‘Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais.’ Rufus sings Serge Gainsbourg.

Rufus Wainwright sings ‘Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais.’ My magnificent obsession.

Dr. Philip Wong

During the MUHC’s annual awards dinner held this past week at Montreal’s Sofitel, Dr. Philip Wong was awarded a fellowship from the Kate McGarrigle Fund / Cedars Foundation of the MUHC. Dr. Wong is in his 2nd year of a sabbatical during which he is doing research into sarcoma at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital. Congratulations Philip..

Christmas concert to aid the Kate McGarrigle Fund for Sarcoma Research, Town Hall, NYC, December 15 2011

For information re concert and Kate McGarrigle Fund of the SFA.

Christmas Show in aid of the Kate McGarrigle Fund of the MUHC, Théâtre St-Denis, Montréal, December 11, 2011.

We’re doing it again. I can’t believe it’s only …days til Xmas. Here’s the lovely poster Lily and Kathleen designed for the shows. Hope to see you all there. À bientôt! The Kate McGarrigle Fund MUHC

Complainte pour Ste Catherine

Two months after the release of our first Warner recording in early 1976 we were asked to send a visual of a song that was getting some attention in Holland. Kate was 8 months pregnant (doesn’t look it) with Martha and because she had some edema the big East coast tour that had been planned got cancelled and we were at home twiddling our thumbs convinced our short-lived music careers were over. Now it turns out somebody somewhere liked something. Timing was everything. I remember it was a weekend and the Quebec WEA company rep arranged for us to lyp-synch before a camera at a TV station in Sherbrooke, QC, 1.5 hrs drive E. of Montreal, the only place that could make the video on short notice. In spite of the sorry-looking tulips, the song became a hit in Holland and Northern Europe. This is the first time I’ve ever seen this clip. It was uploaded to youtube and last.fm by fans. The irony here is that in the Spring of 2009 Kate and I were to fly to Holland to do this same song on a TV show with the Dutch group Alderliefste but because of post-surgery complications Kate had to spend a month in hospital and we never made it over. Complainte pour Ste Catherine indeed. Be careful how you title your songs. Stick to Love Me Do. The song appears on our first Warner record and on French Record (where I’ve written it phonetically – Kumpleint por St Kathryn)

Complainte pour Ste Catherine – Dutch TV 1976

Robert Bower, fan, friend and lover of cats.

Just got the sad and unexpected news that longtime friend and fan Robert Bower died suddenly in NYC yesterday. He was only 62. His beloved mother Ida died a month ago on July 8th and he was heartbroken but bearing up. He had a health problem he was being treated for and seems to have died as a consequence. Here is a pic of Robert and his mum (from a while back) that he sent me in July.
Kate and I first met Robert in 1976 shortly after our first record was released. We were touring in the NYC area and he presented himself backstage after a gig. If memory serves me well, he was with Ron Gomes. Thereafter he would call regularly and send us newspaper clippings of K&A reviews from around the World and he never missed a K&A concert in the NYC area and often travelled further afield to attend if his work schedule permitted. He was a longtime employee of Hotalings News in Times Sq. More recently he worked in Bob Dylan’s office. Robert was probably Leonard Cohen’s biggest fan and many people will remember him from LC’s concerts and ours. He was always taking in stray cats and at one point had what he thought were 2 female kittens which he named Kate and Anna. Kate turned out to be a male (my Kate was supposed to be one..) so he renamed the kitten Kit which was also my father’s nickname for Kate. They are also long gone. Here’s hoping Robert finds all his loved ones on the other side. Adieu old friend.

House of Rufus

Rolls off the tongue nicely, doesn’t it? Somewhere between the House of Windsor and the House of Usher??
Here they all are at soundcheck today. Rufus, Martha, Lily, Calum, Liam, Brad and Thomas.

House of Rufus - Royal Opera House Covent Garden

This Summer

Last Tuesday I drove up to Québec City to see Martha perform at the annual sprawling Festival d’été. There are many stages throughout the City and she was playing Le pigeonnier, a stage Kate and I had played in the mid 90s. I don’t have to tell you, Martha was Magnificent. The audience was in her thrall throughout. At one point she kindly asked me to join her on stage so I could massacre Entre Lajeunesse et la sagesse on the piano while she sang it like an angel. In all the years I’ve sung and sometimes played the bass on that song I had never actually played it on piano. It’s tough! as Barbie would say. I think I’ve got it now. Then Marianne Faithfull took the stage and did a very charming and heartfelt set with her band led by Kate St John.

This week Rufus, Martha, Loudon, Lucy, Brad, Thomas, Calum, Lily, and the Arc of the Covent, are all over in London doing Rufus week at Covent Garden. It sounds like it’s going to be wonderful. Check out Rufus’s site for details of this coming week’s presentations: RUFUS WAINWRIGHT SITE

Kate & Anna go postal.

Wish Kate could be here to see this. The stamp had been in the works for some time so she knew about it and was quite jazzed by the idea. Many thanks to all who made this happen. Coincidentally in the late 80s we did the music for Mike Rubbo’s fantastical kids film ‘Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller.’ If I remember correctly you just had to get yourself onto the stamp and away you went travelling back and forth in time. Wonder if the magic still works?
Canada Post announces stamp

P.S. Joel Z just wrote ‘better than being on a Pinky stamp.’ Throughout the 60s when we lived in TMR, my mother shopped religiously at the Dominion store and collected those stamps you wet with a sponge and stuck in booklets (the premise for Michel Tremblay’s Les belles-soeurs.) When she redeemed what seemed like a huge stack of these she still only had enough for half a set of the Canadian Encyclopedia, a source of great frustration to her daughters when writing term papers. The only other reference books we had was a set (complete) of the American Encyclopedia 1904 edition, still at Gardencourt.

Death and Taxes – a dream?

D R E A M
Death and taxes.

I had a very real dream early this a.m…. I was on my way to a dentist appointment (which I have today) and had dropped by Kate’s place to change my clothes. I had taken the train in. When I got to Querbes I was surprised to see a lot of people I didn’t know, mostly friends of Jorn’s. Ruf and Martha were out at a TV taping for the St Jean. The place was in a state of renovation, an old wood farm sink had replaced the metal one in her previously modern kitchen, a chopping block was sitting in the middle of a room waiting to be appointed. I was walking around with my clothing looking for a place to change and had put them down on a toilet which also now had no door. They fell into the bowl. (what does this mean?) I was fishing these out feeling very self-conscious all the while chitchatting with a very dapper friend of Jorn’s. I went outside. There in an unfinished garage structure with an open front was Kate setting up mic stands for people to perform at the party she was having later when Ruf and Martha showed up. We stared into each other’s eyes. She said Come by after the dentist and I said I can’t, I have to go home to see the accountant about finishing up my taxes for 2010 (which I am in fact doing today). She said Oh. I guess I should do mine too. I said We didn’t earn very much this past year, remembering that she had died, but here she was standing before me very much alive and setting up a stage. So characteristic of Kate. We looked deep into each other’s eyes again, as if to acknowledge we had a secret, that she hadn’t really died after all. I told her The 2009 taxes got done and I’m sure if you’re a little late Revenue Canada won’t mind. She said, I’ll get on them after everyone leaves. Again, so characteristic. At this point an agitated Janie came in with the news that the TV show was cutting a song Rufus had sung with an older local opera singer. They didn’t think it would appeal to the younger audience they were going after…This sure felt like real life to me.