Little Strummer Boy
All Joe Strummer photos copyright Viliam Hrubovcak
One thing that’s been readily apparent since we started gathering material for our long-gestating project, The Last Pogo Jumps Again, is just how many great photographers there were in Toronto in the late seventies, early eighties.
One prime example would be Viliam Hrubovcak, who amongst many others has contributed a couple of the 600+ still photos used in our project.
Viliam reminded us about Strummerville at the annual Last Pogo Holiday Party this year.
If you don’t know, Strummerville is a foundation that “”…gives support to aspiring musicians and help to projects that help change the world through music. Set up by the friends and family of Joe Strummer in the year after his death, the charity seeks to reflect Joe’s unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them.”
This year Strummerville is selling its first calendar, and Viliam has contributed four of the seven photos featured in it.
Girls Together Outrageously
And while it might be too late to order a calendar in time for a holiday present you can purchase your own copy of the Joe Strummer photos and have it delivered within four days if you’re in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area, not to be confused with GTOs, the Frank Zappa-inspired band Girls Together Outrageously.)
Email Viliam at info@photosynthesisstudio.com or photosynthesis@cogeco.ca, fork over some loot, and you can get yourself an autographed, numbered (only a hundred of each were printed) pic of the late great one to gift to a friend or yourself.
Portions of the proceeds of the sales of Viliam’s photos go to Strummerville. Check out some other Hrubovcak photos at theiconiclife.com.
Which leads us to something a little closer to home, the charitable org The Unison Benevolent Fund — “…an assistance and referral program – created and administered for the music industry, by the music industry. Unison is designed to provide discreet relief to music industry personnel in times of personal hardship and crisis.”
Pogo H. Q. were made aware of The Unison Benevolent Fund when it licensed some Demics tunes for the film; the license synch fees for the Demics songs you’ll hear in our movie went 100% to the fund. So a tip of the hat to Jodie Ferneyhough and Catharine Saxberg who started the org, and to Gary Furniss and Tom Treumuth for donating the fees. And while we’re at it, Demics Iain Staines, Rob Brent, Jimmy Weatherstone and the late Keith Whittaker for making all those great tunes in the first place. Fo mo info on Unision check the link on the right.
