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Centennial Stage construction at the CNE

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I was watching a news story a couple of months ago about vintage videos, both from private and official video collections, from some of the past CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) years. The people who run the CNE thought that they had something special here and they wanted to share it with the rest of the world. They weren’t quite to sure how to achieve this, but they eventually decided to put it up on Youtube so that everyone could enjoy the CNE archive films.

I just watched quite a few of the CNE videos and I have to say that some of these clips brought back a flood of fantastic memories of past visits to CNE or The EX as most of us locals call it.

My favorite video of the entire collection was the one that showed the making of the main portable stage at Exhibition Stadium. Up until watching the video that I have, BTW included at the end of this post, I never knew the actual name of this stage. They call it the Centennial Stage.

This stage supported some of the greatest acts of the 20th century! The Who, Pick Floyd, The Police, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, John Cougar Mellencamp (ha, I finally had the chance to say his old name out loud!) and Simon and Garfunkel just to name a few. The best show that I have witnessed there, from a pure sound point of view, was Pick Floyd in 1987? They went all quadraphonic on us at that show, very trippy!!!

So I hope that the video below brings back some great memories for you if you had the chance to visit this stage or the Toronto CNE in the past.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f34Wd1VLDwg

Keep on Jammin’




Simon and Garfunkle in Toronto

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Simon and Garfunkel are going to be playing May 12th, 2010 in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre and I hope to be there! These guys have produced so many great memorable tunes that it’s not funny! Do you plan to go and see them on their up coming tour?

I remember seeing these guys in the late 80’s at the old CNE bandstand and I’ll never forget it. We had concert seating which was like a free for all at the front of the stage. We brought a small blanket and some beverages, if memory serves me correctly. Our piece of the turf was center-right of the stage about 30 feet away.

The place was full of people sprawling out where ever they could with blankets, pick nick baskets full of food and wine. I was totally surprised to see little kids as young as 2-3 years running around everywhere! It had a nice small town fair feel to it.

The best part of that show for me was when they performed Scarborough Fair. For many year I’ve attempted to play this song and it turned out fine but this was the time to see it done right!

Before the song began, I noticed Paul Simon was practicing the beginning of it, so I asked this guy beside us if I could use his binoculars. I watched every single movement of his fingers and I found out that I was doing it ok except for a few parts. When I got home all I did was play the hell out of that song and I finally have it perfect!

So that was my favorite part of the show. Does anyone out there have a neat Simon and Garfunkel moment that they’d like to share with the rest of us?

Keep on Jammin’

Another hidden Toronto musical venue

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The Queen Elizabeth Theatre, on the grounds of Toronto’s C.N.E., is the most recent musical venue that is underused and just screaming to be found! In a large urban city with 2.5 music lovers, there are not a lot of medium sized halls to attract the middle of the road type of band. So this beauty from the past is just desperately trying to re-invent herself to us!

I tend to be a lover of architecture and it’s history. When ever I run across a real gem of an older building, I often wonder what it looked like in it’s glory years and what important historical events played out in it. Yes, I am a hopeless romantic, drawn into it’s orbit and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (QET) is no exception! Just check out the QET History Photo Gallery’s History Gallery slide show section of the above link to see what I am referring to!

While as a young guitar player from the country, going to the CNE when I could, I marveled at buildings and the performers that played there! I recall going there with my brother many times to see bands in either the Music Building/Carlsburg Pavilion (which originally was the Provincial Government Building in1926) or the unforgettable CNE Grandstand/stadium to experience the giants of rock and roll of the time period. Yet, we always passed the QET without taking notice of her, too bad.

So has anyone here ever been inside the QET or seen a show there? I would love to know what you thought of it and what the sound was like. I hope you took a few pic’s to share with us!

Keep on Jammin’

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