Ronald Harry "Skip" Prokop (December 13, 1943 – August 30, 2017) was a Canadian drummer, guitarist and keyboardist. He was also a band leader, was a founding member of the Canadian rock music groups the Paupers and Lighthouse.Four time Juno Award winner, Skip has written eleven North American and international “top 40” hits.
Prokop was born in Hamilton, Ontario. He attended G.L. Armstrong elementary and Hill Park secondary schools. He was active in the Navy League and Sea Cadets, and at age 17 performed in a drum corps which won the Canadian National Individual Drumming Competition. His leadership qualities won him an offer of scholarship to the Royal British Naval Academy, which he turned down to pursue his love of music.
Prokop moved to Toronto where he graduated from Lakeshore Business College and took a position with the Metropolitan Toronto Police force in the Identification Bureau. He organized a band called the Spats, later called the Paupers, who began playing in Yorkville coffee houses, and later supported such acts as Jefferson Airplane, MC5 and Cream. They performed in New York and at the U.S. Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. The Paupers were managed by Albert Grossman. He introduced Prokop to Al Kooper. Grossman asked him to leave The Paupers to play drums with Kooper and Mike Bloomfield for a follow-up recording to Super Session. The result was The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, a live late-1960s blues-rock album.
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Prokop played on a number of sessions, including one with Janis Joplin at RKO Studios following her parting with Big Brother & The Holding Company. This came about because Grossman had asked him to put a new band together for Joplin. He also did sessions with Carlos Santana and Peter, Paul & Mary and other musical artists. In 1969, Prokop co-founded the rock group Lighthouse with Paul Hoffert. It was the world’s first 13 piece rock orchestra and went on to achieve international success as Canada’s leading rock group. Lighthouse was the first group in Canada to be sponsored by a large corporation (Labatt’s Breweries”) on a national level. The band played its first Toronto concert in May 1969 and was active until 1975; they won several Juno Awards. Elton John’s first U.S. appearance was opening for Lighthouse in Philadelphia.
Skip was personally selected by Prime Minister Pierre Elliont Trudeau to Address Parliament at the Parliamentary Inquiry into Canadian Music. He was the first rock musician in Canadian history to address parliament. He spoke about what it was like to be a Canadian musician/recording artist during a time when Canadian radio stations would not play or recognize Canadian Recording Artists. This inquiry resulted in the formation of the Canadian Radio and Television Commission.
Prokop wrote the song "I'd Be So Happy", which was recorded by Three Dog Night in 1974, featured on their studio album Hard Labor, and included on their greatest hits compilation, Joy to the World: Their Greatest Hits later that year. Lighthouse held a reunion concert at Ontario Place in Toronto in 1982. In the mid 1980s Prokop worked for Roland Canada (Musical Instruments), in Mississauga, Ontario, as a product specialist. He participated in several promotional tours with his own Skip Prokop Band while presenting products made by Roland.
Prokop also drummed in a London, Ontario rock/funk/Christian band called Mercy Train, and worked on smooth jazz album with IAM Studios in Brantford, Ontario, released in 2012 titled The Smooth Side Of Skip Prokop. During the years in which Lighthouse was inactive, Prokop turned towards radio for his career. He was host of CFNY-FM's Rock and a Hard Place program in the Toronto broadcast market. In the early 2000s, he worked for Astral Media radio stations CJBX/CIQM/CJBK in advertising sales.
Skip was also featured as a keynote speaker on many occasions over the years at both music events and also highschools and colleges. He successfully lectured about composing, arranging, and producing. As of 2010, he lived in Aylmer, Ontario. Prokop, Hoffert and Cole relaunched Lighthouse in 1992 as a 10-member unit and despite several lineup changes, the band continued to perform the old hits through the '90s and into the new millennium. They appeared on The Moody Blues’ Cruise Ship event in 2014.
Prokop, who was a heavy smoker and drinker, had a lengthy history of heart problems, suffered a heart attack in 2013 and underwent bypass surgery the following year. He continued anchoring Lighthouse until 2015 when he was replaced on drums by his son Jamie Prokop. Skip Prokop died on August 30, 2017,from heart complications. He was 73.
(Edited
from Wikipedia, Skipprokop.com, Hammilton Spectator & Billboard)