“We’re not flower children and we’re not yuppies. We’re somewhere in between – the Van Der Graaf Generation”: They had links to Jethro Tull, Voivod and The Cure. Did you really think Men Without Hats were all new wave and no prog?

Still from Men Without Hats video for The Safety Dance — (Image credit: YouTube)

Men Without Hats are best known as the Canadian new wave band who released global hit single The Safety Dance in 1983. But, originally in 2012, we argued they were actually a secret prog outfit – and they’d have become less secret if fate hadn’t intervened.

Most people will remember Men Without Hats for their 1983 synthpop hit The Safety Dance. But before you go dismissing the Canadian band – singer Ivan Doroschuk and his brothers Stefan and Colin, all classically-trained musicians – as a mere pop outfit, let’s consider a few things.

First up there was the video for The Safety Dance. Shot by eccentric British film director Tim Pope (a man who recorded a song called I Want To Be A Tree with The Cure as his backing band) in the village of West Kingston in Bath, it was full of bizarre folk revival imagery, Morris men, maypoles, a jester, Punch and Judy, and Ivan dancing around in a leather jerkin with a mullet. How prog does that sound?

And given the propensity of keyboards in the 80s, it’s little wonder that, behind the floppy fringes, there lurked a love of old-school prog. All the evidence you need appears on fifth album Sideways, released in 1991.

One only has to look at some of the people involved to see where Men Without Hats were heading. Next to Michel ‘Away’ Langevin from Canadian prog metallers Voivod and Doughboys guitarist John Kastner, the record was mixed by Tom Soares of 24-7 Spyz and NY hardcore band Cro-Mags. The results were always going to be interesting.

Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance (Official HD Video) - YouTube

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Men Without Hats had previously sealed their prog credentials when Ian Anderson guested on 1987 album Pop Goes The World, playing flute on the track On Tuesday.

“All he asked for was a six-pack of Grolsch beer and a Silver Shadow limousine to pick him up at the train station,” Doroschuk recalled.

“I was really nervous to meet him because I grew up on Jethro Tull. He came in and it was like one take. He was great – it was just an awesome experience.”

Melding a synth-heavy sound with guitar layering, Sideways leant largely towards The Beatles. It contained a guitar-heavy take on I Am The Walrus, while Kenbarbielove was a play on Langevin mistaking the title of Can’t Buy Me Love when he first heard it on the radio.

On Tuesday - YouTube

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Then there were instrumentals like Life At Diamond Head and The Van Der Graaf Generation Blues. Doroschuk’s explanation of the latter track: “We’re not the flower children and we’re not the yuppies, we’re somewhere in between – The Van Der Graaf Generation!”

Alas, after preceding album The Adventures Of Men And Women Without Hate In The 21st Century failed to chart, Sideways was spurned by US labels, receiving scant interest outside Canada.

The group disbanded shortly after (they’d reform in 2003 and released ninth album On The Moon in 2025), leaving an unreleased concept album that would have gone by the title UFOs Are Real.

Isn’t that an album you’d love to have heard?

The Van Der Graaf Generation Blues - YouTube

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Artists

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.

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