BC Entertainment Hall of Fame Announces Two of the 2023 Inductees & StarWalk Ceremonies

The BC Entertainment Hall of Fame (BCEHOF) announced two new StarWalk inductees from the world of music: Loverboy, and Rocket Norton. They will join the 300+ previous inductees who have been recognized for their significant contribution to the province’s entertainment industry and cultural landscape.

Each will be celebrated with a star presentation this month. Fans and media are invited to attend each of the presentations which will take place along the 800 block of Granville Street on between the Orpheum and the Commodore.

Induction Ceremonies

●      June 15, 2023 at 2:00pm - Loverboy

○      Media are invited to attend a celebration after the star presentation, happening at The Ox (800 Granville St)

●      June 22, 2023 - Rocket Norton

●      One more to come at the end of the month, stay tuned!

"These inductees are especially exciting because they represent the swagger that BC entertainment deserves given our massive impact on the international stage,” says BCEHOF President Bill Allman. “It's definitely a series of rock and roll inductions with millions of album sales around the world!"

For more information and exact times for each induction ceremony, visit our website, BCEntertainmentHallOfFame.com for news and updates.

Loverboy

Loverboy is based in Vancouver and was driven to the top by the management of Lou Blair and Hall of Fame inductee Bruce Allen, Loverboy defines the sound of the 1980s with singles, albums, and film soundtracks. According to Mike Reno the name came from a dream by guitarist Paul Dean that he had after his bandmates and their girlfriends were browsing through fashion magazines where Cover Girl became Cover Boy which morphed into Loverboy and the name stuck! 

Originally rejected by all the major record labels in the United States, the band signed with Columbia Records of Canada, and on March 20, 1980, Loverboy went into the studio with producer Bruce Fairbairn and engineer Bob Rock to record what would be its self-titled debut album.

Over that summer, the record became a huge hit with eventually over one million records sold in Canada alone. The album made its American debut in November 1980, and would go on to sell over two million copies in the US. The band went on a touring spree that year putting on over 200 shows with bands such as Cheap Trick, ZZ Top, Kansas, and Def Leppard. Their debut single, "Turn Me Loose", went on to hit No. 7 on the Canadian charts and No. 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1981. "The Kid Is Hot Tonite" was also a single.

The band's follow-up album, Get Lucky, released in October 1981 when it was opening for Journey, included the hit tracks "Working for the Weekend", "When It's Over" and "Lucky Ones". It became the group’s best selling album in the U.S., reaching No. 7 on the Billboard album chart and selling over four million copies. In the same year Loverboy received six Juno Awards (Canada's highest award for music) in one year, a record that still stands today Loverboy’s third album, Keep It Up in 1983 indeed kept it up. The record’s first single "Hot Girls in Love" became their most successful to that date, reaching No. 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The video for the song as well as for the follow-up single "Queen of the Broken Hearts" were hugely popular on MTV. Selling records and breaking records is just a way of life for a band that continues to tour and delight audiences to this day.

Rocket Norton

Rocket Norton became a drummer in his early teens and formed his first band, the legendary SEEDS OF TIME in 1965 at Sir Winston Churchill high school. Since then, Rocket has been a BC entertainment fixture. With two national hit records, the SEEDS OF TIME had a huge impact on Vancouver’s burgeoning music industry and are commemorated in the sixties exhibit at the Vancouver Museum.

In 1977, Rocket joined the rock band, PRISM. Selling over 2 million records while touring the US and Canada, the band charted 16 hit singles, garnered two Juno Awards, and enjoyed “Prism Day” in Vancouver. Rocket became music director for CKVU-TV’s famed “Vancouver Show”, played a key role in entertainment for Expo 86, and managed the Vogue Theatre before forming ROCKET NORTON THEATRICALS, promoting a variety of international acts across BC. The list of Hall of Fame inductees with whom Rocket has worked reads like a list of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame inductees. Once managed by Bruce Allen, Rocket has produced and presented legends like Red Robinson, Michael J. Fox, and Denzal Sinclair among many, many more.

His autobiography, “Rocket Norton: Lost in Space” is still selling across Canada and Rocket now plays and records with “The Authentics”, a band composed of colleagues from Prism, Chilliwack, and the Headpins.

In 2022, Rocket reacted to a terminal cancer diagnosis by spearheading a star-studded concert called F*** Cancer and raising over $320,000.00 for the BC Cancer Foundation. He is currently organizing F*** Cancer II for this October and aiming for more stars and a bigger donation total. Artist, producer, writer, and fighter, Rocket Norton’s career symbolizes success and perseverance in BC entertainment.

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