The Last Pogo Jumps Again

A rollicking time shall be had by all if you manage to check out the always entertaining and never boring The Screwed this Friday at the Cadillac Lounge in Toronto. The family tree to The Last Pogo go like this: Cleave Anderson had his punk epiphany at the first Ramones concert in Toronto, September 24th 1976, standing in line with the infamous Mr. Shit and O’Haras Mary-Margaret and Catherine. He was at The Last Pogo in the audience. We’re not positive yet if Steve Koch was at The Last Pogo as an audience member, but by the time we got around to the band interviews, Steve was a member of The Viletones, and appears in an interview in our film The Last Pogo.

On Saturday at the Bovine Sex Club in Toronto, Greg Dick bravely tries to step into the shoes of the late Mike Nightmare as a 2008 version of original Toronto punk band The Ugly, with original members Sam Ferrara and Tony Torcher. The family tree goes like this: Tony and Sam were playing with the Viletones at the The Last Pogo .. and we’re still not sure if Steve Koch was there or not. Greg was the lead singer of vintage Hamilton punk band The Dream Dates, and has done a slew — a slew! — of interviews with old-school first-wave punks.

Chris Haight at the screening of The Last Pogo at NXNE, June 2008.

We’re making plans to get The Last Pogo out on DVD by December 1 this year, the 30th anniversary. Since the original Pogo is but a scant (yet action-packed and aurally exciting) half-hour, we’re going to beef up the DVD to a full two hours with “extras” and a couple of “easter eggs”. We can’t tell you what the easter eggs are going to be (for the non-tech-savvy of you, an “easter egg” is a hidden extra usually found while clicking around the main menu) but one of the extras will be a commentary by original Viletones’ guitar-player Chris Haight. What’ll make this a bit different than most commentaries is that a tiny head of Chris will float in the corner of the screen while the rest of the screen is filled with The Last Pogo. Chris’ commentary is hilarious: at first he can’t remember that he was even there, but then proceeds to make some great comments on the bands and characters you see in the film, including himself in The Secrets, the band of ex-Viletones who on the night of the Pogo were also playing the Beverly Tavern, and literally had to run down Queen Street to hit the stage in time. And the adrenalin shows. Another extra will be some recooked studio footage of The Scenics, with the audio juiced up by Scenic Andy Meyers.

We’re aiming for a suggested retail price of … $19.78 (get it?!), which is also the new price for our snazzy retro Last Pogo t-shirts (once the webmaster gets the PayPal thing figure out). Stay tuned for more info on where you can get the DVD, and of course, all the news that’s fit to print on the progress of the sequel — and reason for this blog — THE LAST POGO JUMPS AGAIN.

In addition to all the people we promise to interview, but haven’t gotten around to yet (Steve Koch, Nora Currie, Patrick Lee, Anna Borque, Johnny Garbage Can, Isobel Harry, Gary Cormier, Stephen Davies, MIchael Jordana and more…it’s hard to keep track), we’ve recently been contacted by Evan Weber of The Wads who will wax poetic on all things Wad-ish at some point in the future, and we hope to make return trips to chat with Steven Leckie, Gary Topp and Gary Pig Gold.

We’ve also been contacted by an old buddy who might be able to unearth some old video of The Ugly from 1978, as well as recorded interviews with the likes of the Viletones and Teenage Head. He just has to convince the ex to let him in the door. Fingers and other things crossed.

And if that ain’t enough, kultural king Gary Topp has found a 32-year-old reel-to-reel recording of his band Corvettz, featuring drumming by Chris Massingham and “bass playing” by Pogo director Colin Brunton. Truly underground, they never made it out of the basement of the New Yorker theatre, where they were legends in their own minds with a hit song “Let’s Roam”, and a killer version of “Hava Nagila (sic?)”. The only way Topp could top that discovery was by coming up with a new “cut line” for The Last Pogo: “Just like The Last Waltz, but with different bands”.

L - R: Tony Torcher, Sam Ferrara, Steven Leckie, and Steve Koch; photo by Ross Taylor. Deduct Leckie and add a Dick and you have The Ugly circa 2008.

First, the good news. Dave “Tank” Roberts has put the worst behind him after a week-long stay at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto. We spoke to him today, he sounded great, and he hopes to be home in a day or two. (Read post below for details on the whys, wherefores and what-the-effs).

Another reminder of The Ugly, July 12th at the Bovine Sex Club. The above photo is the version of The Viletones that were interviewed for The Last Pogo back in ‘79; they’re now the “new” Ugly, with Dream Dates lead singer Greg Dick taking over for the late, great Mike Nightmare.

Pogo crew member Ollie Brunton, June 2008, and then July 2008.

Greg Dick that is. Hairstylist to the fabulous and radio journalist for CIUT-FM, Greg will be fronting a 2008 version of The Ugly, trying his best to replace the irreplaceable original singer/madman Mike Nightmare. Backed with original scene stalwarts Steve Koch, Tony Torcher and Screamin’ Sam Ferrara, the new gang will be unleashed on July 12th at the Bovine Sex Club. Stay tuned for details.

Speaking of hair, Pogo crew member Ollie Brunton got his long locks chomped off just in time for Bummer School by original Poles manager Bruce Appelby. To balance things out, a fake moustache was apparently needed. Ollie will be trying to relearn math and science for half his summer break, two subjects you need if you wanna be a successful filmmaker.

There aren’t many people more beloved than Dave “Tank” Roberts for those of us who were involved in the original Punk scene in Toronto circa 1976. Tank started off as the bodyguard for The Viletones, and quickly became a much-loved (and much-feared) fixture on the scene.   For those of us who were in on the joke, the scariest thing about Tank was his intimidating size — he’s a big man — but his heart was even bigger and he rarely, if ever, had to use violence to expel anyone from a club, a doorway, a backstage, or a dressing room.   At worst, “…I’d just sort of lean on them…”, and people got the message fast.   He worked the door at many clubs, and a couple of years after The Last Pogo, took a crack at booking bands into the Horseshoe Tavern.   A favourite of many visiting bands, Tank was especially fond of The Ramones and struck up a lasting friendship with them. When we interviewed Tank for the feature, he showed off the drum skin that the Ramones had all autographed and sent to Tank on the occasion of his marriage to Joanne. After he got out out of the business, he started working for the city down at the CNE, and is still there counting down to retirement.

All our thoughts are with Joanne and Tank as we await on news regarding the big guy:   Tank was admitted to hospital a couple of days ago suffering from pneumonia (and other things), and is currently in intensive care. Better today than he was yesterday it’s “…and hour to hour thing”, according to Joanne, and we’ll let you know as soon as we get more news. Hang in there, Dave, we love ya.