The Last Pogo Jumps Again

Raggedy handbill, 1976;  courtesy of Robert Malyon.

Smoking a joint in the back row of his movie theatre The New Yorker, watching the out-of-synch Blank Generation, promoter Gary Topp twigged on the idea of bringing some of the bands from Amos Poe’s movie into town.  It was 1976.  When he tried to track down The Ramones, few people in the business knew who they were.

Photo by David Andoff.

A concrete stage was built in a few 18 hour shifts over the course of a weekend;  artist David Andoff sculpted a King Kong and painted a NYC nightscape above the marquee –  and “punk rock” officially arrived in Toronto on September 24, 1976 with Johnny Lovesin & His Invisible Band opening for New York City’s The Ramones.

Two years later, Gary would be long gone from the New Yorker, having had moved to the beer-soaked Horseshoe Tavern with partner Gary Cormier;  together they were known as The Garys.   On December 1, 1978, The Garys promoted The Last Pogo, the going-away party for their favourite local bands;  they were being kicked out, and the bar would revert to it’s country ‘n’ western roots for a spell.  The Scenics, The Cardboard Brains, The Ugly, The Secrets, Teenage Head, and The Mods were set to play the historic gig.

Steven Leckie at The Last Pogo.  Photo by Edie Stiener.

Reluctant to join in at first, Steven Leckie ended up crashing the party with his latest version of his ground-breaking Viletones.   And all hell broke loose.   It was captured on film, recorded for an album — and then forgotten for years.   This is the specific time period we’re zeroing in on for our sprawling documentary The Last Pogo Jumps Again:  A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978.

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.

The bulk of The Original 99 Cent Roxy at Greenwood and Danforth has been demolished.   The front lobby remains, as does a stripped-to-the-girders marquee out front.   They’re going to turn it into a convenience store that will adjoin a gas station.   This is the back of the building.  Someone’s spray-painted “Bye Bye Roxy” on the wall.

Nash the Slash used to live in the apartment above the lobby.   He was supposed to jam with Teenage Head during The Last Pogo, but when he knocked his mandolin on the floor and broke it, he punched a wall and broke his hand.   The first live appearance by Nash was at the Roxy.  With tape-decks humming, electric mandolin in hand, and a candelabra beside him, he performed a live soundtrack to the Bunuel/Dali short film Un Chien Andalou.  And jaws dropped.

After initiating midnight screenings at Cinecity on Yonge Street, Gary Topp (later of The Garys) started The Original 99 Cent Roxy in the early seventies.  Many of who would later be called Toronto’s punks got their first taste of Roxy Music, Velvet Underground, Little Feat;  Russ Meyers, John Waters, Fellini (and much more) there.   The Last Pogo director Colin Brunton got interested in film while working there as an usher.  Filmmaker/Raving Mojos Blair Richard Martin and Viletones’ Steven Leckie were regulars, and cite the Roxy as one of the biggest influences on the Toronto punk rock scene.  Handbill courtesy of Gary Topp.

After Gary began showing Reefer Madness to stoned midnight crowds, the joint was jumpin’, pun intended.  When a severely edited version of John Waters’ Pink Flamingos played, he complained that the Ontario Censor Board “Cut out the sex, and kept in the shit.”  Photo of poster in lobby courtesy Cheryl Daniels.

The lobby in the mid-forties, courtesy of Toronto Archives.  (Please do not reprint.)   The art deco display window and doors in this photo remained the same up to the seventies, but the walls were plastered with posters and photos.

The Original 99 Cent Roxy played the best music in between shows.  Gary Topp used to offer to let people in for free if they could identify Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry from a photo, but not many could.  When Roxy Music came to Toronto for the first time, in 1975, Gary Topp got artist John Pearson to create hand-made invitations to the show for the entire Roxy staff.  (John would later design the titles for The Last Pogo.)  We had fifth row centre seats;  it was awesome.  After the show Gary Topp said:  “All the girls wanted to be in his pants and all the guys wanted to be in his shoes.”

The Roxy matchbooks that were given away.   Plans to hand out Roxy rolling papers never panned out.  On weekends there was a cloud of weed and cigarette smoke in the theatre.  Jpg courtesy Gary Topp.

In 1976, Gary’s last year at the Roxy, he and partner Jeff Silverman opened up The New Yorker Theatre on Yonge Street.  Needing to get their snack-bar redesigned, artist David Andoff introduced Gary Topp to carpenter and ex-music promoter Gary Cormier.  They immediatly hit it off and became known as The Garys.   The first band they booked into the New Yorker was The Ramones.  David Andoff painted the outside of the theatre, and built a huge paper-mache King Kong.  Photo courtesy David Andoff.

The New Yorker box-office, September 1976;  photo by Brad Foster (we think.)

Continuing to organize the archives at Pogo H.Q., the better to get set for some fancy footwork during post-production of The Last Pogo Jumps Again, we came across this photo of the New Yorker box-office.  Very top left you can see the handbill for the first Ramones show that artist John Pearson did with a sharpie in about fifteen minutes.  Beside that, a flyer for Ali Akbar Khan;  on the right side, a one-sheet for Paul Bartel’s Private Parts (awesome!);  below that the seating plan for the shows (not a bad seat in the house, yo);  centre bottom a great shot of Bryan Ferry from the first show Roxy Music did at Massey Hall, and placed in the window of the box-office for no other reason than the fact we loved Bryan.   And dead center, the double-bill that was currently playing — and an announcement of the Ramones gig that upcoming Saturday.