August 31, 1998
Publication title: Maclean’s, vol. 111, Iss.35, pg. 54
Place: Toronto
Writer: Unknown
A fair to remember
A larger, louder, more lucrative Lilith Fair has been winding its way across North America this summer. The all-women’s music festival, conceived and headlined by Canada’s Sarah McLachlan, has added more dates, more bands and more funk in its second year, silencing critics who charged that last year’s lineup was a white-bread affair that leaned too heavily on sensitive singer-songwriters. So far, the current tour has included alternative rockers Luscious Jackson, rapper Missy (Misdemeanor) Elliot and blues and country veterans Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris. By the time it winds up in Vancouver on Aug. 31, following stops in Calgary (Aug. 28) and Edmonton (Aug. 29), more than 170 artists will have performed for 800,000 people in 57 concerts (22 more than last year). That means big bucks for Lilith’s backers–McLachlan and her three partners. But it also means more money for a network of women’s charities, which will receive more than $2 million through ticket surcharges and corporate sponsors.
Interestingly, McLachlan’s partners are all men: New York-based booking agent Marty Diamond and the singer’s Vancouver-based managers, Dan Fraser and Terry McBride. “Those three men,” McLachlan told a Toronto press conference prior to two sold-out shows there earlier this month, “spearhead the whole organization. They’re the ones that have the expertise in the music industry of dealing with the other agents, managers and promoters.” While McLachlan acts as headliner and chief spokeswoman, the others have clearly defined roles as well. Diamond negotiates the contracts and co-ordinates the dizzying schedule. McBride, a computer whiz, handles all the tour’s marketing. And Fraser oversees production, ensuring that the 40 vehicles, 140 crew members and 55 tonnes of equipment actually get from city to city.
Backstage at the Toronto show, the scene was more virtuous health spa than raunchy rock den, as performers treated themselves to fresh-fruit Smoothies and the services of the tour’s resident massage therapist. There was one minor glitch when singer Paula Cole failed to show up on stage for a guest spot with Lilith’s founder. “Last time I saw her she was getting a massage,” explained a puzzled McLachlan. “Maybe she’s fallen asleep.”
What has kept audiences awake throughout much of the tour has been the surprise collaborations: the sweetheart-of-the-rodeo harmonies of Harris on McLachlan’s Angel, Raitt and Cole joining forces for a blustery version of Tom Waits’s Jersey Girl and N’Dea Davenport adding a soulful edge to Natalie Merchant’s Break Your Heart. Merchant has become one of Lilith’s biggest believers. “There’s a sort of utopian atmosphere backstage which I’ve never experienced before,” said the former 10,000 Maniacs vocalist. “I’ve done the H.O.R.D.E. tour but it didn’t have the same powerful ideology behind it–or the strong philanthropic arm. Sarah is what makes this festival so different.” That power has been evident each night when the whole cast comes together, love-in style, for a rousing version of Marvin Gaye’s soul classic What’s Going On–another blissed-out finale in the land of Lilith.
Now that her event has forever changed the landscape of summer rock festivals, making testosterone-driven events like this year’s Ozzfest (Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeath, Tool and others) seem anachronistic, the question McLachlan has been dodging is: whither Lilith? Perhaps that has something to do with the singer’s oft-stated desire to start a family with her drummer-husband, Ash Sood. Pregnancy and touring are difficult co-ventures (though Shawn Colvin, who gave birth on July 24, performed beforehand at Lilith–and with a bare midriff).
Rumors about McLachlan being pregnant have been rife during the tour. But she isn’t yet, insists McBride, who also owns Nettwerk Records, McLachlan’s label. Sitting in the tour’s “management” bus, an office-on-wheels littered with laptops and cell phones, McBride said without hesitation: “You’re not going to see anything until spring of the year 2000.” Now that’s efficient management.
