Winnipeg mayor Brian Bowman's recent spat with Mark Chipman makes me think of something else Bowman could hold against him, if he wishes. If he even knows about it. If there is an agreement in place.
I'd rather do a letter to the editor on this to both of Winnipeg's newspapers but I don't know for sure if there really is an agreement in place or not here. I think I saw this being reported in years past, but buried deep in stories about other aspects of True North building the MTS Centre and bringing the Jets back to town, and with only a few quick words before changing the subject.
I speak of the believed-to-be agreement between the city of Winnipeg and True North to do everything in its' power to make sure any nearby convenience stores, donut shops, and fast-food outlets are NOT open after MTS Centre events are over. And that no more of these are built, either.
There are several Tim Horton's and Subway outlets near the MTS Centre. They're all closed at night. Only one real fast-food restaurant, McDonald's in Cityplace. Also closed at night. And most McDonald's stores are open 24 hours, too. The Cityplace store could stay open until 4:00 a.m. to service Shark Club customers (both the nightclub and casino), too. But, no. I think the closest places within walking distance are Robin's Donuts at York & Garry, Mac's Convenience Store at Carlton & Cumberland, and Jumbo Pizza on Balmoral near Sargent. If you consider any of those within walking distance.
The Bargain Shop right outside the MTS Centre just closed. That would have been an ideal location for a convenience store. If you want to hang out outside the MTS Centre afterward in the dead of summer checking out the girls, go in the store and buy yourself a bag of chips. Or a chocolate bar. Or a slurpee. You don't want a full restaurant meal, just something small. As it turned out, the store became a Dollar Tree. Is it open at night? No.
Mark Chipman wants us all to buy the overpriced food at MTS Centre or nothing. So I believed he brokered some klind of backroom deal with the city when the MTS Centre first opened to make sure nothing was open close to the building after their events.
But that was in 2004, even before the Winnipeg Jets came back. Or now, the Moose. The MTS Centre is well established now. It's time to rescind this outdated agreement and allow the Tim Horton's and Subways and McDonald's and Starbucks near the building to be open after their events, and to allow new fast-food, donut, and convenience stores to open. Ironically, there is a Tim Hortons right inside the MTS Centre, and that, too, is closed after the events are over. But if you think that's to clear out the building, well, they are still selling that night's performing rock band's overpriced t-shirts after the events.
That's what, along with people living downtown, will really spark a street scene of people on the streets downtown. Not just traditional restaurants and nightclubs.
So there's a story idea for all you Winnipeg newspaper guys (and I know you love reading this blog), if in fact there is such an agreement. If there isn't, then it's those places I named that all suck for not being open after the events. (And the Subway on Notre Dame beside Solid Gold could grab the bar crowd, too.)
Me during the broadcast of "Much On Demand" outside in front of the Muchmusic building in Toronto, ON on September 25, 2003.
Showing posts with label MTS Centre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MTS Centre. Show all posts
Monday, December 14, 2015
Monday, October 7, 2013
Winnipeg's Arena Area (AA): The Magic Is Gone
Winnipeg Stadium. Polo Park. The Red River Ex. Chi-Chi's. McDonald's on St. James Street. And the grande dame of all, the Winnipeg Arena.
The demolition of Canad Inns Stadium, the successor moniker of Winnipeg Stadium, is now finished. That now completes the long, drawn-out end to the wonderful era people my age have been fortunate to live through (and be the right age for), the era when this unofficial entertainment conglomerate comprising the two largest Winnipeg music venues, combined with the best shopping and fast-food Winnipeg has to offer, added to the magic and excitement that your favorite world-class music acts visiting Winnipeg, brings.
This conglomerate never had an official name, did it? At least a name for Winnipeg Arena and Winnipeg Stadium together. Everything in this area was just described as being "around the arena." I ponder whether, had everything stayed, someone would have finally come up with, like Black Friday and the SHED, a formal or informal moniker for this heavenly area. So for this blog post, we'll just refer to it as "The Arena Area (AA)."
What made this AA so special? Some things that were obvious, some not so obvious.
Obviously, the fact Winnipeg Arena and Winnipeg Stadium, the two biggest places in town to attend concerts by music's hottest stars, were across the street from each other was the most obvious factor. (And I'm not going to use the "close proximity" term because that sounds like they were 2 blocks from each other; No, they were friggin' ACROSS THE STREET from each other.)
Winnipeg Arena had such a comfortable, down-home quality to it. It was like an old shoe that fits just right. You could go anywhere, downstairs or upstairs. During AWA wrestling cards, you could go downstairs and see the barricaded area that contained the hallway the wrestlers would walk through in the centre of the building to get to the arena bowl. You could peer through the cracks and maybe see the wrestlers! Maybe you could hear them. One time, there were too many people crowded around "the cracks" but I could hear Mad Dog Vachon's voice from the barricade's other side loud and clear from a few feet away from that barricade. When you are in the concession area, and you walked around to the portion that was behind the stage, there were no curtains or security guards like MTS Centre today has: You could walk right into the section and peer at the gear being stored behind the stage. Who knows, maybe you'd see one of the band members talking to a crew member if you were lucky! And up to probably well into the '80s, there was only ONE entry point into the floor area (split into two, actually - one at the left, one at the right). The ticket checker couldn't catch everybody, so if you maneuvered right and picked your spot when he was busy looking at the ticket of someone who took too much time, you could sneak through, and that was it! YOU MADE IT INTO THE ENTIRE FLOOR AREA! There were no ticket checkers stationed all over the floor area back then, checking your ticket five times as you made your way up to your third-row seat, should that be your legitimate seat. I did this for Van Halen's 1984 tour when my ticket was for an upper deck seat. Instead of sitting way up there, I was smooshed and squeezed in like sardines up front with a thousand other people in the first-few-rows area with my feet kind of resting on chairs when they could. Who cares? I WAS RIGHT UP THERE, JUST FEET AWAY FROM THE MIGHTY VAN HALEN!!!!!
Then you had the thing that joined these two music behemoths in the AA into one once a year for almost two weeks: The Red River Exhibition. All the games, rides, and music you could shake a stick at. At the Ex, you could walk into Winnipeg Arena, where booths of displays and vendors were kept, anytime all day long, not just the time period before a concert starts, and actually go through the doors and walk anywhere in the building FOR FREE!! What a novelty! And you could walk through the areas fans were normally barred from, the area the performers hung out in. That entrance in the middle of the building that the wrestlers walked out of on AWA wrestling cards that I mentioned last paragraph, I COULD WALK THROUGH!! Wow! The Stadium had the Ex's free concerts, and those are really my most memorable concerts I saw at the Stadium: Donny & Marie, Starship, The Monkees, Burton Cummings, Cheap Trick. At night the Ex was free after 11:00 p.m. (formally closed but everyone knew you can still walk through the gate and just not pay), and the combination of the darkness of the night, the Ex's rides and their lights, the warm-but-cooling-off night summer air, and the people made this the summer's most attractive and passionate environment to be in.
And parking was almost always free at the Polo Park lot. Polo Park never cared enough to stop AA parkers from parking on what was technically their lot. In later years, they tried for Winnipeg Jets games, but never for concerts or wrestling. So you could go to the Ex and park for free, unlike now. Are there any side streets or shopping mall parking lots where the Ex is now, past the Perimeter, where you can park for free? In fact, I have no idea if what I say above, where you could still get through the gates past 11:00 p.m. when they stopped charging for tickets, still applies at the Ex today in their new location. It might. But to find out, you have to pay for parking first in their lot. Then you find out the Ex really is closed and are out the money you paid for parking. Or maybe they don't let you even park, saying, "The Ex is closed for the night." So you've driven all that way for nothing. Not nice. Not good. Not cool. The Ex's new location stinks, pure and simple. (Back to the Ex at the AA: They did charge for parking at the Polo Park lot on Sunday afternoon, because they could. No Sunday shopping or all those restaurants like Earl's or Joey's back then, so you'd have no other reason to drive onto the lot. So I parked for free on St. James Street south of Portage for those Sunday afternoons, by where Olive Garden is now.)
And what of Polo Park, which still stands today? Well, does anyone remember when Polo Park was the only shopping mall in Winnipeg? There's magic right there. To those of us who grew up thinking of downtown as Winnipeg's shopping mecca, a far-off mouth-hushed-in-wonderous-amazement anomaly of an indoor enclosed shopping mall where you aren't outside between stores and subjected to the elements or the mundane, down-to-earth qualities of sidewalks, street signs and outdoor storefronts (all of which could be dirty) was ultra-sleek and shiny in comparison to begin with. When I was a kid in St. Vital, Polo Park was a place my mother and I had to transfer buses downtown to get to. Then later there was the even more far-off Unicity Fashion Square, by the Perimeter Highway, where you still transferred buses but the second bus ride was REALLY long. It all seemed exotic. And this was long before St. Vital Centre opened. But to add to that the fact Polo Park was right beside Winnipeg Arena? Electricity unparalleled. If you had the time to go through Polo Park before a concert, you could cut the buzz in the mall surrounding tonight's upcoming show with a knife. Especially in the record stores. The one drawback was attempting to buy albums by tonight's performers. What do you do with them? Who wants to lug them around the arena? If you took a car, you could leave them in the car only if it was winter. If it was summer, they'd warp. I used to think about those poor albums by tonight's artist that are left in the store unsold; The store and the mall are closing by the time the headline act hits the stage, and that act's albums have to stay and sit there, lonely, in the quiet, closed store. They can't be part of the action next door. Nowadays, of course, Polo Park is still there, but without the arena and stadium there, it's just another mall. And today, it's a mall that has been slowly eroding the spaces devoted to record stores, book/rock magazine stores, ice cream, and stationery stores in favor of clothes, clothes, and more clothes. But I digress.
The buzz before the show at Polo Park? Well, that was actually secondary. The biggest buzz was, of course, at the nearby restaurants. I mentioned Chi-Chi's. I have actually never eaten there, but walked in there once to look for someone. But certainly that was the place to go and to see and be seen before a concert or any arena event. But me, being a self-respecting jean-jacketed or black-leather-jacketed and long-haired hard rock fan back then, I went to McDonald's across St. James Street instead, where Future Shop and Old Navy are now. Again, electricity unparalleled. Everyone wearing band shirts bought from previous tours or Solar News or Dominion News downtown or through the mail from the ads in rock magazines. Guys playing air guitar. Denim, leather and hot chicks (in denim and leather) everywhere. Rock and roll ecstasy. THE place to hang out before and after the show. Long lineups don't matter when there's hot chicks in front of you to look at and maybe talk to, if they're actually there with no guy standing next to them. Is there anywhere like that close to MTS Centre? Is McDonald's at Cityplace still open before a concert or does that whole food court perhaps close at 6:00 p.m., perhaps dating back to when MTS Centre was Eatons? I guess there's Moxie's, but that's a real restaurant where you don't have the freedom to be on your own; you still have to wait for the server to bring you your check, wait for her to come back to accept payment, etc. Is that the price we pay for the mini-skirted-and-black-high-heels environment Moxie's at least provides?
And now, mainly precipitated by Winnipeg Arena's closing and demolition and replacement by the downtown MTS Centre, the AA is now gone. All being replaced by retail, offices, and more general ho-hum everyday stuff. We can sit in our parked cars in the Marshall's parking lot, where Winnipeg Arena stood, and reminisce of Winnipeg Arena concerts and how our car is parked IN THE VERY SAME SPOT THE WINNIPEG ARENA STAGE WAS ON! THE SAME SPOT THAT ALL THOSE LEGENDARY PERFORMERS PLAYED MUSIC ON!!! We can go inside Marshall's and go to the menswear section - more like old men's wear section, but whatever - and say, "This spot was where Gagne & Brunzell beat Duncum & Lanza for the AWA tag team titles on July 7, 1977," or "This is where Chris Jericho won the WWE Musical Chairs Championship live on Monday Night Raw on July 5, 2004." But the magic is gone. The ONE element that still exists today is the parking lot at the back where I used to park for Winnipeg Arena concerts and wrestling; I still enter the Polo Park lot from Portage Avenue and make the trek to the back today, except now it's for the Silver City movie theatre that now stands where Chi-Chi's mexican restaurant used to. Silver City opened before Winnipeg Arena closed in 2004, so the timelines intersect. I still think I'm parking in "Winnipeg Arena parking" when I go to Silver City for a movie now.
MTS Centre is downtown, Investors Group Stadium is in south Winnipeg, and the Red River Ex is in very extreme west Winnipeg. All at extreme ends from one another. All fine venues in and of themselves, but all with serious flaws contained in the experience of seeing shows there. (And I live in Osborne Village, right by downtown.) Some of that is written about here, but this blog's purpose is mainly be a tribute to, and celebrate the memory and nostalgia of, the AA, and to point out the uniqueness of all the elements of this area that had been huddled together, and how we had it so good in Winnipeg while it all lasted. And now it's over. And I thank my lucky stars I lived through it. Future generations will not.
Concerts weren't $100 back then, either. I think I've only seen around ten or twelve shows at MTS Centre. Well, at least I can see today's shows for free on You Tube. Thanks, all you guys that do that with your cell phones! I appreciate it. Well, there's something that's changed that's actually good.
The demolition of Canad Inns Stadium, the successor moniker of Winnipeg Stadium, is now finished. That now completes the long, drawn-out end to the wonderful era people my age have been fortunate to live through (and be the right age for), the era when this unofficial entertainment conglomerate comprising the two largest Winnipeg music venues, combined with the best shopping and fast-food Winnipeg has to offer, added to the magic and excitement that your favorite world-class music acts visiting Winnipeg, brings.
This conglomerate never had an official name, did it? At least a name for Winnipeg Arena and Winnipeg Stadium together. Everything in this area was just described as being "around the arena." I ponder whether, had everything stayed, someone would have finally come up with, like Black Friday and the SHED, a formal or informal moniker for this heavenly area. So for this blog post, we'll just refer to it as "The Arena Area (AA)."
What made this AA so special? Some things that were obvious, some not so obvious.
Obviously, the fact Winnipeg Arena and Winnipeg Stadium, the two biggest places in town to attend concerts by music's hottest stars, were across the street from each other was the most obvious factor. (And I'm not going to use the "close proximity" term because that sounds like they were 2 blocks from each other; No, they were friggin' ACROSS THE STREET from each other.)
Winnipeg Arena had such a comfortable, down-home quality to it. It was like an old shoe that fits just right. You could go anywhere, downstairs or upstairs. During AWA wrestling cards, you could go downstairs and see the barricaded area that contained the hallway the wrestlers would walk through in the centre of the building to get to the arena bowl. You could peer through the cracks and maybe see the wrestlers! Maybe you could hear them. One time, there were too many people crowded around "the cracks" but I could hear Mad Dog Vachon's voice from the barricade's other side loud and clear from a few feet away from that barricade. When you are in the concession area, and you walked around to the portion that was behind the stage, there were no curtains or security guards like MTS Centre today has: You could walk right into the section and peer at the gear being stored behind the stage. Who knows, maybe you'd see one of the band members talking to a crew member if you were lucky! And up to probably well into the '80s, there was only ONE entry point into the floor area (split into two, actually - one at the left, one at the right). The ticket checker couldn't catch everybody, so if you maneuvered right and picked your spot when he was busy looking at the ticket of someone who took too much time, you could sneak through, and that was it! YOU MADE IT INTO THE ENTIRE FLOOR AREA! There were no ticket checkers stationed all over the floor area back then, checking your ticket five times as you made your way up to your third-row seat, should that be your legitimate seat. I did this for Van Halen's 1984 tour when my ticket was for an upper deck seat. Instead of sitting way up there, I was smooshed and squeezed in like sardines up front with a thousand other people in the first-few-rows area with my feet kind of resting on chairs when they could. Who cares? I WAS RIGHT UP THERE, JUST FEET AWAY FROM THE MIGHTY VAN HALEN!!!!!
Then you had the thing that joined these two music behemoths in the AA into one once a year for almost two weeks: The Red River Exhibition. All the games, rides, and music you could shake a stick at. At the Ex, you could walk into Winnipeg Arena, where booths of displays and vendors were kept, anytime all day long, not just the time period before a concert starts, and actually go through the doors and walk anywhere in the building FOR FREE!! What a novelty! And you could walk through the areas fans were normally barred from, the area the performers hung out in. That entrance in the middle of the building that the wrestlers walked out of on AWA wrestling cards that I mentioned last paragraph, I COULD WALK THROUGH!! Wow! The Stadium had the Ex's free concerts, and those are really my most memorable concerts I saw at the Stadium: Donny & Marie, Starship, The Monkees, Burton Cummings, Cheap Trick. At night the Ex was free after 11:00 p.m. (formally closed but everyone knew you can still walk through the gate and just not pay), and the combination of the darkness of the night, the Ex's rides and their lights, the warm-but-cooling-off night summer air, and the people made this the summer's most attractive and passionate environment to be in.
And parking was almost always free at the Polo Park lot. Polo Park never cared enough to stop AA parkers from parking on what was technically their lot. In later years, they tried for Winnipeg Jets games, but never for concerts or wrestling. So you could go to the Ex and park for free, unlike now. Are there any side streets or shopping mall parking lots where the Ex is now, past the Perimeter, where you can park for free? In fact, I have no idea if what I say above, where you could still get through the gates past 11:00 p.m. when they stopped charging for tickets, still applies at the Ex today in their new location. It might. But to find out, you have to pay for parking first in their lot. Then you find out the Ex really is closed and are out the money you paid for parking. Or maybe they don't let you even park, saying, "The Ex is closed for the night." So you've driven all that way for nothing. Not nice. Not good. Not cool. The Ex's new location stinks, pure and simple. (Back to the Ex at the AA: They did charge for parking at the Polo Park lot on Sunday afternoon, because they could. No Sunday shopping or all those restaurants like Earl's or Joey's back then, so you'd have no other reason to drive onto the lot. So I parked for free on St. James Street south of Portage for those Sunday afternoons, by where Olive Garden is now.)
And what of Polo Park, which still stands today? Well, does anyone remember when Polo Park was the only shopping mall in Winnipeg? There's magic right there. To those of us who grew up thinking of downtown as Winnipeg's shopping mecca, a far-off mouth-hushed-in-wonderous-amazement anomaly of an indoor enclosed shopping mall where you aren't outside between stores and subjected to the elements or the mundane, down-to-earth qualities of sidewalks, street signs and outdoor storefronts (all of which could be dirty) was ultra-sleek and shiny in comparison to begin with. When I was a kid in St. Vital, Polo Park was a place my mother and I had to transfer buses downtown to get to. Then later there was the even more far-off Unicity Fashion Square, by the Perimeter Highway, where you still transferred buses but the second bus ride was REALLY long. It all seemed exotic. And this was long before St. Vital Centre opened. But to add to that the fact Polo Park was right beside Winnipeg Arena? Electricity unparalleled. If you had the time to go through Polo Park before a concert, you could cut the buzz in the mall surrounding tonight's upcoming show with a knife. Especially in the record stores. The one drawback was attempting to buy albums by tonight's performers. What do you do with them? Who wants to lug them around the arena? If you took a car, you could leave them in the car only if it was winter. If it was summer, they'd warp. I used to think about those poor albums by tonight's artist that are left in the store unsold; The store and the mall are closing by the time the headline act hits the stage, and that act's albums have to stay and sit there, lonely, in the quiet, closed store. They can't be part of the action next door. Nowadays, of course, Polo Park is still there, but without the arena and stadium there, it's just another mall. And today, it's a mall that has been slowly eroding the spaces devoted to record stores, book/rock magazine stores, ice cream, and stationery stores in favor of clothes, clothes, and more clothes. But I digress.
The buzz before the show at Polo Park? Well, that was actually secondary. The biggest buzz was, of course, at the nearby restaurants. I mentioned Chi-Chi's. I have actually never eaten there, but walked in there once to look for someone. But certainly that was the place to go and to see and be seen before a concert or any arena event. But me, being a self-respecting jean-jacketed or black-leather-jacketed and long-haired hard rock fan back then, I went to McDonald's across St. James Street instead, where Future Shop and Old Navy are now. Again, electricity unparalleled. Everyone wearing band shirts bought from previous tours or Solar News or Dominion News downtown or through the mail from the ads in rock magazines. Guys playing air guitar. Denim, leather and hot chicks (in denim and leather) everywhere. Rock and roll ecstasy. THE place to hang out before and after the show. Long lineups don't matter when there's hot chicks in front of you to look at and maybe talk to, if they're actually there with no guy standing next to them. Is there anywhere like that close to MTS Centre? Is McDonald's at Cityplace still open before a concert or does that whole food court perhaps close at 6:00 p.m., perhaps dating back to when MTS Centre was Eatons? I guess there's Moxie's, but that's a real restaurant where you don't have the freedom to be on your own; you still have to wait for the server to bring you your check, wait for her to come back to accept payment, etc. Is that the price we pay for the mini-skirted-and-black-high-heels environment Moxie's at least provides?
And now, mainly precipitated by Winnipeg Arena's closing and demolition and replacement by the downtown MTS Centre, the AA is now gone. All being replaced by retail, offices, and more general ho-hum everyday stuff. We can sit in our parked cars in the Marshall's parking lot, where Winnipeg Arena stood, and reminisce of Winnipeg Arena concerts and how our car is parked IN THE VERY SAME SPOT THE WINNIPEG ARENA STAGE WAS ON! THE SAME SPOT THAT ALL THOSE LEGENDARY PERFORMERS PLAYED MUSIC ON!!! We can go inside Marshall's and go to the menswear section - more like old men's wear section, but whatever - and say, "This spot was where Gagne & Brunzell beat Duncum & Lanza for the AWA tag team titles on July 7, 1977," or "This is where Chris Jericho won the WWE Musical Chairs Championship live on Monday Night Raw on July 5, 2004." But the magic is gone. The ONE element that still exists today is the parking lot at the back where I used to park for Winnipeg Arena concerts and wrestling; I still enter the Polo Park lot from Portage Avenue and make the trek to the back today, except now it's for the Silver City movie theatre that now stands where Chi-Chi's mexican restaurant used to. Silver City opened before Winnipeg Arena closed in 2004, so the timelines intersect. I still think I'm parking in "Winnipeg Arena parking" when I go to Silver City for a movie now.
MTS Centre is downtown, Investors Group Stadium is in south Winnipeg, and the Red River Ex is in very extreme west Winnipeg. All at extreme ends from one another. All fine venues in and of themselves, but all with serious flaws contained in the experience of seeing shows there. (And I live in Osborne Village, right by downtown.) Some of that is written about here, but this blog's purpose is mainly be a tribute to, and celebrate the memory and nostalgia of, the AA, and to point out the uniqueness of all the elements of this area that had been huddled together, and how we had it so good in Winnipeg while it all lasted. And now it's over. And I thank my lucky stars I lived through it. Future generations will not.
Concerts weren't $100 back then, either. I think I've only seen around ten or twelve shows at MTS Centre. Well, at least I can see today's shows for free on You Tube. Thanks, all you guys that do that with your cell phones! I appreciate it. Well, there's something that's changed that's actually good.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Kevin Donnelly's Good Charlotte/Simple Plan Winnipeg Concert Fiasco Response
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE SEVENTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM DECEMBER 2005 TO MAY 2006.
Well, it took a while due to other commitments, but finally here's a new Beau Zone. One of those commitments was finding you people an explanation for the Good Charlotte/Simple Plan fiasco I opened The Beau Zone with last column. Briefly, just after the Good Charlotte/Simple Plan show was moved from The Burton Cummings Theatre to the MTS Centre this past summer, Simple Plan mysteriously dropped out. Why? My e-mails to Simple Plan bounced back, saying their inbox was full. My e-mails to Winnipeg newspaper music writers were not answered. I didn't know who the promotor was. But Kevin Donnelly, Senior Vice-President of Event Management and Building Operations for True North, which runs the MTS Centre, did respond. Now, I never saw ALL the news or advertising on this bill, which makes his response to this issue both interesting and puzzling. Was this tour only for the U.S.? Following is the response from Kevin Donnelly, Senior Vice-President of Event Management and Building Operations for True North, which runs the MTS Centre:
"I hate to break it to you, but there are no 'conspiracies' secretly held in the Winnipeg concert promoting world - no shady ties between writers and bookers and venues in an attempt to fool the public. As I recall it - and please understand I am only the venue here - I responded to a call from the promoter who was interested in moving a sold out show from Venue A (The Burt) to Venue B (MTS Centre). Simple Plan were never on the bill for the show at The Burt. They were touring together as a package in the U.S., but the package was never promoted anywhere in Canada to my knowledge. They were never mentioned in any conversations I had with the event promoter. Radio station employees (and the newspaper writers for that matter) routinely pick up info from one source and assume it is accurate - even if it is not the source they know provides the correct information for their town. Speaking from experience (I used to be a concert promoter), radio jocks and writers used to announce concerts based on info from magazines and from record companies - even if the promoter (the only one who would be 100% accurate, because they are the one creating the show) was telling them otherwise. This regularly leads to the announcing of wrong dates (happens all the time), wrong venues (Bartley Kives announced Barenaked Ladies for the Concert Hall), and sometimes even wrong performers on the bill. I don’t doubt that you may have heard SP with GC on the radio somewhere, but in reality I don’t think the show was ever booked that way for Winnipeg. Blame the lazy disc jockey who watched E Talk Daily about the tour in the U.S. and assumed the package was coming here. Sorry to disappoint. Not second shooter on the grassy knoll… - Kevin"
So there you have it. I have found tour dates on the web supporting what Kevin says, although I don't know when those pages were posted. I also tried e-mailing Remo at Hot 103, 'cause that's the station that kept saying "Good Charlotte and Simple Plan are coming" that let to the Burt selling out in five minutes in the first place, since, as you recall, I turned on the radio that night in June just as Remo's interview with someone in Simple Plan had ended and Remo had said, ".....and that's why Simple Plan won't be opening for Good Charlotte at the show's new venue, MTS Centre, now." Remo did respond to me, saying he doesn't remember any of it and that it could have been one of the other jocks. Yeah, right. I have found a great SP fan website as I write this, one that acknowledges much of the facts you have just read. I'll try asking the girl who runs it about all of this. If she has any substantial answer, I'll put it on the NEXT Beau Zone, otherwise that is all for this topic.
Well, it took a while due to other commitments, but finally here's a new Beau Zone. One of those commitments was finding you people an explanation for the Good Charlotte/Simple Plan fiasco I opened The Beau Zone with last column. Briefly, just after the Good Charlotte/Simple Plan show was moved from The Burton Cummings Theatre to the MTS Centre this past summer, Simple Plan mysteriously dropped out. Why? My e-mails to Simple Plan bounced back, saying their inbox was full. My e-mails to Winnipeg newspaper music writers were not answered. I didn't know who the promotor was. But Kevin Donnelly, Senior Vice-President of Event Management and Building Operations for True North, which runs the MTS Centre, did respond. Now, I never saw ALL the news or advertising on this bill, which makes his response to this issue both interesting and puzzling. Was this tour only for the U.S.? Following is the response from Kevin Donnelly, Senior Vice-President of Event Management and Building Operations for True North, which runs the MTS Centre:
"I hate to break it to you, but there are no 'conspiracies' secretly held in the Winnipeg concert promoting world - no shady ties between writers and bookers and venues in an attempt to fool the public. As I recall it - and please understand I am only the venue here - I responded to a call from the promoter who was interested in moving a sold out show from Venue A (The Burt) to Venue B (MTS Centre). Simple Plan were never on the bill for the show at The Burt. They were touring together as a package in the U.S., but the package was never promoted anywhere in Canada to my knowledge. They were never mentioned in any conversations I had with the event promoter. Radio station employees (and the newspaper writers for that matter) routinely pick up info from one source and assume it is accurate - even if it is not the source they know provides the correct information for their town. Speaking from experience (I used to be a concert promoter), radio jocks and writers used to announce concerts based on info from magazines and from record companies - even if the promoter (the only one who would be 100% accurate, because they are the one creating the show) was telling them otherwise. This regularly leads to the announcing of wrong dates (happens all the time), wrong venues (Bartley Kives announced Barenaked Ladies for the Concert Hall), and sometimes even wrong performers on the bill. I don’t doubt that you may have heard SP with GC on the radio somewhere, but in reality I don’t think the show was ever booked that way for Winnipeg. Blame the lazy disc jockey who watched E Talk Daily about the tour in the U.S. and assumed the package was coming here. Sorry to disappoint. Not second shooter on the grassy knoll… - Kevin"
So there you have it. I have found tour dates on the web supporting what Kevin says, although I don't know when those pages were posted. I also tried e-mailing Remo at Hot 103, 'cause that's the station that kept saying "Good Charlotte and Simple Plan are coming" that let to the Burt selling out in five minutes in the first place, since, as you recall, I turned on the radio that night in June just as Remo's interview with someone in Simple Plan had ended and Remo had said, ".....and that's why Simple Plan won't be opening for Good Charlotte at the show's new venue, MTS Centre, now." Remo did respond to me, saying he doesn't remember any of it and that it could have been one of the other jocks. Yeah, right. I have found a great SP fan website as I write this, one that acknowledges much of the facts you have just read. I'll try asking the girl who runs it about all of this. If she has any substantial answer, I'll put it on the NEXT Beau Zone, otherwise that is all for this topic.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Juno Awards Stuff
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE SIXTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM AUGUST TO DECEMBER 2005.
The Juno Awards were held in Winnipeg this past April. I have lots of comments about that:
Before the show, I had heard an announcement would be forthcoming from CARAS concerning previously-announced Juno Award performers and presenters that would now be dropping out of the awards show as they had just realized the Junos are being held the same night as Wrestlemania 21. Some of these celebrities were thinking of coming to Winnipeg anyway and just watch it at The O.C. (formerly The Beach, formerly Scandals, formerly Haggar's) at the Norlander Inn with Joe & Cyrus. Yes, I'm kidding around, although if that did happen, I wonder what matches they would have chosen to miss when it's time to spend a few minutes in the outdoor smoking compound, unless they had TVs set up out there. And there's no truth to the rumor that Neil Young was at first denied access to watch the Junos at the Canadian consulate in New York because Pamela Wallin's staff wanted to watch Wrestlemania 21, either. I wonder if Neil wanted to see W21, though? Now, how about Chantal Kreviazuk? Cancelled her appearance due to pregnancy? A likely story. She just wanted to see W21! Maybe she wanted to cheer on her fellow Winnipeg hometown hero Chris Jericho.
On a more serious note, since I couldn't get around to this comment at the time of Northern Lights, Northern Stars, the opening show at our new arena, the MTS Centre, here it is now as it pertains to the Junos: I predicted someone will say to Burton Cummings or Randy Bachman that night, "I bought your first record/I bought my first record by you right here in this building when it was Eaton's!"
And too bad Bryan Adams didn't come. When/if he does show up at MTS Centre to perform, where the stage is located is pretty damn close to where A & A Records was at Eaton Place when he did an autograph signing there when he was in Winnipeg opening for Loverboy at Winnipeg Arena in 1982. Wonder if he'd remember. I got his autograph on his "Lonely Nights" picture single. There were about 15 people in line, I think. Wow. I asked him if he'd do "Let Me Take You Dancing," a Saints Roller Rink fave. I didn't think he would but I thought I might hear an interesting story about that oddball disco song with chipmunk vocals that came out before his first album did and has never been on any album. Instead, he just said, "No." Oh, okay. Man of few words, I guess.
The Juno Awards were held in Winnipeg this past April. I have lots of comments about that:
Before the show, I had heard an announcement would be forthcoming from CARAS concerning previously-announced Juno Award performers and presenters that would now be dropping out of the awards show as they had just realized the Junos are being held the same night as Wrestlemania 21. Some of these celebrities were thinking of coming to Winnipeg anyway and just watch it at The O.C. (formerly The Beach, formerly Scandals, formerly Haggar's) at the Norlander Inn with Joe & Cyrus. Yes, I'm kidding around, although if that did happen, I wonder what matches they would have chosen to miss when it's time to spend a few minutes in the outdoor smoking compound, unless they had TVs set up out there. And there's no truth to the rumor that Neil Young was at first denied access to watch the Junos at the Canadian consulate in New York because Pamela Wallin's staff wanted to watch Wrestlemania 21, either. I wonder if Neil wanted to see W21, though? Now, how about Chantal Kreviazuk? Cancelled her appearance due to pregnancy? A likely story. She just wanted to see W21! Maybe she wanted to cheer on her fellow Winnipeg hometown hero Chris Jericho.
On a more serious note, since I couldn't get around to this comment at the time of Northern Lights, Northern Stars, the opening show at our new arena, the MTS Centre, here it is now as it pertains to the Junos: I predicted someone will say to Burton Cummings or Randy Bachman that night, "I bought your first record/I bought my first record by you right here in this building when it was Eaton's!"
And too bad Bryan Adams didn't come. When/if he does show up at MTS Centre to perform, where the stage is located is pretty damn close to where A & A Records was at Eaton Place when he did an autograph signing there when he was in Winnipeg opening for Loverboy at Winnipeg Arena in 1982. Wonder if he'd remember. I got his autograph on his "Lonely Nights" picture single. There were about 15 people in line, I think. Wow. I asked him if he'd do "Let Me Take You Dancing," a Saints Roller Rink fave. I didn't think he would but I thought I might hear an interesting story about that oddball disco song with chipmunk vocals that came out before his first album did and has never been on any album. Instead, he just said, "No." Oh, okay. Man of few words, I guess.
Good Charlotte/Simple Plan Winnipeg Concert Fiasco
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE SIXTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM AUGUST TO DECEMBER 2005.
Does anyone know why Simple Plan bailed out of their gig with Good Charlotte here in Winnipeg, MB? It was kind of a fiasco, as they were originally booked into the 2000-seat Burton Cummings Theatre that sold out in five minutes, then the show was moved to our arena, the MTS Centre, THEN Simple Plan is mysteriously off the show! Hey, it's in an arena and it sold out the theatre because it's "Good Charlotte & Simple Plan," NOT Good Charlotte and two no-name bands that ended up opening for them. I actually heard a bit of talk on this on the radio but not enough. As I awoke from a nap, I heard Remo on Hot 103 saying, ".....and that's why Simple Plan isn't opening for Good Charlotte anymore." I thought I'd read about it in our two daily newspapers but they both mysteriously ignored it! What's the dirt on this? What's the conspiracy? Good thing I didn't buy a ticket! I was going to buy one when the show first moved to the MTS Centre but couldn't get around to it for a couple of days and I'm glad because it was after those two days that I almost heard Remo as I describe above. Good thing I didn't immediately do it! Wow, what a bait-and-switch this appears to be! Maybe some party didn't want the Winnipeg media "putting ideas into fans' heads" of potentially asking for refunds because Simple Plan cancelled. Maybe promoters or someone's management wanted the Winnipeg fans to forget Simple Plan were ever on this bill. The promoters should have moved it back to the theatre once they found out Simple Plan was dropping out. So does anyone know why Simple Plan dropped out?
Does anyone know why Simple Plan bailed out of their gig with Good Charlotte here in Winnipeg, MB? It was kind of a fiasco, as they were originally booked into the 2000-seat Burton Cummings Theatre that sold out in five minutes, then the show was moved to our arena, the MTS Centre, THEN Simple Plan is mysteriously off the show! Hey, it's in an arena and it sold out the theatre because it's "Good Charlotte & Simple Plan," NOT Good Charlotte and two no-name bands that ended up opening for them. I actually heard a bit of talk on this on the radio but not enough. As I awoke from a nap, I heard Remo on Hot 103 saying, ".....and that's why Simple Plan isn't opening for Good Charlotte anymore." I thought I'd read about it in our two daily newspapers but they both mysteriously ignored it! What's the dirt on this? What's the conspiracy? Good thing I didn't buy a ticket! I was going to buy one when the show first moved to the MTS Centre but couldn't get around to it for a couple of days and I'm glad because it was after those two days that I almost heard Remo as I describe above. Good thing I didn't immediately do it! Wow, what a bait-and-switch this appears to be! Maybe some party didn't want the Winnipeg media "putting ideas into fans' heads" of potentially asking for refunds because Simple Plan cancelled. Maybe promoters or someone's management wanted the Winnipeg fans to forget Simple Plan were ever on this bill. The promoters should have moved it back to the theatre once they found out Simple Plan was dropping out. So does anyone know why Simple Plan dropped out?
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Rock And Roll (Sort Of)
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE FOURTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM DECEMBER 2004 TO APRIL 2005.
Hilary Duff in January at the MTS Centre.....Wonder if she'll tell us the Winnipeg Arena is "so yesterday, so yesterday.....?"
Hilary Duff in January at the MTS Centre.....Wonder if she'll tell us the Winnipeg Arena is "so yesterday, so yesterday.....?"
Monday, December 7, 2009
The New Arena, The MTS Centre
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE FIRST EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM APRIL TO JUNE 2004.
The new arena in Winnipeg, the MTS Centre, will be opening up this fall. Let's talk about parking and other issues surrounding it, shall we?
My main concern regarding parking would be in the winter, I guess, when it's -30 out and you park your car outdoors somewhere and you go from the arena event to a nearby bar or lounge and stay there until 2:00 a.m. Then you've left your car outside unplugged for 6 hours, which means you may need a boost. (Well, my car won't, but cars I used to own would.) At least with Winnipeg Arena, you're definitely starting your car after the event is over.
Plus if you do that, you have to be aware of when you can and can't retreive your car from indoor parking garages (year-round). If they're closed by the time you leave the nightclub you're at in the wee hours, then you're out of luck until next morning. That means those garages are off limits to you and your plans. You'll have to do your legwork ahead of time to learn which places aren't an option for you to park in.
Personally, I'm in Osborne Village, so it may be easy for me to take a quick bus home and get in my car there (i.e. free parking) and head off to a club afterward. Or just walk, if a great rock show is at The Zoo. So I'm a bit prejudiced.
I think the Eaton's site is a great site for a new arena - it's right across the street from Winnipeg's rock corner, consisting of O Calcutta and Wild Planet (rock t-shirts) and A & B Sound (the CD's themselves). Maybe those places will stay open late after the MTS Centre concerts so you can buy the band's t-shirts there at reduced prices instead of paying the inflated arena t-shirt prices.
As far as downtown revitalization goes, we do need people living downtown - how about tearing down most buildings bounded by Portage, Garry, Graham, and Smith, plus the empty buildings on the north side of Portage just north of that block (where Records on Wheels and the first Musiplex used to be) and putting up highrises and condos there? It's mostly old junk in that block. And get rid of the St. Regis Hotel and the derilicts that hang out there, too.
That's a perfect block for people to live in - everything's within walking distance. Shopping to the left (Portage Place), the arena to the left, and nightclubs and the Exchange District to the north (and the walk isn't long). Plus financial stuff to the right at Portage & Main. Why doesn't anyone think of that?
The new arena in Winnipeg, the MTS Centre, will be opening up this fall. Let's talk about parking and other issues surrounding it, shall we?
My main concern regarding parking would be in the winter, I guess, when it's -30 out and you park your car outdoors somewhere and you go from the arena event to a nearby bar or lounge and stay there until 2:00 a.m. Then you've left your car outside unplugged for 6 hours, which means you may need a boost. (Well, my car won't, but cars I used to own would.) At least with Winnipeg Arena, you're definitely starting your car after the event is over.
Plus if you do that, you have to be aware of when you can and can't retreive your car from indoor parking garages (year-round). If they're closed by the time you leave the nightclub you're at in the wee hours, then you're out of luck until next morning. That means those garages are off limits to you and your plans. You'll have to do your legwork ahead of time to learn which places aren't an option for you to park in.
Personally, I'm in Osborne Village, so it may be easy for me to take a quick bus home and get in my car there (i.e. free parking) and head off to a club afterward. Or just walk, if a great rock show is at The Zoo. So I'm a bit prejudiced.
I think the Eaton's site is a great site for a new arena - it's right across the street from Winnipeg's rock corner, consisting of O Calcutta and Wild Planet (rock t-shirts) and A & B Sound (the CD's themselves). Maybe those places will stay open late after the MTS Centre concerts so you can buy the band's t-shirts there at reduced prices instead of paying the inflated arena t-shirt prices.
As far as downtown revitalization goes, we do need people living downtown - how about tearing down most buildings bounded by Portage, Garry, Graham, and Smith, plus the empty buildings on the north side of Portage just north of that block (where Records on Wheels and the first Musiplex used to be) and putting up highrises and condos there? It's mostly old junk in that block. And get rid of the St. Regis Hotel and the derilicts that hang out there, too.
That's a perfect block for people to live in - everything's within walking distance. Shopping to the left (Portage Place), the arena to the left, and nightclubs and the Exchange District to the north (and the walk isn't long). Plus financial stuff to the right at Portage & Main. Why doesn't anyone think of that?
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