White Stripes 2007 Canadian tour to become concert documentary
Last Updated: Monday, June 15, 2009 | 11:59 AM ET
CBC News
Related
Internal Links
- Meg White marries fiance Jackson Smith
- White Stripes axe remaining 2007 concerts
- And on that note, the White Stripes tour is over
- White Stripes play Winnipeg bus, bridge
- White Stripes jam with elders, rock Iqaluit
- Distant relative confirms Jack White's N.S. roots
- Roots, childhood fantasies spark cross-Canada White Stripes tour
Meg and Jack White of the White Stripes perform in Whitehorse in 2007. (Vince Fedoroff/Canadian Press) Two years after the White Stripes thrilled Canadian fans with performances in each province and territory, frontman Jack White says he's working on releasing an as-yet-untitled documentary of the landmark tour.
Speaking in Toronto to promote his new band, The Dead Weather, over the weekend, singer and guitarist White said he and White Stripes bandmate Meg White will release a surprisingly revealing documentary created from footage taken during their 2007 Canadian summer tour.
"When we started, we just didn't know what we were doing, so we just [said]: 'Film everything, see what happens,'" White revealed, according to the Canadian Press.
Meg and Jack White of rock duo White Stripes played a spontaneous gig on a Winnipeg bridge in July 2007. (CBC)"I don't think we would wanna film ourselves like this. I'm pretty anti-reality television and all that ridiculous peeking behind the curtain sort of aspect of entertainment these days," he added. "But in this case, I don't think it really has that ridiculousness to it. It does have an insight into some of the things that got created and how we went about making a tour like that happen."
In 2007, the Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer cited family roots in Nova Scotia and childhood fantasies about the Yukon as reasons for the Detroit duo's extensive, 18-city trek across Canada.
In addition to scheduling gigs in typical cities like Toronto and Montreal, the band ventured to cities like Whitehorse, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Charlottetown — unconventional stops for many similarly prominent bands.
"As we went around and played a show in every province or territory, we realized that not even a Canadian band had ever done that. Which is wild, I can't even believe that," White recalled. "How did we become the first, you know? It's already the 21st century!"
The duo also endeared themselves to Canadians by popping up in a host of unusual places throughout the tour to deliver impromptu mini-shows, from jamming on a Winnipeg bus, to eating caribou with Inuit elders in Iqaluit, to their kids-only show at a Toronto summer day camp, to rocking out from the back of boat in Charlottetown's harbour.
The duo ended their impromptu Canadian gigs with a single-note performance before hundreds of delighted fans in downtown St. John's in July 2007. (CBC)The band's final surprise appearance was a single-note performance in downtown St. John's before their final Canadian concert, scheduled for later that night.
According to White, he and drummer Meg White dreamt up the odd performances on the fly.
"We'd make up an idea at breakfast of where we'd play that day, whether it was on a boat, bus, school or city park, then we'd make it happen," White recalled.
"We didn't pre-plan it. I don't like to do that too much, because I think it ruins things."
According to White, a seventh White Stripes album is in the works. It will be the duo's newest since 2007's Icky Thump, though White has kept busy. In the interim, he established his own music label, Third Man Records, put out a sophomore album titled Consolers Of The Lonely with his second band, The Raconteurs, and, just this year, released Horehound, the debut album for his latest group, The Dead Weather.
Meg White, who took a break from touring in the latter half of 2007 for health reasons, recently wed rock guitarist Jackson Smith last month.
With files from The Canadian PressShare Tools
FILM REVIEW: Men in Black 3 by Eli Glasner May. 25, 2012 11:30 AM Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back in the action sequel Men in Black 3, a third instalment of a series now 15 years old. Though new addition Josh Brolin manages some amazing mimicry as a younger version of Jones, the story doesn't measure up to the weird and wonderful charms of the original, says film reviewer Eli Glasner.
Top News Headlines
- Quebec students to challenge Bill 78 in court
- A collective of student associations, unions and environmental groups is holding a news conference Friday morning to announce their plans to mount a legal challenge against Bill 78. more »
- Teens share bullying tales in confession booth
- Raw stories about bullying emerged when a video booth was set up inside a Quebec high school. more »
- Reclaiming the dead on Mt. Everest

- The difficulty, danger and expense of removing the bodies of climbers who died in Mount Everest's "death zone" mean most of the dead remain on the mountain as a stark reminder to other climbers of the risks. more »
- Foreign investment review threshold rising to $1 billion
- The federal government is raising to $1 billion the amount of foreign money that can go into a Canadian company before the investment is reviewed. more »
Latest Arts & Entertainment News Headlines
- Shakespeare's Winter's Tale gets African reboot
- A Nigerian theatre company is performing an African reboot of The Winter's Tale, one of the lesser known tragicomedies written by the Bard, in London as part of the London Cultural Olympiad. more »
- Elton John cancels Las Vegas concerts over illness
- Elton John is suffering from a serious respiratory infection and has cancelled three Las Vegas performances on doctors' orders. more »
- Double-lung recipient dances on Ellen show
- Organ donation advocate Hèlène Campbell of Ottawa made her second appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, but her first since undergoing a double-lung transplant. more »
- Vancouver Bieber fans in disbelief over tour snub
- Justin Bieber announced yesterday morning the dates of his world tour in support his latest album Believe, but fans in Vancouver were disappointed to see that their city didn't make the list. more »
Q Blog
Toni Morrison on her two selves May. 25, 2012 11:38 AM Jian speaks with the celebrated African American author and academic about her two conflicting selves, and her new novel, Home.
CBC Books
Talking about war May. 25, 2012 11:35 AM The public conversation around war has always been complex and thorny. How does Canada's military approach differ from that of other countries? Are we a society of peacekeepers or warriors? These are some of the questions that Noah Richler explores in his new book What We Talk About When We Talk About War.
- Reclaiming the dead on Mt. Everest
- New mom among dead in Aylmer triple stabbing
- Workers' EI history to affect claim under new rules
- Employment Insurance review boards to be scrapped
- Conservatives move again to have robocalls suits tossed
- Teens share bullying tales in confession booth
- Gatineau police to question man in multiple homicides
- Quebec faces mounting pressure amid student crisis
- SpaceX capsule captured by Canadarm2


