Plenty of your favourite classic rock bands are coming to Lethbridge, Sept. 6 to play the hits and more for the first Lethbridge Music Festival in Spitz Stadium.
Organizer Broc Higginson noted he is already looking ahead to next year and has a some big acts in mind if this festival is a hit.
Lou Gramm of Foreigner will be headlining the day long festival, which begins at noon with local openers followed by cover band Topaz at 2 p.m.
After that all of the ’70s hits you know and love and a whole lot more will follow with Prism (Take Me To The Kaptain, Spaceship Superstar, Flying) playing at 3 p.m. followed by Harlequin (Superstitious Feeling,Thinking of You, I Did It For Love, Sweet Things In Life) at 5 p.m.. Honeymoon Suite takes the stage at 7 p.m. playing their hits like New Girl Now, Wave Babies, Feel It Again. An Lou Gramm is on stage at 9 p.m. playing the many hits of Foreigner.
“ There won’t be a song you won’t know or be able to sing along to,” Higginson said.
Higginson, who organized a big country music festival a couple years ago, turned his eyes to classic rock this time because he knows there is a very dedicated audience for it in Lethbridge.
“I went through genres and though about who I thought people wanted to see playing a festival atmosphere,” he said.
“Classic rock is really popular in Southern Alberta especially Lethbridge,” he said.
“An if it's successful we’ll build on that base. Maybe we’ll add country and make it a two day festival, having country on Friday night and rock and roll the next.”
Higginson noted Lou Gramm as at the top of a short list of performers he wanted to see in Lethbridge and once he booked him, he built the festival around Gramm's performance.
Honeymoon Suite is excited top come back to Lethbridge for a show.
“ We’re going to get on stage and play our asses off. That's what we do,” said Honeymoon Suite frontman Johnnie Dee who is thankful fans are still excited to hear the band.
“ It’s going absolutely crazy. We’re always playing beginning with New Year’s Eve. February and March are a little slower, but in the summer when the big festivals get going, it gets crazy,” he continued adding they band plays spurts of shows over weekends.
“ We just played in Niagara Falls and then we had to fly to Winnipeg to play with Brett Michaels,” he said.
“ So we’ll all meet at Pearson (airport) and fly out from there. We’ve got to fly out at 10 a.m. tomorrow ( Aug. 29),” he said.
He noted the band uses the slower winter months to get together and play. While the band has tried to write together online or through Skype, Dee said that doesn’t work for him.
“Derry tried to get me into that, but it just doesn’t work for me. When you get three guys together with three acoustic guitars , there's a certain magic that happens,” he said adding Honeymoon Suite still has that magic together.
“That's why we still do this. When the magic is gone, we’ll stop,” he said.
They are writing a new record.
“ We don’t know what we’ll do with it. We have to decide if people are interested in it,” he said.
“ But we’re getting a lot of support from radio and peoples still come to our shows and people still want to talk to us on the phone,” he continued adding they are very popular in Canada and in Europe, but they hope to make more waves in the United States.
“ That can be scary. People still come to see us there and they sing along. But Americans will let you know if they don’t like you. Canadians are a lot nicer.”
Dee has some fond memories of Lethbridge shows.
“ There's one really cool bar there that we really love to play. Audiences are just great. But the last time we played a festival there, I tried to make my own way there and went to the wrong entrance and didn’t have a pass and security stopped me. I said ‘ I’m in the band, I’ve got to do a soundcheck and a set,’ but they wouldn’t let me by without a pass so I had to walk all the way around to the right entrance ,” he recalled.
Higginson said response to the festival has been good so far.
“It should be good. Response has been really good. People are excited.
“ You hear Prism, Harlequin and Honeymoon Suite and Foreigner on the radio a lot,” he said.
The festival takes place at Spitz stadium. There is a capacity of 1,800 for this 18 plus event.
Doors open at noon and the music goes until Lou Gramm finished his set.
Tickets cost $65 at the gate.
