Lighthouse Celebrates 40th Anniversary With New Releases and Concert Series

Mid-February was a time of shared celebration for both Lighthouse, the ten-piece band that is one of Canada's most enduring musical treasures, and ole, who have played such an integral role in commemorating the group's 40th anniversary.

February 16th marked the release of the 10th anniversary two-CD Legacy Edition of Carlos Santana's Grammy-award winning Supernatural album on which ole landed one of the bonus tracks—a cover by the guitar legend of the Lighthouse classic, "One Fine Morning." The cut was hot on the heels of the group's sold-out Lighthouse Rocks On: Celebrating 40 Years of Sunny Days concert at Toronto's Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which made for a memorably festive evening for family, friends, Lighthouse alumnae and fans.

The group's 40th anniversary milestone was initially marked with the creation by ole of a retrospective CD and DVD paired under the title 40 Years of Sunny Days. Released by ole/Universal, the set featured digitally re-mastered tracks, and a DVD of new performances of the songs by the current band recorded at Q Music in 5.1 Surround Sound. The band's music became available digitally in 2008 and a separate 20th Century Masters greatest hits package is currently being prepared by ole for release in April via ole/Universal.

Of late, the Lighthouse song catalogue has enjoyed significant activity. In addition to the Carlos Santana cover of "One Fine Morning," superstar rapper Akon sampled "I'd Be So Happy" on his multiplatinum-selling album Konvicted while a variety of songs have been licensed by Toyota; The Trailer Park Boys; Swingtown (CBS); the film, Real Time, starring Randy Quaid; Three Dog Night and Shobha. Japanese rock stars, Theatre Brook, also feature a passionate performance of "One Fine Morning" in their stage show.

In the recent past, the group has resisted any associations with an outside publisher until their discussions with ole. "We had a lot of different offers to sell our publishing and I turned everybody down," says the band's manager, Brenda Hoffert. "When Robert Ott approached us, I thought this might be the right situation for us having observed the growth of the company in its relatively short period of existence and the effectiveness of the operation over there."

The band continues to tour and make plans for appearances at summer festivals. "We've already been out west twice and we're now working on eastern dates," reveals Hoffert. "Most of these dates are going to be next year so we're just working on summer festivals now."

There aren't many bands of any ilk or nationality who can boast that a towering legend of music had not only given them his blessing but actually introduced them from the stage for their first gig. For Lighthouse, the pioneering rock orchestra that infused their sound and repertoire with elements of rock, jazz and classical music, that's exactly what happened as Duke Ellington took the stage at the Rock Pile in Toronto the night of their highly anticipated debut concert on May 14th, 1969.

Formed by drummer Skip Prokop, a former member of the acclaimed Toronto group, The Paupers; jazz pianist and multi-instrumentalist, Paul Hoffert and guitarist Ralph Cole, Lighthouse was far from being a flash-in-the-pan musical experiment. Over the years, the group has earned a total of nine gold and three platinum albums and four Juno Awards in the wake of classic, chart-topping hits like "Sunny Days," "One Fine Morning" and "Pretty Lady." They appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Isle of Wight Festival and collaborated with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet on their production, Ballet High. They became the first rock band to play with symphony orchestras and played Carnegie Hall, which resulted in Lighthouse Live, the first-ever Canadian album to qualify for platinum status.

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