CBC announced Friday that it will air a live, commercial-free broadcast of The Tragically Hip’s last-ever concert from their hometown of Kingston.
The Aug. 20 show at the city’s 5,700-seat K-Rock Centre is the final stop of the iconic Canadian band’s “Man Machine Poem” tour. The 15-date tour, which begins July 22 in Victoria, B.C., will be the band’s last, after lead singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
The concert will air across CBC Television, CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2, as well as CBCMusic.ca and the broadcaster’s YouTube channels.
Calls arose for the CBC to broadcast the show after tickets for the band’s final run of concerts immediately sold-out, only to quickly appear on re-seller services at hugely inflated prices.
Tickets for the final Kingston show are selling from a minimum of US$559 for seats behind the stage, all the way up to US$4,000 each on StubHub.
The ticket re-seller has announced that a portion of proceeds from its sales are being donated to Sunnybrook Foundation, but that has done little to dampen fan fury over their inability to get tickets.
The CBC announcement coincides with the release of Man Machine Poem, the band’s 14th studio album in an acclaimed career dating back to 1987. The band has won 14 Juno Awards and was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
The band has also received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, as well as honorary degrees from the Royal Conservatory of Music and Queen’s University.
