Damian Abraham spins at Young Lions
Bobby Kimberley thinks Toronto gets a bad rap as a cold city. To dispel this myth, the 29-year-old has spent the last year and a half throwing events to connect like-minded music fans.
Next Friday, he's heating things up by inviting 500 people to spend the night on a boat with the Smiths' Andy Rourke, as he DJs a cruise along Lake Ontario.
Events like this are how Mr. Kimberley makes his living. The Young Lions Music Club, which he founded in 2011, is a music marketing agency that also functions as a free, anyone-can-join fan club with more than 650 members. It's meant to replicate classic fan clubs – the old-school communities that existed before the Internet – and put its members in the same physical space.
Since 2011, he's had local musicians – members of Broken Social Scene, Fucked Up and Rural Alberta Advantage to name a few – DJ their own "soundtrack to a Friday night" through monthly events at local clubs. But the novelty is wearing off, so he says he's quitting while he's ahead.
That doesn't temper his excitement for Friday night though. "It fell together spectacularly," he says. "The stars aligned."
Josh O’Kane