Crime of the Century? Why a Halifax Supertramp Concert Was Cancelled in 1979

Rick Tarkka was at home in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, on the morning of July 31, 1979, when he heard devastating news on the radio.

The dial was set to Halifax station C100 and it was revealed that rock band Supertramp’s sold-out show scheduled for that night at the Halifax Metro Centre had been cancelled due to threats against the band.

“It was just devastating,” said Tarkka, who was 15 at the time. “You know, my heroes were supposed to come.”

The cancellation even managed to catch the attention of the New York Daily News.

At the time, Supertramp were one of the hottest bands on the planet.

Their Breakfast in America The album had been released a few months before and they had toured North America and Europe to promote it. Tracks from that album such as The Logical Song, Goodbye stranger And Breakfast in America have become staples of classic rock.

Too young to work, Tarkka had spent the summer anxiously awaiting the show, counting down the days until it took place. His father had bought two tickets, and Tarkka was going to the show with a friend.

“Back then, we didn’t have the internet, so we were just wondering, ‘What’s the show going to be like? Oh, I heard rumors that they’re doing this, are they doing that?’” he said.

Tarkka wasn’t the only disappointed person.

Paul Taylor, of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, was scheduled to work as a roadie at the show. Then 17, he left home at 6 a.m. and arrived in Halifax around 8 a.m.

When he showed up at the arena to go to work, he was told the concert had been cancelled.

“I said, ‘Well, I’m coming from New Glasgow to work for the show,’” said Taylor, who later spent part of his career in the music industry as a lighting designer and director.

He remembers seeing a distraught concert promoter in the background. “Ten thousand tickets were sold,” Taylor said.

Annapolis Valley resident Phil Vogler had planned to travel to Halifax for the show but learned the news before he could leave.

“I can’t use the words I want to, but I was angry,” Vogler said. “I was disappointed.”

At the time, there were rumours about the reasons for the cancellation. Vogler recalls hearing about an IRA threat, while Tarkka recalls it was a bomb scare.

“It’s not that people don’t have conspiracy theories now, but there were people making up all kinds of stuff out there thinking, ‘The album was more successful than they thought, I think they’re probably going to play Philadelphia,’” Tarkka said.

Why the concert was cancelled

The truth is that someone called A&M Records in Toronto, which was Supertramp’s record label in Canada, made death threats.

The band’s manager, David Margeson, told the Canadian Press that a “guy from Halifax” called to threaten the band, saying things like “we’re going to blow your mind” and “the only real artists are dead.”

“It was the first time we were threatened,” Margeson said. “It scared us a little bit.”

The decision to cancel the show was made by the band members the day of the show, saxophonist John Helliwell told CBC News in an email.

“We had a vote when we were in Moncton, New Brunswick, and the consensus was to cancel, because of the dramatic nature of the threats, which were only made known to the musicians that day,” he said.

For fans who missed the Halifax show, the band released a live album in 1980 which was recorded during the Breakfast in America tour.

Supertramp returned to play a show in Halifax in 1985. At that time, Roger Hodgson, who sang on hits such as Dreamer, Breakfast in America And Give a littlehad left the group.

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