Toronto Massey Hall Revitalization at the Allied Music Centre | 48.46m | 7s | KPMB

I've seen many shows at Massey over the years, but probably the most peculiar one for me was a bunch of stars from The Young & the Restless doing a sing and dance thing for a few hours. If I had to guess, I'd say this was around 1990.
Yup, too many to visits to remember them all, but what I do remember is a rather eclectic mix that includes Bruce Cockburn (probably more than once), Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Elvis Costello, singing the Messiah with the Tafelmusik, Diana Krall, David Sedaris, Alan Cumming, Devo, Spinal Tap, Toronto Symphony when I was a kid (they used to do Pops concerts way back way back, the TSO also backing a few silent films that TIFF used to show like Alexander Nevsky… Did I see Jane Sibbery there? Twice at Hugh's Room, can't remember re: Massey, and kd lang at the O'Keefe, not Massey… hmm. Now I'm wondering whom I've forgotten. Haven't been back yet, but I'm looking forward to it!

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Even if you haven't seen our front page story on the winners of our yearly poll yet, it probably won't be a surprise that Massey Hall won this height category!

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Mariners’ Church of Detroit honors Gordon Lightfoot with Tuesday ringing of bells

From link.

Decades ago, in the final verse of his most beloved hit, Gordon Lightfoot depicted a solemn scene at Mariners’ Church of Detroit: "The church bell chimed 'til it rang 29 times / For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

At 3 p.m. Tuesday, the bells at Mariners’ Church rang out again — now chiming 30 times to honor those perished sailors along with the artist who famously memorialized them in song.

Lightfoot, who died Monday in Toronto at age 84, topped the pop charts in the U.S. and his native Canada with “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” his 1976 account of the Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior the year prior.
With its haunting melody and vivid storytelling, the folk ballad endured as Lightfoot’s personal favorite among the host of songs he composed during a six-decade career. Having grown up in southern Ontario, he had his own attachment to the majesty and mystery of the Great Lakes, and that spirit rang true in "Edmund Fitzgerald."
The song’s closing verse cites the prayers and ringing bells at “a musty old hall in Detroit” paying tribute to the 29 men who perished in the Nov. 10, 1975, shipwreck.

Though Lightfoot’s lyrics called it the “Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral,” it was in fact a reference to Mariners’ Church, the Jefferson Avenue church founded in 1842 as a place of worship for sailors. Lightfoot later visited the church, prompting him to change “musty” to “rustic” in his concert performances of the song.

Lisa Baker, chairman of the board of trustees at Mariners’ Church, said Tuesday's bell ringing was a fitting honor for the late singer-songwriter behind “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” It was Lightfoot, after all, who canonized the 1975 prayer session and bell salute led by the church’s Bishop Richard Ingalls.
“I think the song has resonated because it immortalized that act,” Baker said. “It meant something especially for the families, because each ring of the bell was one of the men's lives. The song propelled this singular act into Great Lakes folklore forever.”

Tuesday's bell ceremony was arranged quickly, and a handful of Lightfoot fans gathered outside the church on a gray, drizzly afternoon for the 3 p.m. moment. Among them was a bagpiper who was invited inside, where he performed a galvanizing "Amazing Grace."

“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” turned Mariners’ Church into an unlikely music landmark in Detroit — one church staffer said “not a day goes by” without a phone call or visit from fans intrigued by the site. (The building's bell tower also features a granite marker honoring late MC5 guitarist Fred Smith, donated in 1995 by his widow, Patti Smith.)
And the bell-ringing tradition endures at Mariners’ Church: On a Sunday every November, downtown Detroit fills with the sound of bells in a ceremony now called the Great Lakes Memorial, honoring all the sailors who have lost their lives on the five lakes.

Rang 30 times. (29 + 1 for Lightfoot.)
 
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