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It was March of 1987 and 27-year-old budding impresario David Lavin won a 3-year million-dollar sponsorship program from the Toronto Star to promote a series of lectures without any editor

Our Back Pages

By External Source

It was March of 1987 and 27-year-old budding impresario David Lavin won a 3-year million-dollar sponsorship program from the Toronto Star to promote a series of lectures without any editorial caution from the newspaper. Headliners in the program included Hunter S. Thompson, Noam Chomsky, and a ‘70s themed drug culture discussion that imported Eldridge Cleaver, Timothy Leary and Abbie Hoffman as guest speakers. Joanne Smale (seated between Cleaver and Leary) was the lead publicist for the event that was an immediate sell-out. She recalls not remembering too much about the after-show dinner party at an Italian restaurant but listened intently. Lavin is on the opposite side with glasses on and, sadly, Abbie, seated directly across from Smale, is obscured in this picture. Lavin’s account of this night can be found in paras 8 and 9 here.  


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Seated either side of Smale are former political activist turned Republican candidate Eldridge Cleaver and Timothy Leary who by this time had shaken his messianic promotion of LSD and become a proselytizing computer geek.

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Blue Rodeo at The Kee To Bala.
Courtesy Photo

Blue Rodeo at The Kee To Bala.

Concerts

Nelly, Cypress Hill, Billy Talent, The Beaches Highlight Muskoka Venue The KEE To Bala's  2025 Lineup

A musically diverse group of major international and Canadian stars will take to the historic stage in Ontario cottage country this summer, including Billy Corgan, Shaggy, The Reklaws, Down With Webster and more.

A historic and popular music venue in the Muskoka cottage country region of Ontario for the past eight decades, The KEE To Bala was taken over by Live Nation in 2023, and the clout of the international concert behemoth has upped the ante.

That's evident in the bookings. Today (May 5), this season's lineup was announced, and it again features major international and Canadian artists as headliners. Heading the international names are R&B superstar Nelly, fast-rising young American country star Dylan Gossett, alt-rockers Billy Corgan and The Machines of God with Collective Soul, reggae hitmaker Shaggy, rock veterans The Wallflowers and hip-hop stars Cypress Hill & Ja Rule.

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