Great Big Sea

Great Big Sea
Canadian Folk Rock band Great Big Sea (GBS) performed for the first time on March 11, 1993 when they performed for the first time at Memorial University in St. John"s, Newfoundland as an opening act for Irish Descendants.

Band"s original line up included band"s vocalist, guitarist and mandolin player Alan Doyle, Sean McCann on vocals, guitar and tin whistle, and bassist, vocalist and guitarist of the band Darrell Power and Bob Hallett who was vocalist as well as accordion, concertina, bouzouki, bagpipes and mandolin player.

Before Power, McCann and Hallett joined forces to form Great Big Sea up; they used to perform in another band called "Rankin Street" along with Jackie St. Croix.

In order to give more of his time to his family Power retired from the Great Big Sea in 2003. Kris MacFarlane and Murray Foster became the supporting band members.

In 2001, Great Big Sea made a decision of not allowing their name to be nominated in any kind of award category to let others win the awards as they received Entertainer of the year award at the East Coast Music Awards a year before and in 1996 as well.

Apart from East Coast Awards, GBS has also been nominated in Juno Award at several occasions and also in 1998 and 2005 they won Group of the Year award.

Great Big Sea"s self titled debut album was independently released in 1993, however later it was re-released after they signed a record deal with Warner Music Canada. In 1995 the band released its, what is now a platinum album, titled "Up", as it sold well over 100,000 copies in Canada only.

Almost two years later in 1997 they released another one of their studio albums, titled "Play". The following year they released another album titled "Rant and Roar" exclusively in United States. "Rank and Roar" was mainly comprised of the songs from their previous albums "Play" and "Up".

Almost a year later in 1999, Great Big Sea released another album titled "Turn", which was followed by another of one their compilations album titled "Road Rage". The album compiles the band"s performances during the period of October 14 and October 31, 1999.

On February 19, 2002 Great Big Sea released another studio album that later received an official platinum status, titled "Sea of No Care".

The album sold more than 100,000 copies only in Canada apart from winning 5 East Coast Music Awards for Album of the Year, Group of the Year, Entertainer of the Year, Video of the Year, and Pop Artist of the Year.

On March 9, 2004 Great Big Sea released their next studio album titled "Something Beautiful". Although the album was distributed by Warner Music Canada, but it was self recorded album by GBS.

A year before the release, Power retired from the band; hence it was band"s first album that didn"t feature Darrell Power. "Something Beautiful" fetched GBS five nomination in East Coast Music Awards for Single of the Year, Video of the Year, Pop Recording of the Year, Group of the year, and Songwriter of the Year.