the album "Still Here", this song reached #25 on the Canadian charts.

Born: Hamilton, Ontario

Raised in Dundas, Ontario as the son of a Baptist minister, Thomas first got his musical start at age six after taking piano lessons. By the age of 14 he had graduated to guitar and a year after that he wrote his first original tune. In the mid'60's he formed the folk trio Ian, Oliver and Nora featuring Oliver McLeod and Nora Hutchinson. By the end of the '60's they were joined by Bob Doidge (bass) and Nancy Ward (keyboards, recorder) and called themselves Tranquillity Bass.

The band would record two singles for RCA and often performed with the Edmonton Symphony and The Hamilton Philharmonic. They split up in the early '70's after an album they recorded failed to impress RCA and remains unreleased. Thomas got a day job as a theatre manager in Hamilton.

In April 1973, Thomas signed to GRT Records and immediately released "Painted Ladies" which became a monster hit across North American; the song reached No.4 in Canada and No.34 in the United States. He won a Juno Award for 'Most Promising Male Vocalist that year.

During this period he also produced a two-hour CBC Radio show called "The National Rock Works" which also featured comedy and became a showcase for the talents of his brother Dave Thomas -- future SCTV alumnus.

Over the years Thomas has produced some classic albums including 'Calabash' (1976), which was followed by a U.S. tour with his band at that time: Mike Oberle (drums), Juno Award winning graphic artist Hugh Syme (keyboards), Josh Onderisin (guitar), and David Sawyer (bass). His fourth LP for GRT was 'Still Here' (1978) and included the hit single "Coming Home". Thomas' final album for GRT was 'Glider' in 1979 containing the hits "Pilot" and "Time Is The Keeper".

In 1980 Thomas had been picked up by Anthem Records after the demise of GRT and took a run at several more gold albums - 'The Runner' (1981) (they same year he also made a guest appearance on the SCTV TV show), 'Riders On Dark Horses' (1984) and 'Add Water' (1985).

It was from these album that number of acts would find Ian Thomas songs to the top, including "Hold On" (Santana), "The Runner" (Manfred Mann), "Right Before Your Eyes" (America), and "Chains" (Chicago).

In 1991 Thomas joined forces with three other veteran Canadian musicians - guitarist Bill Dillon (Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell), drummer Rick Gratton (Rough Trade, Marc Jordan) and bassist Peter Cardinali (Rick James, Oscar Peterson) - to form the Boomers. They've become successful in Europe, especially in Germany and have several gold albums under their belts.

with notes from Nan Bendall.

Author: mrbrian1965
Keywords: 70's canadian pop
Added: May 31, 2008