Globetrotting - Toronto, Canada
by Adam M. Anklewicz

Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Ron Sexsmith, Blue Rodeo and many more have called Canada’s largest city home.  Toronto is located on the northern shore of Lake Ontario and was originally populated by the Seneca and Mississauga First Nations peoples.  It became a point of European settlement, starting with the French setting up a fort in the early seventeenth century.  By the late eighteenth century, the British had colonized and named the land Upper Canada.

In 1834, Toronto officially became a city with William Lyon Mackenzie serving as Toronto’s first mayor.  Just over 30 years later, Sir John A. MacDonald would unite Upper and Lower Canada (now known as Quebec) along with the British Atlantic settlements, founding the Dominion of Canada.  Upper Canada became the province of Ontario and Toronto was made its capital.  Now Toronto has a larger population than most of Canada’s provinces and territories.

In the 1960s a musical boom occurred in Canada.  People like Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot moved to Toronto to make a career for themselves in music.  Neil Young moved back to Toronto from Winnipeg after his band the Squires broke up and started playing in Yorkville, an area that was once known as a musical launching point for Canadian talent with its many folk and rock bars, and is today known as the hub of the Toronto International Film Festival.  It only lasted a short while, however, and Canadian talent from Toronto was quickly exported to the United States.

Toronto is currently a thriving community with many local bands who have had international success.  Blue Rodeo and The Barenaked Ladies are two such examples.  Helping them to thrive are the bars and clubs throughout the city that frequently play host to local talent.

Queen Street is located at the bottom of the city running east and west.  Along the street are some of the best musical venues in the city.  The Rivoli is a restaurant/bar located near Toronto’s Chinatown.  Their lounge easily fills up when local bands take the stage (see side bar).

A few doors down is a larger bar called The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.  The Horseshoe has played host to many famous bands local and from abroad.  The Tragically Hip, Great Big Sea, Wilco, Cornershop and many others have graced their stage.  While holding Toronto rehearsals for their tours, the Rolling Stones have been known to drop in for a surprise show or two.  On Mondays and Tuesdays, the Horseshoe holds free concerts featuring emerging talent.  The Horseshoe is one of my favourite bar venues in Toronto, frequently booking the best of the best.  Even when the venue fills to capacity you can often make your way to a good vantage point to enjoy the show.

The Horseshoe is located at Queen and Spadina, but if you take the streetcar north on Spadina for a few blocks, at College Street you will find The El Mocambo.  Known to many outside of Toronto as the venue where Elvis Costello and the Rolling Stones recorded live albums, the El Mocambo has changed ownership many times over the past few decades and now with only half the space is a launching point for many unsigned artists in Toronto.

For the film buff, Toronto hosts one of the world’s largest film festivals annually and plays host to film shoots of many big-budget American movies.  Since first run movie tickets cost nearly $15 CDN these days, Toronto’s second run cinemas are the place to be.  With a cost of only $4 to $8, there’s the opportunity to see classic films on a large screen.  Double bills seem to be a theme with these small cinemas, allowing visitors to see two Hitchcock or Kubrick films in one night.

Toronto is a multicultural haven.  There are pockets of the world’s cultures located in every corner of the city.  With a quick walk you can go from the Jamaican community for roti to Toronto’s Jewish areas for falafel.  The original British settlers would probably hate to see the imperial influence wearing thin in this new Toronto.  However, the people claim their multicultural atmosphere as one of their greatest assets.

 

How to Be There in Toronto

 What to Listen to:

 ·  Neil Young – After The Gold Rush (1970)

·  Gordon Lightfoot – Old Dan’s Records (1972)

·  Blue Rodeo - Casino (1991)

·  The Barenaked Ladies – Gordon (1992)

·  Ron Sexsmith – Blue Boy (2001)

·  k-os – Joyful Rebellion (2004)

·  The Sadies – Favourite Colours (2004)
 

What to Read:

  ·  Marshall McLuhan – The Medium Is The Message (1967)

·  Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale (1986)

·  Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient (1992)

·  Anne Michaels – Fugitive Pieces (1996)

What to Watch:

·      Goin’ Down The Road (1970)

·      SCTV (1976-1981)

·      Kids In The Hall (1989-1994)

·      Double Happiness (1994)

·      Canadian Bacon (1995)

·      Last Night (1998)

·      Twitch City (1998)

What to Do:

 ·      Kensington Market

·      Royal Ontario Museum

·      Ontario Science Centre

·      Toronto International Film Festival

·      Taste Of The Danforth

·      Maple Lounge (no cover upstairs at The Rivoli)

·      Shoeless Monday & Nu Music Nite (Tuesdays), no cover at The Horseshoe Tavern

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In conversation with Andre Rosenbaum, owner of renowned venue and restaurant The Rivoli and The Queen Mother Café in Toronto:

How did The Rivoli start? 

The Rivoli got started because we lived and worked in the Queen West area.  [Our other restaurant,] The Queen Mother Café, down the street had been opened in 1978.  David [Stearn] and I lived in apartments above that restaurant, and many of our staff and friends were artists who lived in the area.  The whole street catered to the artist class, it was cheap and funky.  The building which houses The Rivoli was the Trotskyite Communist Centre of Toronto.  It skipped to being a high end and short lived restaurant and dinner club called Soho at the Metz.  When [David and I] got wind that Soho had failed, we decided to go for it.  We had a vision of a neighborhood restaurant and club.  We thought it would be an excellent venue for our friends and neighbors.  We knew the restaurant business and felt that if The Rivoli dining room was successful, we could tolerate a very liberal and open booking policy for the club.  Sometimes it is the tail that wags the dog, and it is the club that has often given the enterprise its profile.

What would be your proudest moment operating The Rivoli? 

There are a few proud moments.  The first one is when, in our first year of operation, 1982, the English group Duruti Column was booked into the space by the "Garys" (the top promoters of the 80s).  We had our first line up down the street.  [The second is] every time a local Queen Street artist performed who shortly thereafter went on to some success, such as Molly Johnson, The Cowboy Junkies, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Blue Rodeo, The Kids in the Hall and many more. 

What makes The Rivoli stand out from other venues in Toronto?

The Rivoli is a great intimate room.  It is a perfect showcase room.  It has excellent site lines and sound system.  It makes me think of the jazz "boites" of Paris in the ‘30s and ‘40s.  Financially, we rely on the other segments of the operation (the dining room, side bar, patio and pool hall).  Because of this we can take greater risks and have an extremely broad booking policy.  It is definitely the place to get started in Toronto and the place to connect in a very direct way with your audience.

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