80s Concerts

It started off with a simple text.

One of my oldest and dearest friends, Karen, and I have known each other for almost 50 years. By the time we were in high school, we had moved from classroom acquaintances to good friends, and by the time that we finished high school, we belonged to a fairly tight-knit group that included my bestie, Stuart. And because both of us took a year off, after high school, Karen and I were practically inseparable, so much so that my parents thought we were dating.

We weren't.

And though Karen has lived in Guelph for about 30 years, we still keep in touch. Hence, the aforementioned text, which I sent earlier this month.

She had a lot of memories to choose from: Montreal, where we went with Stuart and a gone-but-not-forgotten friend, Sherrill. Hopping from bar to bar, we all got shitfaced and eventually Karen and I ended up making out.

No, we never dated.

And no, we weren't in Montreal on the date in question. After a couple more guesses, I told her to think of music.

There had been a lot of concerts over the years: The Who, Peter Gabriel, U2, to name a few. But I was picking this particular show because I was holding the actual ticket stubs in my hands while I was quizzing her.

I don't know why I had all three ticket stubs for the show. Had I paid for them? It wasn't uncommon for me to take Karen out to dinner or for drinks, and pick up the tab. Same with our friend, Suzanne, who also joined us for this show.

No, I never dated Suzanne, either.

Eventually, I let Karen know that it was a show that she, Suzanne, and I went to, together. But she was still drawing blanks, so I sent her the following photo.

Now, at the time, Nik Kershaw was pretty big. His songs "Wouldn't It Be Good," "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," and "The Riddle" were big hits. They're still in rotation in my 80s playlist on my smartphone. And I remember that my female friends found Kershaw to be good looking.

I remember the show but I also remember that before we took our seats at the National Arts Centre, we were waiting near a hallway, just off the side to the lobby, when we heard singing. We moved down the hall and as we got closer to the sound, we realized it was Kershaw, warming his vocal chords. We were going to see if we could get further down the hall to see him but an NAC usher called for us to return to the lobby.

It was a good show, as I remember.

The tickets cost $16.50, plus a 75-cent handling charge. In 1985, working at a paint and wallpaper store, that ticket would have taken about three hours to earn. It would have taken a couple of shifts of my job to have earned enough to buy all three tickets.

My friends were worth it.

DW found an NAC envelope in a pile of ticket stubs, brochures, and pamphlets that we had kept from our trip through England and Wales. She was going through the memories while I was scanning photos and slides, to digitize those parts of our vacation. "What's this doing here?" she asked. Though I couldn't give her an answer about how those stubs ended up with our vacation mementos, I could certainly explain the tickets, themselves, and why there were three.

Along with the Nik Kershaw stubs were two more tickets, to two other shows. I'll share memories of those another time.

Happy Thursday!