Cats can fly

Origin: North York (Toronto), Ontario (Canada)

CATS CAN FLY

Discography:

st - 1986 (with lyrics)

Notes:

- Cats Can Fly was a Canadian synthpop band in the 1980s. They released one album in 1986.

Cats Can Fly began as a school rock band called Ethos at Elia Junior High School (now Elia Middle School) in North York, Ontario in 1971. The original members were Jim Longmuir on guitar, Alan Frizell on guitar, Frank Miller on drums and Peter Alexandre on bass guitar. The band was formed under the supervision of school board consultant Laura Lapedus. In the following year, Mitchell James replaced Longmuir and Frizell left. David Ashley replaced Steele on bass guitar and he switched to keyboards.

After a US-based band with the same name released an album, the group changed its name to Scamp. Miller eventually left the group and was replaced by Tom Davidson. Scamp toured Canada as a bar band and had limited success including touring with Burton Cummings, winning the CFTR Talent Search and appearing on Global at Noon. Lapedus eventually became the band's co-manager along with Wayne Baguley and Warren Keach.

In 1980, Scamp recorded an album with the producer Jack Richardson. Distribution could not be established, however, and the record was never released.

After a series of drummers including Geoff Geddes, Phil Knipe and Bill Hibbs, Eddie Zeeman became the band's permanent drummer in 1982. Scamp changed its name to Cats Can Fly shortly thereafter. In its final form it consisted of Ashley on lead vocals and bass guitar, James on backing vocals and lead guitar, Alexandre on backing vocals and keyboards and Zeeman on backing vocals and drums. They released an independent EP, Touch Touch, in 1984 and were signed to CBS Records after winning a cross-Canada talent search sponsored by Craven A. (The same talent search also led to a recording contract for Belinda Metz.)

Their album Cats Can Fly was released on CBS Records in 1986. Coproduced by Lou Pomanti and Lenny DeRose, the album spawned the Top 40 hits "Flipping to the A Side" (#16, 1986) and "Lies Are Gonna Get Ya". They toured across Canada to support the album, both as a headlining act and as an opener for several Canadian shows by Level 42. The band garnered a Juno Award nomination for Most Promising Group at the Juno Awards of 1986.

Despite their success, CBS dropped the band in a major housecleaning that preceded its 1988 takeover by Sony Music Entertainment. They spent some time shopping for another record label, but subsequently broke up. -

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_Can_Fly)



- In 1982, four young singers and musicians with big dreams came together in Canada to form a group called Cats Can Fly. The members were bassist David Ashley, drummer Eddie Zeeman, keyboardist Peter Alexandre, and guitarist and saxophone player Mitchell James. They played popular pop/rock tunes from other artists, appearing in local clubs and wherever else they could land a gig.

Three years after their formation, Cats Can Fly got their first real break in a talent contest sponsored by a cigarette company. The group began to tour, and recorded a debut single, "Lies Are Gonna Get Ya," released under the Epic Records label. In 1986, a full-length self-titled album followed, along with one other single, "Flippin' to the A Side." Shortly after the one album hit the market, Cats Can Fly were cut loose by the label. The guys held things together for a while, but soon called it quits. -

(http://www.allmusic.com/artist/cats-can-fly-mn0001178293)



- 1985 Craven A, the cigarette company, sponsored Talent Quest '85 which they hoped would lead to young music entities they could underwrite tours for that would hit the 18-24 youth market with their cigarette advertising. Two acts spring from this search that eventually wound up with record deals -- Belinda Metz and Cats Can Fly.

Cats Can Fly were originally formed in 1982 as a standard Top-40 cover band. With the Craven A contest helping them offset the expense of touring they were able to get bigger profile gigs at which time A & R reps were beginning to line up at the door.

They were recruited and groomed by CBS A & R guru David Bendeth and their self-titled debut album on Epic Records in 1986 was produced by Lou Pomanti and Lenny DeRose. The album boasted two successful synth-pop hits in "Flipping To The A-side" and "Lies Are Gonna Get Ya".

However, in a huge corporate house cleaning, many acts, including Cats Can Fly were dumped by CBS Records and the band soon split up.

Eddie Zeeman would find a steady job as part of Andy Curran's Soho 69. -

(http://jam.canoe.com/Music/Pop_Encyclopedia/C/Cats_Can_Fly.html)




- The history of Cats Can Fly actually go back as far as the early 1970´s when the school rock band Ethos formed under the supervision of the School Board in North York, Ontario. After changing their name to Scamp and winning a talent search in 1980, they started working on a record that for different reasons never got finished.
Once again the band decided to change it's name, this time to Cats Can Fly, and much of the band personnel was replaced. The name itself, "Cats Can Fly", was turned up on a random name-suggestion survey and immediately appealed to the band for it's quirky, optimistic sound - very much like the music the band had started to create.
At this stage the band consisted of David Ashley (lead vocals, bass), Mitchell James (guitars) and Peter Alexandre (keyboards), who had attended both high-school and the "college of musical knowledge" together. When Eddie Zeeman (drums, lead vocals) joined in 1982 the line-up was complete and the band soon found work touring bars and clubs all across Canada.
On the strength of the quality of the songwriting and the fact that all four members were also skilled vocalists, the band managed to secure a deal with Epic who released the self-titled debut album in the spring of 1986.
The record was a great blend of synthesized pop and new wave (with the often strong and distorted guitar lines pushing several of the songs in a more high-tech AOR direction) and spawned two Canadian Top 40 hits in the catchy "Flippin' To The A Side" (#16) and "Lies Are Gonna Get Ya" (#33).
The band continued to tour and was also awarded the Juno Award for Most Promising Group in 1986, but unfortunately in 1988 got dropped by the label in a major housecleaning and the band split up shortly thereafter. -

(http://kimhp.se/bios/cats%20can%20fly.html)