Daily BrewFan’s idea for Tragically Hip commemorative brick gets nod from Kingston council
[An idea for a commemorative brick celebrating The Tragically Hip has been approved by Kingston council. PHOTO: Ben McLean]
When Ben McLean stopped at Market Square in Kingston, Ont., the night after The Tragically Hip’s last concert in their hometown he marvelled at how orderly things had been there just a few hours earlier.
“The square cleared out pretty quickly and also just crazy calmly,” McLean, who saw the band in person earlier in the Man Machine Poem tour but watched the final show from the local radio station 96.3 BIG FM where he works. “It was like 25,000 of your parents leaving a movie. You’d figure with that many people there’d be something, but it was literally the nicest, calmest, celebratory vibe.”
McLean took some photos while at the downtown square: one of the square itself, and one of a brick that he mocked up in MS Paint that said “The Tragically Hip, August 20th, 2016, …From Miles Around.”
“From Miles Around” comes from the opening lines of “Blow at High Dough,” one of the band’s best-known songs: “They shot a movie once in my hometown. Everybody was in it from miles around.”
McLean shared the images on his radio station’s Facebook page, and didn’t think much more of it at the time. But the positive response started coming in quickly, he says.
“I thought it was an interesting idea and I think we were all in that morning-after warm-and-fuzzy state, so I thought it would be received as a neat idea,” McLean says. “But it went kind of bonkers.”
[The Hip performed their last concert of the summer tour on Aug. 20, 2016, in Kingston, Ont. VOX]
Idea gets council attention
The post eventually got more than 1,100 Facebook likes and 230 shares, and Kingston politicians began to take notice. MP Mark Gerretsen posted his support for the idea on his own Facebook page, and McLean heard from a city communications official who said she would look into the suggestion when she returned from her vacation.
Then on Sept. 6 McLean heard that the creation of a commemorative brick for The Tragically Hip show in Market Square was on the agenda for that night’s council meeting, having been put forward by the mayor.
The proposal to place a commemorative brick in Market Square passed that initial vote and then was approved unanimously by council on Tuesday. In that decision council voted to fast track the brick’s installation, and plans are that it will be in place by Oct. 31 after some public input on what the brick should look like.
McLean hopes to see the brick in person once it’s in place, but doesn’t expect much credit for initiating the idea to begin with. The suggestion wasn’t about personal recognition for making it but as a way to honour the band and the city for a job well done, he says.
“The whole idea of it was sort of to recognize what a sweet job the city and the police and fire departments and everybody did that night to create such a bonkers vibe, and for the band for having that relationship with their fan base, that you can have a night like that,” McLean says.
