The Concert Hall Is Re-Opening Just In Time For The TD Toronto Jazz Festival

None

The TD Toronto Jazz Festival takes over the city from June 23 thru July 2, and in a perfect sequence of events, the legendary Concert Hall has announced its grand re-opening to the public.

The six-storey landmark will kick off the 2017 TD Toronto Jazz Festival by hosting some of the biggest names in music, including Kandace Springs, The Robert Glasper Experiment, the John LaBarbera Big Band (celebrating jazz legend Buddy Rich), and festival opener Randy Bachman, who performs on June 23 with special guests Walter Trout and Laila Biali. (Note: Tickets for Bachman’s opening night concert will be priced at $19.17, a homage to the year the original venue was built)

Located at 888 Yonge St (the northwest corner of Yonge St. and Davenport Rd.), the iconic Toronto venue has a rich history of live music and events and has seen some of the most famous celebrities pass through its doors over the years.

The Masonic Temple

 

The venue was built in 1917 and was originally known as the Masonic Temple. The original purpose? It served as a meeting place for the Masons, an ancient and semi-secret fraternal sect, however, the main event space was often rented out to the public to help pay the rent.

Throughout the 1930’s and 40’s, the building became known as a dance hall and a live music venue offering big-band shows in post-prohibition Toronto. It also attracted some big names in the off hours...Legendary crooner Frank Sinatra infamously used the space throughout the 1950’s for his not-so-private parties.

Club 888

 

In the early 1960's the Masonic Temple became Club 888, a popular R&B club.

The venue was one of the main hotspots of the growing Toronto music scene, and even played host to Tina Turner when she played one of her first concerts in Toronto on September 27, 1967.

The Rockpile

 

The late 1960’s saw a surge in the live music venue’s popularity, as it transformed into a booming rock venue, operating under the name The Rockpile. This memorable haven of rock housed only the most elite groups, including The Jeff Beck Group, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Deep Purple, The Grateful Dead, and most famously, Led Zeppelin.

The story behind Led Zeppelin’s August 1969 show at The Rockpile, during their inaugural North American tour is legendary.

Zeppelin had reached new heights of commercial and critical success, so their manager Peter Grant demanded a substantial, last-minute increase for the band to play their scheduled dates at The Rockpile, despite agreeing to play the venue months before. The new demands caused a standoff between Led Zeppelin and The Rockpile management, which resulted in the group refusing to play their scheduled show. On the night of their first scheduled Toronto show, a crowd of fans was eagerly lined up outside The Rockpile and began to notice roadies packing up the tour bus with the band’s gear, causing pandemonium. The rowdy mob of fans forced Rockpile management to cave under pressure and pay the band their sizeable demands to play. The move ultimately forced the club into bankruptcy.

The return of the Masonic Temple

 

Shortly after The Rockpile went bankrupt, the live music venue returned to its roots. In 1970 it reopened and was renamed the Masonic Temple.

Despite its unstable past, the new Masonic Temple didn’t have any problem booking big names. The Animals, Iggy Pop and The Ramones all played high profile gigs at the venue throughout the decade.

The Concert Hall

 

The return of the Masonic Temple wasn’t a lengthy one. The venue switched hands, yet again, at the close of the 70's and was re-dubbed the Concert Hall in November 1979. Quintessential pop and rock concerts dominated the space through the 1980's and 90's as Cyndi Lauper, Weird Al Yankovic, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Soundgarden, Metallica, R.E.M, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers all played high profile shows at the venue.

The popular concert venue was also partially responsible for rise of Toronto’s hip-hop scene.

The Concert Hall hosted Toronto’s first rap show when the Sugarhill Gang hit the stage on January 12, 1980. In the years that followed the Concert Hall was the only venue in the city willing to house the wave of hip-hop artists flooding the city and ultimately hip-hop legends like LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Ice Cube and Nas played the historic venue.

Throughout the 90's, the Concert Hall dominated Toronto’s music scene and became one of the city’s most popular concert venues. The Rolling Stones even used the venue as a rehearsal space in 1997 to prepare for their ‘Bridges To Babylon’ Tour.

CTV takes over

 

The Concert Hall’s glory days came to a halt in 1998 when the building was suddenly shuttered as a concert venue. In fact, the building was scheduled for demolition until it was purchased by CTV and re-purposed as a news bureau. For the next few years, the building also operated as the studio for the Canadian late-night talk show, Open Mike With Mike Bullard (1997-2003), hosted by comedian Mike Bullard.

From 2006, the location was occupied by MTV Canada, until its purchase by Info-Tech Research Group (ITRG) in 2013.

Today...

 

Until recently, the venue has been used as an office space by day and a special events space by night, most notably hosting a listening session hosted by Jimmy Page in 2015, and Kardinal Offishall’s 2015 CD release party for Kardi Gras, Vol. 1: The Clash.

But, don’t be fooled by the landmark’s day-job...Executive Director William Russell and the rest of ITRG embrace the building as a living museum.

“One of my mandates is to continue to collect artifacts and continue to collect autographs,” Russell told Complex Canada, pointing out the vast décor of album covers, posters and other miscellaneous relics from over the years that grace the walls. Each of the boardrooms also maintains a thematic reference to the various artists, who have graced the stage over the years, including decorations of memorabilia relating to the bands.

“It was imperative when we bought the space to embrace its history. All of it, whether musical or even its past tenants,” Russell said, using the examples of the MTV logo seen throughout its architecture.

As part of the hype surrounding the 2017 Toronto Jazz Festival, the building will operate as the Concert Hall in an early attempt to re-establish the six-storey building as a Toronto events space. While Russell could not confirm any planned future acts after the festival, he assured Complex Canada, “there is more music coming for sure.”

We’ll be waiting.