The first concert was spectacular but so too was the last!

It was November 1967 and I was twenty years old and had been completely taken by Petula Clark ‘s music from the moment I had heard Downtown two years before. Then came all the other hits —I Know a Place, A Sign of the Times, My Love, This Is My Song , I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love and Don’t Sleep in the Subway ! I knew every lyric and loved every song-

In 1967, the primary means of hearing and promoting music was through radio stations. I lived in Canada about 90 km from Toronto, but near the US border, so my radio stations were CHUM in Toronto and WKRB in Buffalo. Most weekends I also read the Entertainment section of the Toronto Star. I am not sure where I heard about Petula Clark coming to Toronto in November of that year, but surely from one of these sources.

I still recall the excitement of lining up at my local Sam the Recordman ( no internet booking in those days) to purchase the coveted tickets for the Saturday night performance of Petula’s five day run at the O’Keefe Centre in Toronto. Well, actually I did not purchase the tickets, but my boyfriend of three months who had a job ( I was still a student) and was, I am sure, eager to impress me, bought the tickets !

So on Saturday, November 25, we made the drive from Niagara to the big city–Toronto, hardly able to contain the excitement of going to see Petula Clark–the Petula Clark: it felt somewhat surreal.

The venue was a large concert hall at the time called the O’Keefe Centre situated prominently at the bottom of Yonge Street at the corner of Front Street, within walking distance from the Royal York Hotel and Union Station, impressive Toronto landmarks. The venue has gone through several reincarnations and name changes since, but still is an impressive music venue in Toronto , currently named Meridian Hall. In 1967, it would have been the premier concert venue in the city and all the big named entertainers would perform there.

The Toronto Star Archives documents Petula Clark’s whirlwind arrival in Toronto for these concert dates. According to the article, she landed at 12:15 p.m and managed to cover “more of the city in one day than most locals do in a week”—including forgetting her mink coat at the airport, which had to be retrieved by her team. During that week she also did a photo-op on the Toronto Subway –a promotion for her current hit, Don’t Sleep in the Subway.

Several years ago I managed to purchase online the program for that first concert and along with her current hits , some other interesting inclusions on the set list were:” I Want to Hold Your Hand“, “Come Rain or Come Shine“, “My Fair Lady“, “Happy Face“, “Las Vegas”, “Dear Heart“.

Frances Sneaker did a glowing review of the concert in This Week for the Toronto Star:

“Petula Clark, who can probably claim the distinction of being the greatest force in the rejuvenation of DOWNTOWN night life, filled the O’Keefe Centre…with a wildly enthusiastic audience. Some entertainers travel with a warm up group as the first half of their show. Not Petula. She provided her own warm up and after she sang her second song, “I Know a Place”, the temperature continued to rise until it lifted us to our feet at the finish of the show in a final standing ovation….It is hard to describe her in a single phrase…it is hard to decide if you are hearing a feeling or a song….”

As we followed the crowd out of the building that evening in 1967 we had no way of knowing that we would see Petula in that same venue on other occasions spanning a forty year time-frame . Or that, more than sixty years later, we would witness her perform a concert again—perhaps for the final time—at another Toronto theatre, after having followed her to countless venues across the globe. How unbelieving my twenty-year old self would have been!

I cannot rationally explain it, but I know it to be true that no matter how many times we attended a Petual concert (yes, that boyfriend became my husband in 1969) we were as excited as we were on that first concert at the O’Keefe Center. What I can also tell you is that on June 17, 2019–the last time that Petula did a full concert — she could still put on an amazing two hour show and bring an appreciative audience to its feet.This time it was the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, a theatre on the grounds of the CNE – the audience was smaller and probably older but the reaction to Petula Clark was just as amazing.

What we did not anticipate in planning to attend this concert is that the date would coincide with the victory parade for the Toronto Raptors winning the NBA championship that year. Two million people flocked to the streets, making the journey from our hotel to the theatre a challenge as the streets were almost impassable. Getting back to our hotel after the concert was further complicated by the fact that the CNE grounds had been closed off to traffic ; we had a long trek to find a cab.

But, in retrospect, it was really just an inconvenience, compared to the privilege of having been present at what may have been a truly historic Petula concert. Hopefully, there will be another concert or lots, but if not, I will not forget, nor will I ever stop being grateful for having seen Petula perform that night and so many other times. The label, legend or even phenomenon seems inadequate to me to describe the magic of Petula Clark.

A powerful confirmation of these impressions happened when I read a very interesting review of this last Petula concert in a blog entitled Panic Manual, written by a person named Paul. What is fascinating is that this young person was seeing Petula for the first time and clearly recognized the magic:

While a punk show at some dingy dive bar is probably more my speed on any given day, I will admit to having a fondness for old school show business and an appreciation of classic pop hits so it wasn’t really too much of a stretch for me to take in Petula Clark’s show this past Monday night at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. As far as classic pop songs are concerned Ms Clark certainly has that covered with bona fida classics like, “Don’t Sleep in the Subway”, Sign of the Times” and of course”Downtown”, all of which made their way into her set…One of the highlights of the night that also came as a bit of a surprise was her version of Gnarls Barkley’s 2006 hit “Crazy”. The song has been covered many times by many others but by adding a bit of the old school showbiz flair, she certainly managed to put her own spin on it. And at 86 years old, Clark’s voice does not seem to have lost much of its lustre. And I don’t just mean her singing voice–that Glenn Close impression was not too bad either.”

As always, Bravo, Petula!