The Beginnings of Punk Rock in London Ontario

The Beginnings of Punk Rock in London Ontario

 

Graffiti on a London sidewalk approx 1979

This is part of a presentation I did at the recent Rock'n'Con in London Ontario. This is my perception of the beginnings of the punk/new wave music scene/movement in London Ontario. Feel free to add your comments/corrections/feedback at the bottom of this blog.

I’ll give you a quick rundown of who I am. Started collecting records in the late 60’s, moved to London, Ontario in 1969, lost interest in music as this city seemed to be pretty boring after living in Toronto. Didn’t get involved in the punk scene until summer 1978, long after many others. And starting in 1984, my wife and I did a music fanzine called What Wave, we released cassettes, records, etc. Then the last 14 years or so, I’ve been doing a radio show on CHRW called Radio WW.

And that picture below is the west wall of the Cedar Lounge, London’s first punk/new wave club that we’re going to be talking a little about later on in this discussion. That wall went through quite a few changes as new graffiti would cover the old. And all pictures taken from What Wave Archives, unless noted.

The west wall of The Cedar Lounge circa 1980

Just so you know, London is basically a city of mediocrity. In the 60's it was the insurance capital of Canada and we still have the corporate offices here for some of the largest insurance firms in Canada.  We’re often used as a testing ground for new products, new restaurants, new menu items etc. It’s because we’re totally middle of the road, and if the people of London like your new product, chances are it will do well in the rest of Canada. A prime example of this, London was the first city in the eastern half of the country to have a MacDonalds. And we were the first city in Canada to have an enclosed mall…downtown of all places.

That picture above wasn't taken by me, but it's supposedly outside of what was known as The York Hotel back then, possibly the west wall. And those characters/young gentlemen are members of Nihilist Spasm Band and some of their friends.

To get back to the beginnings of the punk rock scene here in London, you’ve gotta go way back to 1965. There was a motley collection of visual artists who lived in the downtown area of London, as that’s where their studios were located. They would hang out at a place called The York Hotel, now known as Call The Office and share ideas over beer, and the idea for a band came up. Not a conventional bass/guitar/drums thing, but a collection of instruments that would be hand made by these artists and played at the York Hotel. The band was created and given the name Nihilist Spasm Band and they somehow convinced the owners of the York to let them have a weekly residence. Several of the artists in this band became quite famous in the art world and some of you may have heard of Greg Curnoe, him being the leader and most prolific of the group. The music, if you can even call it that, was a cacophony of what would later be known as noise music once the genre was given a name. No time signatures, no 12 bars, no beginning middle and end of a song, just a bunch of artists making noise that very few music fans could appreciate. But the band did became somewhat famous, or should I say infamous in the art scene and even managed a story in the nationally distributed Canadian Magazine back in 1967. And believe it or not, the Nihilist Spasm Band still plays to this day, have released tons of records/CD’s, traveled all across the world making noise and count among their fans Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, who has even guested with the band!

For awhile, several years back, there was a yearly noise fest here in London that attracted like minded bands from around the world, all here to pay homage to the originators, Nihilist Spasm Band!

The Nihilist Spasm Band didn’t catch on overnight, it took years of weekly gigs not only at the York, but at the Forest City Gallery, an art gallery that was receptive to the musical sounds the artists made.

Then in early 1975, Roxy Music played at the London Arena for the first time. Many of the future members of the soon to be punk bands were at this show, many disappointed in the fact that Brian Eno had recently left the band.  The art rock sounds and stylistic imagery of Roxy Music definitely opened some ears and eyes and were radically different than the arena rock and disco sounds emanating from radio and downtown clubs. That show  got some people to start thinking outside the box.

A snippet of the cover of the Rough Trade Live! Direct To Disc LP, produced by Jack Richardson

Around the same time, Rough Trade, whom you may have heard of due to some of their early 80’s radio hits played here. In their beginning years, Rough Trade were more into theater, bondage and dressing up and acting the part.  Again, many of the soon to be members of the local punk bands were in attendance, many taking notes.

Then we finally got our first punk rock show here. It happened in March or April of 1977. You’ve gotta remember, back then, there was much more regionalism and it was tough to find out what was really happening around the world. Any media we had, were trash talking the punk scene, saying it was a bunch of crazy homicidal kids, jumping up and down, hitting each other, spewing god awful music that only the punks could like because it was so awful. Ripped clothing, safety pins, spitting and puking all over the place, and oddly some of that was true, as some tried to live up to the media created imagery. And you couldn’t turn on the radio and find out what this music was about, as all we had here was crap on the box! The record stores didn’t have the records yet and the only way to hear the music was for someone to bring the records back from the UK or NYC! It just wasn’t available for you to make your own judgement!

But getting back to the first punk show here in London, it was a Toronto band called The Diodes. And like the Nihilist Spasm Band, they came up through the art scene, as 3 of the members were still in art school in Toronto at the time they played here. The Diodes were the first punk/new wave band in Canada to release a record on a major label. Several years later they even had a Londoner in the band, as their drummer.

On the left, Diodes manager Ralph Alfonso, right Mike Niederman, first time they'd met in decades

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But the way the got to play London, their manager, Ralph Alfonso, was a comic collector, poet and writer and he had some of his work published here in London by Applegarth Follies, an art inspired printing press/group. Ralph had made friends with London resident Mike Niederman, who was involved with Applegarth Follies, and it was decided that The Diodes would play Mikes 3^rd floor loft here in downtown London. Part of the deal was somehow connected with Ralph getting the basement of an artist run facility in Toronto, that he was planning on converting to a club. The club materialized for the summer of 1977 and was called the Crash’n’Burn Club and was the first punk/new wave club in Toronto, and possibly Canada. Although it had a short run, the club did attract The Dead Boys, The Nerves, Boyfriends and many others from NYC and there was even an appearance by Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy who managed to beat up one of the punks in attendance. Tubs full of beer and loud high octane music, can sometimes bring out the worst in some!

The poster used to 'advertise' The Diodes appearance at Mike's loft.

But back to the first punk rock show here in London. It wasn’t all that well attended but the 20 to 30 or so that attended, certainly had something to think about! This was the very first show here in London, where an 8 by 10 poster was made, and put up on walls and poles. It wasn’t legal to put up posters back then, and Mike was caught putting up posters by the police and reprimanded accordingly. But that was the only way to advertise for this type of event back then! That and word of mouth!! Mike was a printer by trade, and this very first poster wasn’t made on a photocopier or offset press, but some kind of thermal transfer print method. Mike would prove to be instrumental in getting the scene started here as his printing knowledge came in very, very handy for the soon to exist scene, not only for bands, but for the people that would release zines about the scene! Mike Niederman is lovingly referred to as the grandfather of the punk scene here in London Ontario. A title that is well deserved!

Uranus playing at the Blue Boot, late 1977. Picture by Robert Deibert. Notice the railing between the band and front of the stage.

There was a local rock’n’roll band that started playing around the city at this time (mid 1977) called Uranus. They were veterans of many bands and were playing a rock’n’roll sound not that dissimilar to what Dave Edmunds was doing in the UK at the time. They even covered a few of Dave’s songs, along with 50’s rock’n’roll and rockabilly, totally different from anything else around here! They were playing the odd gig at the York Hotel and were looking for a larger venue and decided that maybe The Blue Boot would be the place for them to play. It was a really rough old hotel at the time, with the usual all day drinkers that would stay for the bluegrass music in the eve as it wasn’t that loud or obtrusive. Somehow, Uranus guitar player Jack Whiteside and his buddy Cam Marshman (a member of the band before it became Uranus) convinced the owner of the Blue Boot to get the hotel out of the dark ages of bluegrass and play some rock’n’roll! This would have been the fall of  1977 and at first it was a tough sell with lots of fights and people throwing stuff at the band, but the band was able to convert the place to a great venue for rock’n’roll bands! That and selling tons of beer convinced the owners this was the right thing to do.

And things were starting to happen in the background in the late summer and fall of 1977! There was a local band of youngsters starting to get their chops together and getting ready to make some noise!  The singer had just visited the UK, was blown away by what was happening there and getting these ideas and some like minds into an actual band which we'll talk about shortly.

All the records pictured were from bands that played The Cedar Lounge

The records were finally starting to arrive here in London. The local Records On Wheels (Canadian chain record store) would be the first local store to supply and actually display the new wave/punk records and have a knowledgeable staff that could help you with that kind of music! Not like the other stores where the clerk would almost openly laugh at you for buying a punk record! Records On Wheels ended up with a fairly large punk selection over the years, even purchasing records direct from the bands when they were touring through London, something almost unheard of back then. And they often had large, full window displays of punk/new wave records to help incite sales.  Later on, they let some of the local bands rehearse in their upstairs area when the store was closed.

A few Eddie and The Hot Rods Records. Haven't located any poster yet.

In early November, one of the bands from the UK finally visited London for 3 nights at Fryfogles, a downtown club known for its musical eclecticism. By that I mean bands like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Mitch Ryder, Jean Luc Ponty, Buddy Guy and so many others played there prior. The band from the UK was Eddie and the Hot Rods, more of a proto punk or pub rock combo, but with an energy level never seen in these parts! The press considered Eddie and the Hot Rods to be part of the punk scene, although the band would dispute that! They considered themselves to be a rock’n’roll band that people could get up and dance to! And when they played here, that was one of the problems as we’d never seen anything like this and didn’t know how to react! Sure you yell and cheer, but this band wanted the crowd up and dancing too, something that didn’t really happen in those days as we were all too drunk and spaced out! Took a bit of persuading from the lead singer, but by the second night things were somewhat better! Also on the bill for this show, was a band out of Toronto called Red Rider, right before Tom Cochrane joined. The rumour is that Tom was invited to the London shows and rehearsed with them here in London, but didn’t join until right after this gig. Maybe seeing Eddie and the Hot Rods influenced his decision to join the band!

Gerard Pas poster for The Curse show, courtesy of McIntosh Gallery

Then on November 25^th, the Forest City Gallery had its first ever punk show! Local artist Gerard Pas arranged this one, borrowed the Nihilist Spasm’s PA, and did an actual poster for the show! The Curse and The Ugly from Toronto were supposed to play. The Ugly claimed they had transportation issues and didn’t make it, but the all female Curse did and played the show doing their short set 3 times over as they didn’t have enough material. People had heard the band liked to throw food at the audience, so there was a bit of a food fight at the show! Raw meat and whipped cream don’t mix all that well as the 50 or so in attendance learned! The show was recorded, and a song or 2 ended up on a Curse retrospective CD released by OPM Records a few years back!

Above poster is by Mike Niederman to announce the first ever Demics show!

And then as the end of 1977 quickly approached, we finally got our first local punk band out of rehearsal mode and playing in front of a live audience! The band was called The Demics, they’d been practicing in Mike Niederman’s loft for most of the fall and it was finally time to show the artists and downtown folks what they’d been up to. They didn’t have a lot of material, but what they had was loud, fast and intense as singer Keith Whittaker had the stage presence and arrogant sarcastic comments to pull it all off! At this point the band played mainly cover tunes….everything from Eddie and the Hot Rods (whom they just saw), Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, The Damned, The Clash and loads of 60’s garage punk….ie Love’s 2+2, Electric Prunes Get Me To The World On Time, Music Machines Talk Talk, Eddie Cochran and loads of other high energy rock’n’roll covers. All done loud, fast and with loads of attitude!

An alternate poster for the first Demics show.

And the crowd loved it, spilling into the street afterwards causing a bit of a scene in the downtown area!

Advertising was via word of mouth and posters (see the above posters) that were put up around the downtown area, as that was where the few that would be interested lived/worked or hung out. It appears there were at least 2 posters, as Mike more than likely would have printed them up where he was working at the time, and probably only had a bit of time to sneak in his own between real work jobs….judging by the fact the one poster came in different colours, the paper was most likely leftovers from other jobs. But it was now proven that posters downtown could attract the type of people that would go to and enjoy this kind of event!

                                   A small sample of some of the Heart War fanzines put out by Mike Niederman

Mike Niederman started putting his print knowledge to good use as he started publishing a zine that went by various names, but all under the Heart War byline.

These zines were 8 and a half by 11 inch format, and often featured reprinted articles from some 60’s music magazines, actual music to songs that punks might appreciate, reprints from NY and UK fanzines, what could be called subversive art and later on, actual articles about some of the new local bands that were springing up here in London. The way to get this zine, was to get it from Mike, or pick it up at a store called Multimag. Multimag was a downtown store that only carried magazines.

 

                            A look at the insides of a few of the Heart War Fanzines put out by Mike Niederman.

They had the usual trenchcoat area at the rear, but they also carried magazines from around the world! You could get your Cream mag, Trouser Press, Rock Scene, Punk Magazine, OP mag and so many more short run music magazines here! Since we didn’t have any radio that was playing punk/new wave music yet, this was one of the few ways to learn about the music scenes around the world and many of us started mail ordering records from around the world this way.

Members of The Demics had been checking out Uranus, and the bands they were in prior, and some of them became drinking buddies, hanging out at the York Hotel. And finally, The Demics started doing their first real gigs outside the rehearsal loft and of course they were at The York. Noise complaints and smashed bottles were common place as at this point,  The York was arranged in several smaller rooms, the old methodology (due to ancient Ontario liquor laws) of separate mens and mens and escorts entrances that went to different rooms once inside) unlike Call The Office that it became, with its open areas and fairly large stage.

Back over at The Blue Boot, the downtown crowd, blue collar workers and even some students from the university/college would come down to check out and dance to Uranus. Word spread quickly and the hotel started selling lots of beer, loads of the legendary quart bottles that you rarely saw back then!

Poster by Lyndon Andrews

Since Uranus and The Demics were starting to hang around together a bit, Uranus convinced the owners of the Blue Boot to let The Demics have a show and see how they would do. almost as a dare. Took a bit of convincing, but the shitloads of beer being sold sure convinced the owners this was the way to go! Local artists like Lyndon Andrews and Mike Niederman were doing highly original, thought provoking posters for the bands around this time. They were generally put up on construction site walls and poles as few local outlets would let them be put up in their establishments due to the poster content.  

Later many others started doing poster art, among them; Joanne Harding, Nick Nygard, Tom Lodge (son of the legendary Tom Lodge who was a pirate DJ in the UK in the 60’s and was living here in London working at Fanshawe College MIA), Al Matheson, Scott Bentley and Al Cole all of whom made excellent thought provoking posters.

There is an excellent book called Graphic Underground: London 1977-1990 written by Brian Lambert (who at the time, played bass for The Enemas) which covers the posters and artwork of this era in amazing detail. Highly recommended if you have any interest, and the book was the result of a curated museum display at Forest City Gallery in late 2012. The book is available at some of the local record and book stores here in London Ontario, or via McIntosh Gallery at Western University.

This is a small corner of the poster exhibit at the Graphic Underground: London 1977-1990 exhibit at Forest City Gallery.

The project (book, museum display, website, live show) was called Graphic Underground: London 1977-1990 and there were literally hundreds of the posters of this era on display along with the zines, and many great quality pictures.  The above, and below pictures,  is one corner of a fairly large area that we ended up covering with small posters from the era! We tried not to duplicate any, but a couple of keeners found the 2 duplicates in the hundreds and hundreds of posters! It took a couple of days just to do this portion of the display. The show ran about 6 weeks, and we’ve been told it was one of the most popular exhibits they’ve had. There was even an opening night bash at Call The Office that reunited 4 bands from the era; Uranus, The Zellots, NFG and The Enemas. 

By summer 1978 and Uranus and The Demics would often alternate weeks at the Blue Boot (renamed The Cedar Lounge in August 1978)….ie back then bands would play for full weeks, or at least Wednesday to Saturday and quite often an afternoon set on Saturdays. 

To be continued in Part 2: The Beginnings of Punk/New Wave in London Ontario.

Radio What Wave Playlist Mar 28/2013

Radio What Wave Playlist, March 28th 2013. Canpunk From Ontario and Quebec Special

This is an all Canpunk special, starting in the 60's and moving forwards covering Ontario and Quebec. We ran outta time long before we ran outta tunes on this one and we'll play some of the tunes we didn't get to on the next show. Also screwed up in this one way more than usual....LOL...it wouldn't be a Radio WW without a bunch of screwups!!!

1. The Ugly Ducklings...Nothin'...from the Somewhere Inside CD on Pacemaker. The Ducks recorded live on CHUM AM. Did you know that the guy running Pacemaker used to be a DJ on CHRW? Peter Burnside, who did a show back in the early days of CHRW.

2. The Ugly Ducklings...Just In Case You Wonder...my fave 7" by The Ducks and the first one i ever bought, back in 1968. There was a sale on at Sayvette (long defunct department store chain) and they had literally thousands of singles on sale for something like 10 for a buck. My mom let me pick out 10 and the Ducks single was one of them.

3. David Clayton Thomas with The Bossmen...Brainwashed...from the Made In Canada LP series. David went on to worldwide fame in Blood Sweat and Tears. Got to meet him when he was in London a coupla years back and he autographed several of my DCT records.

4. A Passing Fancy...I'm Losing Tonight...from the Ugly Pop 7" re-ish. Ya, i played this one last week and maybe the week before...it's a great song!!

5. Ronnie Hawkins...Who Do You Love?...from the Rockin' LP. That's The Band backing up Ronnie in this one, right before they went on to back up Bob Dylan.

6. The Scarlet Ribbon...4 In The Morning...from the After 4 compilation LP. After 4 was a teen show on CTV where they would have bands come on and play live (or was it lip synch). It was based out of Toronto and Ronnie Lane and the Disciples were their house band.  More trivia, The Scarlet Ribbon were actually The Quiet Jungle, a band that release a couple of Yorkville singles. Yorkville (Yorktown) Records were owned by ARC Records. A Canadian label responsible for releasing crappy cover type records (the hits performed by anonymous bands) that made it appear you were purchasing the more famous bands doing their hits. Make sense? From what i can figure, The Quiet Jungle were the house band for ARC Records as they recorded the Eddie Shack song (huge hit on CHUM AM in 1966) as well as a Christmas LP that has Snoopy on the cover. Supposedly the Christmas Snoopy LP has some really cool fuzz guitar on it.

7. The Quiet Jungle...Everything...from Nightmares From The Underworld. Nightmares was a 2 LP set put out by Andre Gibault, a huge fan of 60's garagepunk. He also wrote 2 books on Canadian records where there is an emphasis on the 60's garagepunk era.

8. The King Bees...Little Girl....from Infernal World Volume 2 compilation LP. The King Bees were from Belleville Ontario, between Toronto and Montreal. All of the bands prior to this were from Toronto and now we move east to Montreal, who had a HUGE 60's garagepunk scene.

9. The Haunted...1 2 5...original version on the AMY label. At a London record show in the late 80's, the former manager of The Haunted showed up and he had multiple copies of this record and the next one for sale....WW resident artist Dave Clarke and myself scooped up copies of these.

10. The Haunted...Mona...on the Jet Records label, this was the label of The Haunted's manager.

11. Les Miserables...Miserablement Votre....from Trans World Punk Rave Up Volume 2 compliation LP.

12. Les Belairs...Les Degonfles...from a cassette called Quebec The Psych/Punk Era 1965-1969. Got this cassette from Midnight Records many years ago...assume that JD Martignon probably had something to do with it.

13. Les Sinners...Nice Try...from Pebbles Volume 13. You may have heard The Gruesomes cover this song.

14. Bohemians...I Need You Baby...from Nightmares From The Underworld. Montreal had 2 distinct garagepunk scenes, an English and a French and rarely would the 2 cross paths. For a really good story on The Haunted, our pal Alex Taylor has an article in the latest Ugly Things on The Haunted and it delves into the time period with a fair bit of detail...it's recommended reading for Radio WW listeners.

15. Don Norman...Lowman...from a cassette compilation called Sir John A Records, put out by Alex Taylor. We've left Montreal and are stopping briefly in Ottawa for this song.

16. Satan and The D Men...She'll Lie....from the compilation LP, Winnipeg 1965-1966. Nope, Satan didn't come from Winnipeg, actually Kenora Ontario, way up north of Lake Superior. It was easier for Satan to record in Winnipeg than Toronto. This LP came out on Voxx Records, part of the Bomp Record empire of Greg Shaw.

17. Jim Ashby....Speed City....on Speed City Records and from sleepy London Ontario. We've left the 60's behind and we're into the desolate and boring early 70's. In my humble opinion, this is the best record to ever come out of London Ontario.

Jim Ashby playing at Call The Office, 4/21/2007

18. Simply Saucer....Electro Rock....from the Cyborgs Revisited LP. Recorded in the mid 70's, but wasn't released until the very late 80's. Thanx to The Mole for the work he did to get this one out! Simply Saucer were either 10 years behind their time or 20 years ahead. They pre-dated the punk movement and never did fit into it. And they still play out once in a blue moon.

Simply Saucer at Call The Office 6/19/2008. Only about a dozen to see this show.

19. Rough Trade...Butch...from the Rough Trade Live LP. They may not sound like anything else on this show, but Rough Trade helped spawn the Toronto punk scene with their black leather, S&M themes and stage show. Just listen to the lyrics of this song, it's all about a guy getting in shape so he could rape...totally fucked.

20. Teenage Head...Picture My Face...recorded live at The Spoke at Western University 2/18/81. It was played live over the airwaves of CHRW, profanity, slander and all! This was back in the days prior to CHRW appearing on cable and only a few of us could listen. I taped this live off the radio and parts of this recording have appeared on Teenage Head bootlegs. Teenage Head were the first of the so called punk bands from Ontario.

Gord Head and Mike Desadist at TAIH, Hamilton 1/20/10 for the Treat Me Like Dirt release party.

21. The Demics...Nervous Breakdown...from Slippery's Club Hits. The Demics were the first punk band from sleepy London Ontario.

22. The Regulators...Brainless Wonder...from Slippery's Club Hits. Another of the very first punk bands from London Ontario. The Regulators released one 7" on Ready Records.

23. The Bureaucrats...Grown Up Age...from a recent Ugly Pop Records 7" re-ish. Now we're in Ottawa, which had a fairly big late 70's punk scene.

24. The Action...TV's On The Blink....from the Slashing White Hot LP on Rave Up Records. The Action re-formed a coupla years back and did a few shows around.

25. Restless Virgins...Television Child...from one of their 2 singles. This features Jeb Bond, who later went onto one of our faves, The Evil Farm Children who broke up a year or so ago.

26. 222's....Academic Drop...from the She Wants Revenge LP on Rave Up Records. Now we're in Montreal, where 70's punk didn't catch on as much as the 60's garagepunk scene did. 

27. Electric Vomit...Boredom Abolishing...from a 7" and featured soon to be famous artist Rich Trembles who later showed up in American Devices.

28. The Viletones....Little Girl...from A Taste Of Honey CD, which collected a bunch of recordings from 1977. There's a big article on The Viletones in the latest Ugly Things where guitarist Freddy Pompeii is interviewed and several myths are destroyed.

29. The Poles...CN Tower...from their only 7". Avoid the LP they released around the same time unless it comes with the single, then destroy the LP and keep the single.

30. The Government...Flat Tire...from their second 7". One of my fave bands from the Toronto punk scene and only got to see them once, right before they packed it in. These guys were into video and television long before anyone else.

31. The Spys....Underground...recently released by Ugly Pop Records, the original single came with 2 different sleeves. From Windsor Ontario and renamed themselves The Nelsons and gave handfulls of these singles away at a show at The Cedar Lounge many years ago.

32. Deja Voodoo....Big Scary Daddy....from the Cemetery LP. We've moved to the early 80's and Deja Voodoo were a major influence on the Canadian alternative music scene for most of the 80's. They formed their own record label, OG Records which released 5 volumes of the It Came From Canada series, as well as releasing records by The Gruesomes, UIC, Dik Van Dykes and many more. Many of these records reached the top of the Canadian college radio system. They packed it in in 1990 when CD's were starting to take over and they reached their best before date of 30 years old.

Deja Voodoo looking cool, outside WW HQ's fall 1984.

33. UIC...Shamrock Bang....from Slippery's Club Hits. UIC came out of Exeter Ontario, just north of sleepy London Ontario and didn't really sound like anybody else. They were high energy rock'n'roll and loved by the punks, the hardcore kids, the garageheads and anyone else who appreciated a really good rock'n'roll band.

Dan of UIC...yep, the negative is flipped as Dan is a lefty.

34, Flying Squad...Godzilla...from Slippery's Club Hits...from London Ontario and hated by as many as loved UIC. Flying Squad had a secret weapon in Tim Murphy who specialized in facial antics while he sang. It drove most people out the door, yet Tim could sing with the best of them. They were a band either 5 years behind the times or 10 years ahead and people either loved or hated them!. We were in the former camp and saw them countless times at local venues. Biker rock at it's best!

Tim Murphy of The Flying Squad in action at Key West Cafe, London Ontario.

35. Legend Killers...Strychnine...from Slippery's Club Hits...again from sleepy London Ontario, these guys put on some killer shows in their early days and released a 7" called Better Than Hammerin' (on WW Records). They are the only band to ever appear on every WW compilation cassette and record!

Legend Killers promo shot, 1989.

36.The Gruesomes...The Witch...from their first LP, Tyrants Of Teen Trash, originally on OG Records and just re-ished on Groovie Records outta Greece. The number one garagepunk combo from Canada in the 80's. These guys played London many many times and stayed at WW HQ's every time, eating all our junk food and watching way too much TV.

37. The Purple Toads...Gonna Have A Good Time...from their first LP on Star Records and they are from Oshawa. These guys always put on an entertaining show and kept the alcohol industry in business during their tenure.  They released one other LP and they are supposed to be re-uniting in the very near future.

The Purple Toads used for an ad. The Cheque is in the mail.

38. Dik Van Dykes...Roadwarrior...from the Nobody Likes...LP on OG records. This one goes out to anyone driving on the 401 as 'I'm the fucking asshole behind you on the 401..." For those not from this area,the 401 is the major highway that runs east west from Windsor to Montreal. Dik Van Dykes were the challenged band from Hamilton Ontario and proved that challenged is way better than being smart.

The Dik Van Dykes backup singers, The Pop Tarts.

39. Leather Uppers...She Digs Death....from a 7" they released. 2 piece combo outta Toronto that would re-surface up until a couple of years ago. They are the only band to be asked not to return for a second night of a weekend at the Brunswick Hotel in sleepy London. The Brunswick was the dive hotel where just about anyone could play, but the Leather Uppers were ahead of their time and not appreciated by the hotel management. I've got a live tape of part of their first set from that night....LOL...

Holy crap Batman, outta time....hope you enjoyed this 2.5 hour marathon of Canpunk from Ontario and Quebec. We'll play some more of this next week along with some new material that arrived this week...thanx for all the phone-ins (some to tell me i'm screwing up...LOL), emails, messages, request etc....All pictures copywrite WW Archives, please ask before using.

Here's a link to the podcast:

http://chrwradio.ca/content/radio-what-wave#prev-shows

and the last hour, should be listed on The Freakout's page on the CHRW website.

Live In London Ontario....Playlist May 17/2012

Playlist May17/2012.....Live In London Ontario

An all live show comprised of various live recordings at various venues from sleepy London Ontario. Some of the sound quality may not be the greatest, as many of this week's tunes were be from the original cassette tapes made many years ago....enjoy and go out and see some live music here in sleepy London Ontario. I'm tired of being the only one at some live music shows....

1. Dark Carnival....Ain't Nothin' To Do....recorded live at Call The Office 10/12/90 and features Stooges Ron Ashton and Scott 'Rock Action' Ashton along with our fave diva, Niagara on the screeches. It was a great show and we got to hang out with Ron Ashton afterwards...an interview appeared in What Wave zine as well as some major cool pics (see below and drool) of the band. And we got to tell them who originally did 'My Best Bette' (Mr Kenne Highland) as they had found the song on a compilation tape and loved it so much they covered it at the show, yet had no idea who did the song.



2. catl....Church On Sunday....recorded live at Call The Office 3/16/12.

3. Hi-Tones...That's Alright Mama....recorded live at The Spoke 1/13/12 as part of CHRW's Wired Fridays.

4. Lucky 7....Rock'n'Roll Radio....recorded at Call The Office 2/23/89. This combo played at many clubs here in London...The Firehall, Leadbellys and probably Mingles. They came from NYC and featured Barry Ryan on the guitar, presently Robert Gordon's touring guitarist as well as a member of late 70's NYC punk combo, The Victims. Also in the band, on accordion, keys and vocals was Kenny Margolis, famous NYC studio cat who was also a member of Mink DeVille's legendary band...as well as currently being in Cracker.

5. Ronnie Dawson...Rockin' Bones....recorded live at Leadbellys 3/23/89...The Blonde Bomber from Texas did a 2 night stint here in London, I went one night and Rena went the next...and a FUCKING AMAZING show both nights!!! This particular song was a request from yours truly as he cut the original version that The Cramps borrowed. Really cool guy who signed many of my records and had a smile on his face the whole show!!

6. Ronnie Dawson....Congratulations To Me...recorded live at Leadbellys 3/24/89...a double shot of the Blonde Bomber!!!

7. Blood On The Saddle...Let's Have A Party....recorded live at Key West 12/17/86 in front of a small crowd. Singer Annette (original member of The Bangles) wasn't in the best of moods for this show, but MAN can she belt out a tune!!

8. Uranus....Uranium Rock....recorded at The Embassy 3/22/82 and broadcast over CHRW. We had guitarist Jack on a coupla weeks back for the 30th anniversary of this broadcast to talk about those days. And that's Uranus in the pic below.


9. The Fleshtones....Hexbreaker...recorded live at Call The Office 11/22/90 and we started upstairs in the dressing rooms and marched down the stairs with the band as they liked to start the party upstairs and bring it onto the stage. Possibly the most fun band in the entire universe!! You can read all about them in Sweat, by Joe Bonomo as he gives this legendary combo their just tribute in print.

10. Chesterfield Kings...Loose Lip Sync Ship...recorded live at Bullwinkles 5/29/86 and the only time these guys ever came to London.

11. The Fuzztones...Cinderella...recorded live at Key West 4/5/87 to a hot sweaty packed crowd. I was right up front with Psychedelic Pete, mere inches away from Rudi and the boys as they ripped through their set. We didn't find out till many years later, the bass player was none other than John Carlucci (of The Speedies) and presently in The Beat Killers, a killer combo who are in Europe right now. And below is a pic of how close we were to a sweaty Rudi....we won't talk about the underage that Rudi left with that night...



12. The Gruesomes....I'm A Bloodhound...recorded live at Key West 1/11/87. This was the first time we brought these kids into London, and it being a sunday night in January, we were a little concerned that no one would show up. But, the joint was packed and rockin' as Gruesomania had hit London and the boys were well recieved! Think they stayed for several days at our place after this show as we had lots of cartoons, junk food and videos for the boys to enjoy! The first of many many visits by The Gruesomes to this town and our place.

13. Light Bulb Alley....Money....recorded live at Call The Office 5/4/12 and these guys are now labelmates of The Gruesomes on Ricochet Sound from Montreal.


14. Bad Bad Bad....Fucked Up...recorded live at The Black Shire Pub 3/29/12 right after they came to visit us live on Radio What Wave....way cool 2 piece from Halifax!

15. Light Bulb Alley...Pepper Spray...recorded live at Call The Office 5/4/12 and this song is on the latest garagepunk hideout download, We Love Trash.

16. Das Furlines...Boys Are Boys....recorded live at Call The Office 6/5/86. Das Furlines were an all female combo from NYC who were basically a tribute to The Monks, the German band of X-US Army GI's from 1966. One of the wildest shows that involved total crowd participation and the conch!! You hadda be there!! This combo featured Fuzztone keyboard player Deb O'Nair as well as NYC crazy woman, Wendy Wild. And, this was the only time the band was recorded live...right here in sleepy London Ontario!! This was well before their appearance in People magazine and their bogus entry in the 1995 Rolling Stone Record Guide which had them coming from the Black Forest of Germany and releasing many many records. Nope, just a coupla compilation appearances.

17. Link Protrudi and The Jaymen....The Stroll...recorded live at Key West 9/25/86. Essentially The Fuzztones doing all instros ala Link Wray....

18. Boy From Nowhere....Lift Up Your Hood....recorded live at The Brunswick, probably early 90's. With a nice little intro regaling the finer points of The Brunswick Hotel, situated in downtown London, conveniently located across from the bus terminal. A demonic version of DMZ's tune done with sledgehammers to the head! Indeed, The Boy could rock with the best. Bassist Brian Young is currently a member of The Canadian Lyres touring band....they back up Monoman when he hops the border into Canada.

19. UIC....Cropdusting....recorded live at Call The Office 3/16/85. There's also a youtube of this song (as well as others from the same show) which features a bunch of youngsters dancing around like fools, self included! And yes, i still dance like a fool 27 years later! Below is Murray beating the living daylights out of his kit in front of the UIC flag!


20. The Diodes...Time Damage...recorded live at Call The Office 11/18/11. The second time the re-united Diodes have come to London and both times, excellent shows!!

21. The Hook Up....65 Has No Blues....recorded live at The Spoke 11/25/11 as part of CHRW's Wired Fridays.

22. The Fine Print...Remember....recorded live at Brennan's Beer Bistro 11/5/11. A GREAT local combo who don't play out enough.

23. Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet....Who's Afraid of Alison Hymer/Having An Average Weekend....recorded live at Call The Office 7/17/86. First ever appearance by this now legendary combo to London....a very typical London crowd...maybe 10 people out to see them. Listen to the lack of applause after Average, that's just me clapping. Luckily for sleepy London, this trio came back many times and packed the house!!


Outta time but only the tip of the iceberg for live recordings from London Ontario...hope you enjoyed the show. Thanx for all the phone-ins, emails, facebook comments etc! This one was a blast to prep, as i went through a ton of tapes, some that i was hoping to use didn't have the greatest sound quality and hence, were nicked from the show.

Back atcha next week with a bunch of new stuff and as always, some surprises!

Here's a link to the podcasts that are up for one week only:

http://chrwradio.com/podcasts/94-9CHRWThu1800.mp3

http://chrwradio.com/podcasts/94-9CHRWThu1830.mp3

http://chrwradio.com/podcasts/94-9CHRWThu1900.mp3

It Coulda Been Different!

Not that there was anything wrong with the scene here in London Ontario, but it coulda been different! We had the Cedar Lounge, an old hotel centrally located in the heart of the city that was a home to the growing punk/new wave/alternative type scene in the late 70's and early 80's

Here's a picture looking north from King St. You entered right below the Cedar Lounge sign and walked into a partially enclosed area where you could see the band and most of the club. There was usually someone standing there, hand out, asking for the 2 buck or whatever it was cover. In the early days, there was this spastic geek who would be dancing and grooving to the tunes and would be so into the music he'd often keep you waiting for the tune to end before taking your cash. Or even acknowledging that you were there and waiting to get in. It certainly added to the oh so cool ambience of the place. That along with the loud music, smoke (not always of the nicotine type), beer and people actually up dancing and having fun while the band is playing. But it coulda been different!

Sure, we had our local faves like Uranus, The Demics, NFG, The Zellots, The Sinners, Crash 80's, Regulators, Second Thoughts and many others in the first wave of late 70's bands to form in this city. It was a long way from the crap cover bands who worshipped stadium rockers Aerosmith, Foghat, Journey and other unmentionables who filled seats in just about every other bar in this city. Seats indeed as your ass would be glued down to watch this shit as you downed your weekly pay. Unless it was a disco bar and that was even worse with the dress code in effect. You can't come in here, your jeans are frayed! And the smartass retort would be 'my jeans ain't fraid of nothin' which was better not to say. But it coulda been different!

We had tons of bands from all over the place visit London in the early days of the punk rock scene; Teenage Head, The Diodes, Simply Saucer, Joe King Carrasco, Psychedelic Furs, Eddie and The Hot Rods, DOA, Subhumans, UK Subs, Anti-Nowhere League, 999, Ramones, The Stranglers, B-Girls, Viletones, The Ruts and TONS more. So many more that it would have been impossible to see them all. But we tried and failed and still had lots and lots of fun. But it coulda been different!

There used to be a poster, it was beat up as it had been on the wall of the Covent Garden Market for years. Not the new Covent Market, but the old concrete monstrosity that had the covered parking lot above it. A place where  you could look out and take pictures. In fact, here's a picture of The Cedar Lounge from that parking lot.

This picture was taken facing west from the Covent Garden parking lot, looks like maybe the third level and the street in front of The Cedar is Talbot St. What is now a wide open area with a some large concrete balls on it. Maybe that signifies The Cedar Lounge was the only place in London that had balls. Whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean. Here's what that area, sometimes referred to as ground zero looks like today. That's NFG paying homage to ground zero this past summer and somehow, the large balls didn't show up in any of the pictures that i took. That could mean something too....

But back to that beat up poster. I can remember seeing it a couple of times, but stupidly never took a picture of it. Others commented on that poster as well and we all agreed upon one thing,  It could been different!

That poster was for a band that didn't make their gig at The Cedar Lounge. It was no fault of the band's. Nope, it was the Toronto Police force or whatever name they were billing themselves at that time. The time being the late 70's. The band on the poster were visitors to police headquarters. Not by choice or by invitation. Nope, they were being questioned as murder suspects. One of them in particular had more than a passing resemblance to the suspect in the case.

The band, The Cramps. When The Cramps were supposed to play London, they were but one of what we thought were a zillion up and coming bands in what we thought were an endless stream. Nope, it was but a window that opened long enough for a bunch of loonies to escape, learn to play some musical instruments or create some art and then the window closed again. Hasn't been open since and probably never will be.

I didn't become a total Cramps freak until about 1980, well after the band was supposed to play here. I first heard The Cramps on the radio show Young Fast and Scientific on CHRW. Hosted by Al Cole, it was easily the best show on the that station at that time. The only show that i regularly listened to and used it as a springboard to start Saturday night's adventures.

It wasn't easy finding records in London back then, but Records On Wheels was THE place to go for the so called underground sounds and i picked up the Drug Train single there and haven't been the same since!  Here was a band that finally summed up all that i was digging...ie 60's punk via Pebbles, rockabilly via Johnny Burnette and a WHOLE new set of bands to try and find! Yep, The Cramps set me off on a record finding mission that still hasn't been completed up to this day. And hopefully it never will be.

Just lately i picked up The Cramps boxset of singles on Munster Records and spinning these records is just amazing! They have such a wide dynamic range and the vinyl is so noise free for those really quiet times that it just blows me away. Here's a picture of the sleeves with our man Bryan, centered and smoking as always.

But it coulda been different if The Cramps had actually played London. It just might have sparked a few like minded souls into forming a band in the mode of The Cramps. Now that would have been something!  A rockabilly/60's punk combo in London Ontario!! A band that would get others interested in the same things. Ya, it coulda been different!


Addendumb:

Since you've read this far, here's what we're working on at the moment. We're going to be re-publishing What Wave #22 in an updated form as What Wave #24. Originally released in 1996, WW22 was a history of the local scene here in London Ontario. We're looking for corrections/additions/etc and you can post these to facebook on the Radio What Wave facebook page. All of the relevant pages of WW22 are in  photo form on this facebook page. Here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10150565988219916&type=1

Feel free to add comments or whatever to the above photos. We need all of this info and it's going to take all of us to get it done properly. Release date is Oct 26/2012.

Why Oct 26? That's because it is the opening night for a big visual exhibit at The Forest City Gallery here in London. The exhibit is Underground Graphic Art: London Ontario 1977 to 1990 and will feature the fanzines, comics, posters, etc from that era. And we're going to have an  opening party on Oct 26th with some of the bands mentioned in the above blog...NO, not The Cramps. So far Uranus, The Zellots, NFG and The Enemas have agreed to play opening night. Nothing's in concrete at the moment but this is going to be a bash that you don't want to miss! So put your boots on baby, cause we're going to a party....

Marki and Rooster at The Cedar Lounge in the early 80's.....

All photos are copyright What Wave archives so please DO NOT reproduce without consent...you know who i'm referring to.