TORONTO – Kevan Staples, co-founder of the groundbreaking avant-garde Toronto rock band Rough Trade, has died.
His bandmate Carole Pope and two friends confirmed Staples died on Sunday. His age and cause of death were not immediately available.
Staples co-wrote Rough Trade’s songs, including their sexually charged 1980 breakout “High School Confidential,” which appeared on their second album “Avoid Freud.”
The tale of unrequited lesbian lust caused a stir at the time when some radio stations called for an edited version without the saucy lyrics. The song ultimately climbed the Canadian charts and was nominated for single of the year at the Juno Awards.
Rough Trade’s other well-known tracks include “All Touch,” “Birds of a Feather” and “Fashion Victim.”
In an Instagram post, Pope called Staples a “bright light that will burn forever.”
Staples and Pope began performing together around Toronto’s Yorkville folk scene in the late 1960s as they experimented with a blend of sexual politics and pop music.
The band went through various iterations over the next several years before landing on their name and identity as a queer art-rock duo with a stage presence that welcomed elements of bondage and burlesque.
Before mainstream success, their 1977 live musical “Restless Underwear” played a single night at Massey Hall with U.S. female impersonator Divine as its co-star.
Around that time, they won famous admirers in the arts scene. Actor Tim Curry performed a cover of “Birds of a Feather” on his 1978 debut album “Read My Lips,” while Dusty Springfield sang their songs “Soft Core” and “I Am Curious” on 1982’s “White Heat.”
Filmmaker William Friedkin featured their song “Shakedown” in his controversial 1980 film “Cruising,” which starred Al Pacino as a cop infiltrating New York’s underground gay club scene to find a serial killer.
After Rough Trade disbanded in the 1980s, Staples found an active career writing music for Canadian documentaries and TV series.
He and Pope continued to work together on and off in the years that followed. They were inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2023, and marked their 50th anniversary with a concert at the Phoenix Concert Theatre that same week.
Also that year, Pope and Staples told The Canadian Press they were seeking financing to produce a stage musical inspired by Rough Trade songs.
They described it as a New York-set story about a young activist at the centre of the AIDS crisis, and said Canadian Broadway star Chilina Kennedy was attached to play a young Pope.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 25, 2025.
