The legend lives on…
Legendary Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot has never, since his career started down its carefree highway in about 1965, performed in Prince George.
That hole in the tour schedule was not lost on Lightfoot, who said he found it odd that he had managed to get to the capital of Nunavut -- before it was even its own territory, he had been to Peace River and Dawson Creek, and Newfoundland outports, but he had somehow missed places like Prince George and Medicine Hat. When he had a Vancouver booking for Oct. 2 and no conflicts the day before, he urged his booking agent to get Prince George added, so he could finally get a good look at the place.
Lightfoot did breeze through the city unannounced 26 years ago. In a rare interview, he told the Citizen how he came here while pursuing a different facet of show business.
"I worked on a movie (Harry Tracy, Desperado, starring Bruce Dern and Helen Shaver) - I'll never win the Academy award, I can tell you that much - and the very last place we did it was out in the Rockies. We were in Jasper, we were in Canmore, we were in Calgary, we were all around the place, and our jumping off spot to fly home was out of Prince George. That's where all the rented cars and the U-drives all ended up, at the airport in Prince George. I was only there for an hour in 1980. I was picking up on the vibes, though, I always do."
