Rymes with Orange

History

The band originated in the early 90s in Prince George as The Night Watchmen, by original drummer and songwriter Alex (Julien) Dias, and guitarist and songwriter Rob Lulic. Vancouver based keyboardist Bob D'Eith later joined the band. When lead singer Jimmy Gilmore (subsequently a member of The Silencers from Scotland), decided to leave the band to go back to Scotland, Dias, Lulic and D'Eith continued, with what would eventually become Rymes with Orange.

In 1992, after The Watchmen split, Dias, Lulic and D'Eith joined up with U.K.-born lead singer Lyndon Johnson to form Rymes With Orange in Vancouver. As The Night Watchmen, the band had a more conventional alternative rock sound, where as Rymes With Orange their style evolved more towards a Madchester-influenced dance rock alternative sound.

The band was a semi-finalist in Vancouver's local Demo Listen Derby competition in 1991. Around this time, the band joked in promotional interviews that the apparently missing letter "h" in their name had been donated to the band hHead.

The band released their first full-length debut album Peel in 1992, produced by Bill Buckingham. It spawned the singles "Marvin", "Memory Fade" and a cover of The Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park".

Russell Sholberg, a close friend of the band, played bass on the album, but it was Nelson Sinclair who would eventually become the official bass player. When drummer Alex (Julien) Dias left the band, Niko Quintal from Quebec became the new drummer.

The album was supported by their first large-scale national tour across Canada, both on their own and as an opening act for The Blue Shadows, Redd Kross, One Free Fall and Odds.

During this time, a friend of Niko's, Steeve Hennessy, was the band's sounds engineer.

After touring Canada numerous times, D'Eith was forced to choose between a career on the road or a life on the business side of music. He moved back to co-managing the band with manager Peter Karroll, and became a non-touring member of the band, while Hennessy moved into his touring position on keys and vocals, also adding rhythm guitar to their live sound.

In 1994, the band released Trapped in the Machine, produced by John Webster, and including all six members, Lyndon Johnson, Rob Lulic, Bob D'Eith, Nelson Sinclair, Niko Quintal and Steeve Hennessy. The band again toured across Canada to support the album, and garnered airplay on radio and at Much Music with the singles "Toy Train", "I Believe", "She Forgot to Laugh" and "The Taking of David". This record resulted in a number of Top 30 radio hits including "Toy Train" which was the band's biggest hit. The song was featured in the Labatt's beer commercial "Genuine Kelly".

During this period, D'Eith was honoured with a Best Keyboardist award nomination at Canadian Music Week. After an official split from Rymes with Orange, D'Eith decided to re-focus his music creation, and teamed up with Paul Schmidt, a classically trained acoustic guitar player, to form an ambient, instrumental project called Mythos.

Bif Naked was the support act for several dates on this tour. Part of the tour had to be postponed, however, after the band were involved in a tour van accident near Sicamous, British Columbia in January 1995. They returned to the road in the spring of 1995, with their friends Age of Electric, who shared a tour bus with them, on the appropriately titled "The Electric Orange Tour", which included dates in Atlantic Canada, a region where they had not previously played.

Trapped in the Machine was the band's most successful album, selling over 60,000 copies in Canada.

At the Juno Awards of 1996, the band garnered a nomination for Best New Group.

The band continued to tour and perform through 1996 and 1997, but took a hiatus from recording.

In early '96, not long after a tour of New Zealand, Nelson Sinclair left the band, as did Niko Quintal, who left to tour with Econoline Crush, and to record and tour with Kim Bingham's band Mudgirl. Friend and drummer Bobby James of Destineak filled the position until the band found a permanent drummer for their next album.

Supported by touring Canada and the UK, the band returned in 1999 with their third album Crash, co-produced by Rymes With Orange and Mike Plotnikoff, recorded at the legendary Mushroom Studios, Vancouver. They had two music video singles from the album, "She's the One" and "Standing in the Rain".

At this point, Lyndon Johnson and Rob Lulic were the only two remaining founding members of the band, with now long time member Steeve Hennessy on keys, vocals and guitars. Crash was recorded with new rhythm section, Timothy B. Hewitt on bass and Trevor Grant on drums. However, not long after the album was recorded and released, Hewitt left the band to pursue other musical ventures, including recording and playing bass on Prism's 2008 album Big Black Sky. To replace him, they went with a friend from a band who often opened for them, The Misunderstood, from Hamilton Ontario, Kevin Spencer was now on bassand vocals, and co-wrote "Standing in the Rain" for the album Crash.

During their tour to support Crash, their tour van was stolen in Winnipeg, and on the following tour, that van and a trailer were struck by a transport truck in a parking lot while the band was asleep in their hotel room. Crash was named Best Pop/Rock Album at the 1999 West Coast Music Awards.

In 2003, the band released their fourth album, One More Mile, produced by Rob Lulic and Lyndon Johnson, and mixed by Trapped in the Machine producer John Webster.

The band's last known live performance was at a Canada Day festival in Vancouver in 2008, headlined by Loverboy and Bob Rock's band, the Payola$.

In March 2016, a Rymes With Orange channel was launched on YouTube, featuring the RWO Cinema Show, a video diary of the band, divided into short episodes. The channel features rare and unreleased material, such as live performances on Much Music, Musique Plus and the CBC, and includes all their official music videos.