The Rock & Roll Machine powers on – Triumph celebrates 50 years of making music

Triumph at the Scotiabank Centre – L-R: Phil X, Rik Emmett, Gil Moore (and on the big screen) and Todd Kerns, with Brent Fitz on the drums behind the lighting rig. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.

April 2026

The Rock & Roll Machine clearly still has a lot of gas in the tank. Canadian power-trio Triumph have embarked on their 50th anniversary tour, with a stop at Toronto’s Scotiabank Centre. This tour is the first time the original trio has toured since 1988, when singer-guitarist Rik Emmett left the band to embark on a successful solo career.

While drummer-singer Gil Moore and bass guitarist-keyboardist Mike Levine carried on for another five years with a variety of backing musicians, including guitarist Theofilos Xenidis, better known as Phil X, Triumph broke up in 1993. Moore would go on to concentrate his time on running his recording studio, Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Ontario, the largest recording studio in Canada, that has recorded acts such as Drake, Guns ‘N Roses, the Cranberries and the Jonas Brothers.

Emmett would re-unite with Moore and Levine for a series of shows and special events in 2007, 2008 and 2019, the later as part of the 2021 documentary Triumph: Rock ‘n Roll Machine, which included a surprise three-song performance for 300 selected fans.

In December 2025, Emmett, Moore and Levine announced they were re-uniting for a North American tour. This was following a performance on 5 June 2025, when Triumph played a free concert ahead of the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers second Stanley Cup final game. Unfortunately, health issues prevented Levine from joining his bandmates for that performance, something that has continued with the tour so far. Sanding in for Levine is bass guitarist Todd Kerns.

Additional musicians include second drummer Brent Fitz, sometimes drumming alongside Moore, and sometimes alone while Moore sings out front, and returning guitarist Phil X, playing alongside Emmett, the man he replaced four-decades ago.

The band powered through a selection of the bands biggest hits, including Somebody’s Out There, Hold On, Rock & Roll Machine, Never Surrender, Lay It On The Line, Follow Your Heart, Magic Power and a cover of Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way, one of the songs on which Moore took the lead vocals. While Rik can’t hit a lot of the higher notes from his youth, necessitating him to sing in the lower end of his vocal range, his guitar playing is a sharp as ever. Emmett also turned vocal duties for many parts over to Phil X and Kerns, allowing both to shine during their almost two-hour set.

Given the age of Emmett, Moore and Levine, it’s unknown how much longer the band will be able to carry on, something Emmett joked about, having declared earlier in the decade that he was retiring from the road. However long it may be, Triumph are determined to go out with the amplifiers cranked up to Eleven.

Special guests for the night were fellow Canadian rock group April Wine, who breezed through a 40-minute set of their biggest hits, including Oowatanite, You Could Have Been A Lady, Say Hello, I Like to Rock, and Sign of the Gypsy Queen. The highlight of April Wine’s set was a performance of Just Between You and Me, dedicated to original singer-guitarist Miles Goodwyn, who died in 2023.