Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet
Don (drums)
Reid Diamond (bass)
Brian (guitar)
The transition of Toronto's Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet from rehearsing to performing live happened less than six months after the band formed in 1984: they were sharing rehearsal space with another band who promised them two month's free rent if they opened for them. They obliged and their course was set.
The instrumental trio decided early on that none of them wanted particularly to sing and they quickly became known for their particular brand of surf music and odd cover songs. In 1985 they decided to capitalize on their growing popularity by releasing their first 7" single, and there followed seven more singles over the course of the next five years, all of which came together to form their first full length LP, Savvy Show Stoppers, which was a compilation of all their previous singles. It was released to strong critical and public acceptance.
In 1990 Shadowy Men were hired to write and record the theme song for the Kids In The Hall television show. Reid Diamond and Brian Connelly had grown up in Calgary with Kids member Bruce McCullough, and when they had all moved to Toronto and gone in their own directions, Shadowy Men started opening for the Kids in clubs and theatres. When the Kids got signed to do their television show, it seemed only natural that the Shadowy Men supply the theme music - and eventually they supplied all the incidental music for the program. The theme song, "Having An Average Weekend", won them a CASBY nomination in 1990, five years after it was written and recorded.
Their second full-length album, Dim The Lights, Chill The Ham, was released in 1992, once again to rave critical and public reviews, was also notable for the fact that it contained 23 songs. In their career Shadowy Men have only ever released one song with featuring a vocalist.