Gord Downie, lead singer of the band The Tragically Hip, has terminal brain cancer, the band recently announced on their website. However, they still plan on releasing their latest album, Man Machine Poem, as well go on one last tour.
They’ve also released more tickets for their final tour, which go on sale today. According to CBC News, there will be a two-ticket limit, and tickets will go on sale at 10am local time in cities across the country.
They posted the following message on their website:
We have some very tough news to share with you today, and we wish it wasn’t so.
A few months ago, in December, Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
Since then, obviously, he’s endured a lot of difficult times, and he has been fighting hard. In privacy along with his family, and through all of this, we’ve been standing by him.
So after 30-some years together as The Tragically Hip, thousands of shows, and hundreds of tours…
We’ve decided to do another one.
This feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us.
What we in The Hip receive, each time we play together, is a connection; with each other; with music and it’s magic; and during the shows, a special connection with all of you, our incredible fans.
So, we’re going to dig deep, and try to make this our best tour yet.
We hope you can come out and join us this summer – details and dates will be coming this week.
Pre-sale tickets for the first ten shows The Hip announced sold out within minutes, and the band then announced on their Facebook page that they would be adding four more shows to their itinerary (in Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary). Tickets on StubHub are already being sold for five times their face value, forcing fans to take to social media to criticize scalpers who are buying up the tickets.
The band has received numerous Juno Awards over the years as well as released 13 studio albums. They’re also members of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. They first broke into the music scene in the early 1980s and have been going strong ever since. A press conference with Downie’s doctors will be held today.
