[johnfowles]

There are now so many Massey 2008 threads I could post this many times but this one is as good as any and I too add my best wishes for Sharon's recovery.see you in November 09??
You asked if Gord's family were there.
certainly on Saturday
Elizabeth and Meredith were much in evidence.
A few reminiscences while they are still fresh in my mind:-
Last Tuesday we arrived at the Delta Chelsea inToronto in time to go out for a meal next door at the Elephant and Castle,
where I was struck by two photos/posters that I did not recall seeing there before
(the whole dining area has been remodelled so that the tables are quite different to previous visits)



Nice to see a picture of Maggie there


An amusing montage of a Rolls Royce clamped by a "Denver Boot"
that first evning I had the first of three Yorkshire Puddings with Beef washed down with a satisfying pint of real UK Ale from Fullers of London their "Pride" and joy


three UK beers on tap
we got back to our fine room at the Delta Chelsea in time to watch on CBC television
The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos. a.k.a. "Strombo"
I see that sombody has uploaded the over 14 minutes video presumably as obtained from the CBC site to youtube at:-

You Tube

as a large flash video file which my silly computer is having great trouble in downloading complete I repeatedly get a very short intro then it stops playing. So far I have only been able to watch the first couple of minutes
exactly the same problem has beset Jimbos "clips" video at:-
http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=18490
but again from the little I have been able to see it looks like he has captured the essence of the jam session on Friday.
(the John Stinson, Ron and Jimmy Jones, Paul1/2 Bartlett/Johnson show)
Hopefully when we find the time to watch our tapes we'll find we caught him in full song
Near the start of The Hour programme was a tantalising snippet from what looks like a very nice vintage colour video of Gord performing the magnificent Mountains And Maryann

I wonder how many more hours of such priceless treasures the CBC has stashed away!
I know that they do have the complete 1968 Showcase that featured the extra rare "Face Of A Thousand People"

one comment on the Hour interview was by
chilledrob
"What a humble man. Great interview. If he comes to Australia, I'm there!"
to which a few fans I know of will undoubtedly be saying "get in line cobber!"
the apart from the usual excitement of the concerts themselves, my most outstanding memory of Massey 2008 will undubitably be of McVeighs Irish Pub, the first of that genre in North America 40 years ago it claims
This venue was a resounding success
and many kudos and thanks are due to Ron and CHar for organising the jam sessions
There were number of poster's around the Pub




Note the plug for corfid!!
We were treated to a fine pair of afternoon's entertainment.
For me the highlight was I think the introduction by star Red Shea guitar pupil Paul Bartlett to "The last Time I Saw Her Face"
which he described as showing Gord's magnificent voice in all its glory (or words to that effect) a view I personally heartily agree with.Indeed this song was featured live in concert as late as September 1987 (the folkfest WNEW radio broadcast), where Gord himself introduced the song as"here is one which is near and dear to the hearts of all of you.Lets see if I can do it" whereupon he nailed it.
Although Paul confessed to "not being a singer" his accurate guitar accompaniment to John Stinson's vocals was truly outstanding.
Friday's session saw the augmentation of the Orchestra with the bass guitar of Tony G.
Afterwards Ron was besides himself when the pub management very, obviously impressed with the jam session (or at least the quantity of Ale that was quoffed) invited the group to come back after the concert that evening and also on Saturday. an invitation gladly accepted by most of us. On the Friday, the regular pub band

Which the banjo player (name unknown) told me was called "the Wild Irish Rovers"
which is as likely as the proclaimed name of their bass player ("you can call me Johnny Storm!")
were still playing and after a typical Irish flavoured song I was amazed to realise that they had launched into the "Dong" song (the one about the "Long Thin" variety). Then the lead singer, Geoffrey Barnes revealed that he was a Lightfoot fan, and proceeded to do a fantastically upbeat and loud rendition of "Early Morning Rain" I recovered enough from the initial shock to record most of this on my digital camera.
I have converted it to the same flash video *.flv format (as used on youtube), but I have yet to attempt to embed it on a page on my website (complete with a flash player as I assume is utilised by youtube) so here is the URL of the uploaded file.
http://boxstr.com/files/2065438_ww8e...27s%20_EMR.FLV
I would expect that the fortunate broadband brigade can simply click on the link and watch it uninteruptedly, whereas those like me battling a lethargic dial up can right click then "Save Target As" and get their daily exercise by violently twiddling their thumbs.It is still even in flv format a mighty 13.7MB.
I would appreciate it if somebody on a fast internet connection would confirm that it plays continuously all right.
As always the few days went by all too quickly and it was a joy meeting some new faces, even if as always seems to happen there were a few exceptions to those corfiddlers present who failed to meet up with the bulk of us, despite the publicity of the various plans that had been posted here
Where were you Claudia for example??
Roll on the next 18 months.
John