“Any time you get five managers in a room with a promoter, it could be quite volatile and yet, there was a sense of cooperation from day one,” echoed manager Jake Gold, who handles The Tragically Hip. “There was a sense of working together for the common good.”

Held at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, the five-hour event featured The Tragically Hip, Morissette, Barenaked Ladies, Our Lady Peace, Bruce Cockburn, and Choclair, all of whom donated their time and talent and juggled their schedules to participate, though none was on tour at the time.

Perhaps the industry has come to expect such benevolence from musicians, but what was unprecedented, at least in Canada, was the contagious giving that came from within the business community. Almost every facet necessary to pull off a concert of this magnitude was donated, including Westbury National Show Systems’ production.

Also volunteering: IATSE Local 58 (stageworkers’ union), Howard Underleider and Production Design (the lighting rig), Mike Elder (production), NorthWest Protection Services (security), and Ticketmaster (donated its service charge as well as handled the phones and Web for donations).

In total, there were some 1,400 volunteers, including security, ushers and building conversion staff.

Even rival promoter House of Blues Canada graciously helped Clear Channel on some of the production details.

As numerous charity events took place in America for September 11 relief funds, more than $1.1 million (Cdn.) was raised for the victims in Afghanistan. A cheque for $700,000 from ticket sales alone was presented by the Music Without Borders Live participants to the United Nations Association in Canada the afternoon of the show.

The prime beneficiary is the United Nations Donor Alert Appeal, which covers the needs of all U.N. agencies including the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, UNICEF and the World Food Program. Twenty percent of the monies was directed to War Child Canada, which aids children in war-torn countries.

Like millions of people around the globe, Canadians watched the devastating events of September 11 in America, which included 25 Canadian WTC victims, and many wondered how they could contribute to relief efforts. Promoter Steve Herman said he sensed something in his psyche change in an instant.

While various Clear Channel offices were setting in motion multi-city global initiatives, on a personal level, the father of two felt a Canadian benefit concert was more than a company duty.

He felt both “compelled” to show young people that there is hope in the world and “an obligation” to come together and make things happen. “That’s really where it’s coming from,” Herman said. “‘What can we do to make it bigger?’ was our thought. ‘Is there a way to raise more money and send a bigger message?'”

Discussions were both independent and simultaneous, dovetailing as managers and artists shared ideas. After participating in U.S. benefits, Morissette expressed interest in doing something in Canada. The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie toyed with the idea of doing a club show until manager Gold suggested thinking big, then put a call in to the Air Canada Centre.

Once Morissette and The Tragically Hip were committed, rock band Our Lady Peace came on board. “Whatever we have to do to our schedule we will do. It took priority,” explained OLP manager Eric Lawrence.

For OLP, he said, it was important that War Child Canada would be the recipient of a portion of the monies raised, since frontman Raine Maida had traveled to Iraq earlier in the year with the organization.

Longtime humanitarian and activist Bruce Cockburn was a personal pick of all the artists. He had been on a yearlong sabbatical, said manager Bernie Finkelstein.

“Bruce was quite happy to do it after he knew where the money was going,” Finkelstein told Pollstar.

Meanwhile, everyone started the ball rolling to try and secure as many freebies as possible. Gold and Herman had already secured the Air Canada Centre rent-free through Patti-Anne Tarlton, director of programming and event marketing, herself going to bat for other gratis services.

As everything fell into place, a little more than a week before the scheduled event Barenaked Ladies also agreed to do the show.

It was at a photo shoot for Toronto magazine NOW’s 20th anniversary that Barenaked Ladies’ Steven Page told rapper Choclair and his manager Lee “Day” Fredericks to get on the lineup.

“I called my agent, Colin Lewis, to see if he could get us on it,” Day said. “It turned out that Steve and Jake had already had him down to see if he wanted to participate.”

Each act performed a full 45-minute set and there was very little, if any, political talk or tributes during the show.

The night was capped by an all-star version of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World” – an appropriate sign of solidarity and resolve.

“This (concert) was for humanitarian reasons,” Gold said. “It was a celebration of humanity. In addition to raising money to help with the worst refugee problem in the history of our world, we felt that people are scared and nervous and bands should go out there and do what they do best – which is entertain, but do it for a good cause.”