Toronto rock group hit at U.S. festival


Toronto Star
August 5, 1969

ATLANTIC CITY - A Toronto rock group was cheered by 35,000 fans at a racetrack pop festival here Saturday when they urged everyone to come to Canada - "the land of the cool."

The three-day festival got off to a ragged start amid local fears of a "hippie invasion." Civil guardsmen in helicopters flew overhead watching for a riot that never came.

Joni Mitchell left the stage in tears after announcing, "I sang the same verse twice and you didn't even notice."

About 200 Toronto fans, who had chartered three buses at $25 a head and spent a wet night in a camp ground, crowded to the front to hear the hometown band, Lighthouse. After a medley of Beatle songs, drummer Skip Prokop delivered a 10-minute speech that brought the entire audience to its feet, arms waving.

"We've heard a lot about the trouble here in the States, but we've been lucky in Canada, and we've had none of that," Prokop said.


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