What’s up: Donovan Bailey book launch, NFB doc, Neilfest celebrates Young, KISS ends road tour

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This article was published 09/11/2023 (1061 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Donovan Bailey book launch

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m.

McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park location

Free admission

There was a time when nobody could catch Donovan Bailey.

The Jamaican-born, Canadian-raised world record-setting sprinter dazzled the world with his performances in the 100-metre and 4×100 metre relay in the 1990s, earning two gold medals at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., as well as three world championship titles. He was the first Canadian to run 100 metres in under 10 seconds (after Ben Johnson’s drug-related disqualification in 1988), and still holds the indoor 50-metre sprinting world record.

Twice inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame — as a solo sprinter and as a relay team member — the 55-year-old Bailey has since worked as a commentator, public speaker, entrepreneur, philanthropist and board adviser.

His most recent role, however, has been as an author. His memoir Undisputed: A Champion’s Life, was published in late October by Random House Canada. Winnipeggers can catch Bailey when he dashes in to McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location on Wednesday at 7 p.m. to launch Undisputed, where he’ll be joined in conversation with Ace Burpee of 103.1 Virgin Radio.

In his book Bailey chronicles his formative years as a child in Jamaica, his family’s move to Canada when he was 12, the determination he had to put into developing as an athlete — particularly as an outsider — the heyday of his sprinting career and life after the track.

Following his chat with Burpee and an audience Q&A session, Bailey will stick around and sign copies of Undisputed. Those who can’t make the launch can watch it live or afterwards on McNally Robinson’s YouTube channel.

— Ben Sigurdson

NFB streams doc on wartime brothers from Manitoba

The Pacifist Who Went to War

Film by David Neufeld

Free streaming at wfp.to/thepacifistwhowenttowar or nfb.ca

The story of two Mennonite brothers who grew up in Altona and took different paths at the outbreak of the Second World War gets a timely retelling from the National Film Board.

The 2002 documentary The Pacifist Who Went to War by David Neufeld has been recently restored and digitized, just in time for Remembrance Day, to help those seeking to learn about how a war thousands of miles away affected people in Manitoba, and how it created a rift in Mennonite villages and towns such as Winkler, Morden and Altona, among others.

The story centres on Ted and John Friesen and their fateful decisions. Ted chose to follow the pacifist tenets of the Mennonite church and became a conscientious objector, while John enlisted in the air force and served aboard Lancaster bombers, becoming one of many Mennonite-Canadians to join the war effort.

The 52-minute film also focuses on the postwar reaction by Mennonite churches, which demanded servicemen to repent in order to be welcomed back into congregations, and the reaction to Winkler erecting its first war memorial.

— Alan Small

Neilfest celebrates Young turning one year older

Friday, Nov. 10, and Saturday, Nov. 11

Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club

Tickets: $22.85 at highandlonesomeclub.ca

Saturday night will mark the 78th birthday of Neil Young, the iconic Canadian singer-songwriter who spent a few fruitful years living in Winnipeg, where he formed his first bands in between classes at Kelvin High School.

Before mounting a legendary solo career and becoming a member of influential groups such as Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and Crazy Horse, Young played the city’s folk circuit and dance halls with groups including the Jades and the Squires, experiences which set in motion six decades as a risk-taking, defiant performer, hailed as a godfather of grunge and a hero of modern folk music.

Had the club been around in 1960, there’s a pretty solid chance a teenage Young would have snuck into the Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, the vaunted honkytonk at the corner of Main Street and St. Mary Avenue. For 18 years, the Times has celebrated Young’s birthday with Neilfest, now a two-night showcase of Young’s endless trove of musical gold.

On Friday night, the Scotty Malcolmson Band will take the stage, playing through some of Young’s best known tunes, including 1972’s Harvest. On Saturday night, the Times hosts a double bill of Neil, with the Stanley County Cutups bringing their energy to a bluegrass-heavy set, and the Honeysliders playing through some cuts from 1975’s Tonight’s the Night.

— Ben Waldman

Kiss’s End of the Road Tour

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m.

Canada Life Centre

Tickets: starting at $200 from ticketmaster.ca

Pucker up and say goodbye to Kiss as the glam metal heroes wrap up their 50-year long career more than four years after announcing their farewells.

With the tour kicking off in Vancouver in 2019, dates had to be rescheduled owing to the pandemic, with 2020 shows postponed to 2021. The following year the band announced another 100 shows as they weren’t quite ready to say goodbye.

Celebrating more than half a century, the tongue-wagging costume-wearing band’s final curtain call is scheduled for Dec. 2 at Madison Square Garden in NYC, 10 blocks from where KISS first started.

Famed for their over-the-top spectacular shows, complete with pyrotechnics and garish face paint, fans can expect to hear the iconic veteran rockers belt out classics such as Detroit Rock City, I Was Made for Lovin’ You, Rock and Roll All Nite and Heaven’s on Fire.

Original members Gene Simmons — who was given the key to Winnipeg in 2011 by then mayor Sam Katz — and Paul Stanley are joined on stage by drummer Eric Singer and guitarist Tommy Thayer.

— AV Kitching

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