Background

Dave Bidini was born on September 11, 1963, in Etobicoke, Ontario.

Education

Dave Bidini attended Trinity College in Dublin.

Career

Dave Bidini is the musician and author for more than three decades.

He is a guitarist. Dave is one of the founders of the Canadian band Rheostatics in 1979. He performed with Rheostatics drummer Dave Clark. His band Rheostatics played its first live show in Etobicoke, Ontario, in early 1980. The group subsequently released such popular albums as "Whale Music" and "Melville." The band lasted for 27 years.

Later Dave established his Bidiniband in 2007. The band released three albums: "The Land Is Wild," "In The Rock Hall," ‎and "The Motherland."

Dave Bidini's first poem was published when he was 11 years old. It was a poem about Maple Leaf hockey player Eddie Shack.

He wrote for a national high school newspaper, "Sunshine News." Later for an alternative rock magazine, "Shades." Also, he wrote for an "OP Magazine" and "Village Voice."

From 1991 to 1993, Dave Bidini was a columnist for the "Toronto Star." Dave also wrote a weekly Saturday column for the "National Post" until 2015. He is the publisher of the "West End Phoenix" community newspaper in Toronto.

Dave Bidini has written thirteen books, most of them about hockey or music. His books include "On a Cold Road," "Tropic of Hockey," "Around the World in 57 1/2 Gigs," and "Home and Away."

His first book, "On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock," chronicles the tour the Rheostatics made across Canada as openers for the more commercially successful band the Tragically Hip in 1996. In addition to his personal stories of the tour, Dave interweaves the stories of forty-seven older Canadian rockers.

In addition to music and writing, Dave Bidini has another passion shared by many Canadians: ice hockey. His second book, "Tropic of Hockey: My Search for the Game in Unlikely Places," Dave takes a global odyssey - from China to Russia to the Middle East - in search of people in far-flung places who, unlike the professionals, play for the mere joy of the game. His book is a humor-filled story of dedicated players with quirky personalities. Dave also sets forth his views on what is wrong with contemporary hockey, especially on the professional level.

He also has written two plays: "Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica," and "The Night of the Dogs."

Dave Bidini is a board member of Street Soccer Canada. He has attended two Homeless World Cups, traveling with Team Canada to Melbourne and Milan.

Achievements

• Author and musician Dave Bidini is best known as the only person to have been nominated for a Gemini, Genie, and Juno, as well as Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's "Canada, Reads." He was a founding member of Rheostatics in 1979 and Bidiniband in 2007. Dave has written thirteen books, including "On a Cold Road," "Tropic of Hockey," "Around the World in 57 1/2 Gigs," and "Home and Away." He is a three-time National magazine award-winner. His last book was "Midnight Light: A Personal Journey to The N." Also, he is the publisher of the West End Phoenix community newspaper in Toronto.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Midnight Light: A Personal Journey to the North

    ("Midnight Light" introduces readers to an extraordinary c...)

    2018
  • A Wild Stab for It: This Is Game Eight from Russia

    (For the 40th anniversary of what was arguably the single-...)

    2012
  • Home and Away

    ("Home and Away" offers a powerful look at the poor and di...)

    2010
  • Tropic Of Hockey

    (Bidini's encounters with odd-sized rinks and players of w...)

    2001
  • The Best Game You Can Name

    (Bidini returns to the game he loves best In 2004, Dave Bi...)

    2005
  • Around the World in 57 1/2 Gigs

    (The strengths of Bidini's two best-loved books, "On a Col...)

    2007
  • For Those About to Write

    (Dave Bidini's quirky personal path to becoming a writer (...)

    2007
  • Writing Gordon Lightfoot

    (From acclaimed musician and author Dave Bidini comes a br...)

    2011
  • For Those About to Rock

    (From the serious considerations to the frivolous issues, ...)

    2004
  • Baseballissimo

    (In the spring of 2002, Dave Bidini set off for Nettuno, I...)

    2004
  • The Five Hole Stories

    (Each of the six stories in Dave Bidini's playful, irrever...)

    2006
  • Keon and Me

    (Hockey is the lens through which we see our lives - how w...)

    2013
  • On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock

    (In 1996, when the Rheostatics opened for the Tragically H...)

    1998

Religion

Dave Bidini wrote in one of his articles: "I am a deeply religious man, which is not to say that I have one. I'm not Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Methodist, Muslim, Jewish, or Pagan. Nor am I a Raelian or Snake Charmer or Parrothead, although I once sang "Margaritaville" with Dave Hodge and Mike Keenan, a spiritual moment in its own right. Instead, my faith, my religion is found in the impossible power and surprise of life, and the ethereal force - manifested. However, you choose: bearded and sandalled and hanging from a cross or twinkling in the starry depths of the night sky - that produces something from nothing out of nowhere, and, then, zing, like fingerpicks across an autoharp, one's life and perspective and way of being are forever changed."

Views

Quotations: "People are always saying you should write about what you know. It's a natural subject for many Canadian musicians because so many of us know hockey. And for a writer, the game lends itself to poetry and romance."

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  Hockey

Connections

Dave Bidini is married to Janet Morassutti. They have two children: Lorenzo and Cecilia.

Wife:

Janet Morassutti

Janet Morassutti has a career as an indie songwriter and guitarist.

Son:

Lorenzo Morassutti-Bidini

Daughter:

Cecilia Morassutti-Bidini

colleague:

Dave Clark

David Clark is an English songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur.

References

• @hockeyesque - Twitter
• Dave Bidini (@davebidini) - Instagram
• Dave Bidini - Facebook