TRIUMPH drummer Gil Moore spoke to Dr. Music about about the forthcoming first-ever feature documentary about the band’s dramatic career. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It’ll be [out in Canada] this fall. Will it come out in [the rest of North] America at the same time? I’m not sure. Canada, it’ll be fourth quarter this year, for sure. If it’s simultaneous in America, then it’ll be the same time. And if not, my guess would be first quarter of 2022.”
As for which platform the documentary will land on for its U.S. release, Moore said: “That’s to be determined. In Canada, it’s on free TV — on Bell Media, which is the biggest television network in Canada. So it’ll be on free TV. I’m not sure how many broadcasts — whether they’ll play it once, twice or three or four times — I’m not sure about that. And then the Canadian, I guess, equivalent of Netflix, which is Crave, which is also Bell Media — it’ll be on Crave in Canada. Whether it’ll do a theater run or not remains to be seen. And what the launch platforms in America and international remain to be seen.”
He added: “I think typically what they do is when it hits the film festival, which we’re hoping to get that confirmed shortly, that’s when I think a lot of those decisions get made, is once it’s presented at a festival.”
Produced by Emmy and Peabody award-winning Banger Films, “Triumph: Lay It On The Line” is a Crave original documentary that was previously described as “a celebratory, exhilarating thrill ride through the history of one of rock’s most unsung acts.” The film covers TRIUMPH‘s humble beginnings as staples of the GTA circuit in the mid-’70s to their heyday as touring juggernauts, selling out arenas and stadiums all across North America with their legendary spectacular live shows — and way beyond.
Last year, guitarist/vocalist Rik Emmett told The Metal Voice about the making of “Triumph: Lay It On The Line”: “There’s a surreal nature to it — you’re going back in your life, and they’re reminding you of things that you’d completely forgotten,” he continued. “And you’re going, ‘Oh, yeah.’ And then they’re digging deeper, and they’re going, ‘So, when the band broke up…’ And you’re going, ‘Okay, this hurts, actually.’ I don’t wanna have to go back to that, because the rise and the fall and the rise again, it’s the fall that hurts. I don’t wanna go there. I thought I’d put all this behind me. It was ugly, heavy baggage.”
Emmett also talked about a “really extraordinary thing” Banger Films did while working on “Triumph: Lay It On The Line”. “They flew in fans from all over the world,” he said. “They created an event. And the fans didn’t know that we were gonna actually play three songs. So, they brought ’em all to the warehouse, and they’re wandering, and they’re looking at this TRIUMPH museum-y kind of thing. They’ve got dummies with my old spandex jumpsuits on. And then they send them down and they were gonna show them a few little clips on a scrim. The scrim drops and there we are and we play. And these are the people that love us the most. And there was only a couple of hundred of ’em. But it was so intense; it was so amazing. And, of course, they’ve got, like, 15 cameras around the room capturing every angle of this. And then you go, ‘Oh my God. This is heavy duty.’
“So it’s really good,” Rik added. “It really gets to the heart of, you’re a band, you create some music, you make a connection to people, and then here’s these people, you’re the soundtrack to their lives, and it matters to them. So they love you. I could get up there and fart, and they would go, ‘Yeah! Great!'”
The aforementioned invite-only event was held in November 2019 in front of 300 “superfans” at MetalWorks studio in Mississauga (a suburb of Toronto), Ontario, Canada. Emmett, Moore and bassist/keyboardist Mike Levine played a three-song set that marked TRIUMPH‘s first performance in 11 years, as well as its first as a pure three-piece power trio in 31 years. The tracks played were “When The Lights Go Down”, “Lay It On The Line” and “Magic Power”.
Moore, Levine and Emmett formed TRIUMPH in 1975, and their blend of heavy riff-rockers with progressive odysseys, peppered with thoughtful, inspiring lyrics and virtuosic guitar playing quickly made them a household name in Canada. Anthems like “Lay It On The Line”, “Magic Power” and “Fight The Good Fight” broke them in the USA, and they amassed a legion of fiercely passionate fans. But, as a band that suddenly split at the zenith of their popularity, TRIUMPH missed out on an opportunity to say thank you to those loyal and devoted fans, a base that is still active today, three decades later.
Back in 2016, Moore and Levine reunited with Rik as special guests on the “RES 9” album from Emmett‘s band RESOLUTION9.
After 20 years apart, Emmett, Levine and Moore played at the 2008 editions of the Sweden Rock Festival and Rocklahoma. A DVD of the historic Sweden performance was made available four years later.
