RSFCO

The Rolling Stones are headlining a day-long concert in Toronto on July 30 with the express purpose of helping the city shake off its SARS hangover.

Concert promoters expect to have 430,000 in Downsview Park, a former airbase, for the event, making it the largest one-day ticketed event in North American history.

The show will include performances by The Stones, AC/DC, Rush, The Guess Who, Justin Timberlake, Blue Rodeo, The Tea Party, Sam Roberts, The Flaming Lips, Kathleen Edwards, The Isley Brothers, Sass Jordan, La Chicane and Jim Belushi-Dan Aykroyd and Have Love Will Travel Revue.

Organizers hope it sends a message to the world that Toronto is a great city, not one to be avoided for fear of SARS.

Blue Lena report: I was interviewed for a newspaper story for Toronto Star. And will be on Canadian Broadcasting Coporation at their studios for a live TV interview for a show.

Great work BL - and enjoy the superb event in the Park with almost half a million of people.

Set list:
Start Me Up - Brown Sugar - You Got Me Rockin - Tumbling Dice - Don't Stop - Ruby Tuesday - You Can't Always Get What You Want - It's Only Rock'n'Roll - Miss You - Nearness Of You - Happy - Sympathy For The Devil - Rock Me Baby - Honky Tonk Women - Satisfaction - Jumping Jack Flash.

We arrived in Toronto at 1am after driving a straight 6 hour shot from the airport in Pittsburgh, PA. We didn't get lost at all, which was good. We arrived at the Four Seasons and were 10 minutes too late to get a drink since the bar closed at 1 am instead of 2am. We hadn't had anything to eat or drink the whole trip and were dying for a beer. But, we did talk to Blondie for a bit in the bar before going back to our hotel. We got to bed around 4am or so.

In the morning we went back to the Four Seasons to pick up our tickets and International Pavillion passes. Met up with our friends from Ohio who had just pickedup their tickets and chatted with them. Saw Darryl twice, he had been out shopping. Kisses from Bernard. Later we had drinks and lunch in the bar. Bernard and Blondie had a few drinks with us. Around 3pm we were leaving the bar because we had to go change clothes before the concert and we walked out into the hallway and straight into Keith!! I said "there's Keith" to my friend because her back was turned and she turned around and I said "Hey baby!" and he turned and shook our hands, as did his assisstant Tony. Then Keith raised his fist in the air and said "I'm off to work!" and she said "We love your work". It was an unexpected treat. The band was getting onto a big white bus to leave for the show. All except for Mick, but we left before he came out to his private car-he then took a helicopter to the show.

We changed into comfy shoes and concert clothes and took the subway, and then got onto a shuttle bus. We envisioned it taking maybe 2 hours to get to Downsview Parc, but it only took a 1/2 hour with no waiting and we were dropped off at Gate 2 the gate closest to the stage and the VIP tent. The scene was incredible...look at ALL those people! WOW. It was amazing. We had bought a bottle of water on the way in, and once inside the tent, The Guess Who was playing. The tent had 2 giant video screens, one at each end, a huge stack of speakers, tables and chairs, food and drink for purchase and porta potties. So we were relieved. We even took a nap after we arrived because the tent was carpeted (could it have been all those mango martinis? LOL). Watched a bit of Rush after waking up from the nap, then bought some burgers and the tent kicked into gear when AC/DC came on. They rocked! It was great to finally see them live, and you could tell the crowd was loving it. we went outside the tent a few times to watch the stage, but the sound and the view was better from inside the tent.

The Stones took the stage around 10:15pm and we moved to the front of the tent closer to the video screen. I guessed that "Start Me Up" would open the show and it did! It was weird because you couldn't believe the Stones were just outside playing live, while seeing them on the screen inside the tent. There was some problem with the sound early in the set, but because we had speakers in the tent, I think our sound was better than those outside. The sound problems seemed to clear up after about 3 songs, but it is true that AC/DC sounded louder during their set. For me the early highlight was "Ruby Tuesday", it was done perfectly and Keith looked fantastic in that white shirt! We went outside the tent to take in the enormous crowd and the stage during "You Can't Always Get What You Want", then we moved to the other video screen which was closer to the speaker stack. Later when Keith came on for his set and kinda got chocked up by the crowd response and did "The Nearness of You", that was amazing, just beautiful. I was surprised and delighted he did that in a crowd that size...sort of ironic...the nearness, when so many people were SO far away. But he pulled it off beautifully. "Rock Me Baby" with AC/DC guesting was awesome, everyone was into that. The tent went wild during "Satisfaction", as obviously that is the song that most non-fans and casual fans came to hear.

The lowlight of the show was when teeny bopper heart throb Justin Timberlake joined the Stones onstage for "Miss You", which was a joke. Justin had already played his own set earlier in the day and had water bottles and garbage thrown at him. He was gracious about it all though in post concert interviews, admitting his music didn't fit in and he felt like " a fish out of water". I think maybe Mick and the boys felt a bit sorry for him, afterall he did have 2 sold out shows scheduled in Canada himself. People threw some stuff at him during the Stones set too, which pissed Keith off and Keith came to the side of the stage to protect the turf himself. But, adding Justin to "Miss You" was laughable, he clowned beside Mick, mimicking Mick's every move and saying inaudible stuff into the microphone. If you didn't know better you'd have sworn they had pulled some goofy teenager from the crowd and let him sing with the Stones! Ugh.

After the show we were again surprised at how well behaved the crowd was. We met some really nice people from the Toronto area during the course of the show. The cops were nice too. No one was pushy or rude or obnoxious, and everyone exited Downsview in an orderly fashion. We walked for an hour and 15 minutes toward the next subway stop...about 100,000 people were all doing the same. Then we spotted a taxi on a side street and bolted for it-so all total we were back to the hotel in an hour and a half, which was remarkable. I thought it might take 4 hours to get back. When I got into bed I watched coverage of the event on TV and got to see 3 Stones songs rebroadcast. All in all, a great event, well organized by the people and the city of Toronto and I wouldn't have missed this historic concert for the world. Thank You Rolling Stones!