Category Archives: David

Simple Plan delivered an emotional show in David’s hometown Matane

AUTHOR: Dominika | 14. August 2017 | 2 comments

For the first time in their career, this past Saturday Simple Plan’s schedule finally led them to the city of Matane, QC – the hometown of the band’s bass player David Desrosiers. And even though David has been looking forward to this show for quite some time, due to his continuing struggles with depression, he wasn’t able to attend it (nor will he attend any of the upcoming U.S. and Canadian shows). For that reason, it was all the more important for Simple Plan to perform a fantastic show for the local crowd – to make David proud.

Earlier in the day, Chuck, Pierre, Jeff and Sebastien were invited to Matane’s city hall, where they all signed the city’s guestbook and also thanked the city officials for taking part in the Municipal Employment Plan, which is supported by the Union of the Quebec municipalities and the Simple Plan Foundation. It urges cities to create jobs for young people from youth centers, who would’ve otherwise had difficult times finding an employment.

Check out some of the pictures from SP’s visit to Matane’s city hall in the gallery:

A couple hours later, the four members of Simple Plan got on the stage at the Éole en musique festival in Matane, from where they could see the very diverse crowd that came to hear them play. Whether they were longtime fans from Montreal and its surrounding areas or over-40-year-olds in the back rows – thousands of people of all ages gathered to see Simple Plan play their bassplayer’s hometown. And the spiritual presence of David could be felt throughout the whole evening, as the musicians made quite a number of nods to their missing bass player.

Once again (just like in La Tuque), Pierre introduced Welcome To My Life with a very emotional speech regarding David, where he even noted that he was wearing a rose on his t-shirt that day to remind him of David (‘Desrosiers’ means “from the rose bush”). Below, you can watch Pierre’s speech on camera along with an English translation (big thanks to Janie for it):

“Of course.. we are sad that he can’t be here to share this moment with us tonight. If you follow us on social media, you know a bit of the history. If you don’t know it.. David is going through difficult times and it’s very important to him to reestablish himself and to be in a good health in long term, so he had to miss the show tonight. We’re thinking about him, I have my little rose here for “Desrosiers”. Tonight, because it’s his hometown, and because it’s our first time here, I want you to scream very loud for him. I want you to sing with me because we’re thinking about him. We love him so much and because he’s not here, we’ll make you a promise: we promise that we’ll come back to Matane again – with David. So, sing this next song with me. We dedicate it to David. It’s called Welcome To My Life.”

– Pierre Bouvier –

Check out some pictures from the show in Matane in our gallery:

Pierre dedicated ‘Welcome To My Life’ to David in La Tuque

AUTHOR: Dominika | 11. August 2017 | no comments

Simple Plan kicked off their North American tour last night in La Tuque with a fantastic show at the Jeudis Centre-Ville festival for over 8000 people. The show was the first show in a while that the band performed together and therefore needed quite a long soundcheck to make sure everything sounded just the way it should. Some fans even got to witness the soundcheck, which was about an hour long.

As this show was not a part of the No Pads tour, Simple Plan performed what seems to be one of the variations of the Taking One For The Team tour setlists and even though it was a festival, Simple Plan had 1.5 hours at their disposal to prove themselves to the local crowd, so they opted for the longer setlist – however they did no play the party medley.

David’s absence was of course very visible – the empty microphone stand that was left on David’s usual spot was a dead giveaway that someone was missing tonight. Many fans even came to the show with banners saying “We love you, David”, supporting their favorite band’s bassplayer from afar. Interestingly enough, Chady Awad (who we’ve counted on to play David’s bass just like he did on the European tour) wasn’t present to take over David’s bass for this show, instead we’ve been told the band used a pre-recorded track to keep the show going with some bass tunes. Besides that, Simple Plan’s guitar tech Chris also apparently helped out with some bass sidestage during Grow Up.

Before Welcome To My Life, Pierre took the time to adress the absence of their friend David on stage and decided to dedicate this song to him. You can check out Simple Plan performing a part of Welcome To My Life in La Tuque on the video below:

And finally, check out some of the first pictures of Simple Plan back on stage – last night in La Tuque:

Members of Simple Plan adressed David’s absence on tour at a press conference in La Tuque

AUTHOR: Dominika | 11. August 2017 | no comments

On Thursday night, August 10th, Simple Plan finally returned on tour after 6 weeks of time off at home. The band performed for the first time in La Tuque, QC, Canada at the Jeudis Centre-Ville festival for over 8 000 people.

Before the show officially kicked off at 9pm, Simple Plan took part in a press conference at Jeudis Centre-Ville for the local press and answered some of the journalists’ questions. As only 4 out of 5 members of Simple Plan were present at this event a question about how the band is dealing with their fifth member, David Desrosiers, not being on tour, was on everybody’s mind. Previously, David confirmed that he would not be attending neither the U.S., nor the Canadian part of the tour this August and September, as he battles depression.

Chuck adressed this by saying:

“David is getting better, he’s going through a pretty tough time right now … for David, it’s a bit more tough, but we support him 100 %. What we want is to get back into shape. We think he’s going to be able to, but right now it’s a little too early to come back. At the moment, we do the shows as a four-piece but he remains a member of the band. We talk with him frequently to see how he’s doing and we think he should be able to come back on stage with us as soon as possible.”
“We are friends first and foremost and I think that when you have a friend who is going through more difficult times, the only thing you can do is to support him and give him all the time he needs.”
– Chuck Comeau –

On their social media, besides their official statement, some members of the band also decided to dedicate a post to David, letting the world – and David himself – know how much they miss him on tour, yet how much they support his decision and want him to get better. Check out what Pierre and Chuck wrote below:

“Starting up another tour without David. It’s not the same without you brother but take your time and get well. We got your back, always. Love ya.”
– Pierre Bouvier –
“David – I got your back my friend and I can’t wait to rock with you again!”
– Chuck Comeau –

Check out more images from the backstage and the press conference of Jeudis Centre-Ville in the gallery:

David releases official statement – will NOT appear on upcoming U.S./Canadian tours

AUTHOR: Dominika | 9. August 2017 | 5 comments

It has just been officially confirmed by the band that David Desrosiers will unfortunately not be joining them on the upcoming tours across the USA and Canada (August to September). Back in May, it has been revealed that David has been suffering from depression for quite a while and that this mental illness has forced him not be able to attend certain tours. The last time David performed with Simple Plan was in the USA in April earlier this year.

Read the official statement from David and also from the rest of the band below:

“Hi everybody,

I tried my best, worked very hard and I really believed I could make it. There’s nothing that I wanted more than to be ready for our upcoming US and Canadian tour. Unfortunately, there are some things you just can’t control and I will regretfully have to miss our upcoming August and September shows.

Even if I’m starting to feel better, out of respect for you and my band, I don’t feel I should be on stage if I’m unable to give my best performance. I believe this is a temporary setback and that it’s only a matter of time until I’m able to join the guys and you at the shows and do what I I love the most, once again.

I would like to thank all our fans for their support and positive messages; it means a lot to me and I can’t wait to see you all again.”

– David Desrosiers –

“We are sorry to inform you that even though David is making progress and starting to feel better, he’s still not ready to to go back on tour with us and be a part of our upcoming American and Canadian shows. He wrote a message to explain the situation and you can read it on his Instagram account @davidesrosiers.

Depression is a complex issue and there’s no “quick fix” or “magical solution” to overcome it; it takes time and hard work and David is doing everything in his power to do so. We fully support his decision to stay home and rest longer and have nothing but love and support for our friend and bandmate. We know how bad he wants to be back on stage playing with us, but his health is the number one priority for all of us and we all agreed together that this was the right decision for now.

We would like to thank all of you for the incredible amount of positive messages you sent David; it means a lot to him. We know some of you will be disappointed by the situation, and we apologize. We simply ask for your understanding, kindness and compassion in these difficult times for David.

With David’s blessing, all the August and September shows will go on as planned. We look forward to seeing all of you on tour and to welcoming back David on stage with us as soon as he’s ready.”

– Pierre, Chuck, Jeff and Sebastien –

We hope that all fans will understand and respect David’s decision to stay at home and keep working on his mental health, as I’m sure we all want him to come back stronger and healthier than ever. And we applaud Pierre, Jeff, Seb and Chuck for sticking with their friend and respecting his decision.

As far as who replaces David on tour, if nothing’s changed then Chady should be stepping in for David during some parts of the show in more or less the background of the performance set, just like he did on the South American and European tours.

No Pads special #1: How David made Mark Hoppus destroy a vintage TV set

AUTHOR: Dominika | 15. July 2017 | 5 comments

In 2017, Simple Plan are celebrating 15 years since the release of their debut album No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls with a special 15th anniversary NPNHJB worldwide tour: playing all songs from their first album from top to bottom (and a couple other favorites!). After hitting the U.S. and Europe, in the second half of 2017, Simple Plan will return to the USA and also visit Canada, Japan and more with this special once-in-a-lifetime tour [check out all the dates in our Tour section!]. To get you even more excited about the return of the No Pads tour (starting again in August), SimplePlan.cz prepared an exclusive series of “No Pads special” articles, giving you little possibly never-seen-or-heard-before interesting flashbacks to the No Pads era.

We’re kicking off the #1 No Pads special with this very rarely discussed No Pads era story was initially published in an interview for Idobi Radio back in October 2002. In June of that year, Simple Plan filmed their second music video ever – the now-classic ‘I’d Do Anything’, which features Mark Hoppus from Blink 182, who also laid his vocals on a part of this song. One of the reasons why Hoppus was available for filming was because the videoshoot took place in Cleveland, right in the midst of the Simple Plan, Green Day and Blink 182 ‘Pop Disaster tour’, so it was fairly easy to get him and the members of Simple Plan in one place at one time.

If you recall the scene in ‘I’d Do Anything’ that Mark Hoppus is in, the Blink 182 singer is sitting on a rugged couch in a junkyard filled with various old appliances. The prop coordinator decorated the set with a bunch of those to make the junkyard look genuine. However, before placing a particular antique television set, he apparently specifically urged Simple Plan not to touch it, probably assuming they are young and therefore reckless. And oh boy was he right!

David was aware that Mark did not hear the prop coordinator’s plea in between takes and jokingly dared him to break the TV. And you can probably imagine what happened next:

“He got up and took a big brick and totally smashed the TV. We filmed the prop guy’s reaction. His face totally fell.”

– David Desrosiers –

“He turned white. ‘That TV’s been in my family for decades.’ It was this super old vintage thing worth like $6,000, and we were like, ‘Uh-oh.’”

– Chuck Comeau –

Remind yourselves of the music video for ‘I’d Do Anything’ below: