When venerable Canadian rocker Kim Mitchell takes to the stage this Saturday night (August 16), he’ll do so with a Peterborough connection that goes back decades.
Not only will the season-closing concert mark the Sarnia native’s fifth Peterborough Musicfest appearance — he first headlined in 1997 followed by performances in 2002, 2007, and 2012 — but Mitchell is returning to play in the hometown of his good friend and longtime associate Greg Wells.
After moving to Toronto from Peterborough at age 17 years old, Wells played keyboards in Mitchell’s band, both on tour and in the recording studio.
Years later, Wells, one of the recording industry’s most sought-after producers, visited Mitchell at his Toronto home. Mitchell handed over some new songs and asked his friend to give them a listen. Wells did just that and, impressed by what he heard, produced The Big Fantasize, Mitchell’s eighth album released in 2020.
One can only imagine what a full-circle moment that was for the Adam Scott graduate who earned his chops courtesy of Mitchell.
While no can say for certain whether Mitchell will relate this tale at Del Crary Park, what we do know is the 73-year-old rocker will serve up the hits that proved to him, and to an appreciative international audience, that there was and still is a whole lot of life after Max Webster, the band he founded in 1972.
Admission to the 8 p.m. concert is, as always, free, thanks to the support of a number of longtime festival sponsors, kawarthaNOW among them.
VIDEO: “Paradise Skies” – Max Webster with Kim Mitchell
Mitchell began his musical career playing in bands while he was in high school in Sarnia, moving to Toronto at the age of 17 where he played in bar bands and studied guitar under Tony Bradan.
After briefly touring in Greece, Mitchell returned to Toronto where he formed Max Webster with Sarnia keyboardist Terry Watkinson, bassist Mike Tilka, and drummer Paul Kersey. Fellow Sarnia native, the poet Pye Dubois, served as the band’s chief lyricist (Mitchell has said “I hate writing lyrics … I speak through my six strings”).
From 1972 to 1981, Max Webster provided Mitchell with a music career that any musician, then and now, would kill for.
The band recorded six albums in five years, all certified gold for with the exception of 1979’s A Million Vacations, which attained platinum status. It took longer than it should have but, in 2023, Max Webster was recognized via its induction into Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Having gone his own way in 1982, Mitchell didn’t waste any time, recording a self-titled mini-album that same year before going to work on his debut full-length album. That led to the 1984 release of Akimbo Alogo, with its single “Go For Soda” (with lyrics by Dubois) scoring its creator international success. While the tune was not intended to be about drinking and driving, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in the U.S. adopted it as its campaign theme song.
Just two years later, Mitchell proved that success was no fluke via the release of his most successful solo album to date. Among the tracks on Shakin’ Like A Human Being were the songs “Alana Loves Me,” “Easy To Tame,” and “Patio Lanterns” — the latter proving to be Mitchell’s biggest hit.
VIDEO: “Go For Soda” – Kim Mitchell
In 1989 and 1992, two more albums — Rockland and Aural Fixations, respectively — also reaped Mitchell commercial success. Critical acclaim naturally followed in the form a 1990 Juno Award for Male Vocalist of the Year. The coveted statue took its place alongside earlier Junos awarded for Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year for Shakin’ Like A Human Being.
Starting with 1994’s Itch and concluding with 2020’s The Big Fantasize, Mitchell recorded four more albums and continued to tour. However, in early 2016, a heart attack and subsequent surgery shut him down — a forced respite which, based on his work pedigree up to that point, must have been very difficult for him.
However, as he related in a March 2024 interview with April Savoie of 519 Magazine, Mitchell came out of his health scare smarter in terms of his choices.
“I want to take care of myself because I think it serves the audience better than a burnt-out old dude walking out on stage going, ‘Oh god, here we go,'” he says. “That’s not me. I want to go out on stage and think, ‘Yeah, I’m older but check this out. I’m ready to give it my all for you.'”
“Truth be told, my gastroenterologist hates when I go on the road because after 50 years of 2 a.m. shows and coming off stage, it’s a terrible lifestyle. I do recommend being a musician, but a touring musician’s life — unless you’re at a level like Bryan Adams where you have a chef 24/7 and you’re a vegetarian — it’s tough.”
During the same interview, Mitchell recounted the fortuitous reconnect with Wells that resulted in The Big Fantasize — his first album in 13 years, and the first since his heart surgery.
“Assuming he’s a successful guy, I said ‘I’ve written some songs.’ That’s the last thing a producer wants to hear, but he responded, ‘Yeah, man, absolutely’ when I asked if he’d listen to my stuff. So, I gave him the metaphorical USB key of shame with some songs on it. Two weeks later, he got a hold of me and said, ‘Please come to Los Angeles. Let’s record this.'”
VIDEO: “Patio Lanterns” – Kim Mitchell
As for a possible Max Webster reunion, Mitchell made it clear that’s not in the cards.
“The keyboard player, Terry Watkinson, is totally retired from music. He just paints his art now. Gary McCracken, the drummer, he’s completely retired. Paul Kersey, the first drummer, he’s totally retired. Mike Tilka, one of the bass players, is not retired. He actually lives in Florida and Toronto and plays a lot, but he kind of does jazz gigs. That Max Webster ship sailed a long time ago.”
That said, Mitchell plans to keep on keeping on, as long as he’s able to.
“It’s just sort of the most comfortable thing I do,” Mitchell said. “I love transmitting musical energy with a band to an audience.”
“I think it’s a pretty magical thing that we humans do. We all get together with one common thing, and that is to sort of escape into Rocklandwonderland (a song from Mitchell’s 1989 album Rockland) and let this musical energy that’s being transmitted wash over us. It’s just a nice way of escaping for two hours because there’s a lot going on in the world.”
As for Mitchell’s fifth appearance at Peterborough Musicfest, he recently told Tim Durkin of Quinte Broadcasting that “I love playing Del Crary Park.”
“It holds a huge piece of real estate in my heart, because some of our bigger crowds have been there and most enthusiast audiences,” he said, adding that he will even sometimes drive to Peterborough just to sit in Del Crary Park.
VIDEO: “All We Are” – Kim Mitchell
Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 16 free-admission concerts during its 38th season, each staged on Wednesday and Saturday nights until Saturday, August 16th.
Overseen by executive director Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission remains “to provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”
For more information on this concert or the 2025 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a headline sponsor of Peterborough Musicfest’s 2025 season.
