If you know where to look along Main Street in Bath, Ontario, a town just west of Kingston, you’ll see an old house set back about 100 feet from the road behind a grove of trees. That’s The Bathouse, the studio headquarters of the Tragically Hip. Its location is so low-key that many people in the area don’t even know it’s there.
The Hip had a friends-and-family event last night to support their new business venture, UP Cannabis, a licensed producer of marijuana which is poised to jump into the Canadian marketplace once legalization goes through later this year. Everyone in the band is a major investor in the company and offered The Bathouse and its grounds for a company gathering, which also featured select invited guests. I was lucky enough to be there–and they let me take some pictures.
The front grounds of The Bathouse. The studio is a one of the few live/work facilities in the country where artists can come live while they make music. The place has all the facilities one might need, including a pool, a baskethall court, a fire pit, a bonfire pit (for REALLY big fires) along with a pitch’n’putt green.The front steps leading up to the porch and the main entrance.This hangs on the wall just inside the entrance. Once the band had the Fully Completely artwork commissioned (for which they paid), they found it in a gallery in California. So they paid for it again and brought it back to the studio.The control room is 100% analogue. I was told that this console was purchased from NBC and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.One of the live rooms.Another live room.This looks familiar. One of the guys bought it in a New York City junk shop for about a hundred bucks. The band liked it so much they turned it into an album cover.As you might expect with the Hip, there’s a large library featuring some esoteric books……and one that I seemed to recognize.The studio comes with its own bicycle……and you’d expect some hockey sticks to be close at hand, right?Dallas Green was there, too. He played some songs for us under a clear spring sky.
Thanks to the Hip and UP Cannabis for a great evening.
is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker.
In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.
5 thoughts on “The Tragically Hip held rare open house at their Bathouse Studios near Kingston. I was invited.”
Great piece, Mr. Cross, and lucky you for being invited. I have been thinking about Rob, Paul, Gord S. and Johnny and wondering how they are doing now that Gord D. is no longer with us.
Tough question but I need to ask – did anyone say anything about current or future musical plans?
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Great piece, Mr. Cross, and lucky you for being invited. I have been thinking about Rob, Paul, Gord S. and Johnny and wondering how they are doing now that Gord D. is no longer with us.
Tough question but I need to ask – did anyone say anything about current or future musical plans?
I’m no musician but how can you not be inspired to make something great there!
Cool pictures! Your book is in good company, I see Tolkien, Hugo and others. It’s also been well used, judging by the wear and tear.
Hey Alan, is that Bill Welychka I see in the first pic?
Good eye! Yes! He’s working in TV in Kingston.