It was a dying man’s wish; it doesn’t get more real or much heavier than that.
Russell Baxter Emmett told his brother Rik that if he wanted to help make his final dream come true, if he wanted to do one last thing for him as a gift before he passed away, it was that he wanted Rik to reform Toronto’s thunderous trio, Triumph. It was an adult version of Make-A-Wish and on behalf of thousands of fans bless you Russ, may you rest in peace with the knowledge that you made many others dreams come true as well.
While undoubtedly a tremendously popular, successful and critically well received band from the mid-70’s to the late 80’s with three gold and one platinum album in the USA and three platinum and five gold albums in Canada , many would agree that Triumph could have and should have been even bigger and more successful than they were. This certainly isn’t meant as a negative, far from it, but there’s a short list of very successful bands that were on the cusp of even more acclaim. Artists like UFO, Procol Harum, Blue Oyster Cult, Triumph and others were tremendously successful, yet somehow they deserved even more acclaim and accolades than the many they received.
But, so be it. Triumph, no doubt, doesn’t think in these terms, nor should they. What they accomplished was nothing short of remarkable and the gift of music they have given us will be treasured for decades still to come. The most recent goings-on with the band are posted at TriumphMusic.com.
If you really want to immerse yourself in the current proceedings make your plans to join us for the next edition of ROCKLINE. When we announced this show, now several months ago, we told you Mike Levine and Gil Moore would be joining us for the show to tell us about their brand new release “Greatest Hits: Remixed”, which features fourteen songs given new life by not only re-mastering these classic songs, but by actually re-mixing them. There’s a huge difference. Accompanying the new CD is an excellent DVD comprising eleven all-time favorites augmented by three Bonus Videos and extra footage based upon the band’s well deserved induction into the Canadian Hall of Fame.
After posting the information regarding Gil and Mike’s impending appearance, someone in a well known chat room shared an interesting observation that with only two of the three band members it would actually be “Bi-Umph”, not “Tri-Umph”. While we got a chuckle out of that we also decided to make one last request for the entire band to return to ROCKLINE just like the days of yore when it was commonplace for all three to be on the show. Viola! Another wish fulfilled as now Rik Emmett will participate along with Mike and Gil truly making it “Tri-umph”. More and more wishes continue to come true.
We hope that our personal wish comes to fruition as well, namely that one of our all-time favorite bands receive even more highly deserved recognition, that through this appearance even more fans get turned on to the band and that their level of success continue to grow, that the legend unabashedly expands and includes more and more fans learning how many truly great songs these three gentlemen have created for our enjoyment.
If you’re already a fan of the band you’re quite aware how rare it is for all three members to gather for an event. If you’re not already a fan we feel certain you will be after this show. Join us for all three members of Triumph exclusively on the next ROCKLINE!