The Apollo Effect

We’re tremendously excited to announce new team of judges, Toronto’s own The Apollo Effect.

Formed in Toronto in 2005, The Apollo Effect is one of Canada’s most
electrifying new bands. In the vein of The Killers and The Bravery, their stadium-like anthems and high energy live shows are garnering international acclaim.

Musically crossing all borders, their modern rock retro edge sound borrows cleverly from such artists as Cheap Trick, Duran Duran and Oasis fusing new wave, modern rock and Brit pop.

In September 2007, The Apollo Effect defeated over 400 other acts from across Canada to win The Great Canadian Band Challenge; and their much talked about showcase performance at this year’s East Coast Music Awards has ignited a buzz for this U.K. influenced band.

The Apollo Effect, having performed special events with their peers- such as acts  Our Lady Peace, Finger Eleven, The Trews and The Arkells- have also supported and  donated their talents to special events for War Child, The Canadian Cancer Society and SickKids Foundation.

Their first full-length CD titled Antisocial Disorder was just released via Fontana North/Universal. Recorded in Canada and produced with some help from Canada’s pioneering new wave leader Gord Deppe of The Spoons as well as Canadian Idol Music Director and one of Canada’s hottest Producers Mike Borkosky (Ill Scarlet, The Reason, Low Level Flight) who was responsible for some production and mixing.

See all of our judges on our Judges page.

Meet Ajay Fry.  One of our awesome judges for Rock4TheKids.

Although born in Toronto, Ajay Fry attributes his bizarre and creative sense of humour to growing up in Ottawa. Fry cut his acting teeth at an early age, landing roles on YTV’s Lassie, Are You Afraid of the Dark, and Big Wolf On Campus, as well as regular voiceover stints on cartoons such as Arthur, Little Lulu, and Caillou.

A few weeks before his 17th birthday, Fry
began doing improvisational comedy at The
iNSTiTUTiON in Ottawa under owner and
Second City alumnus Ken Godmere. One year later he travelled to Beijing, China where he voiced for a series of educational videos which were distributed across the country.

At the age of 20, Fry returned to Toronto to study at the Humber College Comedy program, where he became a nominee for the prestigious Phil Hartman Award.

After completing the conservator improvisational training program at The Second City Toronto, Fry became the host of the Saturday morning block of programming on YTV known as CRUNCH and delighted audiences there for two years.

In July 2008, Fry followed his love of the Sci Fi genre and joined SPACE as host of the flagship show, The Circuit.

See all of our judges on our Judges page

Introducing our third judge, Joey DeVilla – Microsoft Developer Evangelist, aka “The Accordion Guy”!

When this “computers and the internet” fad finally blows over, Joey DeVilla has a fallback career as a rock and roll accordionist. In the meantime, he’s a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft where he combines his love for noodling with technology and schmoozing people with accordion versions of popular tunes by AC/DC, Britney Spears and Nine Inch Nails. He can often be seen at gatherings where technology and community intersect, such as Toronto’s DemoCamp, Coffee and Code and HackLabTO gatherings. He has the dubious honour of being the accordion player with the second most live appearances on MuchMusic (Weird Al remains the first).

See all of our judges on our Judges page.

Introducing our second judge, Toronto actress Tara Hall!

Tara Hall is a Toronto based host, actor and broadcaster who has been involved and volunteered at more than 150 charitable
events across Canada. Over the past 3 years Tara has broadened her career into broadcast production and is currently employed with Bensimon Byrne, one of Canada’s leading advertising agencies. For more see www.tarahallonline.com

See all of our judges on our Judges page.

We’re proud to announce that the host for our April 7th extravaganza will be CMT star and all around music industry celebrity Paul McGuire!

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Paul McGuire was raised in Thornhill and attended York University.

After leaving school, Paul, a self-confessed “pop-culture junkie”, decided to put all those hours spent in movie theatres and in front of the television set to good use, and pursue a career in the entertainment industry.

A few commercials and small TV roles paved the way for a hosting gig on YTV’s game show, Clips, which started a six-year relationship with Canada’s number one children’s broadcaster where Paul hosted and produced numerous shows including The Breakfast Zone and The Zone and travelled across the country hosting YTV’s live events.

Paul has also worked as host and producer of the successful national entertainment magazine show, eNow. When eNow evolved into etalk, Paul helped adapt the new show and ran the show’s day-to-day operation for the first year and was the show’s main film reporter, travelling weekly to Los Angeles and New York to interview Hollywood’s biggest and brightest.

Paul eventually made the move over to his current home at CMT, where he has hosted Central, CMT30, Karaoke Star, and CMT’s Greatest. As the host of CMT’s One-On-On, Paul has interviewed the biggest names in country music, including Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Trace Adkins and Reba McEntire.

Paul currently hosts CMT Weekend, CMT Minute & Karaoke Star Jr, and is the morning man on the radio station The New Country 95.3.

Come out April 7th to rock with Paul for this great cause!

One of the first questions we had when we announced the event was “I want to play, but I don’t think I can put together a whole band. Can I get matched up with some other players?”

I’ve added that very question to the FAQ, but to address the situation, we’ve created a bulletin board. On the board you can leave us comments, AND you can post want ads looking for a band or band members. You can find it here or by clicking Community in the nav bar.

Follow us at https://twitter.com/rock4thekids