Mitchell coming to Cariboo Rocks the North

Rah Rah Ol, the wild party himself is coming to Prince George.

Kim Mitchell is great expectations. He can represent this nation. He is so many song lyrics come to life he guides expedition sailors by the light of his patio lanterns. Going for a soda with him is as potent as lager and ale, you could get battle scars from his diamonds diamonds, but you're always under paradise skies in Rocklandwonderland when he's doing his rock 'n' roll duty.

Few solo artists in Canadian history can claim as much rock radio real estate as Mitchell. His 1984 album Akimo Alogo went platinum, his album Rockland went double platinum and his album Shakin' Like A Human Being went triple platinum. That's apart from the live album I Am A Wild Party and the Greatest Hits album that both went platinum as well. Don't forget he was also the frontman for the formative Toronto prog-rock band Max Webster before all the solo success.

Add to that all the Mitchell singles that hit the charts over the years in the U.K, the U.S., and made him a Canadian guitar hero in his home and native land.

The chart action, the heavy radio play, the strong video presence on TV, the awards (he has three Junos), it made Mitchell almost ubiquitous in the '80s and '90s. What always stood apart from that, almost as the sail that moved his ship, was his live performance skills. His stage garb, goofy antics, affable nature...that played a part in why audiences liked him. His rare and assertive guitar skills is why audiences loved him (and other musicians flocked to collaborate).

"When you connect with the band, a certain energy starts to get transmitted, and that energy transmits, hopefully, to an audience, and that's when the experience becomes a good show," he told The Citizen in a wide-ranging interview that often devolved into animated conversation.

The assumption of an average, everyday concertgoer might be that all bands are so practiced at their songs that it just rolls out automatically. No, not at all, said Mitchell. There is a big difference from night to night and from moment to moment within each concert. When the moving parts start to connect, he said, "It's like 'aaaahhhh,' you sink back into it, your shoulders relax, you start to groove, and it's almost a little orgasmic, if I may use that word."

He stressed the important role of the sound technicians in that human transaction of energy, and emphasized how invested bands are in the audience. The audience can be a bigger factor.

It won't be hard for the Prince George audience to join in the Kim Mitchell fun when he plays his headliner concert at the Cariboo Rocks The North festival. From the campfire classic Patio Lanterns to the gutsy grinder Rock 'n' Roll Duty to the summertime anthem Go For A Soda, he has an infectious quality.

His skills on the instrument and his folksy intellect have turned into less than accessible tunes, at times, that may not hook a Top 40 listener but do hook fellow musicians. He has also made hits out of several songs that don't exactly fit the bubblegum formula. Part of his charm is believing in the intelligence of his listeners.

Those trips off the beaten track have not always thrilled his record company executives, but he has no problem at this stage of his career giving all that a shrug of I-told-you-so.

"That speaks to what I learned a long time ago from Rush," he said, referencing the Hall Of Fame rock trio who toured and collaborated frequently with Mitchell and his Max Webster compadres in the 1970s.

Rush's record company applied a lot of pressure on the band when one album failed to meet their sales expectations.

Some of that pressure was to tailor the next album to the trends of the day. Mitchell was sometimes involved in their internal conversations as the Rush-mates pondered what to do, and he took clear note of their conclusion.

"They turned to each other and said f#@* it all. This is our lives. This is our band. These people (at the record company) work for us, we don't work for them. We're going to do what makes us happy. And they made 2112 (a concept album that ignored all hit-maker conventions) and look what happened. It went platinum in the States. It exploded, and it exploded on their terms. So that's always been my advice to musicians."

As a veteran of the music industry, he gets called upon frequently by younger musicians for his advice. He was also the host of a popular rock radio show on Toronto's Q107 where stars would come in to talk music on the air. He interviewed big names like Alice Cooper, Paul Rodgers, Sammy Hagar, Gord Downie, his Rush friends, Triumph, Slash, Eric Burdon, Randy Bachman, Ron Sexsmith, even child-star band Motion Device and other aspirants.

One of the phrases he dislikes the most is when youngsters discuss how to "make it" in the music business. You don't, he countered, you make music. You have to pursue music and business knowledge together, sure, but the art has to lead the charge. Never mind how that might or might not translate into money. If you look at the incomes of Bryan Adams or U2 and use that as your goal, you'll almost certainly fall short, "but I'll tell you, and this goes back to the energy thing, when you're with musicians that you connect with - male, female, I don't care who it is, whatever colour, race, culture - when that unit connects musically, and you all start to look at each other like 'yeah, alright,' that is the exact same feeling that any musician gets whether it be Bryan Adams or U2 or this little unit rehearsing in a garage. It's the same f-ing feeling you get inside."

Mitchell could spend the rest of days working his popular past material, but that creative drive is still alive inside him. He is working right now with one of the giants of the ultra-current hit-biz, a superstar songwriter/producer named Greg Wells who has done high-level work for the likes of Adele, Katy Perry, Pink, OneRepublic, Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson, etc. He was also a Peterborough music phenom who caught on as a band member, at the age of 19, with one of Canada's biggest stars of the day, a nurturing figure by the name of Kim Mitchell. They've stayed friends ever since.

All of Mitchell's P.G. friends will be out to cheer him on at the Cariboo Rocks The North classic rock festival at Exhibition Park from Aug. 10-12 in front of CN Centre.

Tickets to the three-day event are on sale now via the TicketsNorth website or at the CN Centre box office.