The Canadian Music Hall Of Fame: OTTAWA
Yes, a national music hall of fame in the ByWard Market.
Jean-Pierre Allard in an article in the Citizen wants an Ottawa music hall of fame. But let’s think bigger. Ottawa is the national capital so why not a Canadian music hall of fame. There is much Ottawa talent that will appear there simply on merit.
And for people who might think Ottawa is a tad dull, make it like Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, built in part over Lake Erie and is an audio-visual delight. Make it a party all day and into the night. How about a big video screen out front showing concerts? Concerts all day on the roof … classical, jazz, pop, rock.
The architecture of Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is amazing.
There’s much room for contemporary music …
… or more traditional music such as Oliver Jones and Oscar Peterson.
Perhaps some music on the roof …
… or on the marquee. Music all day and into the evening. Classical, rock, jazz, classical, you name it.
On your agent’s visit to the Cleveland museum, you couldn’t get people out of the theatre there watching this video.
Maybe this would fill the bill.
This is something Ottawa Tourism could champion. And imagine, full hotels and restaurants all year long. And most of all … a revitalized ByWard Market. And unlike a downtown arena, people are there all day and much of the night. Arenas are a people wasteland during the day. The city morgue has more action.
So Ottawa Tourism start lobbying the feds and the province and get the city to put a certain $419 million in some Glebe shopping centre to better use. Allard is right.
A Canadian Music Hall of Fame would be a huge draw, great for business and a way to make the ByWard Market and Ottawa more of a destination than it already is.
Parties, induction ceremonies, tourists … you name it. You could build a new Ottawa around this.
Ken Gray
Build a shrine to the Canadian music the world loves in a location Ottawa loves … the ByWard Market. Think big.
For You:
Low Dollar Good For Ottawa Tourism: PATTON
Sutcliffe Has Plan To Fight Trump Tariffs
Trump Is Not A Normal Person: THE VOTER
Bookmark The Bulldog, click here
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
Who’s going to tell Danny Smith (no relation) about this idea?
Good idea, Ken but I’d opt for The Hard Rock Cafe out by the race track as a better locale than the Byward Market. It’s close to the airport, there’s a route for people to get to the location from downtown, and lots of room to build new hotels if necessary. Ottawa’s preoccupation with the Byward Market as “the” entertainment hub of Ottawa is problematic if the city wants to grow a nightlife culture. Really fun cities have various locations for people to visit that allow visitors to see various areas of the city. By the way, I’ll still take the Rolling Stones’ version of “Gimme Shelter” from “Let It Bleed” with Mick Taylor on lead guitar and a young Merry Clayton belting out background vocals over the U2/Fergie version. Finally, one sad fact about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is that Procul Harum, with their 12 albums and monster hit (“A Whiter Shade of Pale”) have not yet been inducted. If they ever are given their proper place in Rock & Roll history Gary Brooker will not be present to shine on brightly during the group’s acceptance speech.
You need to be careful, Ken. You’re stepping into the mandate of the Night Mayor here!
voter — i will tread lightly — cheers k
Sisco,
I’m with you on the location for the Hall of Fame and on “Gimme Shelter”. It is definitely a sin that Procul Harem* hasn’t made it in Cleveland yet but maybe we could have a special section for overlooked bands that haven’t made it into other countries’ Halls of Fame and get them into ours! They could be Honourary Members!
The only problem I have is when you referred to “really fun cities …” and Ottawa has still to overcome its mantle as “The City That Fun Forgot” before it can join those ranks. It’ll be a long hill to climb but we can do it! Maybe we can be “The Little City That Could” but first the Night Mayor has to go!!
“We think we can; we think we can; we think we can … ”
*I must point out that I could only have been days old when I first saw them play!
the voter:
One of the great successes of gov’t policy was cancom on radio.
No better place to put the music hall but in the shadow of the parliament buildings and it revitalizes the market.
It also keeps a number of our museums together.
Done right, it could be Ottawa’s gathering place day and night.
cheers
kgray
I remain baffled by the rural location of the casino. It met Jim Watson’s only criteria – political expediency. As for the Hard Rock Cafe + Hotel – private money is capable of making mistakes.
Ron,
If memory serves, the race track already had betting going on there at the time the casino gambling question came up. That made it a shoo-in since, with a betting licence, it already had passed the approval process with the Alcohol & Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and it was just a matter of extending it. It also had the parking and other services required to add the casino as well as lots of land for future expansion.
Another location in the running was in the Sparks Street area but Watson didn’t support it because it would be more directly in competition with the Lac Leamy Casino which was already well established. Putting gambling on Sparks Street would have been a gamble.
Both the race track and the casino have been somewhat hard to get to since they had no transit service for many years. A route was set up eons ago but didn’t last because it didn’t have enough customers. They will now be easier to reach since one of the new Trillium Line stations is not far away.
Putting the casino out in the boonies also meant that the race track would bring customers in so it wasn’t starting from scratch which would have been the case for the other suggested locations. Horse racing was in a bit of a slump at the time and the advent of the casino helped bring people in for the racing as well as the casino.
Many people aren’t aware that a portion of the revenue from the casino goes to the City. Originally, it went to Gloucester and, with amalgamation, it now goes to Ottawa. They’ve paid almost $100M to the city since it opened.
And for some more trivia, Roly Armitage would have been 100 years old this Saturday had he not died last summer. He was Mayor of West Carleton back in the day and he managed the race track from 1981 to 1990 before going into politics.