The Last Pogo Jumps Again

Last Sunday spent a few hours with Roger Street, a.k.a. Roger T-Bag, a.k.a. Roger Dirtbag. Roger was in The Last Pogo movie, and the years have been great to her. Having not lost a bit of her wit, Roger regaled us with tales of back-in-the-day in her awesomely appointed apartment in downtown Toronto. Lots of skulls; dripping blood from the ceiling; framed posters and memorabilia; very nice, and Roger was stage-centre. As she will be in The Last Pogo Jumps Again, our feature about Toronto punk rock circa 1976 – 1978.

After months of pecking around the ‘net, we also made contact with “Skratch”, a.k.a. Nick Bartlett who was the recipient of a beer over his head in the Last Pogo movie courtesy of one Steven “Nazi Dog” Leckie of The Viletones. Since the Pogo days, Nick has managed to carve out a decent acting career, including being featured in Scorcese’s Gangs of New York. Scorcese! And speaking of Nick, back in the day he was pals with “Nip Kick”, who got in touch with Pogo HQ this week. Apart from being one of the Scene Irregulars (thanks, Kinky!), Nip did time as a roadie for Screamin’ Sam, the Viletones, and so much more.

Since the new year and all of that, Pogo HQ has been busy wrestling (see above) a video from Quebec film-pal Chester LeBeaux. Lots of things going on in Scenicsworld, not the least of which is the release of the cd “How Does It Feel To Be Loved: The Scenics play the Velvet Underground”, (available now at cdbaby, and out on Dream Tower Records) and the rave reviews they’ve been getting (and if there are any budding cartoonists out there, give us a shout, ’cause the Scenics need you. Yes, you!).

And we’re still getting emails of new photos and stories from Toronto/Hamilton/London 1976 – 1978 each week. So, thanks, and bring it on! Volume, volume, volume, that’s the name of the game.

Getting ready to start one of many interviews, etc., with Teenage Head, and hoping to shoot in the truly awesome and weird “Scottish Rite” building, the 19th century Masonic Temple in Hamilton, in their theatre, with backdrops from the ’30′s of Heaven and Hell, et al. And, of course, get the proverbial shot of the Hamilton skyline from the Gardner.

And in other news – The Mods are getting set to hit the studio; hair-guy and top-notch interviewer Greg Dick is getting ready to start to do some Ugly gigs — you can’t replace the late great Mike Nightmare — if you can’t have him, you got Dick. Ha ha. Greg should do great.

We’ve been shooting interviews and concerts and events and the mundane, and tracking down footage, and up-loading photos, and following leads since June 2006. We’re going to keep shooting and tracking down old ghosts until June 2008; then we’ll tighten post-production, and release on December 1, 2008.

There’ll be a feature, footage to download for free — and DVD release with an extensive selection of “extras”, including short films, stills galleries, commentaries, karaoke, and more.

Our project started out as a kind of “where are they now” thing, focusing on anyone and everyone who were at the infamous Last Pogo concert at the Horseshoe Tavern (December 1, 1978). Deceptively easy to do, ’cause we’d already made a movie of those people (The Last Pogo, natch), and we were friendly with the bands that were there (Hey, ho), and we had a decent camera.

But things change. (And yes, it’s true –the more things change, the more they stay the same, etc.).

Before you know it, we’ve got five extra “deputy directors” (and counting) who’re shooting footage for us (Kire Paputts, Aldo Erdic, Blair Richard Martin, Suzanne Naughton, and Tristan Orchard); we relearn that there were a lot of talented photographers around in those days (Fast Eddie, Edie Steiner, Don Pyle to name but a few), and that there was the occasional film footage shot (thanks, Michael Korican!).

So this is Toronto punk rock, from the moment the Ramones hit the stage at the New Yorker in Toronto on September 1976 until the cops kicked everyone out of the Horseshoe Tavern in December 1978.

If you were in Toronto around that era; if you were in a band that played Toronto; if you’ve got video or film footage or a stash of photos or buttons we could shoot, and even if you’ve got a faulty memory, we’d love to hear from you, so please — contact us at thelastpogo@mac.com.

(And if you wanna find out about some of the stuff we’ve shot, read this blog — updated at least once or twice a week — or go to the archives, and discover what we’ve been up to for the past year and a half. And buy a t-shirt, or send us a note).