VANCOUVER — Avril Hughes has followed the Tragically Hip since seeing the band in concert in the 1980s, so she didn't think twice about making the long road trip from her home in California to British Columbia to catch the farewell tour.
"I cannot believe I'm sitting here anticipating seeing them for the last time live," Hughes said upon arriving in Langley, B.C., on Thursday.
The Tragically Hip kicks off its final cross-country tour in Victoria on Friday, with performances lined up in Vancouver on Sunday and Tuesday, part of a 15-date cross-country trip.
The tour, promoting the band's latest album "Man Machine Poem," was planned following the announcement in May that frontman Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
Hughes said she was shocked when she heard the news of Downie's condition.
"I saw them in October. It was spectacular," she said. "He had all the energy in the world."
Despite already catching the band's performance in San Francisco last year, Hughes said she wasn't going to miss the final tour.
She was among countless dedicated fans who were glued to their computer screens the evening pre-sale tickets for the farewell tour became available.
"I looked at the countdown clock and the second it was time I pressed the button, and it came up there were no tickets that matched my search," she said.
After several more searches, she said she finally landed two tickets at the first Vancouver show that she'll be attending with her brother Paul Hughes, who lives in Langley.
Victoria's John Garside said he also failed to track down tickets initially, despite being one of the first people in line at the box office, working his mobile phone and enlisting friends to work the phones from their homes.
Finally, after searching for tickets at every tour venue, he picked up two platinum seats for Sunday's Vancouver concert. Garside, 41, said he paid $1,400 for the two front-section seats.
"I'm going with my best friend of nearly 30 years," he said.
"He just moved back here with his family from Australia, where's he's been since about 2002. Is there any better way than to say welcome back to Canada and do a Canadian thing than to take him to a Hip show?"
For Jordan Kennedy, seeing Downie and his bandmates perform in Toronto next month will be his 17th time hearing them live.
While a university student 21 years ago, Kennedy was an extra in the band's music video for the song "Silver Jet." There he had the chance to spend the day hanging out and chatting with the musicians.
"They say 'Don't meet your heroes because you'll be disappointed.' But I at least personally had the complete opposite experience with Gord and with the rest of the guys," he said. "It was a dream come true and I wish I could do it again."
Kennedy said the Hip's lyrics referencing various Canadian people and places even inspired him to learn more about Canada.
He will be going to the show with the same friend who accompanied him to his first Hip concert — also his first ever concert — in 1995.
The Hip's Victoria performance is already sold out, but the venue will be offering up 50 additional tickets for sale Friday to those who have put their names in a lottery.
The Vancouver shows are almost sold out, with only platinum seats remaining, through Ticketmaster and resale tickets are available on the website StubHub.
The Tragically Hip's final performance of the tour will take place in the band's hometown of Kingston, Ont., on Aug. 20.
Fans who failed to nab tickets will still be able to watch the final live show, which is being broadcasted by the CBC.
FACTS ABOUT THE TRAGICALLY HIP AS THE BAND LAUNCHES FAREWELL TOUR
VICTORIA — Canadian rock band the Tragically Hip begins what is being billed as its final tour after lead singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with a deadly brain cancer. Here are some facts about Downie and the band:
Current members: Gord Downie, Paul Langlois, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay.
Inception: Downie, Sinclair, Fay and Baker have all been with the band since forming it in 1984 while in high school in Kingston, Ont. The band also originally featured a saxophone player who left two years later. Langlois joined in 1986.
Origin of band name: Members say it was taken from a line in a 1981 movie called "Elephant Parts" by Michael Nesmith, a former member of the Monkees.
Debut album: The band released a self-titled EP in 1987 after signing with MCA and put out its first full-length album in 1989. "Up to Here" produced some of the band's most famous singles, including "Blow at High Dough" and "New Orleans is Sinking."
Mainstream success: While the band established a fan base with its debut album, the release of "Fully Completely" in 1992 took things to the next level thanks to hits like "Courage" and "At the Hundredth Meridian." Canadian references were plentiful on the album.
Trivia: The Tragically Hip was the first band to play a show at Toronto's Air Canada Centre, the city's primary concert venue. They also appeared on "Saturday Night Live" once at the insistence of fellow Canadian Dan Aykroyd, although big success in the U.S. was largely elusive.
Honours: The band won 14 Juno awards, secured a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2002, was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and is featured on a Canada Post stamp issued in 2013.
Other notable albums: "Day for Night," "Trouble at the Henhouse," "Phantom Power" and "Inviolet Light"
Other notable songs: "Bobcaygeon," "Fifty-Mission Cap," "Nautical Disaster," "Ahead by a Century,'' "Poets" and "Wheat Kings," which references the wrongly convicted David Milgaard.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT GORD DOWNIE'S BRAIN CANCER GLIOBLASTOMA
VICTORIA — Canadian rock band the Tragically Hip begins what is being billed as its final tour after lead singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with a deadly brain cancer. Here are five things to know about the type of illness Downie has, a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumour:
WHAT IS GLIOBLASTOMA? It's the most common and most aggressive cancerous-primary brain tumour (a tumour that starts in the brain). Glioblastoma tumours are made up of different cell types and are usually highly cancerous because the cells reproduce quickly and have a large network of blood vessels supporting them.
Most of these tumours occur in the cerebral hemispheres, but can develop in other parts of the brain such as the corpus callosum, brain stem or spinal cord. Like many brain tumour types, the exact cause is not known, but increasingly research is pointing toward genetic mutations.
PREVALENCE OF GLIOBLASTOMA: The rate of glioblastoma is about two to three per 100,000 people in Canada, the United States and Europe.
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto says it treats around 250 patients with glioblastoma each year. This type of tumour is more common in older individuals and more common in men than women. Each case is unique, but average survival is less than one year, even with aggressive treatment.
SYMPTOMS: A patient's symptoms depend on the location of the tumour. Some common symptoms include headache, weakness, nausea, seizure, memory difficulties, personality changes and vomiting. Sometimes the tumour starts producing symptoms quickly, but on occasion there are no symptoms until it reaches a larger size.
TYPES OF GLIOBLASTOMA: The American Brain Tumor Association cites two types of glioblastomas. These include primary, or "de novo," and secondary.
Primary tumours tend to form and make their presence known quickly. This is the most common form of glioblastoma, which is very aggressive. Secondary tumours have a longer, somewhat slower growth history, but are still very aggressive. They may begin as lower-grade tumours, which eventually become higher grade. They tend to be found in people 45 and younger, and represent about 10 per cent of glioblastomas.
TREATMENT: The first treatment step is surgery to remove as much tumour as possible. Surgery is almost always followed by radiation. Glioblastoma's capacity to wildly invade and infiltrate normal surrounding brain tissue makes complete resection impossible.
After surgery, radiation therapy is used to kill leftover tumour cells and to try and prevent recurrence. Chemotherapy is often given at the same time as radiation and may be used to delay radiation in young children.
