JessieG

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

JessieG

Here's another article from a different newspaper:

Friday, October 11, 2002

Steve Bosch,
Vancouver Sun

At one point during Thursday night's B.C. Cancer Foundation fund raiser at GM Place, the Barenaked Ladies had the whole sell-out crowd of 19,000 on its feet doing the Chicken Dance.

The moment was a measure of the spontaneous, unscripted and goodwill-laden atmosphere at the concert, organized by Shane Bourbonnais on the first anniversary of his wife Michele Brown's death from cancer.

The performers, Chantal Kreviazuk, Jann Arden, Sarah McLachlan, Bryan Adams and Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies, kept the mood casual, upbeat and spontaneous, ad-libbing to the crowd and joining each other on stage for a number or two.

The audience was with them all the way, waving and cheering on request, dancing and singing along, and howling with laughter when, for example, Arden suggested that Michele would have been just as happy with a bake sale.

The performers set the mood earlier at a pre-concert press conference.

"I'm doing breast exams every 15 minutes," joked Arden, after telling the throng of journalists that cancer scares her to death.

But she said the concert's serious purpose didn't influence her choice of songs.

"It's going to be fun," she said. "No sad songs."

McLachlan confessed: "If we don't joke around, we'll start bawling."

At the concert, Colin Wilson, who was friends with Michele for seven years, called it a "rollercoaster night."

"A lot of tears were shed, but good tears," he said.

"The most important thing is that Michele would have loved this," said Louise Watson, Vancouver Sun marketing manager and Michele's former boss. "If you're going to do something in memoriam, do it with her spirit."

Between sets, a handful of concert-goers could be seen with tear-stained cheeks and red eyes as the cancer cause hit close to home.

Lindsey Rosebush, whose uncle is battling cancer, came for the cause as much as the music.

"I want to support the cancer agency, but the music is good too," she said.

For Olivia Mowatt, the draw was Bryan Adams.

"The first concert I went to when I was eight was Bryan Adams," she said, but added that she attended Thursday night's event with family and friends, including one with cancer.

Before the concert, Bourbonnais, who put together the concert to honour Michele's last request, had a catch to his voice as he spoke about her and the hard work that went into making the event happen.

"I had no idea it would get this big," he said after announcing that early estimates indicate the concert will raise more than $1.5 million for cancer research and the new B.C. Cancer Research Centre that will open in 2004.

Bourbonnais said the money is fantastic, but he is also heartened by the awareness that has been raised about cancer. That message, he said, has been spread across Canada and into the U.S.

But the concert remains bittersweet for Bourbonnais, whose wife died in his arms after an 18-month battle with cancer just a year ago.

"People loved her. They would do anything for her," he said.

While the last year has been hard work, organizing the concert and bringing together the artists, Bourbonnais said it helped him work through his grief.

"I've been able to take something in my life that was tragic and make something good out of it and that's so rewarding," he said, adding that instead of being sad, he and the artists are having a blast in Michele's memory.

"Her spirit is here," he said.

Arden said she had "selfish" reasons for doing the concert.

"As women, we are so inundated with statistics -- one in three of us [sitting here] will have cancer in our lifetimes. Without research there's no hope of changing things."

Hearn, keyboardist for the Barenaked Ladies, who has faced his own battle with leukemia, said he wouldn't be alive to do the concert at all if it weren't for the research that has already happened.

He said people around the world will benefit from the research funded by the benefit concert.

Kreviazuk dedicated her performance to a Kitchener, Ont. family who lost their 13-year-old daughter to a brain tumour.

Kreviazuk's husband, Raine Maida, frontman for Our Lady Peace, met the family when visiting the Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto.

The concert began with Kreviazuk, who played several songs, including Leaving on a Jet Plane. Bourbonnais said that was a highlight because it go the crowd on its feet.

She was followed by McLachlan, whose thoughtful love songs caused the audience to reflect on the reason for the concert.

The Barenaked Ladies introduced their set with a video including Hearn talking about his ordeal with cancer. But then they kicked up the energy level with songs like If I Had A Million Dollars that had the whole audience singing along.

Here's some pics:

Chantal Kreviazuk:
http://media.canada.com/scripts/loca...f-631a437675fe

Sarah McLachlan:
http://media.canada.com/scripts/loca...7-a24fa13532c7

Jann Arden:
http://media.canada.com/scripts/loca...6-cfe7d81ebb5c

Steve from The Barnaked Ladies:
http://media.canada.com/scripts/loca...e-24d14f3d60bb

Kevin from The Barnaked Ladies:
http://media.canada.com/scripts/loca...c-679eca1354f1

Bryan Adams:
http://media.canada.com/scripts/loca...b-0cd598774762

Michele Brown:
http://media.canada.com/scripts/loca...2-164613e00074
Michele Brown had asked before her death that a concert be held to benefit cancer research.

crzygrl04

Wow! Thats a lot of information! lol. I didn't read it all but I skimmed through it. I think thats good that there doing that to make that girls dream come true...thats how I understood it anyway.