The Last Pogo Jumps Again

Okay, so mark you calendars ’cause in a couple of weeks Greg Dick — hairstylist, ex-Dream Date, current lead singer of the 2010 version of The Ugly, and radio host on Equalizing Distort will be celebrating his 50th birthday.

From the April issue of Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll

This months Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll has a six-page transcription of an interview Last Pogo director Colin Brunton did with Greg Dick at CIUT-FM in 2009, after The Last Pogo was released on DVD (and still available for only $12.00!)   It’s distributed in sixty countries so lots of folks overseas will get a small taste of the kind of action we had here in 1976 – 1979.   There’s lots more pics in the article (big thanks for Stephe Perry of CIUT for gathering up the jpgs, and for Molten Core and Imants Krumins for originally digging them up.)

For those keeping score at home, from top left:  ad for The Last Pogo from The Big Takeover;  July ’78 handbill from the Horseshoe Tavern; another July handbill from the Horseshoe.  Second row:  David Andoff ad for The John Cale Band at the New Yorker February 1977 (handdrawn gun and custom lettering, btw);  Jun ’78 Horseshoe handbill;  Music Hall concert in 1979, featuring the premiere of The Last Pogo.  Bottom row:  June handbill from the Horseshoe;  another June handbill from the Horseshoe;  insert from The Last Pogo album.

David Quinton of The Mods, June 6 ’08;  photo by Jean Trivett

Hey, David, what’s up with that cool t-shirt?  David says, via his MySpace page:  “This T-shirt was made by me and my kids – the names of all my favourite drummers are printed all over the front! Ready? Here they are…see how many of their bands you can name (no cheating):

Aynsley Dunbar, Jerry Shirley, Keith Moon, Richard Starkey, Bev Bevan, Richard Hughes, Jim Fox, Kenny Jones, Gary McCracken, Rat Scabies, Clive Bunker, John Weathers, Jim Bonfanti, Mike Gibbins, Ginger Baker, Bun E Carlos, Neal Smith, Paul Thompson, Corky Laing, Mike Tucker, Paul Cook, Billa Ficca, John French, Prairie Prince, Ian Paice, Don Powell and Dale Griffin.”

Quite the list.  And who is conspicuous in their absense?  David Quinton, yo.

Greg Trinier of The Mods;  photo by Jean Trivett

Greg Dick of The Ugly, June 6 ’08; photo by Jean Trivett

Another one of those great “we’re doing this ’cause it’s fun” gigs with The Mods and The Ugly at Sneaky Dee’s in Toronto last Saturday to a packed house of a couple of hundred.   And what the audience and fans of those two seminal Toronto bands know is that even back in the day they did it all for fun.  For sure everyone hoped for the proverbial fame and fortune, but it was — and still is — essentially all about the Art and Lifestyle and Teenage Kicks.

Yuppers.  Three years ago today we started shooting our feature documentary The Last Pogo Jumps Again.  We’ve amassed a hundred plus hours of interviews; secured yards of rare footage of the “never before seen” variety; and have jammed our external drives with tons ‘o’ jpgs.   We’ve captured a dozen or so sets of old-school bands from the back in the day, and watched as our hard-drive collapsed in a fit and die on the floor.  The Last Pogo Jumps Again survived, and will be released sometime when we’re about four or so.

Kire wearing the colours at the Berlin Wall

Co-director Kire Paputts is hard at it, piecing together all the stuff and trying to make sense (or not) of it.  Co-director Aldo Erdic is finding bits of time between shooting his own stuff to compile the many hours of footage he has, the goldmine being the pile of stuff he’s shot of Greg Dicks‘ interviews on CIUT-FM’s Equalizing Distort series:  Viletones, Ugly, Mods, Zero4, Teenage Head, and a screwy let’s-bail-before it gets any worse debacle with The Scenics.

Co-director Brunton is focusing on getting the last interviews, and flogging The Last Pogo dvd (only three cartons left people!  Hurry up and order already!)  We’re also trying to get our hands on some pretty awesome footage holed up in the archives of the CBC and MuchMusic;  stuff we’re sure you’ve seen on your Internet Machine — but that would be great to see, y’know, full screen and only second-generation.  At a hundred bucks a second, it’s a little intimidating, but we’re doing our best dripping honey in The Man‘s ear, hoping to catch a break.

Make sure you hit The Ugly, The Mods, The Superstitions and DJ OPP tonight, and keep on keepin’ on.

Steve Koch with The Ugly at The Last Pogo 30th;  photo Ross Taylor.

In the late seventies, being the only punk in Calgary (although he’d find out later there was this other guy called Warren Kinsella skulking around the south side) made Steve Koch feel as though people thought he was either (a) dangerous, (b) developmentally challenged, or, most likely (c) a little bit of both.

He sent a fan letter to New Rose in Toronto, the punk music and clothing store run by Margarita Passion and (original Viletones guitarist) Freddy Pompeii, and asked for a copy of the single by this new Toronto band called The Viletones.

Punk records were hard to find in Calgary, but if they did surface, were usually found in the “delete” section, so as far and few between as they were, they were at least cheap.  But there just weren’t enough for Calgary’s Only Punk, and Calgary was…well…Calgary, and hence the letter.   Don Pyle, all of fifteen or so, wrote him back.  (Don, of course, besides being a great photographer and cool dude, would later form Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and continues to make music, art, and produce for other people.  He spent a lot of his formative years hanging out at New Rose.)   Don mistakenly addressed the letter to one John Koch, who didn’t exist at the Calgary Koch residence, and so the letter sat on the stoop for a few weeks until a curious Steve held it up to a light, saw that it contained… a paper airplane, and decided to open it up.  And that was the start of a friendship that continues to this day.

So it was that in ’78 that Steve Koch decided to get the fuck out of Dodge, and after a non-stop seventy-hour drive, he and a couple of buds arrived on the doorstep of Don Pyle, who, with parents conveniently out for the night, let them crash on the couch and floor.   The next thing ya know, Steve and Don form Crash Kills Nine, and after giving that name to the late Reid Diamond (on the condition the number changed;  it did, and became Crash Kills Five) Steve auditioned as the new guitar-slinger for The Viletones, and won them over with his take on the Dead Boys’ classic Sonic Reducer.   Quickly earning a rep as one of Toronto’s better players, Steve would later play with Handsome Ned, The Demics and lots more, and has continued to bang out music on a regular basis, currently as a member of both The Screwed and the 2009 version of The Ugly.

Any last words on punk rock?

“Buy the CD.”

And parting advise for any aspiring punks?

“Don’t buy the CD.”  BAM!

The Last Pogo Jumps Again shoots Steve Koch;  photo Ross Taylor

We got to hear (and record) all these stories over a couple of hours on a sunny Saturday afternoon, with Tea and Sympathy (coffee and an ashtray) provided by Steve’s wife Max (no, she’s not a dude, dude, she’s all woman, as in va va va voom) — and a half-dozen scrapbooks dating back to ’76 provided by photographer Ross Taylor, who’s continued to photograph all things punk for over thirty years now.  (Awesome collection, Ross;  good work!)

Back in the seventies Ross was a member of Cheap Thrills, the ticket subscription thingy that for a yearly fee gave him fifth row centre seats at the old cavernous and smoky Maple Leaf Gardens, and so Ross went to everything.   As Steve turned the scrapbook pages on prog-rockers and sixties relics that frankly are too embarrassing to mention (although Pogo director Brunton owned up to once being a fan of Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd — did anyone not go to see that show in Hamilton in ’75? — and Yes) you could see on the yellowed brittle pages how it all changed around ’76, the pages getting jammed with the likes of Ramones, Dead Boys, Iggy Pop, New York Dolls, Dictators, Lou Reed — and loads on Toronto’s own nasty darlings, The Viletones.

You can catch Steve playing with The Screwed every other week or so, and on June 6th head down to Sneaky Dee’s in Toronto where he’ll by playing as a member of The Ugly, with original members Sam Ferrara and Tony Torture, and Greg Dick filling in for the late great Mike Nightmare.   Get a sneak preview of what these guys sound like by tuning into CIUT-FM on Sunday, May 31 at 10:00 where they’ll play a couple of tunes, and then sit down for a chat.

Greg Trinier of The Mods, The Last Pogo 30th, December 2008;  photo Ross Taylor

Sharing the bill at Sneaky Dee’s will be another of the original Toronto punkers, The Mods, sporting the same line-up, same tunes, and same sharp sartorial stylings as they did thirty years ago.  And if that ain’t enough, a new band (who Dick says are great) called The Superstitions open the show.   And if you’re still not convinced, in between bands and beers be treated to old-skool tunes spun by D.J. O.P.P., a.k.a. Peter Genest, the legally beleagured owner of Hits ‘n’ Misses.

Unidentified reveler, David Quinton, Greg Dick;  photo by Edie Steiner.

And lines should be forming for a couple of way-cool shows coming your way soon.  This Thursday, April 16th there is going to be a pretty awesome line-up at the old Silver Dollar in Toronto: Blue Coupe in their first Toronto gig.  Who, might you ask, are Blue Coupe?  Who aren’t they?!   The Blue part is Joe and Albert Bouchard from Blue Oyster Cult and the Coupe part is Dennis Dunaway from Alice Cooper (!).  If that ain’t enough, the band is also featuring Teenage Head’s Gord Lewis.  Doors open at nine; the band starts around eleven.  Don’t miss it!

Mark you calendars for June 6, when The Ugly and The Mods team up for a show at Sneaky Dee’s.  If you don’t have a programme, the current line up for The Ugly is Sam Ferrara, Steve Koch, Tony Torture, with Greg Dick on vocals, and the Mods are the exact same line-up from thirty-odd years ago.  So — dont’t miss that either!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, The Last Pogo Jumps Again co-director Kire Paputts is organizing the hundreds of hours of footage we’ve shot since June 2006.

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!

Okay, we’ve got the final line-up, so here ya go.   A couple of last minute fiddlings, and we’re now set.  We couldn’t get everyone out to the party (The Second Last Pogo?), but we’ve got a jam-packed evening lined up.  And who knows who else might drop in at the last minute.  Speaking of the last minute, as of Sunday, November 9 the show is either half sold out (if you’re an optimist) or half unsold (if you’re a pessimist).   If you do manage to snare a ticket, make yourself all perty ‘n’ everything, ’cause cameras will be watching and recording your every move.

The evening provides a neat book-end to the feature film The Last Pogo Jumps Again, and we’re hoping that all those elusive old punkers we’ve not found yet are there that night, ready for their close-up, and to tell us what they’ve been doing for the past thirty years.  Hear that, Mr. Shit?  Gonna be there, Blake Street Boys?

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, or live and in person at the Horseshoe Tavern, Rotate This, Soundscapes, and Hit’s ‘n’ Misses.

Meanwhile, we continue to work the room peddling our dvds of The Last Pogo.  Our latest cool review comes courtesy of artist/musician Rick Trembles.  In his gig with the Montreal Mirror, Rick has created this little gem:

Okay, back to the anniversary show.  We’re still fiddling with the exact order, so we suppose the next suggestion is to get there on time, ’cause we’re not positive who’s going on first, second, etc.  As together as we’d like to be, there may very well be a good dose of anarchy that evening.   The show starts at 9:00 sharp, and we’ve enlisted the talents of martial arts expert Nip Kicks to help keep order.

A Brief History Lesson on the musicians playing that night:  Tony Torture and Sam Ferrara played with Steve Leckie and The Viletones at the original show, and both Tony and Sam were original Toronto punkers from Day One;  they’ve joined forces with Steve Koch and Greg Dick for this latest version of The Ugly.  During the original Last Pogo, Greg, the singer with Hamilton band The Dream Dates, was in the audience, as might have been Steve Koch.  Steve wasn’t playing with any of the bands that night, but joined The Viletones shortly after, and is seen in the Viletones interview in the film.  Steven Leckie is keeping the members of Steven Leckie and The Solutions! under wraps, unveiling a new band with new tunes the night of the party.  Steven of course was arguably Toronto’s first punk, and premiered the original band at the Colonial Underground in 1976.   The Mods come to the party with all of the original members.  In the past year they’ve re-recorded some of their old tunes, have done a number of gigs, and drummer David Quinton is involved with many international old-skool punkers in his position as one of Canada’s top entertainment lawyers.  Mickey DeSadist is playing at the show, but during the original Last Pogo, Mickey and his band of Forgotten Rebels were audience members, and bitching about the line-up in an interview in the film, it seemed like maybe Mickey should make an appearance this time and play some tunes.  Mickey has been playing shows and making albums since the original Last Pogo in 1978, with either The Forgotten Rebels or The Mickey Show.   The Scenics boast the two original members and song-writers Andy Meyers and Ken Badger, and are joined by Mike Young on bass, and Mark Perkell on drums.  Mike and Mark were members of the Scenics in the early eighties.  In the week preceeding the show at the Horseshoe, The Scenics will be cosied up in a swank recording studio in Toronto laying down new music for an album to be released in 2009.   They released How Does It Feel To Be Loved, their album of live Velvet Underground songs to critical acclaim earlier this year.   The Cardboard Brains’ Vince Carlucci and Patrick Gregory were in the band when they played the first Last Pogo, and this time ’round they’ll be joined by a new drummer and vocalist.  Original lead singer/song-writer John Paul Young is more or less missing in action.