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The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song 23 — Janet from the Isle of ManHey, it’s jD — and if you’ve ever wondered just how far Hip fandom reaches, allow me to introduce you to Janet from the Isle of Man. That’s right — this week, we go international, with a guest who’s been flying the flag from across the Atlantic for almost 30 years.Janet’s Hip origin story starts in 1995, with a vacation to North Bay and a friend who insisted she check out this “band I think you’ll love.” Three songs later — Blow at High Dough, Cordelia, and Locked in the Trunk of a Car — and the bricks were laid. By the time she flew home, she had every record the band had released to date in her bag. Customs probably should’ve stopped her to declare emotional contraband.We talk about her journey from intrigued tourist to Hip evangelist, the tattoo she proudly sports on her shoulder (Gord, of course), and the way her Canadian music playlist ballooned to over a thousand songs — all sparked by that first hit. We get into concerts in London, pilgrimages to Kingston, unexpected Hip sightings abroad, and a “fan of the year” moment that might just bring a tear to your eye.Janet doesn’t just like The Tragically Hip — she’s internalized them. The music, the mythos, the vibe. From Phantom Power to Something On, from Horseshoe Tavern visits to online Hip forums, she’s built a fandom life that’s fiercely loyal, globally rooted, and very, very real.🎙️ Next week: We stay on this side of the Atlantic but head deep into cottage country with Sherry from Midland — a day-one Hip fan with stories from Wasaga Beach, a backstage yell from Gord, and a connection to the music that’ll leave you misty-eyed.💬 Pull Quote“The Hip were my gateway band. Once I heard them, it was over. Canadian music became my obsession — and it started with them.”👤 About Our GuestJanet from the Isle of Man is a longtime Hiphead, tattooed tribute artist (her right shoulder’s got the goods), and international superfan. She’s seen the band in London, walked the pilgrimage through Kingston, and been celebrated by the Hip Fan Forum as Overseas Fan of the Year.Online, you might know her as HipFanJan — a fixture on Reddit and X, spreading the gospel of The Hip with a cheeky grin and zero chill.🧾 Support the ShowLove what you’re hearing? Want to help keep it rolling while also supporting ALS Canada?Drop a few bucks at buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40.Every donation helps keep this lo-fi passion project alive — and keeps the countdown ticking. 🧡📬 Get Involved🎙️ Send a voice memo at castfeedback.com/tthtop40📧 Share your Hipstory via email: tthtop40@gmail.com📡 Follow + StreamSpotify | Apple | YouTube | dewvre.com/tthtop40Instagram: @tthtop40Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/tthtop40Transcript follows below.TTHTop40 6182025-05-24, 9:01 AMTTHTop40 618Transcript[0:02] Hey, it's JD here, and you're probably tired of podcasts asking you for money. I get it, so I'mnot going to ask. I am, however, going to strongly suggest, with love, that you give me money. Thisisn't about exclusive perks or gated content, though those exist. It's about supporting somethingyou believe in. If you've been enjoying the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown, If it's made you laugh,think, feel something, or reconnect with a band that means the world to you, this is your chance togive back. I make this show because I love the hip, I love this community, and I believe in tellingstories that matter. But it all takes time, energy, and of course, your support. By joining themembership, you're not just helping to keep the show running, you're also helping to raise moneyfor the ALS Society of Canada. No minimum, no catch, no problem. BuyMeACoffee.com forwardslash TTH Top 40. Membership. Support the show. Support the cause. Support what you love.[1:12] A member of the DATC media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. Ihave been going on and on and on and on and on about Lake Fever since the first podcast. I lovethis fucking song. Colin from Winnipeg. What did you think the first time you heard the song LakeFever? I wish I could remember hearing the song itself for the first time. Because, I mean, this wasstill definitely the era where first day an album comes out, I'm picking it up and I'm listening to it onrepeat over and over and over again. But, I mean, a lot of those memories are kind of lost. I thinkthis is one of these songs that has grown on me more and more, and I might say more than anyother hip song that they've ever written. It's the one that grows on me more and more every yearthat passes.[2:08] Hey, it's JD here, and welcome to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is my pleasure tobe with you here week over week counting down the 40 essential songs by the hip that youselected with your very own top 20 ballads. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and threeof the Hellens from the Kids in the Hall sketch. How will your favorite song fare in the rankings?You'll need to tune in every week to find out. So there's that. This week I'm joined by the tragicallyhip superfan Janet from the Isle of Man. How the hell are you doing on this hiptastic day, Janetfrom the Isle of Man? And then right after you tell me that, tell me about where you're from becauseI know nothing about the Isle of Man. Okay. Thank you very much. The Isle of Man is part of Greatfile:///Users/jd/Desktop/TTHTop40%20-%20618.htmlPage 1 of 11TTHTop40 6182025-05-24, 9:01 AMBritain, but not actually part of the United Kingdom. If you think about a map of the UK, an island,we are between Ireland and the northwest of England.[3:15] So we have our own government, we have our own language, we're Gaelic, we're Vikings,we're Celts. We have world-famous motorcycle races, Aledmantiti races, where you can stand andwatch motorbikes go around closed roads at 200 miles an hour and more. Yeah, exactly. They're allmad. And sidecars as well, with guys hanging off the back. So that's, and cats with no tails,basically, that's what we're famous for.[3:49] Yeah. What is the population? About 80,000. Oh, okay. It's small. We're about 15 minutesflight by fast plane to Liverpool and to Belfast on the other side. Okay. Yeah. Dynamite. Well, you'vegiven us a geography lesson today and a history lesson as well. So that's really cool. Are you readyto give us another history lesson? I certainly am. And talk about your Tragically Hip origin story?Oh, yes. Well, take it away, Jennifer. Thank you.[4:24] Next year, come autumn next year, I will have been a fan of the Tragically Hip for 30 years. Ivisited Ontario, North Bay to be specific, in 1995. Before I went, a friend of mine from Vancouver Iskeeping a lookout for this band The Tragically Hip I think you really like them So after a couple ofdays I said come on then, play me some of this band So I can't remember which order now But myfirst three songs were Blow, Cordelia, Unlocked So could you get a better intro to The Hip? No, Idon't think you could That's pretty good It was just, oh my God, it was like being hit with a brick. Itwas like, who are this band? Where are they? Why haven't I heard of them before? So that startedme off on the massive rabbit hole I've been on for the last 30 years. So within 24 hours, I hadeverything they've released up to date, first album, up to here, wrote Apples fully. And then I thinkDay for Night had been out for a few months. I had that too. Took them all back and then I made itmy business to get everything else they released. Friend in Vancouver sent me Phantom Powerand I've just loved them every single day since.[5:51] I have got a few people into them over the years. Awesome. Yeah, and there's a couple ofother guys on the fan forum group, one who's been a fan for longer than I have, and one's anewbie, and the newbie's working his way through really slowly, and I want him to just like, no, no,no, listen to it all now. But he's working his way through really slowly, but he loves them too. And,yeah, they're just the best band for me that I've ever heard. I don't listen i i've always been a rockfan um you know and i love stereophonics and you obviously know about the connection betweenthem and the hit yes but maybe our audience doesn't maybe our audience doesn't know share thatwell they were they're just super fans um and they i think they were going to call themselves afterone of the song titles or something i can't remember exactly but they're just massive fans and whenfile:///Users/jd/Desktop/TTHTop40%20-%20618.htmlPage 2 of 11TTHTop40 6182025-05-24, 9:01 AMi went to see them and they played um at transformation before they came on stage more excitedabout that than anything else me.[6:55] They can't listen it's the hip it's the hip and then of course um kelly jones went on stage withthem i think one of the gigs in london i think they did um oh god what did they do wasn't long timerunning it was oh god i can't remember now but yeah and then when stereophonics played last inCanada. I think Johnny Fay went on stage with them. Yes. He did. Yeah. So there's thatconnection. And then Kelly Jones, I just read an interview after God passed away. He wanted togive it all up and yeah, it really affected him and quite a lot of us here.[7:35] Really, but I will just love them forever. When I meet someone last TT week, which is a biginternational event, really, somebody went past me, I have a hip shirt on, tragically hip, great band.So I thought, shall I stalk him? I thought, no, I won't. Oh, that's so neat when you see that, whenyou're somewhere abroad and you see, or you're at home in this case, and you see something likethat. That is, it's almost like a beacon, isn't it? Yeah. And then, so when in 2019, went back toOntario for a couple of nights in Toronto. So I went to the Shoe, just wandered around, being justamazed by everything. So we went to the Horseshoe Tavern. Then we had a couple of nights inKingston. So we went to the sites. We went to the Toucan, where the landlord took a photograph ofmy tattoo and sent it to Paul Langlar, which is the closest I'll ever go to ever meeting any of them.But I was really chuffed to bits by that. I've got a tattoo of Gord on my shoulder. It's the shirt with theword hip and him in the middle is the eye.[8:50] So I've got a small version of that tattooed on my right shoulder. Something will always be onmy shoulder. oh that's so nice and then of course after the visit to Ontario went sort of KingstonOttawa went up to Huntsville went to see Tom Thompson had to do that and it was just brilliant Istarted listening to Q107 Toronto and one of the Kingston stations online at work and heard a songby a guy called Matthew Goode, so I went down that rabbit hole. Then I heard his cover of BlownWide Open, so I thought, who's this? Love this. Went down that rabbit hole. So I'm just doomed,basically. I'm just totally and utterly doomed to only be really, really into bands that everyone elsehas heard of. This is why this is so fabulous.[9:42] Yeah, I agree. It's been really cool connecting with people throughout various parts of theworld. It's pretty neat. A pretty cool experience. I have everything. I have all the Gord Downysideprojects, the Sadies, I've got all of that. I just love it. Because I've been in the UK and I only cameacross them in 1995, I've missed out on knowing about all the unreleased stuff. Apart fromobviously listening to your Fully Completely podcast, which I did every episode, that was great forsomebody like me. I found out so much. I found out as a I did Google, but I did find out on yourfile:///Users/jd/Desktop/TTHTop40%20-%20618.htmlPage 3 of 11TTHTop40 6182025-05-24, 9:01 AMpodcast who Bill Berilco was. Yeah. You know, everything. And so, of course, now when I listen, itmakes a lot more sense when you know who the people are.[10:37] Yeah, I suppose it would. Yeah, I suppose it would. So, yeah, that was just amazing. And itjust led me to, as I say, this enormous rabbit hole where I just, I listened to maybe a couple ofBritish bands and my Canadian music playlist, a thousand songs long. Isn't that cool that it startedwith the hip, you know, and the hip are your sort of conduit. They're my gateway band. Yeah, intoyour Canadian fixation, your Canadian music fixation. But they're just so unique, and I just struggleeven to sort of get it across to people. I said, don't listen to me, listen to them.[11:19] Oh, that's a great way to put it. Yeah, don't listen to me, listen to them. Listen to Fight,because that is one, for me, one of God's strongest vocal performances. I love that. Okay, yeah.And go back, listen to Crack My Spine, because that is just such a great song. And so when thatwas released, I think when they re-released Road Apples, that was like, I'd never heard that before.I think I'd heard it on the Misty Moon video. Yeah. oh right right yeah right yeah so all the the lateststuff that's been that's come out as unreleased tracks it's just fantastic for me because i knewnothing about them isn't it cool to just hear like a time in a place but it's still brand new you knowwhat i mean like like it's like holy shit gorge singing like he did on road apples well that's because itis road apples you idiot you know yeah and then the last gig in kingston i stayed it was just it wasjust so brilliant to have it produced worldwide so i stayed up till i don't know five o'clock in themorning watching that very bittersweet how did you watch it did you stream it or youtube yeah i justhad it on youtube on my fire tv stick dongley thing um it was great i had speakers wired up so i justsat.[12:41] Ugly crying all night but it was had to be done yeah, Have you had a chance to watch thedocu-series? I'm saving it until I've started to watch it. I thought, oh, my God, if I don't stop now, I'mjust going to sit here for hours. So I'm rationing it. I've watched it. Oh, there's a gourd later for you.I'm rationing that because it's just going to have so much stuff in it, and I just know it's going tobreak my heart watching it. Oh, god damn. Totally. I'm almost dreading it in that way because I justknow it is. But I'm looking forward to all the old footage cleaned up. It doesn't really start getting sadsad until midway through the second episode, to me. And then the third one is like shocking, andthen the fourth one is sad. That's how I would put it.[13:34] I'm like, we've watched the beginning. I thought that was so great at the very beginning. Andthen you just know what's coming, don't you? So it sort of colors your whole view of it. But it's,yeah, I'm dying to watch it. It's just so fantastic that they've kept everything going and that there'sall this stuff coming out. And when we went to Kingston, it was just great. Went to the town square,file:///Users/jd/Desktop/TTHTop40%20-%20618.htmlPage 4 of 11TTHTop40 6182025-05-24, 9:01 AMwent and saw the stone. I've got a key ring of that with everyone was in it from miles around. Youknow, if I can make a quick sidebar, they need to make that bigger and better, that stone. It'sdifficult to see, yeah. It is, that's what I mean. It's very difficult to see, and they're far too importantto have to squint at. Yeah, and it needs to be maybe reflective. So when you walk past at night, youcan see it, just the writing or something. Yeah. Yeah, but being in Kingston was just awesome. Oh,yeah, it's a great city. For me, anyway…
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