The Last Pogo Jumps Again

Huntz Hall as Glimpy McColsky and Leo Gorcey as Muggs McGinnis in the 1944 movie.

A Blake Street Boys lies on the stage during The Last Pogo while people stick safety pins in him.

In The Last Pogo Jumps Again:  A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978 we focus on an explosively creative time in Toronto's cultural history, with an emphasis on the musicians.  Next week director Kire Paputts interviews The Blake Street Boys.

Lowrises on Blake Street courtesy movein.to.com

The Blake Street Boys weren't a band, they were a gang, a loose collection of east-end rowdies that lived in the Ontario Housing Corporations apartment complexes (the "projects" for our American friends) around Blake and Boultbee, near Jones and Danforth in the east end of Toronto.  Some of them still live there.

Pogo H.Q. got a call from "Hawkeye" a month ago, answering a relayed message left by us at Circus Books and Music.   He said he'd try and round up Ally, a fondly remembered Blake Street Boy, and talk about back in the day.

Steven Leckie introduced The Blake Street Boys to the scene by using them as bodyguards.  Whether he needed muscle is a moot point;  they became a gritty, uglier texture of the scene and a striking contrast to the OCA (Ontario College of Art) crowd.  They were not loved by all.  "They'd just beat people up for the hell of it," said Tony Torture of The Viletones. "And if they couldn't find someone to beat up, they'd beat up each other."

The area they lived in was tough, and still is.  (During a movie shoot at local high-school Eastern Commerce a few years ago, Pogo director Colin Brunton was gobsmacked to learn that within the first four days of the shoot, there were two stabbings, one attempted suicide, and an attempt to pick the pocket of the location manager.  By the end of the following week, the production had to hire pay-duty police to guard the lead actresses' body-guards because of death threats from a couple of grade twelve twenty-year-olds.)

The grooviness of Greek Town on the Danforth has never reached east of Pape, and the Blake Street Boys 'hood is still intact in all its harsh glory.  Which, frankly, makes it more interesting than the gentrified neighbourhoods just a few hundred yards west.

Raggedy handbill, 1976;  courtesy of Robert Malyon.

Smoking a joint in the back row of his movie theatre The New Yorker, watching the out-of-synch Blank Generation, promoter Gary Topp twigged on the idea of bringing some of the bands from Amos Poe's movie into town.  It was 1976.  When he tried to track down The Ramones, few people in the business knew who they were.

Photo by David Andoff.

A concrete stage was built in a few 18 hour shifts over the course of a weekend;  artist David Andoff sculpted a King Kong and painted a NYC nightscape above the marquee --  and "punk rock" officially arrived in Toronto on September 24, 1976 with Johnny Lovesin & His Invisible Band opening for New York City's The Ramones.

Two years later, Gary would be long gone from the New Yorker, having had moved to the beer-soaked Horseshoe Tavern with partner Gary Cormier;  together they were known as The Garys.   On December 1, 1978, The Garys promoted The Last Pogo, the going-away party for their favourite local bands;  they were being kicked out, and the bar would revert to it's country 'n' western roots for a spell.  The Scenics, The Cardboard Brains, The Ugly, The Secrets, Teenage Head, and The Mods were set to play the historic gig.

Steven Leckie at The Last Pogo.  Photo by Edie Stiener.

Reluctant to join in at first, Steven Leckie ended up crashing the party with his latest version of his ground-breaking Viletones.   And all hell broke loose.   It was captured on film, recorded for an album -- and then forgotten for years.   This is the specific time period we're zeroing in on for our sprawling documentary The Last Pogo Jumps Again:  A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978.

There's not much to report lately on The Last Pogo Jumps Again:  A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978 -- except that we're getting busier editing, and on the prowl for more photos and handbills and buttons, oh my.   If ya got stuff, it has to be 300 dpi, and the more the merrier.  Make sure you either have the rights, or can lead us to where we might find them.

But as important as this project might be, it obviously pales in comparison to the troubles in Haiti.  So a bit of a shout-out to all of our pals -- help them out.  And for all of our film buddies, there's a new Facebook site called Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is that's directed at film and TV productions.  We're urging them to give up "craft service" for a day, and donate the money to Doctors Without Borders, The Red Cross, and the Humanitarian Coalition instead.  So far the kid's action TV series Connor Undercover is on board, and next Thursday the cast and crew will give up their constant stream of croissants, cappuccinos and cheese trays, charge PWYC for coffee -- and see how much money we can send to our brothers and sisters in Haiti.  So, if you're in the biz, check out the link Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is and let's see what we can do to make a difference.

Haitian Voodoo Priest "Nestly";  photograph by Frank Polyak

We've made a lot of friends in the four years since we started shooting The Last Pogo Jumps Again:  A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978, not the least being the Haitian Voodoo Priest pictured above.   Donations to help out the thousands in trouble in Haiti can be made at www.redcross.ca/donatenow.

BREAKING: Pogo H.Q. just got a call from photographer Frank Polyak, who was supposed to be in Haiti today but decided he'd best stick around the house and be domestic for January and delay the trip 'til February.  Frank told us that our Voodoo Priest -- Nestly -- in the photo above survived, being in the town of Jacmel.  The town was hit hard too, but as of at least the first few days of the tragedy, Nestly was still alive.  http://www.facebook.com/l/b702e;www.helptammyhelphaiti.com is another site you can check out if you care to help.   If your curious about what it all looks like, photographer Daniel Morell is posting pics via Twitter http://twitpic.com/photos/photomorel.

UPDATE:  JANUARY 19.  In an odd coincidence, our L.A. shooter Amy Belling was supposed to be interviewing photographer/graphic artist Rodney Bowes this weekend, but Rodney will be flying down to Haiti for the weekend on a plane full of people including Bill Clinton.