I went to this concert last night and I wanted to share with you, the article about it from the newspaper.
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Michele's dying wish comes true
Stars come out to raise $1.5 million for a cancer research institute
Mike Roberts
The Province
Friday, October 11, 2002
For a few jittery minutes, it was like being at an old friend's funeral. There's the comfort of familiar faces, and the uneasiness of the occasion. Then someone cracks a joke and the laughter melts the tension away.
At last night's B.C. Cancer Foundation pre-concert press conference with the stars of Canada's biggest-ever benefit concert -- Bryan Adams, Jann Arden, the Barenaked Ladies, Chantal Kreviazuk and Vancouver's own Sarah McLachlan -- it was Arden who sat down first at her microphone and turned the mood around.
"Bachelor No. 2, if you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" she deadpanned to the Barenaked Ladies seated in the row behind her.
Everyone cracked up and the show was on.
A dozen TV cameras jockeyed for position. The stars swooshed amidst their handlers with all the high drama of a West Wing moment. Media from all over North America primed their pens and pointed their recorders at the five Canadian acts brought together with the aim of raising $1.5 million for a new cancer research centre in Vancouver.
All of it inspired by the death of concert promoter Shane Bourbonnais' wife Michele, who died from cervical cancer at the age of 31 a year ago yesterday. The concert was her legacy, a dying wish brought to life by her husband.
"During those last days I did make that promise to her [Michele] that I'd make that dream come true," said Bourbonnais, whose wife was a marketing co-ordinator for Pacific Newspaper Group, which owns The Province. "I know she's looking down tonight.
"This is the first time these artists have shared the stage together. And we're going to raise $1.5 million for cancer research. That's the biggest benefit concert in Canadian history."
Each of the acts then shared their personal relationships with the disease called cancer, which killed 65,300 Canadians last year.
"We're so inundated with statistics," said Arden, who has lost three friends to cancer in the past four years. "But the three women sitting here tonight, one of us will have cancer in our lifetimes. I don't look forward to losing any more friends or family. Cancer scares the [expletive] out of me."
Barenaked Lady Kevin Hearn, the group's keyboardist, fought a vicious battle with a rare form of leukemia starting in 1999. "There is hope," said Hearn. Twenty years ago, I certainly would have died from what I had. But thanks to the research, me, and people like me, are here today."
Chantal Kreviazuk shared the story of a little girl she and her husband Raine Maida, frontman for Canadian rock act Our Lady Peace, came to love after a visit to a children's hospital in Toronto. The girl died three years ago from inoperable brain cancer. Mina Kim was just 13.
"I thank God for every day I don't have cancer or no one in my family has cancer," said Kreviazuk. "I'm going to personalize my performance tonight for the Kim family in Kitchener, Ontario."
Bryan Adams thanked Bourbonnais for organizing the event, and McLachlan for asking him to get involved. "I just said, 'Tell me where it is and I'll be there,' " said London-based Adams. "It's great to be here."
McLachlan, whose mother died from bone cancer just before Christmas last year, described how a recent hip pain gave her a real scare. "My physiotherapist said, 'Hmm, I don't know what this is.' My mother had bone cancer and I thought, 'This is it.'" Fortunately, it was just a muscle strain.
Bourbonnais said the all-star concert would be recorded and possibly released as a benefit CD.
He told The Province that the concert helped close a chapter on his grief. "I woke up this morning and said to myself, 'Today's the day,' " said Bourbonnais. "And you know, I didn't feel sad at all.
"This is an amazing way to pay tribute to Michele. There's such an overwhelming energy.
"To take something so negative and terrible and make something positive out of it, it's just an amazing, awesome feeling. Michele would have loved this. She would have been so proud."
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It was an amazing show! I had lots of fun, lots of laughs, and lots of tears. All the bands played for free, GM Place offered to hold the concert for free, the crew/rodies worked for free, even companies offered to lend them stuff for free (like lights, and stuff like that). Oh yeah, and the people working at GM Place (security, Food fenders, ushers, etc) are giving there wages from that night to the cancer foundation. And all the ticket money and if you bought merchandise it went to the foundation, too. (I bought a poster). On a really cool note, when I was leaving, I saw Bif Naked walking with a friend. hehe
