Cancelled show in Halifax

[Prince Whiskers]

Halifax is toying with the idea of naming a path after Celine?! What's the betting that Dion's Way would get desecrated by hooligans? If you ask me, Halifax is such an accurate microcosm of the world's attitude towards Celine. There are those who'd give her the moon and the stars and there are those who'd savor the moment of throwing her down hell's deepest pit.

[Thecolourofmylove]

Sorry if this has been posted, but the picture got me...

 

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o84/nafnoid23/Celine/thedailynews21november.jpg

 

 

I know, right?!? How the hell can they draw those things so fast!!

[Bellamy]

More bullshit from Halifax Journalist.

Just walk away, René!

 

By ALEX ROBERTS

Thu. Nov 29 - 6:18 AM

 

 

 

 

LIKE MOST baby boomers who grew up during the heyday of rock and roll in the 1960s, I like to think I know a thing or two about popular music – and even what makes for a successful (or unsuccessful) music concert.

 

Indeed, in an earlier life, I went so far as to postpone my entry into the "real world" (the teaching profession) for nearly three years, in order to operate a Halifax-based entertainment agency, which I co-owned with a business partner. Along with booking many popular Maritime artists (Moon-Minglewood and April Wine, for example), our agency brought in and promoted a number of major touring acts for university winter carnivals, or for one-off concert appearances.

 

As well as a professional interest in music, I also managed to follow my musical muse by travelling to some relatively exotic places to see and hear favourite entertainers and bands. These musical junkets ran the gamut from watching hard-core punk rockers at some dubious clubs in Scotland, to a four-day pop festival at the Isle of Wight in 1970. (The Guinness Book of Records still lists the IOW as the all-time pop concert attendance record of 600,000.)

 

Along with iconic rock acts such as The Who, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix, the Isle of Wight featured a set by the wonderfully talented Joni Mitchell. Alas, the audience showed her little respect, despite the fact she was riding high on the charts at the time with Big Yellow Taxi and a successful album. Simply put, her performance was lost in the gigantic venue, and went largely unappreciated by a hard-rock audience roiled up by record high temperatures and overly zealous security.

 

At one point, after a chorus of catcalls, she broke down in tears, and was only able to go on after an emotional appeal to the crowd to "stop behaving like tourists." It was painful to witness, but it was clear to me that Mitchell was the victim of a greedy and inept promoter, who had booked her into the wrong venue – one that did not suit her folksy, intimate style.

 

So, where am I going with this? Simply, that savvy concert promoters know it is just as important to choose venues that move their artist’s career forward as it is to sell tickets. Common sense and my own experience suggest choosing the right venue is a function of several intertwined factors, including the location and capacity of the venue, audience demographics, stage size, acoustics, technical requirements, timing and ticket prices. Alas, several of these basic marketing tenets seemed to have escaped the Gillett Entertainment group, and music impresario René Angélil, when they booked pop diva Celine Dion for a concert next summer on the Halifax Common.

 

The last time I checked, the Halifax Common was a passable outdoor rock concert venue, but with several obvious deficiencies. There is little public parking in the area, the fields suffer from poor drainage, and trees and fountains obscure some of the sightlines. In addition, the fields offer no slope, which negates any amphitheatre effect and means that unless expensive-to-install bleachers are brought in, many attendees end up standing for the entire event.

 

Certainly, the Common works well enough for resilient, outdoor rock fans, who are used to standing and seem to revel in difficult conditions (witness the 50,000 fans who watched the Rolling Stones in a rainy quagmire in 2006). However, it was never going to be an appropriate venue for Celine Dion fans, who tend to be the soft-seat theatre variety from an older age demographic.

 

Nor is the Common well suited to showcase the extravagant production features that go along with Dion’s schmaltzy Las Vegas-style act – a fact that was noted in a press release by the promoters after they predictably cancelled the ill-fated event.

 

According to the Gillett Entertainment Group, "Following discussions with various professionals and experts, it was agreed that the venue was not appropriate for the concert’s elaborate production needs and would not satisfy the best interests of Celine Dion’s public."

 

In my opinion, the "Dion on the Common" concert was never a viable event. And despite Trade Centre CEO Fred MacGillivray’s absurd prediction that there would have been "upwards of 50,000 (tickets) sold," there was no way even half that number of Dion diehards would have forked out the rumoured $125-$520 ticket prices to watch her in the relative discomfort of the Halifax Common.

 

What, then, are we to make of René Angélil, Dion’s avuncular manager/husband, who shortly after the Gillett announcement claimed he walked away from the show because of negative media reaction? While Angélil’s misguided diatribe made for great theatre, it directly contradicted the earlier statement by the promoters, as well as sullied Halifax’s already shaky reputation as a venue for big-ticket performers.

 

Maybe the next time Celine Dion’s handlers are considering Halifax for a tour stop, Mr. Angélil might want to remind the promoters that they should conduct their market research BEFORE booking the Quebec chanteuse. Better still, he might want to get in touch with Joni Mitchell for a few tips on finding the right venue.

 

( aroberts@herald.ca)

 

Alex Roberts is a Halifax-based writer and educational speaker.

His email is aroberts@herald.ca

[Prince Whiskers]

What's wrong with A.Roberts and his ilk?! They whined like b--chy divas when the concert was annouced and they're still rankled now that it's been called off.

[chocolatechip15]

Just reading all this for the first time, now. Wow . . . so awful that Celine was treated that way, and bravo to Rene for canceling. He always protects her and insists on her being treated with respect. I wonder what Aldo would have done in this situation. (Not saying he wouldn't have done the same; we just don't really know much about how he works).

 

Does anyone have the audio or video of the interview with Rene? The links don't work anymore, but it would be so interesting to hear it. Thanks.

[Del]

I can check for you as I know I have stuff. I understand Rene's point on this but it was a very small percentage of the people that complained. They were just very vocal about it. What agrivates me about this was if they had booked the 10 thousand seat arena for the concert nothing would have been said. It was the fact that it was choosen to be an oudoor concert and some locals thought that these outdoor concerts should only be rock concerts.

 

The ones that lost in this was fans. This being my city I am still offended at the reaction over an outdoor concert. If you don't like the artist that is giving the concert don't go, but let the fans enjoy the artist they admire.

 

Oh and on a side note since this debacle... there hasn't been many successful outdoor concerts in the city.

[chocolatechip15]

I can check for you as I know I have stuff. I understand Rene's point on this but it was a very small percentage of the people that complained. They were just very vocal about it. What agrivates me about this was if they had booked the 10 thousand seat arena for the concert nothing would have been said. It was the fact that it was choosen to be an oudoor concert and some locals thought that these outdoor concerts should only be rock concerts.

 

The ones that lost in this was fans. This being my city I am still offended at the reaction over an outdoor concert. If you don't like the artist that is giving the concert don't go, but let the fans enjoy the artist they admire.

 

Oh and on a side note since this debacle... there hasn't been many successful outdoor concerts in the city.

 

Thanks, Del! I'd be so interested in anything you have.

 

It must have been so disappointing for Celine fans in Halifax . .to think she's coming to your hometown and then have it cancelled. And there are people who mock Celine everywhere -- probably no greater proportion in Halifax than anywhere else -- but it's crazy how loud and prominent they were here. Having a headline - a headline! - with "Say it ain't so" and how disappointing it is to have Celine come?? Facebook groups to ban her? Angry call-in radio shows? It looks like, after the show was canceled, there were these calm, reasonable articles about how the outdoor venue was wrong (of course, Celine Sur Le Plaines kinda proved them wrong . .) -- but at the first announcement, the level of anger and negativity towards Celine is crazy.

 

And I think it's touching that Rene saw this and said, "I'm not sending my wife into this." Interesting, though, that he said he hadn't told her about it. I imagine she must have found out eventually, with all the media around this. Did she ever speak about it?

 

But it must have been so disappointing for all the loyal fans in Halifax -- and I'm sure there were many - who end up losing out b/c of what a few stupid people did.

[DionFanAlways]

This is an interesting thread. I had no clue it got that ugly! Tsk! Tsk!

 

Just read the first post in this thread................

 

"I'm very upset that Celine has cancelled her performance here in Halifax. Maybe its because she has a concert in Quebec City the day before or is it because she feels she doesn't have to come to a smaller city to make her fans happy? I was a very big fan of Celine's. but this makes me so disappointed in her. If this city was good enough for the" ROLLING STONES" then I'm sure its good enough for you Celine. Your loss. Former Celine fan!!!! "

Edited January 22, 2015 at 02:25 AM by DionFanAlways

[Del]

Thanks, Del! I'd be so interested in anything you have.

 

It must have been so disappointing for Celine fans in Halifax . .to think she's coming to your hometown and then have it cancelled. And there are people who mock Celine everywhere -- probably no greater proportion in Halifax than anywhere else -- but it's crazy how loud and prominent they were here. Having a headline - a headline! - with "Say it ain't so" and how disappointing it is to have Celine come?? Facebook groups to ban her? Angry call-in radio shows? It looks like, after the show was canceled, there were these calm, reasonable articles about how the outdoor venue was wrong (of course, Celine Sur Le Plaines kinda proved them wrong . .) -- but at the first announcement, the level of anger and negativity towards Celine is crazy.

 

And I think it's touching that Rene saw this and said, "I'm not sending my wife into this." Interesting, though, that he said he hadn't told her about it. I imagine she must have found out eventually, with all the media around this. Did she ever speak about it?

 

But it must have been so disappointing for all the loyal fans in Halifax -- and I'm sure there were many - who end up losing out b/c of what a few stupid people did.

This wasn't the first time she'd be coming here either. All of her previous English tours (5 of them) had a stop here.