Dave Bidini: 10 books

The strengths of Bidini’s two best-loved books, On a Cold Road and Tropic of Hockey, music and travel to unlikely places, come together in this account of his search for rock ‘n’ roll. When it looks as if the Rheostatics are breaking up after more than twenty years together, Dave Bidini...

Bidini returns to the game he loves best In 2004, Dave Bidini laced on his skates and slid onto the ice of Toronto’s McCormick Arena to play defence with the Morningstars in the E! Cup tourney. While thrashing around the ice, swiping at the puck and his opponents, Bidini got to thinking about...

In the spring of 2002, Dave Bidini set off for Nettuno, Italy, with his wife, Janet, and their two small children, in search of his favourite summer game, baseball. Nettuno was his destination because this town, south of Rome, has been the baseball capital of Italy since 1944, when the game was introduced...

From acclaimed musician and author Dave Bidini comes a brilliantly original look at a folk-rock legend and the momentous week in 1972 that culminated in the Mariposa Folk Festival. July, 1972. As musicians across Canada prepare for the nation's biggest folk festival, held on Toronto Island,...

“An even-handed and stunning portrayal” of the little-known street soccer tournament that brings together the homeless of the world (PopMatters).   In 2008, Dave Bidini accompanies Homeless Team Canada to the Homeless World Cup—an annual street soccer tournament with goals unlike any other:...

On the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series, a personal and poetic journey into the heart of hockey in Canada As summer turned to fall in 1972, Canada was redefining itself and its place in the world. Politically, a spirited election campaign asked probing questions about the nation’s...

David Bidini, rhythm guitarist with the Rheostatics, knows all too well what the life of a rock band in Canada involves: storied arenas one tour and bars wallpapered with photos of forgotten bands the next. Zit-speckled fans begging for a guitar pick and angry drunks chucking twenty-sixers and pint...

One hot afternoon in 1998, Dave Bidini – who loves hockey, watches it, plays it, and breathes it – found the Stanley Cup final so tedious to watch that at one point he clicked channels to Martha Stewart – and never switched back. This made him wonder where in the world the game might exist free...

The Beatles were the greatest rock band of all time. And their influence spread far beyond music, influencing the culture and politics of the sixties in a profound way. In Long and Winding Road, editor Luis Miguel curates the very best writing about the Beatles, from the mysterious death of...

Each of the six stories in Dave Bidini's playful, irreverent new book takes a headlong run at the hockey dressing room, and knocks the door down. In one story, a chronic minor-leaguer discovers the wonders—and the pitfalls—of the game in Europe, both on and off the ice. In another, an NHLer...