Live 8 concert, Barrie

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Live 8 concerts and line-ups

2 July 2005
Hyde Park, London
Château de Versailles, near Paris
Siegessäule, Berlin
Circus Maximus, Rome
Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Park Place, Barrie
Makuhari Messe, Chiba
Mary Fitzgerald Square, Johannesburg
Red Square, Moscow
"Africa Calling", Eden Project

6 July 2005
"Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push"

On 2 July 2005, a Live 8 concert was held at Park Place (formerly Molson Park) in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Barrie is located 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Toronto.

The event is also referred to as "Live 8 Toronto" or "Live 8 Canada"

About 35,000 people, full capacity at Park Place, were at the event, ranking eighth in attendance among the ten July 2 Live 8 concerts. It should be noted that had a larger venue been available, organizers originally expected upwards of 150,000 spectators at the show. (see Location).

Contents

[edit] Lineup

Past Live Aid performers are listed with an asterisk (*). In order of appearance:

Bruce Cockburn
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Bruce Cockburn
Jet
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Jet
Jann Arden
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Jann Arden

Notes:

[edit] Performance notes

The concert ended with Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies leading the singing of "O Canada" where some of the performers and all of those in attendance sang along.

DMC's backup band included Josh Todd from Buckcherry, Elliot Easton from The Cars, Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith and actor Gary Dourdan among others.

Great Big Sea nearly missed the concert after their flight from Regina, where they performed a concert the previous day, was cancelled at the last minute. Due to this they did not play with all of their instruments.

[edit] Pre-show Rumours and Notes

[edit] Lineup

A Live 8 ticket for the Barrie show
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A Live 8 ticket for the Barrie show

There were rumors that Canadian rock trio Rush was asked to perform but refused, possibly because of Neil Peart's appreciation of the ideas of Ayn Rand as expressed in his songs (individual rights in economics and otherwise, rational self-interest etc.,) which contradict the theme and motives of the event.

Sibling duo Tegan and Sara were slated to be in the lineup, but had to drop out close to the date due to illness. Likewise, Burton Cummings was to perform with Randy Bachman, but also didn't attend apparently due to illness.

The Rolling Stones were regularly mentioned as possible headliners for the show, since they were practising for their upcoming world tour in Canada. However, these rumours never materialized.

[edit] Location

For weeks leading up to the concert, several locations were considered as potential hosts for the Canadian Live 8 concert.

Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario was the first choice for the concert.[1] However, on June 10, the federal Public Works and Canadian Heritage departments, along with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police rejected the idea of using the site for Live 8. Government officials felt that Parliament Hill, with a capacity of 75,000 people was too small for the event, which was originally expected to attract over 150,000 participants. They were also concerned about damage to the local buildings and grounds.

On June 15, Bob Geldof announced Toronto, Ontario as the host of the Canadian Live 8 concert. [2] At that point, several venues were considered as candidates for the concert: Downsview Park, which hosted the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto concert and a World Youth Day mass [3]; Exhibition Place, which also hosted World Youth Day activities; Molson Amphitheatre, and Sunnyside Beach [4], which would have involved floating stages on Lake Ontario. Ultimately, none of these considerations were used for the concert. There were several financial and logistical problems related to these bids. For example, both Downview Park and Molson Amphitheatre were hosting concerts on Canada Day and it was impossible to set up the Live 8 stage a day before the concert.

On June 21, Park Place in Barrie, Ontario was finally announced as the official venue for the Canadian Live 8 concert by promoter, Michael Cohl.

[edit] Jeff Brown

Jeff Brown is a deejay and program manager for the classic rock station CHEZ-FM in Ottawa. When the lineup for the Live 8 concert was released, he criticized it heavily, dubbing it a "bad Juno lineup". His greatest complaint was Stompin' Tom Conners being left off the lineup, and wasn't even asked. He then vowed to play nothing but Stompin' Tom Conners on his show until Bob Geldof at least asked Stompin' Tom if he wanted to join. He only was able to play Stompin' Tom Conners for that one show, as he was subsequently suspended. He has since been re-instated as the afternoon deejay. However, Brown has a history of pulling off these stunts, which are basically done just for publicity reasons.

[edit] References

Flag of Barrie Barrie
Political representation Dave Aspden (Mayor), Patrick Brown (CPC, MP), Joe Tascona (PCO, MPP)
Education MacLaren Art Centre - Barrie Public Library - Georgian College
Events Live 8 - Kempenfest
Hospitals Royal Victoria Hospital
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