17

OCTOBER 8, 2003

Fire on the Mountain

Bands gather in Kamloops to combat the devasting fires that covered BC

By Stephanie Morgan

A warm, stinny, cloudless sky wel-
comed concertgoers gathering from
across the country to see the “Fire on the
Mountain” benefit concert located
behind SportsMart Place,in Kamloops
on Sept. 27. The concert consisted of
eleven Canadian bands, five of which
were native to BC.

We entered the venue around noon
and wandered around being admon-
ished by security and led on a wild
goose chase until after a lot of effort and
frustration we pinpointed and gained
access to the media building.

Once our media status was finally rec-
ognized we began to explore this rather
alien environment known as the media
room. There were press scattered every-
where (many of which we managed to
glean most of our information from)
who were all amazingly receptive and
helpful“with answering our questions
and filling us in. We felt a little intimi-
dated, being the only amateur journal-
ists present, but we picked up conversa-
tion with the pros pretty fast who were
all very supportive of our endeavors.

This concert was presented on short
notice. Randall Prescott, husband of
country music artist Tracey Brown,
organized the whole thing in just about
two weeks. The benefit was to assist in
helping the hundreds of people ‘who lost
their homes to the forest fires this sum-
mer and to commemorate the variety of
people who fought the blazes valiantly
and are still fighting them today.
Prescott stated to the crowds that
though he had known about the 700+
fires that had raged across BC, it didn’t
quite connect with him until he landed
on a plane in Calgary and couldn’t see
the Rockies because they were covered
in so much smoke.

Prescott managed to get Matthew
Good, Chantal Kreviazuk, the Moffatts
(who reunited for this benefit after a two
year break-up), and Natalie McMaster,
among others. The benefit itself. drew
just over 20,000 people over the entire
day and made just over $81,000, minus
souvenirs and the bands’ own support.

Many of the musicians present offered
to give donations of their own, and

some, like Matt Good, offered to give
any profit he made (from souvenirs)
after overhead. Good said that he was
planning on donating anywhere
between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars, after
the $500 speeding ticket he accrued on
the way down was paid off, of course.
He did state that the RCMP officer that
stopped them was very brave and he
stood in the middle of the road as their
car hurtled at him at roughly 180 km/h.

“This concert was present-
ed on short notice. Randall
Prescott, husband of country
music artist Tracey Brown,
organized the whole thing in
just about two weeks. The
benefit was to assist in help-
ing the hundreds of people
who lost their homes to the
forest fires”

Kreviazuk also stated that she would
definitely be donating but she had no
idea what the figure would be.

Cindy Hawkins, a survivor of the
Kelowna fires, stated that though the
fires were a horrible experience it made
her aware that her “...neighbours are the
people in Vernon, Salmon Arm, and
Kamloops.” The disaster destroyed the
seeming segregation between the heavi-
ly populated areas and the rest of BC.
People came to help fight the fires from
everywhere across Canada and the U.S.
Others, like George Evans of River City
Nissan in Kamloops BC, have raised
over a million dollars for people affected
by the fires - and the money goes direct-
ly to the people who are affected. Evans
has set up a committee to buy the mer-
chandise for the people as they request
it. The North Thomson Relief fund, as it
is called, is one of the charities getting a
portion of the “Fire .on the Mountain”
money.

The venue itself was little more than a
cement parking lot, but there were a few
quirks. The stage was set up against rail-
way tracks and the bands were brought
to the stage by a restored steam engine

thanks to the efforts of the largest spon-
sor for the event, Canadian Pacific
Railroad. To enter the venue there was a
suggested donation of $20 which every-
one paid willingly and then some. The
concert started out with a Kelowna
country band called The McGregors at
Ipm and continued into better-known
names quickly. There was a house band
set for the first five bands, and they
moved through the pace quickly and
with little difficulty, even in the swelter-
ing, desert-like heat of Kamloops.
Patricia Conroy was the next at 1:40 and,
with a minimal amount of technical dif-
ficulties, the band started. Conroy
played a short set and let Tracey Brown
take the stage. Following her were Lisa
Brokop and Michelle Wright.

All during the day people came and
went as they pleased (the gates opened
at around noon) but the first few bands
left the entire concert atmosphere with
more of a family outing feeling. There
were many grandparents and children
in attendance. The surprise guest, Adam
Gregory, managed to change the atmos-
phere almost immediately when he
came on at around 5pm. There was a
noticeably younger age group streaming
into the venue by this time. After
Gregory came Prairie Oyster and
Natalie McMaster, both of which played
very energetic sets. McMaster even
managed to have a quasi-conversation
with fellow Maritimers that were in the
crowd. McMaster delighted the crowd
with her fiddling expertise and her
Highland dancing.

Kreviazuk came on and took the
speed down a notch, much to the delight
of her fans. The set was minimalistic for
everyone except Good, and she simply
had for herself, a mic and her piano. She
displayed her pregnancy rather openly
with her fans by stating she wasn’t fat;
she was just pregnant thank you. She
also stated that though both she and
Raine Maida (OLP), her husband, knew
it was a boy she wasn’t telling what they
were intending to name their child.

The Moffatts came up next and did
their acoustic set which was also fraught
with slight technically difficulties (one
of Scott's guitar strings broke). The boys

had agreed last Wednesday to do the
concert and only had about three days to
get together and practice. They them-
selves did not know anyone who was
affected intimately; however, their.
friends were organizing the benefit and
they themselves had family in Kelowna.
The question asked of the band chroni-
cally during the day was, of course,
exactly why they broke up and Scott
piped up sardonically with. “the sex was
getting too intense.” Clint added with a
wry grin that it was “with each other.”
Good finally came up next to roars of
approval from the fans and he started
his set at around 9:30, and started com-
plaining. The technical problems finally
came to fruition when none of his eléc-
tric guitars would work. Good was one
of the first bands to donate time to the
cause because he had previously tried to
start his own benefit concert down in
Vancouver just to be rebuked by peo-
ples’ lack of interest. He hoped that this

“Cindy Hawkins, a survivor
of the Kelowna fires, stated
that though the fires were a
horrible experience it made
her aware that her ...neigh-
bours are the people in
Vernon, Salmon Arm, and
Kamloops.”

concert doesn’t go the way the SARS
concert did in Toronto, but the concert
was already a success before it started
because it raised BC’s sense of commu-
nity immeasurably. His hope for the
benefit money was for it to go into envi-
ronmental and economic research. He
fears that businesses will attempt to
relocate because of the extensive fire
damage done to many towns in the inte-
rior. He also wishes that some money be
placed in environmental research to find
the cause of the fires and how to prevent
a situation like last summer from occur-
ring, once more.