Episode Details

The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song Thirty – Matt from Portsmouth

Hey, it’s jD — and this week we’re crossing the Atlantic for a pint and a playlist with Matt from Portsmouth, an accidental Hiphead turned full-blown evangelist for the cause. LimeWire started it (as it did for many chaotic musical awakenings), but a bootleg MP3 of New Orleans Is Sinking and a mini-disc later, Matt was hooked. His wife? Obsessed.

Their journey took them to London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2006, where Don’t Wake Daddy opened the show — and kicked off a lifelong connection. The gig, the crowd, the Canadians with recording gear… it was magic. A year later, Matt was helping organize Hip pilgrimages across the UK. A few years after that? He was interviewing Gord fucking Downiehimself.

That’s right — in 2013, backstage at the band’s final UK show at Coco, Matt found himself face-to-face (and recorder-to-recorder) with the man, the myth, the frontman. What followed was a half-hour chat about setlists, B-sides, and why Rob Baker’s “blocks of three” theory might be the secret sauce to the Hip’s live mystique.

We talk about nostalgia, transatlantic fandom, and In Violet Light as a white whale. We even tack on the original interview at the end of the episode — so stay tuned for that sonic time capsule. (And yes, we do talk about The Darkest One… eventually.)

🎙️ Next week: We plug in with Dan from Ottawa, frontman of Little Bones and one of the most seasoned Hip tribute performers out there. From cover gigs to real-life Gord encounters, he’s been carrying the torch since the mid-’90s.

💬 Pull Quote

“I thought I was interviewing Johnny Fay. The day before, they told me it’d be Gord. I walked in and saw Bob Rock, just casually chatting, and realized — holy shit, this is gonna be something.”

👤 About Our Guest

Matt from Portsmouth is a UK-based journalist, lifelong music nerd, and founding member of the British Hip diaspora. He’s seen the band five times, reviewed shows for underground zines, and used to sneak Gord Downie quotes into gig reviews just to see who’d notice.

He’s also a longtime member of The Hipbase — the OG fan vault that helped international listeners connect before streaming made things easy. If you need a gig setlist from 1998? Matt probably has it printed out in a binder somewhere. Respect.

📬 Get Involved

🎙️ Leave us a voicemail: castfeedback.com/tthtop40

📧 Send us your Hipstory: tthtop40@gmail.com

💸 Kick in a few bucks: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

All donations go to ALS Canada and get you into the membersHIP.

📡 Follow + Stream

Spotify | Apple | YouTube | dewvre.com/tthtop40

Instagram: @tthtop40

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/tthtop40

🧠 Support the Cause

This countdown ain’t just for fun — we’re on a mission to raise $25K for the ALS Society of Canada in memory of our friend Matt Rona. Join the effort. Tell your friends. Buy us a coffee. We’re all in this together.

🎧 Transcript follows below.

The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown

2025-05-24, 8:51 AM

The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown

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