by Gordon Bowness, Xtra (Toronto), June 26, 2003
What's a platinum-selling power pop band doing on a Pride stage? It's been more than 10 years since The Pursuit of Happiness hit the top of the charts and almost five years since they stopped playing full-time.
"We're in retirement," says guitarist Kris Abbott, "but we play selected gigs once or twice a year. We don't give a fuck about anything other than playing for the fun of it."
TPOH did a big Mississauga fundraiser for the Trillium Breast Cancer Fund and the AIDS hospice Casey House earlier this year and grace the South Stage at Pride this Sunday afternoon.
"Our fans are very loyal - especially our dyke and fag fans. I don't know why, but they've always travelled to see us and there's no pressure, like 'Where's the next hit?'"
Abbott says she was always out, but being a lesbian never became a big issue in the media. "Maybe that's because all the songs are from Moe [Berg]'s point of view: Boy meets girl and everything goes wrong. But we lived together all those years and bits of us appear in the songs. I don't feel disassociated from them because I'm a lesbian..."
Abbott has been with the band since 1988, the year of the platinum-selling debut disk Love Junk with its lead hit single "I'm An Adult Now." "We were fortunate to have big hits right out of the box - and that allowed us to tour the world and play with great bands, like the Eurythmics. But success to us meant being able to make records the way we wanted to and being together as a band for 12 years."
"When we get together, we are so excited to play with each other. It's all about fun. I'm really excited and I'm really proud as a lesbian to be playing for the first time for the gay community with the band that I love, that I've been with my whole adult life," says the Torontonian about Sunday's gig.
"We're going to bang out the hits; it's just fun pop rock that feels good."
© 2003 Pink Triangle Press