The Moffatts

The Moffatts were a Canadian pop/rock band, composed of brothers Scott, Clint, Bob and Dave Moffatt. Scott was born on March 30, 1983 in Whitehorse, Yukon and triplets Bob, Clint and Dave were born in Vancouver, British Columbia on March 8, 1984. Bob and Clint are identical twins while Dave is a fraternal triplet.

The band started out as a country music vocal group during their childhood, and rose to worldwide fame with their first pop album Chapter I: A New Beginning (1998). They released one more album Submodalities in 2000 before breaking up in 2001. The band reunited for an online Christmas show on December 22, 2012 on Stageit.

Musical career

1987–1997: Early years and country albums

Growing up in Tumbler Ridge and later Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, The Moffatts learned singing early in their lives and singing country music with their mother, Darlana and father, Frank Moffatt, first appearing on-stage in 1987. In 1992, after performing at large-scale country music festivals, the group was nominated for five awards by the British Columbia Country Music Association.

In 1992, the Moffatt family moved to Branson, Missouri where they performed at the Osmonds theatre. In March 1993 they moved to Nashville, Tennessee where they became regulars on TNN's Nashville Now with Ralph Emery. In October, they joined the cast of the Country Tonite show at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. In 1994 Country Tonite opened a new theatre in Branson and the Moffatts became a part of that cast. In June 1995 they released their first country album, titled The Moffatts. On July 3, 1995, they appeared on Good Morning America and performed "Guns of Love". In 1996, their parents divorced and they lived primarily with their father, who also managed the group until their 2001 break up.

1998–2000: Chapter I: A New Beginning and Submodalities

In their teens, the group dropped out of the country music genre and recorded a new album, Chapter I: A New Beginning, and began singing pop/rock music. Prior to their teenage years the band would only sparingly perform their own instruments and had a back-up band, but now chose to do it alone with Scott on lead guitar, Clint on bass guitar, Dave on keyboards and Bob on drums. Lead vocals on the album were shared between Scott and Dave, however live they all took their turns. Chapter One sold more than two million copies worldwide and almost went double platinum in their native Canada. Chapter One was also very popular in Europe. It was produced in part by the Berman Brothers (who also worked for Hanson and Real McCoy) in New York City and Toronto. The Ottawa-based radio station Hot 89.9 declared them the best new band of 1998.

One single on the US version of Chapter One, the Glen Ballard-produced "Until You Loved Me", appeared in the Drew Barrymore film, Never Been Kissed. "Misery", on the US version of Chapter I: A New Beginning is on the soundtrack of the movie Teaching Mrs. Tingle starring Katie Holmes. In 1999, the band appeared on the NBC TV show Hang Time in 1999, performing the song "Girl of My Dreams" for the school. In the same year, The Moffatts also did an episode of TV show Campbell Scramble, a show that Calgary's CTV sports newscaster Glenn Campbell made. In 2000, they appeared on the Disney Channel show So Weird in the episode "Destiny". The Moffatts also appeared frequently on The Sally Jessy Raphael Show. During their stay in Köln, Germany, The Moffatts met a young German guitar player German teen idol Gil Ofarim and co-wrote with him what was to be his breakout first single, "If You Only Knew".

The follow-up album Submodalities was released in October 2000, and contained a more classic/harder-edged rock flavor than typical "boy band" fare. The transition between the bubblegum pop of their prior album and the harder edge of the new was captured in the 2001 documentary, The Moffatts: Closing of Chapter One. The Moffatts wrote or co-wrote almost all of the album songs. Bob Rock, who has produced albums for such superstars as Metallica and Bon Jovi, produced Submodalities. The album was also certified platinum by the CRIA for selling over 100,000 copies. The first single, "Bang Bang Boom" at that time was the fastest rising single to No. 1 in Canadian music history and topped the retail singles chart in Canada.

2001–2011: Breakup and post-breakup ventures

On August 25, 2001, the group broke up following their concert in London, Ontario.

After the break-up, Bob and Clint Moffatt briefly joined a group called Pusch and performed at the 2002 Winter Olympics. The band was later renamed Hidell,^[2] and lasted slightly over a year and released one album. In 2004, the Canadian Pacific Railway announced in a press release that Bob and Clint were "reunited" and appeared under the name "The Moffatts" for the railway's Holiday Train^[3] program, a mobile fundraiser for community food banks. In 2005, Scott also joined the tour.

Bob eventually relocated to Ban Phe, Thailand, where he began working on an English singing contest with an educational organization called TEFL International. Bob convinced Clint to join him in Thailand and start a band called Same Same under the Sony BMG Music Entertainment label in 2006. As of 2011, Bob and Clint Moffatt reside in Nashville, Tennessee. They had been writing songs and performing under the name Two Bullet Parade, but later changed their name to Like Strangers. They performed in venues around the Nashville metropolitan area.

Scott Moffatt resurfaced in an Ontario-based band The Boston Post, named after the newspaper. The original lineup included Shawn Everett on drums, Jon Gant on guitar and Neal Gupta on bass. They released an EP titled It's 99PM in 2003. A video interview with Scott Moffatt from the Holiday Train show in Sparwood, BC on December 13, 2005 indicated that he planned to go solo^[4] and was recording in LA. On April 10, 2006, song previews from the upcoming independent release The Allegory of the City were put up on his music page along with the promise of a limited edition version soon being available for pre order. Scott also had been in Thailand producing a rock band called Slot Machine.

Dave Moffatt eventually relocated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, at first with aspirations of attending the University of Winnipeg and then deciding to launch an acting and modeling career. Dave appeared in a 2005 Winnipeg production of Miss Saigon and was a contestant on Canadian Idol, making it into the top 32 before being eliminated.

2012: Reunion

Beginning November 2012, The Moffatts was featured in LG's online campaign, "Life's Good". The campaign features their song "Bang Bang Boom" with altered composition and lyrics.^[5]

The Moffatts reunited for the first time in over ten years for an online Christmas show on Stageit on December 22, 2012.^[1] The set list included Christmas carols and songs picked by fans from the entire Moffatts' catalog, including solo records and Like Strangers/Same Same's catalog.

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