The Tragically Hip's final gig

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2015, rockstar and Canadian icon Gord Downie was given months to live, after doctors found he had a terminal brain tumour.

But instead of quietly exiting the stage, Gord and his band, the Tragically Hip, came up with a plan to play 15 shows across 10 of Canada’s major cities.

Megan Lawton speaks to lead guitarist Rob Baker about the tour and the remarkable final gig that was watched by millions across the country.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Gord and the Tragically Hip performing on their final tour. Credit: Andrew Chin/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, it's Lucy Wersley here and we're back with a brand new series of ladies swindlers.
0:07.5	Promise never to mention a word of what is going on.
0:10.0	Join me and my all-female team of detectives as we revisit the audacious crimes of women trying to make it in a world made for men.
0:19.4	This is a story of working class women trying to get by in a world made for men. This is a story of working-class women trying to get by.
0:24.3	This is survival.
0:25.3	Join me for the second season of Lady Swindlers, where true crime meets history with a twist.
0:31.3	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:44.6	Hello, welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Megan Lawton,
0:51.6	and the story of one of Canada's best-selling and most loved bands and their last ever gig.
1:03.4	To look out and see people, you could see tears streaming down people's faces, and it was sorrow and joy at the same time.
1:05.2	It's August 20, 2016, and the tragically hip are on stage at the K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ontario in front of a sell-out hometown crowd.
1:15.8	Across Canada, more than 11 million are watching live on TV.
1:20.5	But this isn't a band breaking up.
1:22.9	Beloved lead singer Gord Downey is dying of a brain tumour, and this is his goodbye. On stage next to Gord
1:30.3	is Rob Baker, the band's lead guitarist. I couldn't, I just couldn't think about it, that this is the
1:36.4	final tour, that my friend is dying, we're getting up on stage, and that this is a big goodbye
1:43.2	to the audience, but for the audience to us as well.
1:47.6	I just couldn't go there. I just had to get up and do the show.
1:50.6	Long before that final gig, the band who made alternative rock folk and indie music
1:55.8	had established themselves as megastars.
2:00.5	We played a show in Amsterdam, and we were told there were half a million people in the park.
2:06.8	And we said, well, who's headlining?
	...

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