Here in a time and place: Tragically Hip to play two shows in Toronto
Posted May 25, 2016 8:06 am.
Last Updated May 25, 2016 12:27 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s going to be a bittersweet goodbye and but also a celebration of music.
The Tragically Hip announced details of their upcoming summer tour on Wednesday, with 11 shows in 10 cities including two in Toronto.
This comes on the heels of Wednesday’s announcement that frontman Gord Downie has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. It will likely be their last tour.
Related stories:
Gord Downie has aggressive, incurable brain cancer
Gord Downie ready to ‘blow people’s minds’ on tour in wake of cancer diagnosis
The Top 10 most Canadian lyrics of The Tragically Hip
The tour starts on July 22 in Victoria, B.C., and ends in their hometown of Kingston on Aug. 20. The Hip performs at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Aug. 10 and Aug. 12.
Other stops on the tour include Vancouver (July 24), Edmonton (July 28), Calgary (Aug. 1), Winnipeg (Aug. 5), London (Aug. 8), Hamilton (Aug. 16), and Ottawa (Aug. 18).
Tickets for the tour go on sale at 10 a.m. on June 3.
The Tragically Hip’s 14th studio album, ‘Man Machine Poem,’ is set for release on June 17. The album was largely completed prior to Downie learning about the tumour, his manager said.
Band managers Patrick Sambrook and Bernie Breen said doctors have cleared the 52-year-old father of four to hit the road following surgery and treatment for glioblastoma – the most common and aggressive type of tumour to start in the brain.
“The will to do the tour, that was easy,” Sambrook said at a press conference also attended by Downie’s neuro-oncologist, Dr. James Perry.
“The (question was): ‘Can we do this?’ and ‘Can we do it to the level that (we want)?’ It’s a pro band, Gord absolutely doesn’t want to go out there unless he can really do his thing and so I mean, their head space, his head space is: ‘We want to blow people’s minds.'”
