June 30, 2000: After years of rancor spawned by personal and business differences, Winnipeg's own supergroup The Guess Who had finally put their turbulent past behind them and rediscovered the joy of performing together.
Last year's Running Back Thru Canada tour -- sparked by a triumphant reunion at the closing ceremonies of the 1999 Pan Am Games -- was gathering momentum as they approached the most important, most auspicious gig of their reunion thus far: CanWest Global Park, Winnipeg.
The atmosphere was electric, figuratively and literally. As opening act Wide Mouth Mason finished their set, rain began to soak fans.
By the time Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Garry Peterson, Donnie McDougall and Bill Wallace took to the stage, the thrill of seeing the Guess Who in concert was mixed with the a thrill of fear that accompanies the real possibility of being struck by lightning.
"It was jam-filled stadium, and we were anticipating recording it live for the cameras (for a CBC special) and as we got to the stage, in comes the rolling thunder," recalls Randy Bachman, on the phone from his home outside Victoria, B.C.
"It was pretty scary, but we were determined to stay on and finish no matter what."
But as the lightning and rain intensified as the band played on, it looked like the homecoming concert might have to be aborted. Halfway through the show, the forces of nature forced the band off the stage.
"It just got so dangerous with the lightning and the wind, and to have it called off was just devastating," Bachman says. "Burton was saying, 'Why are we doing this tonight?' "
It was all the more impressive that the band pulled triumph out of the most adverse conditions, after manager Lorne Saifer got on the phone to the weather office and it assured him the storm would soon lessen in intensity.
"He came and said, 'It's down to a drizzle guys, we're going to go out there.'
"We were a little bit scared because everything was still wet and one of the keyboards wasn't working, so we had to replace one of the keyboards," Bachman says. "But we just went out on stage and I yelled out 'Let's rock!' "
Rock they did.
"You could see Burton really get into it. He starts moving the mike and he starts doing kneejerk reactions to the music. And suddenly, we all relaxed and got into it.
"And when that whole jam was over and we launched into the (American Woman opening) riff, it was just like a great home stretch," he says. "looking back later at the special, it was like the most perfectly planned thing."
Indeed, the weather augmented the concert.
"We almost gave credit at the end (of the TV special): 'Light show by God,' " Bachman laughs. "When Burton sang New Mother Nature in the song, the lightning flashed and the wind blew our hair and it was like an unbelievable script that was being written while we were doing it."
