The Sidemen

There appears to be more than one band that uses the name 'The Sidemen'. Two of them ( I. & II.) are mentioned below. I. The story of The Sidemen starts like a modern urban myth: I first noticed the activities of these curious three gentlemen at my workplace, a research center I'm not at liberty to talk about. My colleagues were mostly to themselves, scarcely coming out of their lab. These three serious-looking blokes from somewhere in Eastern Europe excelled in the high art of never being seen in public. Trying to learn what their secretiveness was all about, I sneaked to their lab and heard weird sounds from inside. In fact, it was music that sounded all too familiar. I knew this sound from my youth back in the Fifties and Sixties! So I went in and outed myself immediately as a fan of the surf sound they were secretly beating out. Though at first they were taken aback that I had uncovered their secret they trusted me enough to agree to record some tracks at my "Zentral Studios". Numerous tracks were then piled up, waiting to be published. But who’d buy a record of some back-dated fellows who wouldn’t come out of their closet? This behaviour had to stop! So I made them an offer they couldn’t possibly refuse – two tracks on a sampler CD called “Krautsurf” featuring great German Surf bands, plus an appearance at a huge party to celebrate the release of it. Deal. I kept my fingers crossed that evening, hoping that the public would like The Sidemen and thus giving them a reason to go on recording and playing live. What can I say, it all worked out more than well and The Sidemen have been recording and playing live continually ever since. I think they’re even enjoying it after all. No, I’m sure they do! In fact, they seem to have so much fun playing that they recorded all kinds of stuff - Surf, Rock’n’Roll, Soundtrack themes and even Ska. Anticipating the listeners’ irritation by this wide range of styles they called their album “The Sidemen go too far!” – which is now out on Zentral Records for you and your friends to enjoy at home. Prof. B. Yond II. Paul Reddick began playing the harmonica at the age of twelve. In 1990, he formed The Sidemen, a blues band based out of Toronto, which toured and recorded until the early 2000s. The Sidemen's album Rattlebag (2001) was nominated for a Juno, as well as a W.C. Handy Award. In 2002, The Sidemen also won three Maple Blues Awards, including Album of the Year, and Songwriter of the Year. Reddick was also the 2008 Maple Blues Award winner as Songwriter of the Year. Reddick's songs have been used in such feature films as Two If by Sea, Triggermen, Niagara Motel and The Evel Knievel Story, in addition to the television series Due South, Dawson’s Creek, 15 Love and Madison. In 2006, the Coca Cola Company used the song "I'm A Criminal", from Rattlebag, in a US commercial for Coca Cola Classic. Paul Reddick has been devoted to the study of blues music all his life. Listening closely to Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin’ Wolf, he picked up the harmonica at the age of 12 and had mastered the instrument by the time he was 15. Reddick formed groundbreaking blues band The Sidemen in Toronto in 1990. The Sidemen released 3 albums of original material and spent a decade touring across Canada. Paul Reddick + The Sidemen released the critically acclaimed Rattlebag in 2001. Produced by roots music authority Colin Linden, Rattlebag is a masterpiece of “hard blues for modern times”. Praise came in from both sides of the border, along with nominations at the W.C. Handy Awards and the Juno Awards. The band also won three Maple Blues Awards in early 2002, including Songwriter of the Year and Album of the Year. Paul Reddick + The Sidemen toured the US non-stop from 2002-2004. Rattlebag marked the beginning of Reddick’s serious attempt to re-work blues traditions with an emphasis on poetic forms and techniques. Starting at the beginning with the Alan Lomax Field Recordings, and reaching into the vast body of pre-war music in and beyond that of the type documented in Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. Reddick has sought to combine the mystery of the blues artform with the powerful spell cast by poetry. A musician who loses himself in performance, Paul Reddick lures the audience into that half-lit blue world he knows so well. A storyteller, innovator and highly original harmonica-player/vocalist, his performances are unforgettable. Paul Reddick teamed up once again with Colin Linden to release Villanelle in autumn 2004. This widely acclaimed album continues the Rattlebag journey towards re-styling the traditional; sidestepping convention it searches further for new possibilities in blues music. A FEW WORDS The Sidemen celebrated the release of their third CD, "Dig In" with a party a Boomerz. Blues Scene Quarterly says" Serious musical collaborations among mature performers who prefer substance over style are often left to the archivist and completists. Not so when it comes to The Sidemen." These guys have been together for 8 years and are as tight as they get. Since the CD release in April, the band has done a fair amount of touring. Although most of it has been in Ontario, they've been to the east coast and are heading out west in November. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.