QUEBEC ROCK BAND IN HALL OF FAME
Les Dales Hawerchuk named for NHL star
MONTREAL • Hockey players have long been worshipped in Canada, but a Quebec rock group has come up with a unique tribute to their improbable idol. The four francophone musicians from Quebec’s fiercely sovereigntist Lac-SaintJean region call themselves Les Dales Hawerchuk after the former Winnipeg Jets great, and their new album is drawing rave reviews.
As a boy in Roberval, Que., Sylvain Séguin was surrounded by passionate hockey fans, who cheered for either the Montreal Canadiens or the Quebec Nordiques. But Mr. Séguin’s hero, the one whose number he wore and whose moves he tried to emulate on the ice, was Mr. Hawerchuk.
“We are all hockey players, and we are all big fans of Dale Hawerchuk,” Mr. Séguin, 28, the group’s lead singer and chief songwriter, said of he and his band mates. “He is the most complete player there has ever been. We have always been fascinated by this player, for years, and that is why we chose the name. It’s a way of paying tribute to him.”
Mr. Hawerchuk, who broke into the NHL when Mr. Séguin was just four and the rest of the band were in diapers, retired in 1997 after suffering hip problems. Now 42, he and his wife raise horses in Orangeville, Ont. He is president of the local Junior B team, and plays some old-timer hockey.
A call from the National Post this week was the first he had heard of Les Dales ( the ‘ s’ is silent) Hawerchuk, whose debut disc features a drawing of a youthful Mr. Hawerchuk skating for the Jets. Their first video is for a song titled Dale Hawerchuk, in which Mr. Séguin invokes his hero to summon the strength to put his life in order. Over twangy guitars and a driving beat, he sings the chorus: “’Cause I’m not Sylvain Séguin/I’m Dale Hawerchuk.”
Mr. Hawerchuk said he did not mind having his name appropriated by a band, even if he found it unusual that a group of French-speaking Quebecers would feel so strongly about him. “If they’re a meaning-well type group, I think it’s flattering,” he said.
“ That’s the beauty of sports. One athlete may not be the most popular, the most famous, but sometimes they just strike a chord with a person. Maybe it was just timing, a particular game they watched,” he said. “If you’re talking to those guys, wish them luck for me.”
The song Dale Hawerchuk is the only obvious example of puck rock on the disc, but Mr. Séguin said the group’s musical style is Hawerchuk-esque. “Our music is robust; we’re able to lay on a bodycheck. It’s solid rock, and like a hockey game, it moves really fast, it makes noise and it can get its elbows up.”
Despite their roots in a hotbed of separatism, Les Dales prefer to keep their music apolitical. Critics have warmed to their raunchy style: “We like this group because they are doing what they love, and because they do it without the least compromise,” Richard Labbé wrote in Montreal’s La Presse, awarding their disc four stars. “There’s no doubt, these guys are for real.”
Selected first overall in the 1981 draft, Mr. Hawerchuk, a Toronto native, played 16 years in the NHL, first with Winnipeg, then Buffalo, St. Louis and Philadelphia. He amassed 518 goals and 891 assists, which made him the 10th-highest scorer of all time. He was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001.
“Dale’s style of hockey doesn’t exist any more,” Mr. Séguin said. “ This is a way of paying tribute to this style of hockey, which has disappeared. In those days, a hockey game could finish 7- 6, and Dale Hawerchuk would have put four in the net and received eight penalty minutes. Someone who could hit an opponent and put the puck in the net, there aren’t players like that any more.”
The band is made up of Mr. Séguin, his brother Sébastien, both of whom sing and play guitar, Pierre Fortin on drums and Martin Bergeron on bass. All four have day jobs, but they have been touring Quebec and hope to land a gig in English Canada.
The only thing that could sideline them would be if Mr. Hawerchuk took offence, Mr. Séguin said: “ If he sues us, we will respect his wishes. The last thing we want is to have problems with Dale Hawerchuk. He is an idol for us. We are not laughing at him. … If he is not happy, we’ll change our name, but we’ll keep on playing.”
National Post