Every Tragically Hip record charts

All 17 albums by The Tragically Hip – including compilations, live album Live Between Us and their 1987 self-titled EP – have charted in Canada following the conclusion on 20 August of the band’s farewell Man Machine Poem tour.

The Hip’s final live performance at the Rogers K-Rock Centre (6,700-cap.) in Kingston, Ontario, was viewed by nearly 12 million Canadians – close to a third of the country – following state broadcaster CBC’s decision to show their emotional three-hour farewell set in full. Prime minister Justin Trudeau was among those in attendance for the show itself, described by one attendee as the “greatest single thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life”.

Unique in a week when new Frank Ocean release Blond has dominated both charts and column inches worldwide, The Tragically Hip’s greatest hits package, Yer Favourites, has unseated the Suicide Squad soundtrack to take the top spot in Canada, with 16 other releases also placing in Billboard’s Top 200 Canadian Albums chart, including most recent album Man Machine Poem at №6.

It is the first time Yer Favourites, which saw a 238% increase in consumption in the past week, has topped the chart.

The 15-date, Live Nation-promoted Man Machine Poem tour, announced in the aftermath of the diagnosis of frontman Gord Downie with terminal brain cancer, ran from 22 July to 20 August.

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1 in 3 Canadians watch final Tragically Hip show

Nearly 12 million Canadians – close to a third of the country – witnessed what is likely to be The Tragically Hip’s final live performance on Saturday night, as the beloved band bow out of touring following a terminal brain cancer diagnosis for songwriter-in-chief and ‘Canada’s unofficial poet laureate’ Gord Downie.

In addition to those who had tickets to the show, at the 6,700-capacity Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ontario (prime minister Justin Trudeau among them), 11.7 million Canadians gathered in front of big screens and at viewing parties across the country to watch the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)’s The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration, which showed the band’s emotional three-hour farewell set in full.

According to data from Numeris, the hometown show – which took the place of the CBC’s Olympics coverage – was also streamed 900,000 times worldwide.

Reporting from the concert, the final date of the 15-date Man Machine Poem tour, the CBC said concertgoers “treated the show like a landmark moment in Canadian history: Giant flags made their way through the crowd during the performance, and before the concert began, the audience spontaneously began singing [national anthem] O Canada, with nearly everyone rising from their seats”.

“The single greatest single thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life… the best concert ever”

One audience member, Laura Coppola, called the show the “greatest single thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life” and the “best concert ever”.

The band, formed in 1984, have had nine number one albums in Canada and won 14 Juno awards – akin to the Grammys or Brits – with songs that draw on a uniquely Canadian experience, frequently with references to “[ice] hockey, geography, history and culture that are recognisable to Canadians but unknown to outsiders”, says Canadian writer Jordan Michael Smith.

The Live Nation-promoted Man Machine Poem tour, announced in the aftermath of Downie’s diagnosis, was marred by a national scandal over the number of primary tickets that appeared on secondary ticketing sites, leading to accusations that fans were being “shut out” of the farewell shows. IQ reported in the aftermath of the controversy that nine out of ten Canadians would support prison terms for bot-using ticket touts, and a third would abolish online ticketing altogether.

Watch The Tragically Hip perform ‘New Orleans is Sinking’ in Kingston below, courtesy of CBC:

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