The Last Pogo Jumps Again

As our title — The Last Pogo Jumps Again:  A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978 — suggests, we’re focusing our film on a very specific time and space.   September 24 1976 was the day that The Ramones first played Toronto at The Garys’ New Yorker Theatre, and December 1 1978 was the date of The Last Pogo, what we’re saying was the End of Days of the original punk scene in Toronto.   And of course we’ll try to fill in all the news that fits in between those dates.  Here’s some stuff that happened on other December 1sts in that period.

December 1, 1976 in Toronto:  Ernest Borgnine rocks, Ray Charles rolls, Robin Trower plays Maple Leaf Gardens, and Mendelson Joe was Joe Mendelson.

December 1, 1977:  The freshly dead Elvis Presley is named Male Musical Artist of The Year by something called The Academy of Variety and Cabaret Artists.  Juliet Prowse was named Female Musical Artist Of The Year.

December 1, 1978:  Folk-singer Valdy “hots up his image,” Shirley MacLaine smokes and isn’t New Age yet;  The Moody Blues play Maple Leaf Gardens, ChumCharts still exist, and cable tv was one channel.   Down at The Horseshoe Tavern the cops shut down The Last Pogo.

Photo copyright and courtesy Edie Steiner, 1978.

This handbill for the punk music and clothing store New Rose was sent to us by Margarita Passion, who owned it with original Viletone Freddy Pompeii.   A favourite hang-out for all the young dudes.  This poster was designed by Freddy himself.   Both Margarita and Freddy are living in Phillie these days;  we’ve got interviews of the both of them for the new film, but Freddy’s was done in an extremely noisy bar, and while we’re usually all for smashing bottles and screaming profanity, Freddy’s chatter is hard to hear, so we may have to bring the Pogomobile down there this year to redo it.

THE LAST POGO (1978) is still in indie record stores around the world, and available on-line at our Store link for a mere $12.00.  There’s a new review in the way-cool blog from Holland, Here Comes The Flood (look it up!), and soon a review in Tiny Mix Tapes, one of the most entertaining sites we’ve come across since discovering The History of Staplers a few years ago.   Crossing our fingers that our movie gets picked to play SXSE;  we’ll know soon.

Mickey de Sadist of The Forgotten Rebels from The Last Pogo Jumps Again; photo by Edie Steiner.

THE LAST POGO JUMPS AGAIN (2009) is deep into editing, with just a few more interviews needed.   We’ve been getting tons of jpgs (and looking for more) from Imants Krumins and Gail Wetton;  co-director Aldo Erdic has sent us some old ticket-stubs (including that beauty above from 1974);  a couple of pieces from Gary Topp and Erella Ganon — and we’ve been enjoying some of the dvds sent to us by Steven Leckie and Suzanne Naughton.

Steven Leckie from The Last Pogo Jumps Again;  photo by Edie Steiner

Filmmaker Peter Vronsky has generously offered us footage from some of the stuff he shot in the late seventies, most notably the crowds outside and in the lobby of The New Yorker on September 24, 1976 when The Ramones hit town for the first time.

Greg Trinier of The Mods;  1978 & 2008;  photos Edie Steiner

As the DVD release of The Last Pogo (Toronto Punk 1978) continues to make its way to indie record stores across the globe, we’re on the last stretch of our feature documentary The Last Pogo Jumps Again.

Directors Colin Brunton, Kire Paputts and Aldo Erdic, with the help of a ton of people, not the least being Gary Topp, David Quinton, Tristan Orchard, Ollie Brunton and the Toronto punk community started shooting this in June 2006, and with a few more interviews (you know who you are!) and a few more pieces of the puzzle put together, we should be good to go in ’09.

To toss in an inappropriate Grateful Dead hippie quote, “What a long strange trip it’s been.”

What started as a bit of a lark back in 1978, making the original Last Pogo, has repeated itself 30 years later, making The Last Pogo Jumps Again.  Shooting the Last Pogo in 16mm film in 1978 was a precise, sniper-like hit ‘n’ run;  making The Last Pogo Jumps Again in 2008 is like a video game drive-by shooting where you get endless lives.  Always forgiving.

Colin Brunton and Tommy Ramone;  photo Kire Paputts

Here’s what we did in 2008:   Tommy Ramone autographed our Ramones bumper-sticker and The Stranglers’ Hugh Cornwell got pissed-off when we asked him to define “punk rock”…part one interview with legendary Toronto promoter Gary Topp (The Garys)…Roger Streets a.k.a. Roger Dirtbag and Wayne Brown and Eddie Smith and Barry Farrell…fan Paul Richmond reading his grade ten essay on punk…a fire on Queen Street West…part two with Cleave Anderson…The Last Pogo closes down NXNE 2008 to a sold-out audience…Dave “Tank” Roberts shows us how to throw someone out of a club…Nardwuar the Human Serviette sings “Cardboard Brain” in an art gallery…the hard-drive holding all of our two-and-a-half years of footage dies…The Last Pogo DVD is released…The Ugly original members Tony Torcher, Sam Ferrara and Steve Koch enlist Greg Dick as their new lead singer to replace the dearly departed Mike Nightmare…Teenage Head release a new version of their first album featuring Marky Ramone…a rejuvenated The Scenics release the CD “How Does it Feel to Be Loved” and start a second life gigging and laying down new tracks…a treasure trove of stuff with Gail and Randy Johnson of Molten Core…Liz Worth finishes her book on Southern Ontario punk rock “Treat me like Dirt”…original players at The Last Pogo :  The Scenics, Cardboard Brains, The Ugly, The Mods, and Steven Leckie join Mickey de Sadist and The Forgotten Rebels and a last-minute surprise set by The B-Girls at The Last Pogo 30th Anniversary Bash and the media ignored us just like it was 1978 again…and on October 14th, Teenage Head lead singer and punk icon Frankie Venom dies after a short battle with throat cancer.

We picked up some more clues, crossed some more ‘t’s'…and look forward to more in 2009.

Keep those cards and letters coming, folks!

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

Freddy Pompeii with The Secrets at The Last Pogo, December 1st, 1978.  Photo copyright Edie Stiener.

Rock-steady crew member Ollie Brunton partied away his 16th birthday at Pogo H.Q.,  and the monopolization of all TV, Internet, and munchies for the evening allowed director Colin Brunton to go through some of the DVDs and tapes he’s been given over the past few years.   Short films by Suzanne Naughton and Bruce Pirrie;   hours of tape of The Viletones;   super-8 footage of The Last Pogo;  two live recordings of the show;  a treasure trove of photos by the likes of Edie Steiner, Don Pyle, Patrick Cummins and more;  and on and on and on.

With the big 30th Anniversary show of The Last Pogo coming up in November (more on that later), we’re scheduling the last of the footage we need to get to complete principal photography (since June 2006), and getting deeper into the editing.   Oddly, it’s awesome how well Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass‘ Spanish Flea works under some scenes.    All in all, it’s terrifically encouraging, and we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, etc.  And we’ve said this before, but all you people out there who we’ve said we’d interview, we’re still on it.

The Pogomobile got a call at 9:30 sharp this morning from a wide-awake and up-beat Steven Leckie, who is clearly excited about The 30th Anniversary show at the Horseshoe this November.   He’s closing the books on The Viletones finally and forever, a name that’s been around off and on since 1977, and is all set to unleash The Steven Leckie Solution.  “People are gonna remember this show the rest of their lives,” he enthused.   And Steven had other news too:  he’s been included in the recording of a tribute album to The Band, Steven joining ranks with fellow musicians like Leonard Cohen and Gordon Lightfoot.  He got a shot of Band keyboardist genius Garth Hudson holding up a Viletones album.

As we get set to release The Last Pogo DVD, we’re about to get some nice press from the U.S.:  Vice, Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll, Alternative Press,  Austin Chronicle.

And finally, word will get out soon about the big 30th Last Pogo Anniversary at the original scene of the crime, the Horseshoe Tavern, at the end of November.  We’ve already heard from people who’re coming in from London, England and at least one person from Italy (!)  It’s sure to be a great show, and everyone involved to date are made up of a bunch of people who’ve in their own way, never given up the ghost of 1978.   The Scenics, The Mods, the aforementioned Steven Leckie, and The Ugly, with Greg Dick replacing the late, great Mike Nightmare, rumours of possible appearances by The Forgotten Rebels‘ Mickey DeSadest and special guests TBA.

Brain full.  Must go.

Steven “The Dog” Leckie at The Last Pogo, photo Edie Steiner

With the dog days of summer coming on, Pogo Post Production is revved up and ready to go. We’re whittling away at the hit list of those that still need to be interviewed, plus a couple more we’d like to check in with again, and going over miles, whoops, kilometres of footage, inching, whoops again, millimetering towards our release date of March 2009, an editing epiphany, or complete mental breakdown, whichever comes first.

Up this weekend is authoring the DVD of the re-release of The Last Pogo, the original 26 minute film (Colour! 16mm! All singing! All dancing! See people smoking in a bar!) scheduled to hit your very favourite record store this October. Only seen publicly once in the last 30 years (and many times privately on bootleg VHS versions) the DVD will be comprised of The Last Pogo, some recently restored footage of The Scenics from 1977, and a commentary track featuring original Viletone and member of The Secrets (amongst others) Chris Haight. For whatever insights into the scene and the bands that the esteemed Mr. Haight offers up, it’s worth it just to hear his infectious laugh. Through the magic of digital editing, whenever Chris makes a comment you’ll see his face pop up in a box in the corner of the frame. (On a geeky filmmaker note, this kind of thing would have cost thousands of dollars back when we made The Last Pogo, and it’s only because of digital that it’s now possible. You’d also have had to rent a Steenbeck editing system — the size of a Smartcar — and be cramped in some room downtown. Now we can be cramped in some room uptown, the whole editing system on our lap, and if you slip a twenty into the hard-drive, cheap thrills galore). Flashy retro graphics by John Pearson, the guy who did the very cool titles for the original film, and a wee booklet of liner notes, this snazzy package is the ideal Christmas present. Or Hallowe’en present. Or Kwanza, or Hannaukah, or birthdays, weddings, stags, golf-dates, chance encounters, one-night stands, etc. We haven’t finalized the details yet, but ideally you’ll be able to pick this up for the low low price of $19.78. For the mathematically impaired, that’s not even twenty bucks! All proceeds will go towards replenishing the “This Used to be Ollie Brunton’s College Fund, LOL”, which has been hit hard since we started this project a couple of years ago. (In 2006 he was on his way to be able to afford a university degree; as of today, a half-semester of Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Technique at George Brown College).

While we’ve slowed down on the interviews of late (life gets in the way), we’re still well at it, buster. This weekend Ricky Swede from The Poles checked in, and we’re hoping to catch up with that iconic band sooner rather than later. We here at Pogo H.Q. remember many an awesome Poles show and the show they put on with The Viletones and The Dead Boys at the New Yorker stands out in particular. (P.S. If anyone could shoot us a jpg of the awesome poster of that concert, many brownie points will be sent your way). Director Brunton recalls the show both vaguely and vividly, the vivid moment being when he was dispatched by The Garys to fetch the slow-to-leave-the-dressing-room Dead Boys. A friendly yell down the stairs was answered by only a grunt, but minutes later they came up the stairs. “What took you so long, you’re supposed to be on stage?!”, asked Brunton. “Blowjobs”, replied a Dead Boy, then Cheetah Chrome chimed in with “Hey, we can’t go on stage with hard-ons, man”. They then limp-dicked their way through the lobby, down the aisles, and up onto the stage. Wicked awesomeness ensued.

Speaking of wicked awesomeness, one of the stongest local artists who helped document the scene was photographer/artist Edie Steiner, who checked in this weekend wondering what’s what and who’s on first etc.. Edie’s going to hunt through her thousands of photos and see what she can find from the Toronto 1976 – 1978 punk period. (See photo above). Living on the Toronto waterfront (and apparently in a large bottle of formaldehyde or something — she hasn’t aged a bit) her current bio reads: Edie Steiner is a Toronto filmmaker, photographer and educator whose work is shown internationally. Her award-winning films are presented at film festivals, in arts and education venues, and broadcast on Canadian television, and her photography is commissioned for publication and exhibited in art galleries. She has published original music with international collaborators, for films and radio. Community activities include board of director and committee positions for arts and community organizations. Ms. Steiner is currently a doctoral candidate in environmental studies at York University, Toronto, with a research focus on relationships between the arts and environmental thought. Check out Edie’s stuff on your internet machine at ediesteiner.com.