Gerry Stoll Chillaxin’

Edmonton, Alberta, staple Gerry Stoll has received his gold watch from the Rexall Center and is off to his next adventure – but not before getting praise from his community and a going-away party at the Concert Industry Consortium.

The Edmonton Journal said Stoll "deserves a standing ovation" for a decade of concerts and raising awareness in the industry of Edmonton as a touring destination. He received a featured sendoff in the paper, which compiled Stoll’s major and sometimes amusing accomplishments.

For instance, it turns out Stoll was once part of a famous incident with Iggy Pop at a notorious 1982 performance. Pop fell off the stage at Dinwoodie’s, threatened Stoll and then went on David Letterman’s late night show to call Edmonton an "arctic outpost."

But that lowlight is compensated by years of success and good memories. In 1995, Stoll was sent to Nashville to bring some country acts to Edmonton. That included buying a map for William Morris Agency’s Keith Miller.

"He had a Rand-McNally map in his office that ended at Red Deer," Stoll told the paper. "He had no idea where Edmonton was. So I ended up sending him a new map."

It must have paid off, considering Miller’s client Reba McEntire played Rexall October 13, 1995.

He also recollected the time fans paid hundreds of dollars to see Luciano Pavarotti before a ’95 concert – only to have the famed opera singer drive through the crowd in a golf cart. Then there was the time when Trent Reznor, during a Nine Inch Nails show, kept the audience at bay while staffers repaired a broken stage barrier.

But what most fellow facility managers as well as the Edmonton community admire about Stoll is his ability to build a market. In 1994, only three artists played what was then known as the Northlands Coliseum, according to the Journal. Last year Rexall hosted 43 concerts.

Stoll is expected to have a going-away bash at the CIC February 6th, with an estimated 75 venue execs in attendance. Meanwhile, word is he may not be retired forever.