The Second Last Pogo

Stage manager Nip Kicks;  photo by Jean Trivett

After two and a half years of shooting, we finally finished principal photography on THE LAST POGO JUMPS AGAIN by taking our swat-team of a shooting crew down to our old haunt, The Horseshoe Tavern, and shooting The Last Pogo 30th Anniversary Bash.

We’ve still got some interviews we need to do — you know who you are! — but we’re finally moving into post-production on our feature film.   There’s so many people to thank for all their devotion and hard work, that we’d rather wait for another to day to thank them all, because we know some are going to slip our mind.   But this thing would never have happened without the support and encouragement of all the kids from back in the day, and we never would’ve gotten anything shot without the tireless devotion of co-directors Aldo Erdic and Kire Paputts;  the backbone and smarts and heart of David Quinton Steinberg and Gary Topp;  and the support of everyone who’ve given us jpgs and film-clips and interviews and shared thier stories;  who’ve connected the dots, dotted their i’s and croosed their t’s.   We’ll save the credits for the movie.

Photo by Katrin Clark-Citroen

The Last Pogo 30th Anniversary Bash was great fun and a non-stop party.  There’s not too many shows we can recall where you announce a nine o’clock start time — and there’s 450 people waiting in line at 9:00.   When the doors opened, the place was packed, and our 16mm camera caught the first couple of hundred faces, both familiar and fresh, as they filed into the old haunt.

Each band stuck to the strict twenty-minute set, and it was truly without flaws — except for Moog Audio on Queen West who completely dropped the ball by neglecting to drop off the turntables and mixer for D.J. OPP.   After some desperate phone calls to other, more reliable businesses, Gary Topp called daughter (and member of Steven Leckie and the Solutions!) Alex, and she dug around Garys home office and sent down some mix CDs that were used to fill the gaps between bands.  Mixes by Topp can’t be topped.

Gary Topp;  photo by Jack Skellington

Ever since the Original 99 Cent Roxy Theatre, Gary has created tapes specifically for each show, whether it be a night of movies or a line-up of bands.  At the The Original 99 Cent Roxy, and later the New Yorker Theatre, the music before movies was played at the right volume, which usually meant “loud” but not always cranked up to eleven.   On the rare occasion (a couple of times a month) someone complained about the volume, it was “Sorry, you can have your money back if you want, but we like to play our music loud.”   “But I can’t even have a conversation!” they’d protest.    “Well…maybe you should go to another movie theatre then.”    After spending the last week planning out his evening, and rounding up over a 100 vintage 45s, Hits ‘n’ Misses owner DJ OPP realized it just wasn’t gonna happen, so he cabbed it back to his store, stashed his prize 45s, and came back to the Horseshoe where he vented his frustration in an interview in the men’s room.

Kire Paputts;  Toronto Star

While the bands were playing, Directors Brunton and Paputts were either outside getting shots, or down around the dressing room, luring people into the Men’s Can (quiet, nice light, interesting ambience) for impromptu interviews.   Caught with their pants down were:  The Ugly’s Tony Torture, DJ OPP, The Mods’ Greg Trinier, The Cardboard Brains’ Vince Carlucci, The Screwed’s John Borra, The Scenics’ Mike Young, and the Forgotten Rebels’ Mickey de Sadist — who we coerced into apologizing to everyone he dissed on camera in the original Last Pogo movie — and various others, including an impromptu “Everyone get outa here!” rant by The Wads’ and Dick Duck and the Dorks’ Paul Ecknes.  And we shot the gradual evolution of the towel machine throughout the night (starts intact; then bunching up on floor;  then completely on floor, in pool of mystery fluid.)

Colin Brunton;  photo by Jack Skellington

The bulk of the shooting at Last Pogo Jumps Again was handled by director Aldo Erdic and his three other shooters, covering the bands’ performances.   A generation in-between co-directors Kire Paputts and Colin Brunton, Aldo’s company To Be Scene has shot literally hundreds of hours in the past few years for a ton of bands — and a truckload of goodies for The Last Pogo Jumps Again.

Aldo Erdic;  photo tobescene.com

For all you film/tv techno geeks out there, we had four small Sony HD cameras covering the bands’ performances; a sound guy hooked into the sound board;  ambient sound from audience cameras;  for old-times’ sake, a 16mm Bolex camera worth about twenty minutes of Kodak Vision 2 footage; the workhorse Panasonic DVX 100A  MiniDV; a Sennehauser Wireless mike;   125 Watt Pocket Par portable light, with a chimera, filters, and three commando-style battery belts.  Total cooperation and buckets of sweat.  Three people shooting interviews, four people shooting the bands (not to mention the footage we’ve already been offered by audience), and lots of friends in the audience who would’ve helped out if called upon for duty.  There’s a lot of punks in TV and film.

Vince Carlucci and Sandy MacFadyen of Cardboard Brains;  photo Kevin Lamb

Zero of ZR04 opened the show with an upbeat and “lets get to it” intro to the show by dedicating it to Teenage Head’s Frankie Venom, The Ugly’s Mike Nightmare, ZR0$’s Tony Brighton, and Ruby Teases and opening band Cardboard Brains.  Guitarist Vince Carlucci gave a shout-out to M.I.A. lead singer John Paul Young, and fill-in singer Sandy MacFadyen did just swell (and a 360 degree flip from his performance at the original Last Pogo where as an audience member he yelled good-natured obscenities at Cardboard Brains.  (Vince is back in the hunt searching for JP.)   Sandy was in ]the 1977 band Swollen Members who’s lead singer, Evan Siegel, is featured in one of the “hidden features” in The Last Pogo DVD.  (WhaaAAA?!  You didn’t know there were “Easter Eggs” in the Special Features menu?)

Wayne Brown and Paul Eckness;  photo by Jean Trivett

Around 9:30 the Gothic Cowboy, ex-Fifth Column and Thee Immaculate Hearts (and original Last Pogo attendee) singer Wayne Brown walked into the club with Paul Eckness from The Wads, who walked into the club at a unique, tilting east.   A bouncer went after him, bemoaning his task, but determined to obey strict liquor laws (the Man) and came back empty-handed;  Paul had given him the slip.  “Man, you can smell the weed in there already.”    His partner shook his head in disgust and sighed.  “Maybe we’ll get Paul later.”  It was going to be a long night.

The Garys, Topp and Cormier;  photo by Jack Skellington

Mickey de Sadist was dressed to the nines, and amongst other gems, told the audience:  “Some of you girls look familiar, but not too familiar.  I think i mighta f*#ked your mother thirty years ago.”   The Forgotten Rebels ended their tight twenty-minute set with their classic “Surfin’ on Heroin” just as original Rebel and Hate-Filled Man Chris Houston, co-writer of “Surfin’” showed up with a flair for synchronicity and did some biz for the camera out front with Rojer Moxie Streets aka Roger Dirtbag aka Roger Fucking Streets.

Roger asked:  “Is The Last Pogo Jumps Again going to be the Chinese Democracy of punk films?”    For the record, we’re aiming to have the movie completed in 2009.

Mickey de Sadist;  photo by Kevin Lamb

Trouble in the dressing room! For some reason everyone kept blaming Cardboard Brain Vince Carlucci for taking off with the key to the dressing room, and as the Scenics waited around to get in the room so they could get ready to go on the stage, Pogo director Brunton make a feeble attempt to pick the lock, and finally barkeep and ex BopCat Teddy Fury fished it out from under the bar, the Scenics got settled in, and a few minutes later took their turn on the stage, blasting through a tight set after spending a week in Toronto laying down tracks for a new album, and ending the set with their last-minute version of “I Heard Her Call My Name”.   Drummer Mark Perkells’ 82-year-old mother drank beer at the front of the stage and watched her son keep the beat, while Andy Meyers jumped for joy.

Andy Meyers of The Scenics;  photo by Kevin Lamb

2008 audience; photo by Jack Skellington;  1978 audience, The Last Pogo

Former B-Girl (and now bass-player for the punky NYC-based New York Junk) Cynthia Ross flew in from the Big Apple to introduce The Mods, and in the twenty minute break between the Scenics and The Mods, ran into a couple of other B-Girls in the basement:  Xenia, there just for kicks, and Lucasta, getting ready to introduce Steven Leckie and the Solutions!

Sam Ferrara lends Cynthia Ross a prized bass;  photo by Kevin Lamb

Meanwhile, original Viletone and The Best Commentary Reader Ever (watch his stuff on The Last Pogo DVD) Chris Haight forgot his ticket at home, and drummer and man-about-town Cleave Anderson had to open the back door of the Horseshoe to sneak him in.  Yes, security was that tight.  In a perfect world, of course, Chris would’ve been on the guest list or better, up on stage playing, but just having him there was pretty cool.   Cleave, under the influence of beers and perhaps something else, with no intention of doing anything but having a good time, was quickly snagged by the B-Girls as their plot developed, and Ugly guitar-player (and –okay, this is confusing — Viletone in an interview portion of The Last Pogo movie, but not on stage at the time, go figger) Steve Koch was lured into the surprise attack that they were planning.

Cynthia introduced The Mods, the only band there that night featuring all of the original members, and without saying word one performed a crowd-rousing, tight, fast set of hits.  Dressed exactly the same as they did thirty years ago.   “That drummer is a maniac!”, said audience member Casey Sebert.  Well, Casey, if ya didn’t know, he’s also a highly respected lawyer and the main guy for getting this whole show happening.  It was a little odd to see David at the end of the night, still dripping sweat, carefully doing the accounting for the bands’ payday.  In true punk fashion, the box-office was split equally amongts all musicians, and everyone walked away with a couple of hundred thousand dollars.  Whoops, I mean pennies.  Or tenths of pennies.  Hey — it wasn’t about the money anyways!

Steven Leckie;  photo by Kevin Lamb

With much anticipation, Steven Leckie and the Solutions! were up next, and Leckie surprised everyone by ignoring his classics from the era for a few cover tunes, including a great version of Lou Reed’s Caroline Says, then a spoken word piece that mostly extolled the talents and importance to Toronto’s culture of The Garys Cormier and Topp, and then a couple of more tunes.   “The Solutions!” were Jim Masyck, the late Handsome Ned’s brother, on guitar, and keyboards and programmes by Alex Topp.  It was a nice touch for Alex to use glitter letters to spell out “Solutions, The” on the front of her keyboards.

Alex Topp of Steven Leckie and the Solutions!; photo Edie Steiner

The surprise of the evening was a couple of tunes by The B-Girls, who shoulda been at the first Last Pogo, but were in NYC at the time.  Joined by Ugly guitar-slinger Steve Koch and a very loosened-up Cleave Anderson, the girls belted out a few tunes and looked great.

Xenia and Lucasta of The B-Girls; photo by Kevin Lamb

The show went out with The Ugly with ex-Dream Dates Greg Dick replacing the late Mike Nightmare (”He’s good,” said drummer Tony Torture, “But he can’t do 100 push-ups like Mike could.”  They squeezed in an encore, and ended the evening with bassist Sam Ferrara inviting some friends on stage to join them.

David Quinton of The Mods with Greg Dick of The Ugly; photo by Kevin Lamb

Greg Dick serenades an audience member, while another has an epileptic fit; photo Kevin Lamb

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