Marcel Marceau has become legendary as one of the greatest mimes of all time. But, before he cemented his place in performance history, Marceau’s knack for performing made him a unique asset to French resistance against Nazi forces during World War II. As the story goes, Marceau helped a group of children escape Nazi-occupied France by using his skills of mimicry to safely lead them into Switzerland.
Billy Talent And Friends Announce Benefit Concert For Victims Of Toronto’s Danforth Shooting
Toronto’s Billy Talent have announced that they will be hosting a benefit concert for the victims of the tragic shooting on Danforth Avenue. The Billy Talent and Friends TOronto TOgether concert will see special appearances from City and Colour and PUP and others. All proceeds from the concert will be donated to support the victims of this shooting via the #TORONTOSTRONG / Toronto Foundation. In an effort to support the local community that has been devastated by these events, the concert will be held at The Danforth Music Hall on August 11, during the Taste of the Danforth festival. Those who want to attend the event can get tickets here beginning Wednesday, August 1st at 10:00 AM EST.
In a statement announcing this benefit the band wrote:
We write this with a broken heart. What has happened in Toronto this summer and with what happened on the Danforth a few blocks from our studio, has not only hit close to home, this HAS hit home. All we know is that we can’t just sit here. We don’t know what we want but we want to do something. We want to throw a concert to show the world and more importantly our community that Toronto is a place of love, of community, of kindness and compassion. The violence that has happened here this summer does not represent the majority. This city is one of the best places in the world and we have to stand up and band together. Let’s raise money for the victims and their families. Let’s get the artists and people of the city to stand together. While none of us have all the answers we feel we need to make a start. We need to help, but let’s fucking do something TOGETHER. Let’s get the powers that be TOGETHER. Let’s do something special for our city and all the amazing people that live here and deserve to be celebrated.
Since their inception 25 years ago, giving back to their community has always been important to Billy Talent, who recently founded their own charity trust. The Billy Talent Charity Trust is administered by the band’s drummer Aaron Solowoniuk, and was created as a vehicle for Billy Talent and their fans to raise funds and awareness for various charities helping youth.
Reuben And The Dark Covers The Tragically Hip’s “Bobcaygeon” With Proceeds To The Gord Downie And Chanie Wenjack Fund
Available to purchase and stream today, proceeds from Reuben and the Dark’s cover of The Tragically Hip’s timeless and nation-defining song Bobcaygeon will benefit the Gord Downie And Chanie Wenjack Fund, which is part of Gord Downie’s legacy and embodies his commitment, and that of his family, to improving the lives of First Peoples.
“It’s not often that a song can move the performer as much as it moves the audience,” says Reuben Bullock of his band Reuben and the Dark’s tribute to Gord Downie. “The first time we played ‘Bobcaygeon’ in front of a crowd, I knew we needed to get into a studio and record it. Feeling how widely Gord’s spirit resonates, I wanted to release my version for the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund as my way of using our voice to support and engage with Gord’s vision of reconciliation.”
In collaboration with the Wenjack family, the goal of the fund is to continue the conversation that began with Chanie Wenjack’s residential school story, and to aid our collective reconciliation journey through awareness, education and action.
“The Downie Wenjack Fund is important because of its focus on youth, its active education on Indigenous history, and the creation of connections with this land’s rich Indigenous culture. I am compelled to be a part of this action, to be both a listener and a participant in these conversations, a student of these issues, and a proponent of progress,” Bullock said.
The spirited folk-rock outfit recently released a new album, Arms of a Dream, out now on Arts & Crafts. The record finds songwriter/vocalist Reuben Bullock working outside his comfort zone, both musically and lyrically. The result is Bullock’s most vivid and transformative music to date: an intimate exploration of the inversion of imagination and reality in dreams.
On the heels of a successful stint of U.S. tour dates, a stop at Field Trip Festival and magical sets at Interstellar Rodeo and Calgary Folk Festival, Reuben and the Dark is adding more dates to their fall tour. The band will perform in their home province of Alberta on October 29 at The Winspear Theatre in Edmonton, October 30 at The Jack Singer in Calgary and November 3 in Lethbridge at Southminster United Church. Full list of tour dates can be found here and below.
TOUR DATES
07/31: Quebec, QC – L’Anti
08/02: Charlottetown, PEI – Fishbones
08/03: Saint John, NB – Uptown Saint John
08/04: Saint John, NB – Area 506 Festival
08/05: New Glasgow, NS – The Riverfront Jubilee
08/07: Vancouver, BC – Outdoor Plaza at Queen Elizabeth Theatre
08/09: Winston-Salem, NC – Sunset Thursdays at Bailey Park
08/10: Prince Edward County, ON – Hayloft
10/18: Halifax, NS – Halifax Pop Explosion: The Seahorse
10/23: Ann Arbor, MI – The Ark
10/25: Chicago, IL – Schubas
10/26: Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
10/27: Winnipeg, MB – WECC
10/29: Edmonton, AB – Winspear
10/30: Calgary, AB – Jack Singer
11/01: Saskatoon, SK – Broadway Theatre
11/02: Regina, SK – Westminster United Church
11/03: Lethbridge, AB – Southminster United Church
11/07: Victoria, BC – Capital Ballroom
11/08: Vancouver, BC – Imperial Theatre
11/14: Toronto, ON – Mod Club
11/17: Montreal, QC – L’Astral
Photo Gallery: Dua Lipa with Allie X at Toronto’s RBC Echo Beach
All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her at minismemories@hotmail.com
Ticketmaster surveys Canadians about summer concert season. The findings? You LOVE concerts.
Ticketmaster has just released some national statistics on the state of live music fandom in Canada. Of note, just over half of Canadians (53%) are planning to attend at least one live music event this summer. 4 in 5 of those planning to attend a summer concert are planning to attend at least 1-3 shows. Summer concert-going is biggest among millennials, with 58% planning to attend at least one concert compared with 47% of those aged 55+. True to form, Ontario is keeping up with the Canadian fan average – 50% of Ontarians plan to attend 1-5 live music events this summer.
Distance does not deter Canadians from going to their favourite shows
- 1 out of 3 Canadians have travelled more than 100km to see their favourite shows.
Canadians love experiencing live music events with family and friends
- Canadians rank their top 3 favourite things to do at a live event as:
- Spending quality time with friends/family (43%)
- Singing along to their favourite songs (36%)
- Dancing along to the music (10%)
- Men are more likely to rank spending quality time at concerts with friends/family as their favourite thing to do, while women are more likely to rank singing along to their favourite songs as theirs (42% vs. 31% of men)
Canadians rank refreshments as their #1 live music event essential… while millennials value staying connected, capturing moments, and sharing with their friends
- The most commonly ranked items in the top live event essentials were:
- Refreshments such as water, cold drinks, pop (50%)
- Cellphone charger (19%)
- Being more attached to technology, millennials are much more likely to bring their cellphones (34%)
Canadians love to rock
- The top 5 rated music genres amongst Canadians were: Rock (26%), Pop (18%), Country (14%), Classical (7%), and Alternative (6%).
- Men are much more likely to pick Rock music as their favourite genre (32%) compared with women (20%), whereas women are much more likely to choose Pop music (22%) than men (13%)
- Country (23%) and Classical (11%) have a stronger hold among those aged 55+ compared with millennials, where Pop music ranks highest at 23%
About the Survey
These findings are based on a Maru/Blue Omnibus survey conducted on behalf of Ticketmaster. From June 22 to June 24, 2018, an online survey of 1,521 randomly selected Canadian adults (595 in Ontario) who are Maru Voice Canada panelists was executed by Maru/Blue. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error (which measures sampling variability) of +/- 2.5% (4.0% in Ontario), 19 times out of 20. The results have been weighted to match the population, according to Census data.
SOCAN and SODRAC Announce Integration of Music Rights Management in Canada
Both organizations announced today that SOCAN’s acquisition of SODRAC has closed, enabling SOCAN to offer an integrated approach to the management of both performing rights and reproduction rights of songwriters, composers and music publishers.
The combination of SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors & Music Publishers of Canada) and SODRAC (the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers & Publishers in Canada) is a historic moment for music rights in Canada, and broadens the choices available, notably for music publishers and self published writers for the licensing of the reproduction right.
For the first time in Canada, a single organization – SOCAN – will be able to license, track and distribute all royalties for both music performing rights and mechanical rights.
A transition period will result in the full integration of the organizations. Efficiencies in overhead expenses and operations will be sought and ultimately passed along for the benefit of members.
“SOCAN is thrilled to complete a made-in-Canada solution for music rights holders in this country and worldwide,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste. “This transaction fits perfectly with SOCAN’s goal of leading the global transformation of music rights, and SOCAN’s past and ongoing commitment to create alliances within the Canadian music ecosystem. With the full integration of SODRAC’s assets and expansion into mechanical rights, the combination of public performance and reproduction rights increases efficiencies, leverages licensing relationships, and reduces operating costs, resulting in even more music royalties going to those who have earned them.”
“The integration of SODRAC into SOCAN is the result of many years of discussions and negotiations,” said Lise Aubut, Chair of SODRAC’s Board of Directors and co-founder of SODRAC in 1985. “Today, this concentration of energy and resources has become essential in a context where markets are globalized, copyright media is dematerialized, and the financial means necessary to defend rights in a digital world are prodigious. Music is borderless, and tracking musical works requires cutting-edge technology that provides services to a large number of music rights-holders and users.”
The integration of the management of public performance rights and reproduction rights will have many advantages, including:
- One-stop musical works registrations.
- More timely and accurate distributions and reduced operating costs for all rights holder members.
- Unified licensing for businesses using music.
- An a la carte representation of reproduction rights for all.
- Increased efficiencies through leveraged licensing relationships.
SODRAC’s expertise in the visual arts and crafts sector, which involves more than 40,000 creators and rights holders, will continue within SOCAN.
SOCAN and SODRAC teams are hard at work to bring the companies together harmoniously. SODRAC’s management team and employees will become employees of SOCAN. SODRAC’s current General Manager Alain Lauzon will continue his work as a special consultant to SOCAN’s CEO.
With SOCAN’s innovations and acquisitions, including SODRAC, no music rights organization in the world has such a comprehensive ability to monitor, collect and distribute royalties for music rights-holders. SOCAN is proud to offer an expanded suite of services to digital service providers, music creators and music publishers, benefiting its members and positioning the company as the world leader in the digital music age.
SOCAN continues to power many facets of the Canadian music industry, looking for opportunities to lead the global transformation of music rights, providing leading-edge services to music rights holders. In 2016, the organization launched its Royalty Guru service and API portal, acquired Seattle-based MediaNet and New York-based music technology company Audiam.
The final work from Leonard Cohen is going to be published this fall
On October 8, 2018, Penguin Books will be releasing The Flame, a stunning collection of Leonard Cohen’s last poems, selected and ordered by the author in the final months of his life. It features lyrics, prose pieces, and illustrations, and the book also contains an extensive selection from Cohen’s notebooks, which he kept in poetic form throughout his life, and offers an unprecedentedly intimate look inside the life and mind of a singular artist and thinker.
This will be the final work from Cohen, Canada’s most celebrated poet and an artist whose audience spans generations and whose work is known and loved throughout the world.
An enormously powerful final chapter in Cohen’s storied literary career, The Flame showca ses the full range of Leonard Cohen’s lyricism, from the exquisitely transcendent to the darkly funny. By turns devastatingly sad and winningly strange, these are the works of a poet and lyricist who has plumbed the depths of our darkest questions and come up wanting, yearning for more.
Leonard Cohen’s artistic career began in 1956 with the publication of his first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies. He published two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, and ten books of poetry, most recently Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs and Book of Longing. During a recording career that spanned almost fifty years, he released fourteen studio albums, the last of which, You Want It Darker, was released in 2016. Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, and was awarded the Glenn Gould Prize in 2011. He died on November 7, 2016.
You can pre-order it here.
Watch Tom Cruise Leap From a Plane in ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’
Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, and the actor is still doing his own stunts. In this scene, Tom Cruise completes a stunt where he leaps from a plane at 25,000 feet while a skydiving camera operator follows his every move. The director Christopher McQuarrie discusses the complexities of how the scene was made.
Classified Announces “The Day Things Change” Tour
JUNO Award winning, multi-platinum Canadian hip-hop artist and producer, Classified announced today that he’ll embark on a 27-date national headlining tour across Canada in support of his latest release – the acclaimed new EP “Tomorrow Could Be…” Kicking off in Kingston, Ontario on October 11th, The Day Things Change Tour will see stops across Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia before heading east to Quebec.
Tickets for Classified’s ‘The Day Things Change’ Tour go on sale Wednesday, August 1st at 10:00 AM local time.
The relentless hit maker also confirmed the release of the video for the EP’s “Damn Right” as well.
Classified’s “Tomorrow Could Be…” EP honours female empowerment, pays tribute to missing and murdered Indigenous women and lends a voice to children and women who have been abused among other themes. With a humble determination, Classified (aka Luke Boyd), brings attention to a number of important ‘modern day’ topics and issues throughout the EP.
“Damn Right” follows previously released videos for “standout cut” (Billboard) “Fallen”, “She Ain’t Gotta Do Much’, “Powerless” and “Changes”, in addition to the release of acoustic videos for both “Fallen” and “She Ain’t Gotta Do Much”.
With an inherent and candid ability to break down the barrier between performer and audience, Classified is one of Canada’s most respected and successful rap artists and producers. His self-titled 2013 release debuted at No. 1 on the Canadian Nielsen Soundscan Chart and has sold over 1 million singles and is certified 2x Platinum. Additionally, the album boasts two Top 10 singles including the 5x Platinum “Inner Ninja” featuring David Myles and thePlatinum certified “3 Foot Tall”. As one of the most influential hip-hop artists in Canada with over 100 million streams globally, the multiple JUNO Award winner hosted the 2014 JUNO Awards and has a combined 24 nominations and 8 wins between the MuchMusic Video Awards, JUNO Awards, and East Coast Music Awards.
2018 THE DAY THINGS CHANGE TOUR DATES
October 11 – The Ale House – Kingston, ON
October 12 – Barrymore’s – Ottawa, ON
October 13 – The Red Dog – Peterborough, ON
October 16 – L3 Nightclub – St. Catharines, ON
October 17 – Guelph Concert Theatre – Guelph, ON
October 18 – The Music Hall – Oshawa, ON
October 19 – London Music Hall – London, ON
October 20 – Mavericks – Barrie, ON
October 22 – SOO Blaster – Sault Ste. Marie, ON
October 24 – The Garrick Centre – Winnipeg, MB
October 25 – The 40 – Brandon, MB
October 26 – O’Brian’s Event Centre – Saskatoon, SK
October 27 – The Palace – Calgary, AB
October 28 – Bo’s Bar & Stage – Red Deer, AB
October 30 – Kelowna Community Theatre – Kelowna, BC
November 1 – Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, BC
November 2 – Capital Ballroom – Victoria, BC
November 3 – The Queens – Nanaimo, BC
November 4 – Garfinkel’s – Whistler, BC
November 6 – Spirit Bar – Nelson, BC
November 8 – Club Line – Lethbridge, AB
November 9 – The Union Hall, Edmonton, AB
November 10 – The Exchange – Regina, SK
November 14 – The Caruso Club – Sudbury, ON
November 15 – Capitol Centre – North Bay, ON
November 16 – Opera House – Toronto, ON
November 17 – Corona Theatre, Montreal, QC
Canada’s best in comedy compete for a spot in SiriusXM’s Top Comic Finale and $25,000
SiriusXM Canada revealed the 18 semi-finalists for the 9th annual SiriusXM Top Comic competition, a nationwide search for Canada’s best in comedy. Canadians will hold the fate of the semi-finalists in their hands by choosing which comics will move on in the competition, where they’ll battle it out joke-for-joke live on stage at the SiriusXM Top Comic Finale. The Finale, featuring headlining comedian Nikki Glaser, takes place September 27, 2018 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre as part of JFL42 in association with SiriusXM Canada in Toronto.
Beginning at 10 am ET today through 11:59 pm ET on August 17, Canadians can view the audition videos of the 18 semi-finalists and vote daily for the funniest comics at siriusxm.ca/topcomic. The six comics who receive the greatest number of public votes – and laughs – will advance to the Finale, along with two additional comics selected by an esteemed panel of industry judges to compete live on stage for the coveted title of SiriusXM’s Top Comic, a grand prize of $25,000 and more.
The 2018 SiriusXM Top Comic semi-finalists are:
Kyle Brownrigg (Hometown—Ottawa, ON)
Sophie Buddle (Hometown—Ottawa, ON)
Cara Connors (Hometown—Toronto, ON)
Mark DeBonis (Hometown— Scarborough, ON)
Dave Harris (Hometown—New Westminster, BC)
Gilson Lubin (Hometown—Toronto, ON)
Brittany Lyseng (Hometown—Calgary, AB)
Roman Mancini (Hometown—Ottawa, ON)
Chanty Marostica (Hometown—Winnipeg, MB)
Ashley Moffatt (Hometown—Hamilton, ON)
Myles Morrison (Hometown—Saskatoon, SK)
Efthimios Nasiopoulos (Hometown—Toronto, ON)
Tim Nutt (Hometown—Vancouver, BC)
Alex Pavone (Hometown—Woodbridge, ON)
Keith Pedro (Hometown—Toronto, ON)
Nick Reynoldson (Hometown—Scarborough, ON)
Shirley Whalen (Hometown—Fort McMurray, AB)
Ryan Williams (Hometown—Kamloops, BC)
Finalists will be announced later this summer.
SiriusXM recently selected 60 of the nation’s best comics to take part in public auditions held over six nights in Toronto and Calgary. The comics each had six minutes to impress the crowd and a panel of industry judges, who chose three comics from each night to continue on in the competition as semi-finalists.
For the first time in the competition’s history, the two runners-up will each receive cash prizes of $2,500. In addition to $25,000, the grand prize winner will receive international exposure with a guaranteed spot to perform at JFL Sydney (Australia), as well as at JFL42 (Toronto), JFL NorthWest (Vancouver), and at Just For Laughs Montreal on a JFL TV taping airing on a Bell property in their 2019/20 broadcast season. Tickets for the Finale are on sale now at jfl42.com/act/siriusxm-top-comic.
Top Comic is part of SiriusXM Canada’s ongoing initiatives to provide exposure to Canadian talent. Last year, Gavin Matts of New Westminster, BC took home the title and grand prize, with Sterling Scott of Edmonton, AB and Graham Chittenden of Brantford, ON placing as runners-up. Previous winners include Chris Robinson, Faisal Butt, Pete Zedlacher, Eric Andrews, Matt O’Brien and Brian Stollery.
Canada Laughs (ch. 168) features uncensored Canadian comedy 24/7 including stand-up, sketch and more, putting the spotlight on the rich pool of extraordinary talent from Canada. Canada Laughs is available to all Sirius and XM subscribers in Canada and across the U.S. and joins SiriusXM’s hilarious comedy lineup, including Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud Radio, Comedy Central Radio, SiriusXM Comedy Greats, Raw Dog Comedy, Jeff and Larry’s Comedy Roundup, Laugh USA and more.