Saturday 8 February 2014

Stompin' Tom Connors Birthday Tribute, The Olde Eton House, Toronto, ON

Tomorrow Stompin' Tom Connors would have been 78 years old ... alas, he died last spring.

Charles Thomas "Stompin' Tom" Connors, OC (February 9, 1936 – March 6, 2013) was one of Canada's most prolific and well-known country and folk singer-songwriters. Focusing his career exclusively on his native Canada, Connors is credited with writing more than 300 songs and has released four dozen albums, with total sales of nearly 4 million copies. Connors died at age 77 in his home in Ballinafad, Ontario on March 6, 2013.

His songs have become part of the Canadian cultural landscape. Three of his best-known songs - Sudbury Saturday Night, Bud the Spud and The Hockey Song - play at every home game of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. The Hockey Song is played at games throughout the National Hockey League.

There was a birthday tribute for him tonight at the The Olde Eton House on the Danforth and Gord and I were there.


The event was sold out and there were about 200 of us paying tribute to Stompin' Tom.  There were even a couple busloads of people in from Peterborough.

Gord bought a teeshirt.


We sat at the bar.


We met my friend, Darlene, there.

Darlene, me and Gord

Seamus O'Reagan was the emcee.


Whisky Jack was the house band for the night.  They were good!


Stompin' Tom alumni and special guests paid tribute singing his songs and other Canadian songs including ...

Doug Cameron
Seán Cullen
Melanie Doane and her kids
Kim Stockwood
Paul Langlois of the Tragically Hip

There was a birthday cake made of cupcakes.  Yum!


It was a fun night and it was great to see so many Stompin' Tom fans out to celebrate his birthday!





2 comments:

Joe Regan said...

It was a fantastic night--folks from as far as Peterborough showed up to sing and cheer, and Remember Tom. Whiskey Jack were tight and in good voice and sounded great. The musical guests were terrific, Sean Cullen was hilarious ("I Love Poutine"), and the crowd was just full of fun and full of love for Tom and his music.

Masshole Mommy said...

You guys are always doing fun stuff!