A chance encounter with Gord: ‘Just a normal guy,’ fan says
A secluded alcove on the grounds of the Empress Hotel was the setting for a chance meeting between a Victoria woman and pair of Gords — frontman Gord Downie and bassist Gord Sinclair — from the Tragically Hip on Friday afternoon.
Carolyn Wadel, who works for the provincial government, said she was getting some fresh air during a work break when four men — “two big guys and two normal guys” — sat nearby her favourite sitting spot, a gathering of benches in a treed alcove on the Humboldt Street side of the hotel.
Two of the men — bodyguards from Boston, she would discover — politely asked if they could share her spot.
“It was just chit-chat — the weather, how beautiful it is here,” Wadel said. “Then I noticed on the back of one of the big guys’ hoodies it said: The show must go on. That’s what clued me in.”
Once the conversation shifted to the normal guys — musicians from Ontario, as it turned out — the jig was up.
“I said: ‘Hang on a second here. If you don’t mind me saying, you sure bear a striking resemblance to a famous Canadian icon who just happens to be playing a concert here tonight.’
“He kind of paused, and said, ‘Yeah, I get that a lot,’ very quietly. He said, ‘No, my name is Harvey.’ But I kind of knew I was talking to Gord Downie, he just didn’t want to say it.”
She mentioned she didn’t have tickets to the show, but said that she was looking forward to watching the simulcast of the band’s final show on Aug. 20.
They took down her name and number and said there would be tickets for her at the door. “Twenty minutes later, I got a phone call and the girl said: ‘Gord has got you on the guest list. Enjoy the show.’ ”
Despite Downie’s terminal cancer diagnosis, Wadel said he was the Gord she remembered seeing years ago in concert.
“He was just a normal guy.”