Posted by In my ticket album it is written that on July 14th, 2001 I went to the Ottawa Bluesfest where I caught sets by Ike Turner and MC Hammer. Whilst that is obviously true, I have little or no memory of Ike Turner’s set at all. To be honest, if you had asked me if I had ever seen Ike Turner live before I probably would have said “no”, and even now that I know I did I can only conjure up the most vague, dream-like images of him on stage in my mind, enforced memories that are likely more invention than reality.
But really, aren’t all memories merely edited and distorted inventions of the mind? So yeah, I guess I remember seeing Ike Turner (1931-2007).
Which doesn’t surprise me a bit. How could a guy like me forget seeing the man who recorded the first-ever rock song (Rocket 88), in the hallowed halls of Sun Studios no less? I’m sure his set was fantastic, and I would know ‘cuz I was there.
On the other hand, I remember MC Hammer’s set like it was yesterday. He set was part of the inaugural and final year or the Bluesfest’s Gospel Tent, the misguided result (no doubt) of a trip by festival organizers to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where the Gospel Tent is an obvious slam dunk and a very popular annual feature. And why (you should be asking, lest you be an olde-schoole Hammerhead), would the former baggy-pants champion of the MTV world and composer of Rick James’ greatest riff U Can’t Touch This pre-meme star MC Hammer be playing in a gospel tent?
First of all, by 2001 the Hammer was well past his best-before date and was no longer even close to big enough to possibly warrant a spot on any main stage – even back in those early-ish days of the Bluesfest – but more aptly (and kindly), he had for the moment slid back into his pre-fame religious fervour and rebooted his career as a celebrity singing preacher, even taking up a TV ministry and trying to convince the few interviewers that came around that the “MC” in his Hammer had always stood for “Man of Christ”.
Whatever sells tickets, I suppose.
Anyway, I distinctly remember sticking my head into the large, white wedding tent and witnessing the fall of stardom before my very eyes. Like a man whose parachute pants had failed to open, Mr. MC stood up there on the stage trying to convince us that his fifteen minutes of fame had not yet ended, or that there was a God up in the sky that had created everything is the universe in six days, or some other such fiction. But whatever he was selling, the world did not seem to be buying. At least the world circling around the dusty old LeBreton Flats on that sunny afternoon.
Oh yeah, Hammer’s set was in the afternoon and after he finished I went home for a bit (I lived very, very close to the festival grounds at the time in a fabulous multi-level open-concept apartment; I really should tell you about the place sometime) and then I went back for Ike Turner! I remember seeing him now! Like, for real this time, I do!
I sure am glad I write these things. But I sure do wish I had written them as the shows happened. Gosh, the details I must forget.
Added at a much later date:
Ironically, I just saw the program for this year of the Bluesfest and I’m reminded that Wilson Pickett (1941-2006) was actually headlining on the main stage on this night. Now, it’s not like I forgot that I saw the great Wilson Pickett or anything, quite the contrary; I remember his set quite well (though I admittedly forgot to conflate his performance with Ike Turner’s). Specifically I remember Pickett explaining between songs that he had been pulled in at the Canada/US border on his way to the Ottawa show and had been strip-searched. He was understandably not happy about it and pledged to the audience that he would never, ever return to Canada again.
Turned out he was lying. A quick internet search shows he played at a blues festival in Calgary three years later and eighteen months after that he was gone, victim of a heart attack at the cruelly young age of sixty-four. Sigh.
Postscript added at an even later date:
It has been brought to my attention than in addition to all of this I had a gig as sideman to young Jane Radmore on the Bluesfest’s Capital City Stage nearly adjacent to the gospel tent just prior to McHammer’s set. And while this further illustrates the fact that what you are reading is less of a ticket memory than it is a ticket forgetory at least I freely admit that I do quite appreciate the irony of the situation.
Todd Man Out 