It has been a long, hard summer for the Barenaked Ladies. First, singer/songwriter Steven Page was arrested on July 11 for possession of a controlled substance. The police were checking out a suspiciously parked car near the home of Christine Benedicto, Page’s girlfriend, whom he was visiting that night. Through the window, the police saw Page and another resident of the apartment, Stephanie Ford. Page and Ford covered up the table when they saw the police, but it was too late. What the officers found on the kitchen table was cocaine. When the police searched Page’s car, more cocaine was found. He was charged with a class C felony for a controlled substance and released on $10,000 bail. His court appearance was recently rescheduled for October 11.
Because of the drug charge, the Barenaked Ladies felt obligated to cancel their Disney Music Block Party concert planned for late August in New York. The band had just released their first album of children’s music, Snacktime!
Recently, another member of the band was in the news, in an equally as harrowing incident, but one that had a much happier ending. Lead singer Ed Robertson, his wife Natalie, and another couple were traveling via a Cessna 206 floatplane on August 24 when it crashed near Bancroft, Ontario, a rural part of the region. Fortunately, the four were shaken, but not injured in the crash. Robertson told his friend Gord Peel, who arrived at the scene shortly after the crash, that the plane stalled, but he managed to set it down in the trees, with the nose touching the ground. Ed received his pilot license in 2005. He hosts a show on the OLN network titled “Ed’s Up,” which covers his travels by air.
The only comment released by the band’s manager said “Everyone is fine and that is the important thing. That’s all the comment we have at this time.” The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is looking at the scene of the crash to determine if an investigation is necessary or not.