Joe Biz - August 12, 2009

By Joe Leary | Aug 12, 2009

When a group’s debut album achieves multi-platinum status, there’s always concern on the part of the artist to somehow avoid the so-called ‘sophomore curse’ and maintain focus in an attempt to replicate that initial success, thus silencing the cynics.

It’s a task much easier said than done, and the list of those who have failed to accomplish anywhere close to the success of their initial output is an ever-growing one.

If The Fray shares those same concerns, they certainly don’t show the signs.

Cool and confident, the Denver-based quartet played UBC’s Thunderbird Arena to a rousing fan base last week, touting the ever-growing cohesion of their band as a unit, while promoting their eponymously-titled follow-up CD.

Drummer Ben Wysocki tells me that even though every group has expectations to achieve success, you never really are quite prepared should it occur to the extent they experienced.

“We had no idea what was going to happen because it was the first time we released music to such a large group of people,” he says. “It wasn’t like us handing it out in a local Denver bar or whatever. When you get involved with a record label, there’s kind of this element where you do your thing and give it to them and then it’s sort of out of your hands, whether it’s a huge label or not. We sort of end after we make the music and it’s kind of like all we can do, so there’s this sort of, out of body, out of mind experience with all these people interacting and responding to our music. We were totally floored and quite honoured by that success.”

Stars of a different kind gathered last weekend at the Marriott Pinnacle Hotel in downtown Vancouver as cast members of the top-rated soap, ‘The Young and the Restless’ arrived to help support the BC/Yukon Division of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
It’s the 11th annual event of its kind, hosted by longtime soap actress Kate Linder (Esther Valentine) who brought along fellow cast members Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin), Michael Graziadei (Daniel Romalotti), Billy Miller (Billy Abbott) and Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe).

Fielding questions from the audience while helping auction off exclusive memorabilia from the show, the cast proved to be a real hit among the packed house. Linder tells me that Vancouver has become one of her favourite places in the world, and she should know. In addition to appearing in the role of Esther for the past 28 years, the perky actress still manages to fill her non-shooting days as a flight attendant for United Airlines. “There are a number of times when I’ll have a passenger in my section call me over to tell me that I look just like this actress on TV,” she says. “You should see their facial reaction when I tell them that I’m her. They find it interesting that I play a maid on the Y&R, and here I am serving their every need in the air.”

With just six months remaining until the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics, it’s still not officially been announced as to exactly which international dignitaries will converge on Vancouver and Whistler for the event.

But I can tell you of one well-known family that will make the trek to our fair city in February: The Simpsons! That’s right – TV’s longest-running primetime family will have an entire episode centered around their first ever visit to Van City.

Co-Executive Producer and Writer Rob Lazebnkik tells me what prompted producers to opt for the journey north of Springfield.

“We knew of it, of course, and surprisingly, over twenty seasons of the show, we haven’t really had The Simpsons spend a lot of time at an Olympics, so it seemed like a great opportunity,” he says. “As this one is as potentially close to the United States as we’re going to have in awhile, we kind of attacked the idea of doing it and I think it’s going to be fun. We’re about half way through the production process. Our animated show takes a very long time to produce, but we’re well on the way and I think the show is looking great.”

While Lazebnik was unwilling to reveal too many details of the episode, he did share one nugget as to what we can expect. “There is one very good pot joke,” he tells me, “but I can’t say anything more.”