The Last Pogo Jumps Again

The B-movie Caged Heat was shown often at Gary Topp’s The Original 99 Cent Roxy Theatre in Toronto in the mid-seventies.  Written and directed by Jonathon Demme, with an original score by John Cale.   Demme would go on to direct (among many films), The Talking Heads‘ concert film Stop Making Sense.

John Cale would play the New Yorker (Gary Topp‘s new venue) theatre in February of 1977, fanning the flames that the Ramones had sparked four months earlier when they kick-started the “punk” scene in Toronto on September 24, 1976 on the very same stage.   Cale was (and still is) a living legend, and did not disappoint.   He ended his blistering set on his hands and knees, gathering up mike and amp chords in his mouth, crawling off the stage, hundreds of pounds of amps and mikes falling and trailing behind him, pure anarchic and hilarious theatrics, feedback humming and screeching, until finally hiding behind the curtain stage right.   The Wizard of Fucking Oz.    And the packed house might have collectively thought:  “Whoa.  We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.”

The first encore was Cable Hogue, and then This Heart of Mine.   The Ballad of Cable Hogue was a 1970 movie directed by bad-ass genius Sam Peckinpah that was also shown often at The Original 99 Cent Roxy.   Cale would later write Honi Soit (qui mal y pense), which could be translated, more or less, as “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,”  the cut-line of the movie.  Or more accurately, “Evil be to him who thinks Evil.”

The Talking Heads would play their first gig in Toronto at A Space, artistic home of agit-prop theatrical group The Hummer Sisters and soon-to-be band The Government, fronted by the enigmatic talent Andrew Paterson.  Their second gig was at OCA, home of emerging bands like The Cads, Oh Those Pants, The Dishes, The Doncasters, The Eels (soon to evolve into The Diodes) the seeds of Johnny & The G-Rays and more.   The third gig Talking Heads in Toronto, and the first that including keyboardist Jerry Harrison, was at The New Yorker.  Upstart unknowns The Scenics would get the coveted opening slot, much to the disgust of other bands who felt that they deserved it.   The Scenics made as many fans as enemies that night.

The New Yorker Theatre, before the stage was built, courtesy Toronto Archives.

To be continued…

Poster courtesy of John Catto

For the next month Pogo H.Q. will be hopping with footage of the last batch of interviews, and then the tedious grind of paperwork and deal-making begins.  This week director Kire Paputts interviews Owen Burgess late of Oh Those Pants and The Cads;   L.A. shooter Amy Bellings interviews graphic artist/photographer Rodney Bowes, and over the next two weeks we get even busier with a few more people t.b.a.

Pogo H.Q. got an electronic letter through our Internet machine from a professor in Pennsylvania asking about The Ugly, for a book being written about Bruce McDonald’s feature film Hard Core Logo.  Uh…a book about a ten-year-old film?  Wha?

Interesting tidbit:  someone in Toronto apparently has Super-8 footage of the very first Ramones show in Toronto from September 24 1976 — and were too greedy to make a deal with The Ramones management for their project It’s Alive.  Really?  I mean, we can guess who might control this stuff, but to hold out on a gem like that when it could’ve reached an audience, that’s just bullshit.

The Ramones and Dead Boys play the New Yorker Theatre in 1977.

Director Colin Brunton with awesome afro, 1976.

Gary Cormier of The Garys with daughter Amy, 1976′ish

Gary Topp of The Garys with guitar, mid-seventies