Neil Young’s secret site for Dec. 1 concert is Omemee, Ont.: report
Will Neil Young’s mysterious Dec. 1 concert be held in his childhood home of Omemee, Ontario? A local website thinks it has the evidence.
Kawarthanow.com reported Monday that it had acquired an email to Bell Media, which will be stream Young’s show, from the City of Kawartha Lakes, which governs Omemee, a community of roughly 1,200 people 23 km west of Peterborough. In the email, the municipality approves “closing of a section of Sturgeon Road (from Church St E to King St W for southbound traffic only) in Omemee … for a Live Concert Special, organized by the Bell Media, from Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at 12:00 p.m. to Saturday, December 2, 2017 at 3 a.m.”
At the corner of Sturgeon and King in Omemee is Coronation Hall, a venue whose capacity is normally 140 persons. Billboard Magazine has said the concert will take place at 200-person-capacity venue, so close enough.
The 72-year-old rock superstar’s acoustic 90-minute concert, timed to promote his new album The Visitor, is slated to be live-streamed on CTV.ca and the CTV GO app starting at 8 p.m. EST on Dec. 1; outside of Canada, it will stream on Facebook.
Young lived in Omemee from ages 4 to 11, and his life there has long been considered the inspiration for “a town in North Ontario” in his song “Helpless.” In Young’s memoir Shakey, he remembers it as “a nice little town. Sleepy little place. . . . Life was real basic and simple in that town. Walk to school, walk back. Everybody knew who you were. Everybody knew everybody.”