Here's an article about 66 year old Andy Kim..the pic above was when he and Ron Sexsmith were talking to Gord about the Christmas fundraiser show Andy produces - this is the 7th year. They were explaining to him what it was about. In the linked article it seems that Gord just might show up on the 13 @ The Phoenix in Toronto.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/12...dy-kim-on-pop/
Sugar, sugar daddy: Andy Kim’s Christmas gig brings together his musical proteges
Ben Kaplan | Dec 10, 2012 6:30 PM ET | Last Updated: Dec 10, 2012 6:31 PM ET
More from Ben Kaplan | @NP_RunningBen
Kim has a cadre of Canadian musical stars around him who he's long been a mentor for; they give back by playing Kim's annual Christmas Show..
Iconic Canadian performers tend to be heady people — “serious artists” such as Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. These musicians — largely singer-songwriter types with a message — are lionized and practically beatified by audiences and their younger peers. However, the Canadian songbook is steeped equally in showmanship and popular tunes, including artists such as Loverboy, Paul Shaffer and Paul Anka who, in 1958, was the Justin Bieber of his time. Cut from that same cloth is Andy Kim, the 66-year-old author of Sugar, Sugar, who’s emerged as a mentor to a number of edgy musicians, including Ron Sexsmith and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew.
“I love that he sold six million records independently. He had a hit with Sugar, Sugar, which is now a corporation for him, and he once told me he didn’t disappear for 20 years because he retired, but because he became irrelevant,” says Drew, who’s working on an atmospheric new Kim disc. “When he told me that, I looked at him and said, ‘Let’s make a record together. Let’s get relevant,’ and you’ll see and hear that at his show.”
Kim’s show, an all-star, one-night charity performance now in its eighth year, is a celebration of Canadian music, MC’d by Kim, and featuring both Sexsmith and Drew, plus Dan Mangan, Wintersleep, k-os and Sloan. At the time of our interview, Kim had lost his voice and wasn’t feeling up to a meeting, but through email he expressed that old Vaudeville chestnut: The show must go on.
“Every year at this time I get into another gear. The singer-songwriter in me is cast aside and out comes the producer of the Christmas show. I’m not the best at it — I’m simply a mess, but I keep remembering the purpose and I never give up,” wrote Kim, who was name-checked twice from the stage by Brian Wilson in Toronto this summer at the Beach Boys’ show.
Andy gets dismissed as bubblegum ... [but he’s] as valid as any Canadian artist that we have,” says Ron Sexsmith, centre, about legendary performer Andy Kim. Sexsmith will perform at The Andy Kim Christmas show along with Kevin Drew, left, and Melissa Bel...
“I get my inspiration from musicians like Ron and Kevin. I’ve always listened to all kinds of music. I’m always listening for the song.”
Among today’s most highly lauded musicians, artists such as Feist and Michael Bublé, Sexsmith is revered for his gift of rhythm and melody. In an interview alongside Drew and Melissa Bel, a local performer who was in the audience of Kim’s show last year and this year will share his stage, Sexsmith called Kim “a big kid.”
“They don’t make entertainers like him any more. He comes from a different school, almost like Tom Jones, and he should probably have a show on TV like Jools Holland — performing is his DNA,” says Sexsmith, who co-wrote with Kim for the new record and let slip that, at a recent Gordon Lightfoot performance, he and Kim may have convinced the legend to play their holiday show.
“In some ways, Andy gets dismissed as bubblegum, but he was there in the Brill Building; Sugar, Sugar has been covered by Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina Turner and Bob Marley, and when he got his gold record for Rock Me Gently, it was handed to him by John Lennon. Andy’s as valid as any Canadian artist that we have.”
This year’s concert, benefitting the Jeff Healey Foundation, may turn out to be more of a new music preview than a tribute show: Sexsmith has a record out in February, k-os is releasing a double album this spring and Drew and the show’s host are nearly finished with their collaboration, one of 2013’s most interesting discs.
For Drew, who will be performing a Ramones song with former bandmate Brendan Canning and Sloan, making a record with Kim was an education, and a gift.
“He gave me CPR with his innocence, where there’s this older gentleman teaching me how to appreciate it all again,” Drew says. “The night after I first played this Christmas show, I looked at him and said, ‘I promise I’ll come back every year.’ ”
—The Andy Kim Christmas Show takes place Dec. 13 at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto. For tickets, visit phoenixconcerttheatre.com.
Frid.Nov.16,2012 @ Massey Hall - setlist & pics & videos
