The Dears Tickets

Based in Montreal, the Dears are a husband-and-wife band. The indie rock outfit has been performing as the Dears since 1995, with various other past members. Murray Lightburn is the group's singer and guitarist. He is backed by Natalia Yanchack, his spouse, on keyboards, along with Jeff Luciani, who has played the drums with the duo since 2010. The band was shortlisted for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize as well as being nominated for the Juno Award for 'Best New Group' in 2004. The Dears won the Montreal Independent Music Initiative Awards of 2002 under the 'Best Production' category.

The Dears' early career

Initially a four-piece indie band, the Dears' first lineup consisted of Lightburn, Richard MacDonald on guitar, Andrew White on bass and John Tod as the drummer. In 1998, MacDonald and White both departed, making way for Yanchack and Roberto Arquilla respectively. Soon afterwards, Tod also left and was replaced by George Donoso II. A fifth member, Brigitte Mayes, was brought in to play cello and flute. Jonathan Cohen also became the band's second guitarist about this time. It was this six-piece lineup that set about recording the group's debut LP, an album called End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story, which came out on Grenadine Records in 2000. Lightburn penned all of the songs, including “C'était Pour la Passion” and “There Is No Such Thing as Love”.

Further lineup changes occurred while the band toured North America. Valerie Jodoin Keaton played keyboards alongside Yanchack from 2002 and Rob Benvie took over on guitar for a spell. The band went on to tour in Europe and Japan while putting out two well-received EPs, Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique and Protest. The band's second studio album, entitled No Cities Left, appeared in 2003, drawing comparisons with the early work of the Smiths, one of the UK's best-loved indie bands of the 1980s. This work reached number 127 in the UK charts. However, the follow-up album, Gang of Losers fared better, achieving the status of a minor hit in both Canada and Britain. Released in 2006, Gang of Losers featured the guitar work of Patrick Krief for the first time.

The Dears' later career

Although Missiles of 2008 failed to make the charts, it marked the Dears' next step as a smaller band, with Yanchack and Lightburn using session musicians in the main. Degeneration Street followed in 2011 and was warmly received by the likes of Clash Music, the NME and Rolling Stone. The band continue to perform with various touring musicians added to the three main members.

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