The Last Pogo Jumps Again

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.

The Last Pogo Jumps Again co-director Kire Paputts sends us this note from Europe:  “I decided to take on the Gladiators. Next stop, Greek philosophers.”

Handbill courtesy Imants Krumins

R.I.P. Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton. When Ron’s band Destroy All Monsters played the Horseshoe in ’78 with Suicide and Teenage Head, the bands took turns headlining the three night gig.   After a packed audience rocked to Destroy All Monsters, then Teenage Head — they left, leaving a crowd of about 25 people to experience Suicide.    Singer Alan Vega leaped off the stage and terrified a table to drunken jocks, screaming in their faces “I wanna fuckin’ kill you!”.  Needless to say, they paid close attention the rest of the show.   The next night, The Ugly‘s lead-singer, the late Mike Nightmare relentlessly pestered Vega with a water-pistol.  Welcome to Toronto.

The Ramones hit town in 1976 and the rest is history, courtesy of Gail Wetton.

Here’s the poster from the first time The Ramones came to Toronto, courtesy of the archives of Gail Wetton of Molten Core (Google it for lots of goodies.)   Director Brunton recalls watching artist John Pearson pick up a sharpie and create this in about ten minutes, leaning on the snack bar of the New Yorker, a butt hanging from his mouth.    The snack bar was built by Gary Cormier, a long-haired and bearded carpenter who through a friend of a friend got the gig.  Having managed Rough Trade for a bit, grade-nine drop-out Cormier was as tired of the music business as Gary Topp was of the film business, and as he hammered away the snack bar, they got to talking, discovered they were kindred spirits, and together hammered out The Garys — a business partnership that would unleash a profound and exciting musical vision upon Toronto over the next few years, starting with The Ramones on September 24, 1976.  In early 1978, he built the stage at the Horseshoe Tavern.

The snack bar was then painted by local artist David Andoff, who amongst other accomplishments had done loads of artwork and such for the legendary Toronto blues band McKenna Mendleson Mainline — and who built the gigantic bust of King Kong that sat upon the overhanging marquee of the New Yorker.   A few months later, he designed the handbill for the first visit to the city by John Cale.

John Cale comes to town in early 1977;  courtesy of Gail Wetton.

Some time after that, Mendleson Joe (nee Joe Mendleson) ex of McKenna Mendleson Mainline would dress in nurse’s drag to open for Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys. After the gig, with neither The Garys nor Wayne County having enough cash to get decent hotel rooms, the band spent the night sleeping in the theatre, after watching (for the first time) The Rocky Horror Picture Show and a theatrical commercial for the Acu-jack (use your imagination;  it was an ad that played gay movie theatres in New York.)   Wayne County would come back to Toronto not long after as Jayne County.   To bring this full circle, a block down the street from the New Yorker was Records on Wheels, one of only a few hip record stores in Toronto at the time, where Randy Johnston worked, and Randy is the life partner of Gail Wetton and together they run memorabilia on-line store Molten Core and they sent us in the Ramones handbill in the first place.  Whew!

As Director Kire Paputts tramps around Europe, directors Aldo Erdic and Brunton continue to edit, and Brunton’s latest mission is to start seriously collecting jpgs of anything and everything — photos, handbills, poster, buttons — that is indicative of the Toronto punk scene circa 1976 – 1978.   While we’re focusing on events that occurred in that period, we can’t resist some of the other things we’ve found, including a ticket-stub of the Iggy and the Stooges show at the old Victory Burlesque vaudeville house that used to dominate the corner of Spadina and Dundas — and a circa 1962 full nudity/all cheesecake Victory Burlesque calendar, courtesy of Aldo and his part-time roommater (who’s name we can’t recall right now.)   A nice visual to accompany some of the interviews we’ve done where people talked about going to that show, including one by Bill “The Count” Cork, who claims that on the day of, two dealers sent by the Stooges sold him some fine LSD and convinced him to check out the show.

Imants Krumins forwarded us tons of poster and handbills fresh from The Hammer — he’s now got a credit as Senior Archivist for the feature.  We interviewed Imants a few years ago and were rightfully blown away by his awesome collection of punk memorabila, as we were with Gail Wetton and Randy Johnston and Gary Pig Gold.  Rivalling Imants in sheer volume (not to mention good taste and vibes) Gail Wetton continues to send us handbills of concerts we vaguely recall, and is being rewarded with not only a fancy credit like Imants, but a million brownie points as well!.

Courtesy Gary Topp;  original art by Marv Newland.

Gary Topp shot us a jpg of one of the old Original 99 Roxy Theatre matchbooks (so not PC!), where many a creative seed was planted in many of the folks who would go on to be part of the great Toronto punk scene.   We hope to hit Gary’s residence soon, armed with our trusty scanner, and see how many more dots we can fill in.

The Viletones first handbill/press release, weeks after the Ramones gig, big thanks to Imants Krumins.

We’ve also been reviewing the pile of DVDs that have been sent to us by the likes of Steven Leckie, Bruce Pirrie and Suzanne Naughton over the past few years.   Watching ZIGGY starring Bruce was loads of fun, and it’s pretty crazy to look back at our youth in Suzanne’s seminal short film AN AFTERNOON AT NEW ROSE.  We’ve also heard from Rodney Bowes, now hunkered in L.A., and he promises to send along some of his collection from way back when.  Gary Pig Gold has also invited us and our scanner into his parent’s basement in Port Credit to start copying the literally boxloads of memorabilia from the scene, and Mark Sanders is also sorting through his tupperware box of memories.   Thanks so much to everyone.

In a week or three we’ll have some new stuff on the site here, including a “Bragging Rights” section detailing all of the great press our publicist Woody Whelan has drummed up for the DVD.

Later gators.

Director Kire Paputts slacking in front of some tower in Paris.

Okay, so maybe our French translation isn’t correct, but it’s close enough for rock ‘n’ roll.

As most of us get back to work and school and such and gear ourselves up for 2009, The Last Pogo Jumps Again director Kire Paputts is taking some time off to tour Europe and photograph himself with his work uniform on in front of a variety of European sites.

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!

All photos in today’s blog by Edie Steiner…

VInce Carlucci, Cardboard Brains

Sandy MacFadeyen, Cardboard Brains

Andy Meyers, The Scenics

Ken Badger, The Scenics

Mickey de Sadist, Forgotten Rebels

Greg Trinier, The Mods

The B-Girls

Alex Topp, Steven Leckie and The Solutions!

Steven Leckie, Steven Leckie and The Solutions!

Alex Topp, Steven Leckie and The Solutions! Aldo Erdic, The Last Pogo Jumps Again

Kire Paputts, The Last Pogo Jumps Again

Greg Dick, The Ugly

Steve Koch, The Ugly

Sam Ferrara, The Ugly

Tony Torcher, Sam Ferrara, The Ugly

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

Drive-in in Indian Head, Saskatchewan.

With the Last Pogo crew scattered to the four winds (actually, just one wind — the westerly one breezing through Saskatchewan; everything else is blowing back in Toronto), The Last Pogo Jumps Again is in a bit of a holding pattern as director Kire Paputts continues to upload all the footage after the hard-drive took a dry dive to its death; director Colin Brunton reviews a pile of archival DVDs (various Viletones; the infamous Outrage concert; Teenage Head with guest Keith Whittaker of the Demics at the Horseshoe in 1992) in the comfort of his hotel room, and crew member Ollie Brunton sneaks downloads off of I-Tunes with daddy safely out of reach in another province.

Back in Toronto, as Kire struggles through more technical difficulties (mysterious “error” messages as he tries to upload the last of the tapes) The Screwed continue their now weekly assault on Toronto’s musical senses, David Quinton-Steinberg and Greg Dick scheme up The Last Pogo 30th reunion this winter, Tyranna gets back together for a gig, The Existers do the same, and three-quarters of The Scenics adjust their rally caps and plan for a new album and gigs in various and sundry places this fall.

With a hundred or so advance copies of The Last Pogo DVD being sent around by Mag Wheels chief Woody Whelan, feedback to date has been totally positive. Scheduled to be released this October 14th, the DVD’s got the original Last Pogo movie, an on-screen commentary by original Viletone and Secrets Chris Haight, and 20 minutes of The Scenics going all psychedelic in a Rogers TV studio in 1978. When you do the math, it’s gonna be hard to even break even on this venture, but we’re hoping that we can start to get the word out on just how awesome the Toronto/Hamilton punk scene was back in the old days (1976 – 1978), and whet appetites for the release of The Last Pogo Jumps Again in early 2009.

And please, folks, keep those cards and letters coming!   Each week we get a new jpg or a note or a reminder of a key player who we’ve missed on our now two-years plus journey, and welcome any and all suggestions, criticisms, kudos and sound effects.   And we still haven’t forgotten all of those who might feel forgotten, so hang tight, and we’ll get to ya.

Cheers

After being M.I.A. for almost thirty years, The Last Pogo will finally be in record stores (and on-line here) October 14th. While it woulda been cute to sell it retail for $19.78, that’s a bit much for a half-hour film, so it’ll probably cost about twelve bucks or so. Twelve bucks! That’s nothin’! Nothin’, I tells ya!

If you’re a first-time visitor/long-time listener, here’s a brief synopsis of what it is, cribbed from the NXNE 2008 notes Flip Publicity’s Liz Armstrong:

Grab some safety pins, practice your sneer and get ready to revisit Toronto’s thriving punk scene. THE LAST POGO documents the raucous 1978 punk concert held in Toronto’s legendary Horseshoe Tavern—a night of unhinged music and unbridled mayhem.

On December 1, 1978, legendary Toronto concert promoters Gary Topp and Gary Cormier—better known as The Garys—presented The Last Pogo, a rollicking, riotous concert at the venerable Horseshoe Tavern. On the bill were seminal bands from Toronto’s punk rock scene: The Scenics, The Cardboard Brains, The Secrets, The Mods, The Ugly, The Viletones and Hamilton’s Teenage Head. During the concert, the frenetic energy of 500+ thrashing fans in the club boiled over and a near-riot ensued. Filmmaker Colin Brunton was there with a camera crew to capture it all, from the irreverent punk musicians and the slam-dancing audience to the police who tried to stop the show and the firefighters called in to escort people from the premises.

——————-

Meanwhile, The Last Pogo Jumps Again is chugging along. Kire Paputts is busy uploading all two years of footage after the external hard drive that everything was stored in took a disastrous leap off of a coffee table a week and a half ago, and 100+ hours of footage turned into so much land-fill. The monster project is scheduled to be completed in March, 2009.

Director Brunton is heading off to Saskatchewan for a couple of months to work, and is looking forward to holing up in his hotel room and carving out a feature-length documentary out of the material gathered to date.

Some of you might be interested to note that we’re also working on a quirky DVD project called A Trip Around David McFadden. For those of you not in the know, David McFadden is a Canadian poet and author who if you didn’t know better, would think let popular American author Bill Bryson borrow his style. Almost determined to remain under the radar, we hope to blow McFadden’s cover late this winter with a triple-bill of short films based on works by him. The DVD will contain short films A Trip Around Lake Ontario, featuring an original score by Nash the Slash; The Mysterious Moon Men of Canada, winner of the Genie Award for Best Live Action Short, and featuring a score by Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, and The Cow That Swam Lake Ontario, still to be completed, with another original score by Nash the Slash.

And if all that ain’t enough to keep a fella happy and busy, we were gifted today with an awesome present: a ratty and torn poster of “The Anarchy in the U.K. Tour”, featuring The Sex Pistols, The Damned, Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers, and some band that opened the tour called The Clash. Dated December 4, 1976 at King’s Hall, Derby. Nicely framed, it now is the center of attention in Pogo H.Q.’s living quarters. Big big thanks to Paulo Perin and Chris Toudy.

Keep checking in to find out about the 30th anniversary of The Last Pogo to be held this winter at the Horseshoe Tavern. We’ve been sworn to secrecy about who’s on the bill, but the cat shall be out of the bag soon.

And keep those cards and letters coming, folks!