A few hundred brave admirers of the Cowboys Fringants – who had failed to get one of the 15,000 tickets for the evening dedicated to Karl Tremblay – braved the freezing cold to see the ultimate tribute to the late singer on a huge screen in front of the Bell Centre.
• Also read: Homage to Karl Tremblay: Hundreds of fans came to say goodbye to him at L’Assomption
• Also read: A touching national honor ceremony for Cowboys Fringants singer Karl Tremblay
• Also read: “Make noise for the last time for the one and only Karl Tremblay”
Wearing a Quebec flag over his winter clothes, Pierre-Luc Lapointe came to Montreal from Sainte-Catherine on the south coast to greet Karl Tremblay.
“I saw Les Cowboys Fringants in Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Saint-Constant and it is one of my fondest memories. It was one of the first Cowboys shows I saw with my friends. “There were 35,000 people there, it was disgusting,” says the 37-year-old admirer, who had no problem spending the evening outside in honor of Karl Tremblay.
“My friends had tickets but I couldn’t get them. It was still important for me to be here. Because Karl is the voice of a people. He sang for all generations, even my parents and all of Quebec. “It was important to pay tribute to him one last time,” he admits, emphasizing the simplicity of the evening in the image of the singer and the other members of the group.
Photo agency QMI / Joël Lemay
Photo agency QMI / Joël Lemay
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“The speeches and the whole evening were very good and very emotional,” said Julie Taylor, 41, of Montreal as she left the Bell Center, where she spent the evening warm inside.
For his part, Félix Roberge has seen Les Cowboys Fringants on stage around ten times in his life. He said he was pleased with the presence of the group members, who smiled despite their pain. “I was really happy to be there to support and encourage her,” said the 45-year-old L’Épiphanie fan.
Bell Center plumber Martial Mayotte, 51, told the Journal that his children had Les Cowboys Fringants as their idols. “I saw their last show at the Bell Centre, I was working, but I still had the opportunity to feel the energy that came from it. It was pretty amazing how they were able to reach so many people with texts and texts and actually bring an entire population together. I found the evening very moving and touching. “It was an important meeting,” says the Montreal native.
- Listen to the interview with Alexandre Moranville-Ouellet, research journalist at QUB Radio, on Alexandre Dubé’s show QUB radio :
Jean-François D’Amour, 41, from Granby was moved and wanted to honor Karl Tremblay with his 9-year-old son. Kenny Kang, 50, of Montreal, praised the “very touching and very moving” aspect of the evening.
For Daniel Gosselin, 33, from Sorel, the only word that describes this moving evening is rough (“difficult”). “It was emotional to see Marie, JP and Jérôme talk. It was beautiful, there were a lot of emotions. They saw that Quebec loved him. It was something inside,” he says.
Marie-Anne Gratton and Alexandre Proulx, 29, say they attended about ten Cowboys Fringants shows as a couple, and the young man from Chambly even more times before they knew them. “It was a really good homage, it was very touching and very much in the spirit of Karl,” they emphasize.
Photo agency QMI / Joël Lemay
Mario Beauregard / QMI Agency
Mario Beauregard / QMI Agency
In collaboration with Mélissa Pelletier