Live 8 concert, Barrie

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").

Lineup

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

* Dan Aykroyd and Tom Green (Hosts, introductions) (CAN 16:00)
* Tom Cochrane - "Life Is A Highway", "No Regrets" (CAN 16:03)
* Sam Roberts - "Brother Down", "Bridge To Nowhere", "Hard Road" (CAN 16:29)
* Bryan Adams* - "Back To You", "Open Road", "This Side Of Paradise", "All for Love/Tears Are Not Enough" (CAN 16:48)
* DobaCaracol (featuring K'naan) "Nakilé", "Amazone", "Anda", "Soobax", "Until The Lion Learns To Speak" (CAN 17:14)
* Simple Plan - "Shut Up!", "Jump", "Addicted", "Welcome to My Life" (CAN 17:40)
* Bruce Cockburn - "If I Had a Rocket Launcher", "Call It Democracy", "Waiting For A Miracle" (CAN 18:16)
* Les Trois Accords - "Hawaiienne", "Loin D'ici", "Turbo Sympathique" (CAN 18:42)
* Randy Bachman - "Hey You", "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet", "Takin' Care of Business" (CAN 19:08)
* Deep Purple - "Highway Star", "Smoke on the Water", "Hush" (CAN 19:27)
* African Guitar Summit (CAN 19:56)
* Great Big Sea - "Donkey Riding", "Excursion Around The Bay" (CAN 20:22)
* Celine Dion¹ - "Love Can Move Mountains" (CAN 20:40)
* Blue Rodeo - "Heart Like Mine", "Try", "Are You Ready" (CAN 20:53)
* Gordon Lightfoot - "Restless", "If You Could Read My Mind", "Let It Ride" (CAN 21:21)
* Our Lady Peace - "Bird on a Wire", "Where Are You", "Innocent" (CAN 21:47)
* Jet - "You're Like This", "Look What You've Done", "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" (CAN 22:13)
* Jann Arden - "Where No One Knows Me", "Willing To Fall Down", "Good Mother" (CAN 22:29)
* Mötley Crüe - "Kickstart My Heart", "Home Sweet Home", "Dr. Feelgood" (CAN 22:55)
* The Tragically Hip - "My Music At Work", "Ahead By A Century", "Poets" (with Dan Aykroyd) (CAN 23:23)
* DMC*²³ - "Machine Gun", "All Along the Watchtower", "Walk This Way" (CAN 23:49)
* Barenaked Ladies - "Brian Wilson", "If I Had $1,000,000" (CAN 00:15)
* Neil Young* - "Four Strong Winds" (with Pegi Young), "When God Made Me", "Rockin' in the Free World" (with most other artists in attendance), "O Canada" (last) (CAN 00:49)

Notes:

*¹ (via satellite from Las Vegas)
*² (performed as part of Run DMC at Live Aid)
*³ (the guitarist in his backup band was Elliot Easton, from The Cars, a band that played Live Aid as well; the rhythm section was from Aerosmith: drummer Joey Kramer and bassist Tom Hamilton; Josh Todd, lead singer from Buckcherry, also contributed vocals, as did actor Gary Dourdan)

Pre-show Rumours and Notes

Lineup

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.

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. [http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2005/06/10/Arts/live050610.html] 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. [http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2005/06/16/Arts/torontolive8050616.html] 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 [http://www.pulse24.com/Showbiz/Top_Story/20050616-001/page.asp] ; Exhibition Place, which also hosted World Youth Day activities; Molson Amphitheatre, and Sunnyside Beach [http://www.680news.com/news/local/article.jsp?content=20050617_134445_4584] , 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.

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 Connors being left off the lineup, and wasn't even asked. He then vowed to play nothing but Stompin' Tom Connors on his show until Bob Geldof at least asked Stompin' Tom if he wanted to join. He only was able to play Stompin' Tom Connors 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.

References

* [http://www.thelive8concert.com/ thelive8concert.com] Live 8 website - Details about the Live 8 concert