Doug Bennett

Douglas Bennett was born on October 31st 1951, in Toronto, Ontario. He formed Doug and the Slugs in Vancouver in 1977; the band originally consisted of Doug with John Burton (guitar), Drew Neville (keyboards), Dennis Henderson (bass) and Lawrence McGillveray (drums).

They began by promoting their own shows and developed an avid following with outrageous ‘theme nights’. In 1978 the band changed.. Doug and John remained – Simon Kendall, Richard Baker, Steve Bosley and John ‘Wally Watson’ joined them. The Slugs were the hottest attraction in the Vancouver area. Fans were lined up every night. The Slugs’ novelty, humour, and theatrics, and Bennett’s unlikely ‘pop star’ image, made them a media success in Vancouver.

In 1979 Doug and the Slugs and Sam Feldman signed a management deal. Local music impresario Peter McCullough offered to finance the Bennett written single ‘Too Bad’. The song was released and the rest is history.The Slugs toured relentlessly and produced 6 more albums (3 of them certified Gold). The band enjoyed international releases in the US, Europe and Australia. They helped launch the video era with Slug videos being among the first to receive heavy rotation on MTV. An early Bennett description of their music was widely quoted: ‘[it’s] your basic rock and roll but with a certain Kafka-esque, grass roots, Pavlovian, existential, Calvanistic, Zen, New York liberal Jewish intellectual kind of slant to it’ , Vancouver Sun, 15th August 1980.

Doug always brought his trademark crowd rapport to the stage. It was his charismatic live energy that landed him the lead in John Gray’s hit musical, Rock and Roll. Five weeks of sold out performances turned into a cross Canada tour of Canadian Theatres. Doug then co-produced the English Translation of the long running Quebec hit comedy, Brew, in Vancouver in 1993.

He continued to successfully produce, compose, direct and perform. Tragically, on October 16, 2004, Canada lost one of its greatest entertainers and songwriters when Doug Bennett passed away in a Calgary hospital, leaving his wife Nancy and three daughters.