Seeing as many of the good bands are still out there to be added to a concert, the Toronto part of Live 8 might work out really well:
Wherever it will be held — Downsview, the Molson Amphitheatre, Molson Park in Barrie — the concert, one of eight being held worldwide July 2 to shine the spotlight on poverty in Africa, promises to be a band-packed musical extravaganza. The Rolling Stones lead the list of groups that might take the stage here. The Barenaked Ladies, Jann Arden and Our Lady Peace have also been mentioned, but organizers say nothing official can be announced until early next week. “We’re just flying,” said Katherine Holmes, a spokeswoman for Canadian Live 8. “We don’t know the venue. All we know is that Toronto is confirmed. There’s a lot of work that’s going on to try and put it all together. “Many, many elements of the concert are being finalized as we speak,” Holmes added. “We anticipate Tuesday we will be able to announce venue, ticketing and the lineup.”
Coming as it does on the Saturday after the Friday holiday for the fastastically named Canada Day on July 1st, this nation is well set up to put its feet up and watch TV on a sunny day for this event.
In honour of Ian’s wish list, I hereby call for a Supertramp reunion rather than yet another Rolling Stone gig in Toronto. Supertramp was always way bigger in Canada than the US, outselling some albums here as opposed to there. Get back AC/DC as well as they were the best thing at SARSfest, the only “a-pa-looza” named after a disease I can think of. And that guy in the front row with the black t-shirt with some band’s name of it who jumped up and down all day with a clenched fist? Get him back, too. He was great.