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| Lazy Bones |
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Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Stones concert to make music history
TORONTO (CP) -- Some might think of them as musical overload, others might call them claustrophobic. But many of those who attend all-day music festivals say the electric feeling of sharing music with thousands of others is one of the few intimate encounters they will ever experience with strangers.
Wednesday's Toronto concert, dubbed SARSstock, with its already legendary lineup of 15 acts including the Rolling Stones, could go down as one of the most important concert events in North American musical history next to famed events like Woodstock 1969 and Monterey Pop Festival of 1967, say some music historians.
"The size and scope of this show should not be underestimated," said Alan Cross, program director of Y108 in Hamilton and host of the syndicated radio show The Ongoing History of New Music. "It is gigantic."
The Stones and their entourage arrived in Toronto in their chartered jumbo jet around 7:30 p.m. Monday before being whisked in limos to their downtown hotel.
Each band member arrived in a separate limo, emerging to wave briefly to a throng of screaming fans before entering the posh Four Seasons hotel.
An expected 450,000 music fans -- just shy of the projected half a million -- will bask in sounds of this summer's hottest festival.
Schematics for transportation, concession stands, bathroom facilities, and most importantly, security have seemingly been ironed out to perfection.
So much so that organizers can recite silly "fun facts" about how much toilet paper and how many hamburger patties are needed to meet the needs of such a large mass of humanity.
"It doesn't get much bigger and more complicated than this," said Cross. "But it's nothing to fear. I think it's going to be a great event and it's going to be part of history."
Too young to remember Woodstock or the heydays of the Stones, 21-year-old Michelle Medland hopes to be a part of her generation's history. To see the show, she and a gang of friends are travelling some 130 kilometres to Toronto from Welland, Ont., in a rented school bus.
"I'm a little frightened by the amount of people," she said. "And when they said that we couldn't bring food I was going to tape food to me."
Ultimately the size of the crowd won't stop Medland and her friends, who've gone to other day-long events -- but far smaller -- like Edgefest, from saying they were at the 2003 Stones' concert.
"My friends are all big music freaks and the Rolling Stones are a pretty good band. I think they've still got it," she said, adding that she doesn't actually own any Stones discs.
The day or weekend-long music festival has had a long tradition of bringing together fans to form one giant music-loving community -- for a day or two anyway.
It's difficult to pinpoint when the concept for summer-time open air performances began, but festivals with music as the centrepiece have been documented as far back as the Pythian Games at Delphi, circa sixth century BC -- albeit not nearly as organized or as decorated with tacky corporate branding messages as they are these days.
And while they've evolved from spontaneous affairs into a summertime rite of passage for many thousands of European, Caribbean and South America teens, North America's relationship with large scale rock festivals is notorious for its poor organization, dismal financial returns, and violence.
It's those factors that have marred most attempts to build music fests into institutions, said Cross. A newbie to the U.S. scene is the Coachella Valley Music Festival in California. This year 53,000 attended and the festival broke even for the first time since its inception four years ago.
"We're sort of neophytes to this whole thing but we're catching on," said Cross.
For its part, Canada has never seen a show of the magnitude of the Stones' show. The largest concerts tend to boast maybe 80,000 people, and even that size happens infrequently.
The city's police chief tried to assuage safety fears Monday, saying the force is more than ready to handle the size and any overcrowding at entry points.
"(We'll be) showing the world not only that Toronto can put on a world class event but also that the police service is competent and capable of rising to all these challenge," said Julian Fantino. "I anticipate the majority of people who will come to this concert will be wanting to have a safe event . . . we'll deal with problem people."
Perhaps the unfamiliarity with such single-day gatherings could be the reasoning behind all the hoopla and anxiousness over blankets, coolers, transportation and the other concert-going rules.
"Culturally we don't know how to handle it properly," said Cross. "Even Britain and Europe where they have large festivals on an annual basis, most don't approach 500,000 people. This is a huge deal."
The size of the crowd will likely even impress Sir Mick Jagger, said Steve Howard, a CEO at TGA Entertainment, the band's tour management group.
"I think there are a couple of other shows that the band has played that's very similar in size," he said. "But I'd have to dig up the dates."
And while one of those mammoth shows includes the ill-fated 1969 Altamont Festival -- during which members of the Hells Angels stabbed to death 18-year-old Meredith Hunter, just in front of the stage -- no one expects Wednesday's event to spiral out of control.
Nor do they expect this will necessarily turn into an annual event like in Europe. Truth is, day-long music festivals aren't really that popular in North America, says Howard, a long-time concert promoter.
"In Europe it's been much more the culture over the years," he said. "In recent years we've (North Americans) seen several festival type shows being put together and played in big fields or in a venue where there's a performance space and a whole lot of other stuff going on."
But those are usually of the touring variety, where the show comes to the people instead of the people going to the show, he said.
Consider the recent success of the touring festival model, Lollapalooza, Lilith Fair, OzzFest, Vans Warped Tour, and Another Road Side Attraction, to name a few, that have criss-crossed the continent for the last decade. In an era when musical taste can fluctuate from one summer to the next, they feed the hunger for the trend du jour and then are replaced when a new one comes along.
Despite some people's nervousness over the Stones' concert, Howard says if the show is successful, promoters might give the Downsview site a second thought when planning large scale concerts.
"Why not? We think it's a great site," he said. "There are subway stations, bus parking, etc. It's quite central. It's got a lot of things going for it. It's got a lot of space. You don't have to crowd your facilities. People have room to stretch out."
Of course, organizers would have to find bands popular enough to attract half a million bodies to Downsview. |
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| corgi37 |
Stone making history? Put that in ya pipe McCartney & U2!!!!!! |
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| jb |
I HOPE THEY DON'T EMBARRASS US AGAIN.... |
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| Lazy Bones |
ul. 29, 2003. 01:00 AM
The risky gamble of the Steel Wheels
tour
Mike Cohl met lofty expectations
Band played four shows in Toronto
In the last of four exclusive excerpts from The Rolling Stones: An Oral History (McArthur &
Company) by Toronto writer/broadcaster Alan Lysaght, Toronto promoter Mike Cohl makes the
band an offer in 1989 it can't refuse — $70 million (U.S.) for the Steel Wheels tour, the biggest deal
in concert history at the time. Rival promoters thought he was crazy. But Cohl, the force also behind
tomorrow's concert, thought the numbers added up.
Mike Cohl: There's no way the Rolling Stones couldn't do 40 shows and make this amount of money, because
there's no way they wouldn't sell out. God, Pink Floyd did three shows, the Stones gotta be able to do four
shows in Toronto, and Michael Jackson did three there, the Stones gotta be able to do four. And I was up to
60 shows in about an hour.
We were flying down to Barbados to sign the contract and I had this cheque in my sports jacket and it was
like...I'd never had a cheque like that. I'd never even seen one that big. [Reputedly, it was for US$70,000,000.]
Every 15 minutes I would check it was still there —"Okay, I haven't lost it" — because I was sure I was going
to lose it. In fact, in the room where we signing the contracts and shaking hands and getting ready for this great
journey, I must have checked it three times in 15 minutes, because I figured when the lawyer said, "Can I have
the cheque?" I was sure I wouldn't have it.
(After) I just sat there going, "I can't believe I've done this ... You egomaniac, you turkey!" I got over that very
quickly. It took me about two days, but I got over it —"This is just emotion ... Relax, you're not stupid, you
figured this one out. It's going to happen, it's going to be right ... you're okay." The first city we put on sale was
Cleveland. That was the first proof, because this is all speculation until you put the tickets on sale and, in a
sense, people vote. It's like an election. We only sold 30,000 out of about 53,000 and it was like, "Get out the
Alka Seltzer, quick ... Holy Christ ..." That next week was a terrible, terrible week. It was like, "Is it Cleveland,
or is it the tour? Cleveland ended up selling 53,000, it just had a bit of different pattern than we'd expected. The
next week we sold out four cities and it was, "Wow ... we're okay."
Keith Richards: I'm very happy with Steel Wheels. It combines the elements and the feel of some of our better
ones like Exile or Some Girls. There's a real good feel to the playing throughout. Having a deadline worked in
our favour on this one. It's been a long time since Mick and I have been under pressure to finish a bunch of
songs—and remember, some of our best songs came under that kind of pressure.
Mick Jagger: When we started working on this album we knew we had a deadline, and that's a good thing for
us because sometimes we can work too long on a record making sure everything's just right. This one went
pretty quickly, and I think there are a lot of good things on there.
Mike Cohl: Prague was a high point (in the Steel Wheels tour) in that the Velvet Revolution had just happened.
It was a matter of weeks and no one had ever been in there, and there was the president of the country, Vaclav
Havel, inviting the Rolling Stones to be the first, and they went. I remember one of the great things for me is that
we went over to the presidential palace, where they lived and conducted the business of the government, and
we had a little bit of a tour, some tea and juice at mid-day, and outside there's this big square — the palace is
like a open rectangle — and there must have been ten thousand people. It was just packed from wall to wall,
and we were sitting here and we could hear them chanting in the courtyard. So the band and the president and
his wife and myself and my wife went onto the balcony (of the presidential palace.) They were just going to
wave to everybody, and the people were chanting and chanting, and we asked President Havel, "What are they
chanting?" and he told us they were chanting, "Thank you, President Havel, for bringing us the Rolling Stones.
We love you for bringing us the Rolling Stones." Well, you could see Charlie's eyes well up a bit. I couldn't
believe it was happening.
It was "Wow, is this incredible?!" That was a pretty good moment. |
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| jb |
Clevland sucks....last good stones concert there was 75?
[Edited by jb] |
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| sandrew |
Cleveland will always have a special place in my heart: It was there, at Municipal Stadium in '89, that I saw my very first Stones show. |
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| jb |
I think in 78 they had 80k people....89 only 53k..94 only 37 and 2nd show cancelled....recently, poor attendance at arena venues...probably b/c of shift of surbuban versus inner city demographics. |
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| sandrew |
I think the last remaining Stones hotbeds are the two American coasts (plus Chicago) and the Netherlands. |
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| Joey |
" probably b/c of shift of surbuban versus inner city demographics. "
Agreed ................most now live in Berea .
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| jb |
Correct Sandrew....that's why I doubt any future tours..they can't draw anywhere but the big cities like L.A., N.Y., San Fran, Chicago... |
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| sandrew |
Not at the prices they're charging, no. If they cut back to, say, Springsteen rates, I think they'd sell a helluva lot more tickets.
I suspect, though, that the Stones are content to gouge the boomers and the Skybox-season-subscriber types, empty seats be damned. They can continue to rake in piles of cash if the premium seats sell like they have on this tour.
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| jb |
True..and I don't think prices will ever go down;indeed, they will keep going up and people like me will spends thousands to brokers..... |
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| sandrew |
Yup, it's the old "ratchet effect" -- once ticket prices go up, they'll never be reined back in. |
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| Gazza |
>True..and I don't think prices will ever go down;indeed, they will keep going up and people like me will spends thousands to brokers
so people like you are the reason theyre unlikely to tour again then?
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| jb |
Hi Gazza!!!!! |
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| Joey |
" so people like you are the reason theyre unlikely to tour again then? "
G.
You make Joey giggle .
J. ( Same ol' G )
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| Sir Stonesalot |
Yep. History in the making folks.
The night The Rolling Stones flipped over to the dark side by inviting Justin Timberlake to sing with them.
Isn't there SOME way that we can stop this from happening?????
Quick, get Miss U to do an internet petition thingy!!! Or WAIT!!!! A barrage of angry emails to Stones management!!!
Better yet!!! Someone in Toronto needs to shoot Justin in the foot. Not a serious wound or anything...just one that prevents him from performing during the Stones set!!
NANKY!!!! GET A GUN & SAVE US!!! |
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| mac_daddy |
is this tragedy going to be telvised?
when I was in London in the 80's they televised the entire Live-Aid concert, however many hours that lovefest was on (in both venues). I guess this has something to do with the fact that English TV kinda sucks, or maybe because there are only 4 channels (cause and effect?). Still, it wasn't like they were interrupting something important, like Oprah - cash cow that she is...
But Canadian TV isn't much better, is it? I thought that is why they steal DirecTV all the time. They should broadcast the whole thing - Justin in all his glory (where's Christina?), and whoever else is on that God-awful bill...
I hope the Stones rip the place up, I really do, but somehow I doubt it. Anyway, nothing beats watching a slow-moving train wreck, and I am chomping at the bit. There has got to be a broadcast of this thing somewhere on the 'net - if I can find links to live arabTV during wartime, I should be able to find my beloved stones somewhere in cyberspace. That's why I pay for broadband!!
To all who are braving the Toronto Sarsfest - be safe, and have fun!!! |
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| jb |
No U.S. Television.....and with this proposed duet, it will be even more humiliating than the Live Aid fiasco of Mick and Tina and Keith, Woody, and Dylan...truly a low point for the boys which will be surpaised by these travesty tonight. I am now convinced that Mick and Co. have truly lost touch with their real fans...... |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
I have to poop. |
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| jb |
This is worse than "Freejack" with Emilio Estevez, wose than "State of shock", worse than "She's the Boss" and or "Goddess in the doorway", worse than Dave mathews duet on "Memory Motel", worse than all of their corny MTV videos , worse than the embarrassment of Live Aid , worse than the Mick/Bowie rumors, and yes, worse than "Dirty Work". |
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| Joey |
" and yes, worse than "Dirty Work". "
Now I simply MUST watch the video stream just to see how horrendous this duet will be .
You all have left young Joey stirred to sadness and quite visibly shaken to the core . HOPE YOUR HAPPY !
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JACKY !
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| BILL PERKS |
JUSTIN WAS JUST A PRE K KID PISSIN HISSELF WHEN THE MASTERPIECE DIRTY WORK WAS DELIVERED.THE HORROR........THE HORROR..FIRST HE BROKE FROM THEM....THEN HE BROKE FROM HIMSELF.. |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
I have to poop. |
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