'FANS WERE BEING MISLED': The Tragically Hip sue Mill Street over 100th Meridian beer
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Tragically Hip fans are being told that while the band’s name and songs have been associated with both wine and cannabis, respectively, the buck stops at beer.
Specifically, Mill Street Brewery’s 100th Meridian Amber Lager.
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The Kingston, Ont., rock group filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court of Canada on Monday against Mill Street Brewery.
In the statement of claim, the Hip allege that the AB InBev-owned Mill Street has been able to “unilaterally and without permission, ride on the coat tails of one of the most beloved bands in Canadian music history by marketing its beer with reference to The Tragically Hip and one of its many quintessentially Canadian chart-topping tracks, At the Hundredth Meridian,” from their 1992 album Fully Completely.
The suit claims the brewing company is misleading the public and that “until August 2020, Mill Street explicitly stated that the ingredients for its 100th Meridian are from Canada’s Great Plains — this is an obvious reference to the well known At the Hundredth Meridian lyrics: ‘At the hundredth meridian, where the Great Plains begin.’”
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The Hip’s lawyer, Paul Banwatt, of Gilbert’s LLP, said Wednesday that so far a statement of defence hasn’t been filed by Mill Street representatives “but that would be the potential next step in the proceeding.”
They generally have 30 days to respond.
“In terms of why the band launched this lawsuit, they felt their fans were being misled,” said Banwatt.
“Ultimately, the band feels that their fans, they, themselves, have been wronged, and that’s what brought us to this point.”
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Daryl Minor, general manager and president of Mill Street, said in a statement: “We are disappointed this step has been taken and are confident that the claim is without merit.”
In their Tales from the Hip newsletter, the band clarifies: “Many of you are probably under the impression that we are associated with Mill Street’s 100th Meridian beer — we are not. It turns out that Mill Street Brewery has used our band name, our albums, and even Gord Downie’s picture on their social media in connection with their 100th Meridian beer.”
In the newsletter, the band maintains they spent months trying to sort the issue out with Mill Street but were unsuccessful: “They didn’t take us seriously and were frankly disrespectful.”
Finally, they say: “We all know At the Hundredth Meridian was Gord Downie’s idea, not Mill Street’s.”
Downie, the Hip’s frontman and lyricist, died from a brain tumour on Oct. 17, 2017.
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