After a slow start, by the end of the 70s Canadian trio Triumph were living up to their name. Then came the falling-out, the split, and 20 years of toxicity before they shared a stage again.
When Triumph re-formed briefly to play 2008’s Sweden Rock festival, there was just one problem: they’d barely spoken to each other in 20 years. Collecting gongs at an awards ceremony had brought the Canadian power trio back into each other’s orbit, but now Rik Emmett (guitar), Mike Levine (bass) and Gil Moore (drums) had to unpick a Gordian knot of bad blood and hurt.
“Initially it was awkward as shit,” Emmett tells Classic Rock today, at home in Burlington, near Lake Ontario. “We met at a coffee shop, with a mediator, and he was like: ‘If you guys can bury the hatchet, I can get you into the [Canadian Music] Hall Of Fame.’
“But the big catalyst for me was that my younger brother Russell had died in 2007,” Emmett continues. “Just before he passed, he said to me: ‘Rik, nobody in the world is a bigger Triumph fan than me, and I would love to see you guys back together.’ I thought: ‘You son of a bitch, Russell! You’re dying of cancer, and now I have to try this!’”
As documented in Banger Films’ 2021 biopic Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine, Emmett had broken his bandmates’ hearts when, seeking new musical challenges, he left in 1988. Burying that hatchet wouldn’t be easy. “Each of us had grown to believe our own anger and bitterness,” he says. “Then you think: ‘That’s fuckin’ stupid. Let it go.’ Pretty soon it was as if we were on the road in Iowa again, just hanging out and cracking jokes.”
Sweden Rock, meanwhile, proved great fun. And when Brian Robertson, formerly of Thin Lizzy, approached Emmett to tell him how much he liked Strung Out Troubadours, Emmett’s 2006-formed guitar duo with fellow Canadian Dave Dunlop, high jinks ensued.
“This big sweaty German guy had interrupted us really rudely with about fifteen albums to sign,” a smiling Emmett says. “Then later on Robertson noticed him asleep on a couch in our hotel lobby, and he goes: [decent Scots accent] ‘I’m gonna get that fucker!’ So the German guy’s snoring, and Brian sneaks up and writes ‘C*NT’ on his forehead with a sharpie. Poetic justice!”
Prior to Triumph forming in Mississauga, Ontario in 1975, Mike Levine and Gil Moore had played in a less succinctly named group. When Abernathy Shagnaster’s Wash And Wear Rock & Roll Band imploded, the ambitious pair decided to form a trio, and began scouting for the perfect foil. Blonde, square-jawed, a noted and versatile guitar-hero-about-town, Rik Emmett was in King Crimson and Gentle Giant-influenced prog band Act III at the time. Like Moore, he also had a great high-register
