Man Machine Poem Tour

Man Machine Poem Tour
Tour by The Tragically Hip
Tour poster
LocationCanada
Associated albumMan Machine Poem
Start dateJuly 22, 2016 (2016-07-22)
End dateAugust 20, 2016 (2016-08-20)
No. of shows15

The Man Machine Poem Tour was a concert tour by the Tragically Hip in support of their thirteenth full-length studio album Man Machine Poem. The tour consisted of 15 shows, the first held on July 22, 2016, in Victoria, British Columbia, and the last held on August 20, 2016, at Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ontario.

The tour was announced on May 25, 2016, following an announcement the previous day regarding singer Gord Downie's brain cancer diagnosis.[1][2] A portion of the proceeds of the tour were donated to the Sunnybrook Foundation, the independent fundraising arm of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; in addition to the ticket sale proceeds themselves, both Sunnybrook and the Canadian Cancer Society reported a significant increase in direct donations, totalling over one million dollars, from the public during the tour.[3] CBC broadcast the tour's final concert in Kingston on its radio, television, and digital platforms, which was seen by 11.7 million viewers across all platforms, and a DVD and Blu-ray of the concert was released in December 2017.[4]

Although generally reported by the media as such, at the time the band refrained from officially labeling the concerts as their farewell tour, and instead communicated the hope that Downie's health would remain stable enough for them to tour again in the future.[5] However, Downie died of the illness on October 17, 2017.[6] In July 2018, guitarist Rob Baker declared that the Tragically Hip were now inactive and the members had no plans to perform under the name again without Downie.[7]

  1. ^ Slingerland, Calum (May 25, 2016). "The Tragically Hip Unveil 'Man Machine Poem' Tour". Exclaim!.
  2. ^ "Gord Downie's cancer treatable but not curable: docs". CTV News. May 24, 2016. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  3. ^ "Tragically Hip tour raises more than $1M for Canadian brain cancer research". Toronto Star, September 19, 2016.
  4. ^ "The Tragically Hip's Final Concert and Tour Doc Set for Home Release". Exclaim!, November 10, 2017.
  5. ^ "What happens next". The Globe and Mail, January 5, 2017.
  6. ^ Mazerolle, John (October 18, 2017). "Tragically Hip's Gord Downie dead at 53". CBC News. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  7. ^ West, Rachel. "The Tragically Hip talk life after Gord Downie: 'We're all still adjusting'". Global News. Retrieved July 8, 2018.