Whatwave action....: NFG...The Band From London Ontario Canada Part 1

NFG….The Band From London Ontario Canada

NFG Playing at Beal High School in London Ontario circa 1979

This interview originally appeared in Rumble Skunk Fanzine (Issue #2 2007) from Greece. Since that time, we’ve been able to track down the members of the band we couldn’t locate back then and get their stories. Updated, extended and revised, here we go with the story of London Ontario’s NFG!

Back in the 1970’s, due to the number of insurance company head offices here, London Ontario was commonly referred to as the insurance capital of Canada. Neatly pressed white shirts, suits, ties and business style dresses were the common form of attire in this ultra conservative narrow minded town. But by late 1977, London had its first punk band, The Demics, who were to open the doors for many likeminded individuals who would go on to form their own bands. One of the very first of those bands went by the initials of NFG. Non-Functioning Gear, Not For Girls, No Fucking Good, call them what you want, but I prefer the later of those, as indeed they were. And to paraphrase Demics singer Keith Whittaker, as he would often say in his introduction of the band, they were here to prove it.

The first time I saw NFG I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing! There were these 2 guys wearing cowboy hats and boots, hair down past their asses, one jumping up and down playing bass and the other screaming and yelling into the microphone. Both had their hair flying everywhere, even between the strings of the bass as they played way faster than they were capable. Behind these characters were 2 slightly more normal looking punk rockers slamming the daylights out of the drums and bashing out those 3 essential chords on the guitar for all they were worth! With beer, sweat and sometimes even blood flowing freely from the stage, this was a band that delivered a show you didn’t want to miss! Pure, no compromise, stripped down rock and roll cacophony on the edge of catastrophe! Definitely not for the faint of heart and just made for burning off that excess of beer and beans you’d downed! NFG quickly gained a reputation for putting on no holds barred live shows that few other bands could equal, or for that matter, wanted to!

Musically NFG was far from polished. Missed cues, duff notes and other assorted screwups were the norm as these guys played with way more enthusiasm than virtuosity. But that sure didn’t detract from the rock and roll show you knew you were going to witness every time NFG played out. Cover tunes included such old faves as; Wild Thing (Troggs), Sea Cruise (Huey Smith), Virginia Plain (Roxy Music), Bad Boy (Larry Williams), Pills (Bo Diddley), Shakin’ All Over (Johnny Kidd and the Pirates), Let’s Submerge (X-Ray Spex), Stepping Stone (Monkees), Possibilities (Viletones), Do You Love Me? (Dave Clark Five), House Of the Rising Sun (Animals), Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In (Fleetwood Mac), Teenage Kicks (Undertones) and many other long forgotten gems. And their original tunes were certainly no slouches either. They contained the required 3 chords and those beautiful, but catchy background oohh oohhs that The Buzzcocks employed so gracefully in their tunes. It wasn’t uncommon to go home after an NFG show with those catchy pop-punkers bouncing around your head for days afterwards!

Over the course of about 2 years, members changed and the musicianship certainly improved. But the name and reputation of the band scared most club owners/bookers until finally the band decided to rename itself 63 Monroe. Around the time of the name change, an EP was released called ‘NFG/63 Monroe’. With one side recorded live at the band’s regular haunt, the Cedar Lounge (London Ontario’s 1^st punk/new wave club) and the other side studio recordings, this record should have moved the band up the ladder of success. Instead the drummer and bass player departed and the band renamed itself once more, this time to the short lived First Date (circa 1981) with the 2 new arrivals…Pete Dekoker on bass and Jeff Rooth on the drums. Quickly realizing they had to capitalize on their recent record, the band once more became 63 Monroe, which is the name they still use to this day. Just as this issue of Rumble Skunk is going to press (2007), Rave-Up Records in Italy is releasing an album of rare and unreleased tracks by 63 Monroe, including some of the songs they recorded when they were known as NFG. Crammed full of power pop gems, hopefully this record will finally expose more of the world to these pearls.

What follows is an interview with 7 of the former band members that I was able to track down. The interviews were done at separate times, but I’ve interweaved them to keep the story as chronologically correct as possible. It was many years and beers ago, so not everyone agrees on dates and other details, but I’ve tried to make it as correct as logically possible…

Early Photoshoot of the band by Brian Lambert...downtown London Ontario

What Wave: Bob Gliddon, how did you get into this punk rock thing?

Bob Gliddon (bass player): My initial foray had to be seeing the New York Dolls at Centennial Hall (in London Ontario) in 1974. I came from St.Thomas (Ontario) as a heavy metal guy, (no stereotyping there). All my mates in our garage band went to see Slade (also in London early 1974), and for some long gone reason I chose the Dolls instead. I went back home with my brain between my legs. Surely not the experience a rube from St Timmy should be exposing himself to if he expects to live a normal life.

In 1977 I had been working at the Records on Wheels store on Yonge Street in Toronto since October of 1975. ROW was the coolest of all the Toronto record stores. We sold the hits of the day during the day, like Meatloaf, Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac, but at night out would come the prog rock, Captain Beefheart and odd stuff from all over. Upping the cool quotient was having a boss who had gone to school with Frank Zappa, and who would shoehorn Frank into coming into the store for autograph signing appearances.

In late 1976 and early 1977 things were stirring up regarding ‘pub rock’ in the month-old Melody Maker and NME newspapers we clamoured to pick up as soon as they arrived off the mail boat from England. The buzz that Eddie and the Hot Rods, Rockpile and Nick Lowe sounded exciting, but it all was 3000 miles away. But then Dr.Feelgood played the Gasworks Bar just down Yonge Street and Columbia Records was promoting the hell out of them. So, I got to walk down the block and see them as part of work. I walked back with the back of my head completely blown away!

Having gotten really tired of the bloated E.L.P. and Yes and other prog noodlers, I was ripe for the shift that Dr. Feelgood and Eddie & the Hot Rods were bringing, along with the filth and fury that the Pistols brought to the game. As the guy in the shop tasked with ordering the imports I was bringing in almost every 7” release in PJ Imports catalogue we could get our hands on. If they had even one line about them in the papers I would order 10 copies because my boss wouldn’t let me order 50! Of course, with everything there were diamonds and there were turds.

But the absolute crowning experience was when Gary Topp revamped the interior of the New Yorker Repertory Movie theatre, half a block away, and added a stage, then brought in the Ramones to play their 1st show north of the border. ROW were good friends of Gary’s and we sold tickets in the shop. We had the fifth row for seats, and I could truly have wet mine, it was so fantastic. I also could have cried when I found out they (Ramones) had come into the shop when I was next door at lunch and they all signed my hand-drawn poster which I made for the store window.

Sometime in early ’78 I got a job at the London outlet of ROW and found there kindred spirits in Craig Deans (London promoter along with partner Dave Fellner brought in many bigger name punk/new wave bands in the early years) and through him Scott (Bentley), Larry (Gifford), and Sandy (Matheson). I had yet to hear the Demics so I missed the loft shows and all that.

What Wave: Simon Lewis, how did you get into this punk rock thing?

Simon Lewis (guitar and songwriter): From about 1974 I fell in with what would now be called an alternative crowd at Queen’s U (University in Kingston Ontario) where I was studying drama. They introduced me to The Velvets, Lou Reed, John Cale, Roxy Music, Sparks, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. That led to reading Rock Scene magazine and when they came out, listening to Television, The Dictators, Patti Smith, Blondie, Dead Boys, etc. I heard the first Ramones album while I was working as an announcer at CFRC, Queen’s student radio. When the Pistols and The Clash hit I was primed. It was just what I was looking for.

What Wave: Scott, tell us how you got into this punk rock thing?

Scott Bentley (vocals and still in 63 Monroe): Records On Wheels (1^st punk rock record store in London) was upstairs at that time and I knew the guys that owned Records On Wheels. And I used to subscribe to Creem and I used to subscribe to Circus magazine. Creem was the better magazine but Circus had the better pictures. So anyways, I remember seeing an ad for The Ramones (pronounces it Ray-monz) and I didn’t know what the hell it was, but I thought that sounds pretty cool, and I’d heard about this punk rock. So, I went up to Records On Wheels and ordered it for like $5.99 or something like that. And I got it and listened to that and I was spellbound! And then I got the first Damned album, it came in and they said, ‘look what we’ve got, and you’ll like it’. That, and The Demics, which I was seeing at the time, just the parties, and the Ramones and the Damned and the rumours of the Sex Pistols album, and we waited like 2 years to get the Sex Pistols album. It was cool, but it wasn’t as good as hearing the 1^st Ramones album, I’d never heard anything like that before. I was listening to Ted Nugent…I mean I like Led Zeppelin, I’m not going to slag them, they were doing what they were doing and it’s still cool shit now. But The Ramones were The Ramones and it was just so awesome!

I used to go see The Demics all the time. Me and Sandy (Matheson) used to go see them up there at all the block parties that they used to have up in the studios. I don’t know if that was Niederman’s (Mike Niederman, the grandfather of punk rock in London Ontario, Mike’s loft hosted the first ever punk show in London, The Diodes in spring 1977 and he was responsible for the beginnings of the London zine scene) studio, it was up on the 2^nd floor of the little art community that they had on Talbot Street, where the JLC (hockey rink, now call Budweiser Gardens) is now. There were all these Bohemians that lived there and then you’d go up into their apartments and then you could go up into the second and third floors and there was all this massive, wide open hardwood floor that wasn’t being used. I remember you used to go have to go up into the bathroom in somebody’s apartment then go up through the ceiling and climb up through the toilet and then you’d be in this huge studio space and that was where The Demics would play. It was like, invite only and there was everybody up there. There was a coupla parties up there. I saw, down the street on the other side, The Curse (Forest City Gallery 11/25/77, Toronto all girl punk band, released one single and much later a CD which has a live song from this show) around the same time and then The Demics started playing at the Blue Boot (local hotel that later became the Cedar Lounge) and we used to go see them all the time. And the same thing, at all the other places, they (The Demics) said, ‘you guys can do this, don’t hang around with us, do your own thing’.

What Wave: How did you pick the name NFG for the band?

Scott: Oh, I think I just got that from work when I was working in a factory. There was all kindsa stuff, and NFG I thought was kinda funny at the time, cool, I’ve never heard that before. I got all those sayings from all those old guys, they were like 50 or 60 year old guys and I was like 18 years old and working there. So that’s where NFG came from, from work.

Pete Lambert (2^nd drummer): I was going to the Boot just about every night there was a band on, if I had $2 or whatever the cover was, and I probably first set foot in the hallowed hall in the Fall of '78. I was 17. I certainly don't remember when, but preceding that momentus date of premiering the band (NFG), Scott Bentley, Sandy Matheson, Larry Gifford and Bob Gliddon used to burst through the door of the "washroom" right next to the stage, all decked out in their Cowboy Punk get-ups, the moment the band kicked in and pogoed like mad until they got tired and went off to find more "bennies" or "beans" for further pogoing to the Demics or Teenage Head (very frequent visitors) ad finium...Everyone just got to calling them "the Cowboys".

What Wave: So when did NFG first form?

Larry Gifford (1^st guitar player): It would have been early 1979, probably February when we first played out. The band started as a name only (actually started in late 1978 but didn’t play a show until early 1979), it was Scott and his best friend Sandy Matheson, who decided to form a band and call it NFG. Scott would get spray paint and spray ‘NFG is Coming’ on walls and things. Scott went out and bought the same model of guitar that Rob (Brent) from The Demics had, and he tried to learn how to play but he just couldn’t get it down. Sandy could play the flute and then I came in to play guitar.

Scott and Sandy were living in a place together, and one Sunday, Scott decided to have a band practice in the basement of this place. There were about 100 people there, there must have been 18 guitar players and we tried playing songs that we all knew. I think we tried playing songs like ‘Wild Thing’ and ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ and anything else that that many guitarists could play. Scott gave me a tape of that practice many years ago and it was just awful and echoey because we were playing in a basement. After that Sandy got cold feet or something and decided not to be in the band. Bob Gliddon said he could play bass, but he didn’t have one at the time.

Bob: Scott mentioned about forming a band and I had already figured out I wanted in on the action, so I blagged my way into the band, initially saying I could play drums (And Giff (Larry) gave me the nickname of ‘Sticks’) But when I found out Nick Perry (actually at this time, Cleave Anderson for a very short period) already was drumming I switched gears and said I could play bass, (which I had actually played once) I think what might have convinced them was when Sandy picked up his flute and started playing Jethro Tull’s ‘Bouree’. I knew how to fake the walking bass line in the piece so my audition to one of London’s most notorious punk bands was playing a prog-jazz bit!

Larry: I had 2 guitars, so Bob would use one of the guitars as a bass and we would start to learn a couple of songs. So, it was Scott on vocals, Bob on bass, myself on guitar and in a drunken agreement, Cleave Anderson (from The Battered Wives, Toronto new wave band who released several LP’s) agreed to be our drummer, but he never played (live) with us. Back then it was really difficult to get a drummer for a band. So, then we somehow got Nick Perry to drum for us.

Scott: So, that’s when I knew Nick (Perry, original drummer for The Demics). I knew Bob (Gliddon) from hanging out there. We just sorta decided we’d try to put something together and learn some Ramones songs. Bob and Larry knew how to play. Nick was our drummer at the beginning, Nick Perry. He didn’t really know how to play, he knew how to play but he couldn’t keep time. He’d always speed up and slow down when we were trying to play which was kind of infuriating.

Nick Perry (1^st drummer): I first got together with Scott Bentley, Larry Gifford and Bob Gliddon over at Scott Bentley’s house over in Pond Mills (suburb in the south of London Ontario). We didn’t really know what we were doing, we were just clowning around, you know. But we were having fun with it. One time when we were practicing over at Scott Bentley’s house, his dad came down to listen to us one night. He came down the stairs, little Bob Bentley, he’s got this big Cuban cigar, puffing away. He’s looking at his son and he’s looking at me and Larry and Bob. He just stood there and listened to us for a couple of minutes and smiled and you know…wait to go son! And headed back upstairs..laughter.

Larry was a pretty good guitarist, I was quite surprised. He said he was a guitar player cause I used to see him down at the club (Cedar Lounge) all the time. It was just a magical meeting, we all liked the same kinds of music. And Scotty was really keen on putting a band together cause he was so impressed by The Demics. He thought we could do it too, only a little rougher. But, ya, it was fun. I enjoyed it. We opened up for The Demics a couple of times and it was fun.

What Wave: Now you played in the Demics before NFG, did you go straight from the Demics to NFG?

Nick: Uh, ya…I practiced a bit more, I was still a novice. … And after a few months we figured we were ready to come out of the woodwork and so we got a show at the Cedar Lounge.

Pete: I was at their first gig! Larry, Bob, Scott and Nick, I believe. I'm not 100% sure if they had played more than one gig before

Larry: Sometimes we’d play a little set in between The Demics sets, all we knew were about 3 or 4 songs. And Keith (Whittaker, lead singer for The Demics) would introduce us as ‘NFG and they’re here to prove it’.

A little later, after we’d played a few shows, we got Simon Lewis in on guitar and he could play lead guitar which I thought was great.

Scott: I think I met Simon at the Cedar Lounge, or Blue Boot at that time.

Larry: And Simon wrote a lot of the songs that we played which was great!