Don’t call it a comeback.
WE’VE BEEN HERE FOR YEARS.
The Sunnyside Uppers are a Canadian fraternal organization founded in 1934, to promote positive attitudes and healthy living during the Great Depression.
Ubiquitous in high schools of the '50s and '60s, they often held spontaneous outdoor gatherings - the original flash mobs. In the '70s, following the success of Up With People in the US, visionary CFL commissioner Jake Gaudaur booked the Uppers to perform at several Grey Cup halftime shows; while they didn't achieve the widespread recognition of their American counterparts, they also escaped the vitriol that soon followed.
But that was the "me decade"; in the '80s as society became obsessed with growth, greed and the new, the Uppers were seen as outdated and irrelevant; a quaint relic. Their message of community engagement and ambiguous spirituality were no longer in demand. Their work moved to the margins of society. Their community halls were used for food banks, AA meetings and incidentally, music venues for the burgeoning hardcore scene.
The organization has been unable to recruit since 1982, following a protracted legal battle over the brand, assets and “suspicious activities”. Fortunately, a loophole had been built into their charter: the Uppers are owned by the founding members and their direct descendents, in perpetuity. But the younger generation had little interest in their parents’ “glee-club-cult”.
Things might have continued that way forever, had fate not intervened. Despite a general skepticism about the internet (its effects on the music business and society at large), the 2020 pandemic presented the Uppers with a new challenge: how do you connect with your community if you can’t visit people’s homes, let alone organize concerts?
One answer: