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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

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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 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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Chris Martin of Coldplay
Anna Lee Media / Coldplay / Disney+ Hotstar

Chris Martin of Coldplay

Concerts

Rogers Stadium Making 'Adjustments' Ahead of Sold-Out Coldplay Toronto Shows

The newly opened space will host the British rock band for four performances starting on July 7.

Shortly after its opening, Toronto’s Rogers Stadium is already making “adjustments.”

In anticipation of Coldplay’s four sold-out shows, which start tonight (July 7), the open-air venue is addressing early concerns raised during its inaugural event: a June 29 concert by K-pop group Stray Kids.

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