Big Sugar

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Toronto, ON, Canada 1991-2003, 2010-present

Big Sugar is a Canadian blues-rock-reggae band.

The band, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Gordie Johnson, bassist Terry Wilkins and drummer Al Cross, officially formed in 1991, although the three musicians had already played together for several years as an informal jam band with members of the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, and as a supporting band for Molly Johnson’s jazz performances. (Molly Johnson and Gordie Johnson are not related. ) After Molly Johnson returned to rock music with Infidels, she helped her former bandmates to secure a record deal; their self-titled debut album was released in 1991 on Hypnotic Records.

Wilkins left in 1993, and the band recorded the album Five Hundred Pounds with the help of guest musicians, including Kelly Hoppe (also known as Mr. Chill) and Garry Lowe, who would subsequently become official members of the band.

Big Sugar had slowly built a reputation as an outstanding live band, and Five Hundred Pounds consolidated it: the album sold 10,000 copies in Canada (the equivalent of selling 100,000 copies in the United States) without any real publicity or radio airplay.

Hoppe and Lowe began to bring reggae influences into the band’s sound as well. During this time, Gordie Johnson also recorded an album as Don’t Talk Dance, with Tyler Stewart of Barenaked Ladies and Chris Brown from the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir.
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  • Hit and Run
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  • Big Sugar
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  • Heated
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  • Five Hundred Pounds
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