The Last Pogo Jumps Again

Photo courtesy Gary Topp

Pogo H.Q. was thrilled and very grateful to get a copy of Dada’s Boys, the short filmmaker Peter Vronsky shot in ’77.   A shit-load of great footage by Vronsky and friends was lost by the CBC in thier inimitable style  — The Viletones‘ first trip to NYC; performances by The Ramones and Dead Boys — but the 30 minutes of footage existing is great:  interviews with legendary manager/photographer/journalist Danny Fields;  a twenty-year old Steven Leckie;  The Dishes’ and a key player, co-writing tunes for The Demics and The Viletones and much more, Stephen Davies;  a running discourse on “punk rock”  by Toronto Star critic Peter Goddard and Gary Cormier of The Garys (Toronto promoters Topp and Cormier); and odds and sods of shots at the Crash ‘n ‘ Burn and The Garys’ New Yorker Theatre in Toronto, and CBGB‘s in NYC, performances by The Viletones and Diodes….  Peter — thanks again.

Peter’s done a lot of shooting and writing in the past thirty years, and you can check it out at his website at http://www.russianbooks.org.  Lee Harvey Oswald, espionage, Toronto crime, Vietnam war vets, serial killers, the Third Reich, the American Civil War — and other fun stuff.

Teenage Head/Last Pogo display at Dr. Disc’s in The Hammer

It’s been a busy week since the passing of iconic Teenage Head frontman Frank “Frankie Venom” Kerr.  Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and now the dust is settling.   No word yet on any official tributes, but once we know, you’ll know.

Pogo H.Q. cut a cheque for Frankie’s children today (and we urge you to do the same;  details in the blog below), and sent along a few copies of The Last Pogo.   As mentioned in the previous blog, Frank’s immediate family hadn’t seen much of him in action, and in fact were somewhat surprised at the huge turnout for the three visitations last weekend.  At the least, our little DVD will give them a glimpse of what the fuss was all about.

Last Sunday, new Ugly frontman Greg Dick had Pogo director Colin Brunton on for a couple of hours, and it was fun.  Of course they started off the show –after the hilarious Mr. Rogers opening — with a Teenage Head song — Kissin’ the Carpet — and then got into the interview proper for a couple of hours.  Brunton played some favourites from his childhood (Good Thing by Paul Revere & The Raiders, Caught in a Dream by Alice Cooper) and even admitted that his guilty pleasures in high-school included the standard Led Zeppelin but also…uh…Jethro Tull and others too embarrasing to mention in print.  Greg asked about working at Gary Topp’s The Original 99 Cent Roxy back in the early seventies (there’s another blog in here somewhere with a story about that) and the through-line that went Roxy to the New Yorker and then The Horseshoe, and how much all of those places planted creative seeds into the brains and souls of many who would become part of the Toronto punk community.   Two things were apparent:  Brunton mentioned drugs and said “Y’know” a lot.  (Hey, he barely graduated high-school, whaddya want?).   Of course, two hours isn’t nearly enough time to lay out all the fun punk facts from back in the day, and after it was over, both Dick and Brunton realized they’d forget to mention tons of people, not the least being Stephen Davies, who both drummed for The Dishes and The Everglades, and had his fingers in many a creative pie.  And then there’s Tony Malone, and The Diodes, and The B-Girls, and The Curse, and…hey, you know the names.   Memories were a little rusty too, but not bad for a couple of middle-aged fellas.   A phone in fact check by Gary Topp clarified that yes, Wayne County and band had to sleep in the New Yorker Theatre after their gig there in 1977, and that was when they watched for the first time The Rocky Horror Picture Show.   Recounting one of his most memorable shows at the Horseshoe — Suicide — Topp also cleared that up:  Teenage Head opened, the joint was packed, and as soon as they left the stage, the audience left the building, leaving only about a dozen people to watch an intense and almost frightening show by Suicide.   They never got around to playing Edie the Egg Lady or Herb Alpert, but did manage to spin a few discs, and tell lots of tales out of school.

Initially uncomfortable with the timing of Frankie’s death and the long-planned release date of The Last Pogo DVD, we’ve kept ourselves busy popping off copies to various indie record stores, and today sent a couple of boxes to Dr. Disc in Hamilton.  Owner Mark Furukawa has set up a nice Teenage Head display, and is going to help promote the upcoming December Last Pogo screening at Lou Molinaro’s new digs, details to follow.   Mark has also generously promised to send one dollar from each DVD sold to Frankie’s family.  You can find out in a blog below just where you can buy the DVD, and we’ll add more stores as they come in.

It looks like we won’t be shooting any new material for The Last Pogo Jumps Again until the New Year, but we will of course have the cameras humming for the big Last Pogo 30th Anniversary Bash at the Horseshoe Tavern, on Saturday November 29th.  Ten lousy bucks gets you in, and it promises to be a great show.   The Scenics (the original line-up from 1979) start the show off around nine, fresh from a Hamilton gig the night before, and after a week of recording a new album of both new and old material.   Mickey DeSadist never got to play the original Last Pogo back in 1978, but he’s graciously agreed to pull together the Forgotten Rebels and take the stage.  Next up will be a screening of The Last Pogo, and then the second half of the show starts off with original Viletone (and Toronto’s first real punk rocker) Steven Leckie unveiling a new sound with a new band, Steven Leckie and The Solutions! (the exclamation mark is part of the name, not that we’re not excited anyways).  Steven promises a show like you’ve never seen before, but don’t think you’ll be hearing old chestnuts like Screamin Fist or Possibilities — this is all new stuff.   Following Leckie will be one or other of the original line-up of power-pop punkers The Mods, and Greg Dick replacing the late Mike Nightmare in The Ugly, featuring original members Steve Koch, Tony Torture and Screamin’ Sam.  In between the scheduled acts DJ O.P.P. of Toronto record store Hits ‘n’ Misses will be spinning vintage punk vinyl.  And while organizers David Quinton and Greg Dick have things planned out in detail, you know there’s always the good chance that a little anarchy will break out.   Watch out for some surprise guests and drop-ins;  it should be a great show.   Advance tickets at the Horseshoe, Rotate This, Soundscapes, Ticketmaster and Hits ‘n’ Misses.

Only $12.00 plus a couple of bucks for shipping!   You can buy it on line at the “Sell Out” page, or check out your local indie record store.

In Toronto you can find copies at:

CIRCUS BOOKS & MUSIC 866 Danforth Avenue at Jones, 416-925-6116

CRIMINAL RECORDS 493 Queen Street West Toronto, ON M5V 2B4, Canada (416) 364-5380

ROTATE THIS 801 Queen Street West Toronto, ON M6J 1G1, Canada (416) 504-8447

HITS ‘N’ MISSES 860 Bloor Street West Toronto, ON M6G 1M2, Canada (416) 535-7817

FRANTIC CITY (formerly BABEL)  123 Ossington Ave, Toronto ON M6J 2Z2 (416)533-9138

SOUNDSCAPES 572 College Street Toronto, ON M6G 1B3, Canada (416) 537-1620

PAGES BOOKS 256 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M5V 1Z8 : 416-598-1447

WILD EAST 360 Danforth Avenue Toronto, ON M4K 1N8, Canada(416) 469-8371

SUNRISE RECORDS, Yonge & Dundas, Toronto

SUNRISE RECORDS, Yonge & Bloor, Toronto

And some other SUNRISE RECORDS across Canada

SUSPECT VIDEO, Markham Street, Toronto

TUNEOLOGY, Main south of Gerrard, Toronto

THIS AIN’T THE ROSEDALE LIBRARY, Kensington Market, Toronto

In Oshawa:

STAR RECORDS, 148 Simcoe Street South, Oshawa, ON L1H 4G9 (905) 723-0040

In Hamilton:

CHEAPIES RECORDS, 67 King St E., Hamilton ON, L8N 1A5, Phone #: 905-523-0296

DR. DISC, 20 Wilson Street, Hamilton, Ontario. CANADA L8R 1C5 Phone #: 905-523-1010

In London, Ontario

GROOVES, 353 Clarence Street, London, Ontario, N6A 3M4, 519-640-6714

In Vancouver, B.C.

ZULU RECORDS, 1972 W 4th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. (604) 738-3232

SCRATCH RECORDS, 726 Richards Street, Vancouver, B.C. (604) 687-6355

HMV MEGASTORE, 788 Burrard Street, Vancouver, B.C. (604) 669-2289

In Ottawa

Crosstown Traffic 593-C Bank St  Ottawa Ontario  K1S 3T4

In Nanaimo, B.C.

FASCINATING RHYTHM, 51 Commercial Street, Nanaimo, B.C. (250) 716-9997

In Madrid, Spain

BOWERY, C/ Luna, 18, Madrid, Spain. Phone 91-532-8360

From the November ’08 issue of Alternative Press (AP)

NOTE:  This blog is updated whenever something new comes in.

Since so many of our pals have asked, here’s what some of the reviewers we sent advance copies of The Last Pogo DVD to had to say.  Pogolicist Woody Whelan has been pounding the pavement, and getting busy at the Post Office, and working the phones and all that and his hard work is paying off.  The above pic is from the latest issue (November 2008) of AP (Alternative Press) who interviewed director Colin Brunton.

TORONTO SUN:  (Three stars out of four)  In 1978 budding filmmaker Colin Brunton shot what was billed as the final punk gig at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern.  Three decades on, his no-frills 26-minute mini-doc has finally made it’s way to DVD.  Sure, most of these bands are long gone and forgotten, with the exception of Teenage Head.  Even so, this literally riotous show is a blast from Can-punk’s young, loud, snotty past.”

TORONTO STAR:  “Colin Brunton would have preferred it if the DVD release this past week of his 1978 Toronto-punk documentary The Last Pogo hadn’t doubled as a tribute to late Teenage Head frontman Frankie Venom, but it’s kind of worked out that way.

Available for 30 years only in bootlegs culled from a few CityTV airings back in the day, The Last Pogo – in which Teenage Head gets both the first and last words onscreen and serves as the catalyst for a minor riot in the Horseshoe Tavern when the police cut its performance off after just one song – finally landed in stores on Tuesday. The next day, Brunton got a call from former Viletones singer Steven Leckie saying: “You’re not gonna believe this. Frankie’s dead.”

“It’s horrible, man,” he confesses. “It just feels kinda creepy. Some of the stores are selling out now. Not by the hundreds, obviously – it’s a handful – but you don’t want someone to die to bring attention to this awesome scene we had … It’s not like I have a personal relationship with everyone who buys it online, but everyone keeps sending these little, happy notes. `Remember when Frankie did this?’ It’s kinda neat.”

Instead of toasting The Last Pogo‘s long-fought release to the general public, Brunton was heading to Hamilton yesterday with Leckie and a host of friends from Toronto’s late-’70s punk underground to say “a final goodbye to Frankie,” a performer he’ll always hold in the highest esteem.

“They were a f—ing great act to see,” he says. “Frankie would get onstage – I’ve seen this so many times – and he would hang from his knees on, like, piping at Larry’s Hideaway and he’d be completely upside-down singing, and when the song was over he’d just let himself go. He wouldn’t even try to stop himself and he’d land on his f—ing head.”

Brunton’s got dozens of great yarns about T.O.’s original dalliance with punk, and he spins them with the enthusiasm of the 23-year-old kid who blundered into filmmaking when he decided to document the infamous Last Pogo concert at the ‘Shoe on Dec. 1, 1978.

The show ended in much smashed glass and splintered wood when a couple of detectives pulled the plug for overcrowding. Although not, fortunately, before Brunton – who would go on to produce the Bruce McDonald classics Roadkill and Highway 61 and other Canadian films – and his crew had committed some dynamic performances by such oft-forgotten acts as the Viletones, the Scenics, the Ugly and the Cardboard Brains to film.

He’s never made a dime, of course, from The Last Pogo and the DVD is a similarly self-financed labour of love that’ll only break even if he sells every single copy.

Still, the film was never meant as anything more than a love letter to a vibrant period in Toronto rock `n’ roll history that has largely gone unnoticed by the history books. And, in that spirit, Brunton has for the past two years begun work during downtime from co-producing Little Mosque on the Prairie on a sequel tentatively dubbed The Last Pogo Jumps Again.

“It’s become this huge hobby of mine,” says Brunton, who’s amassed a “couple hundred” hours of interviews with people from the original film. “What I’ve realized is people don’t change. Whoever that guy was in 1978, this is what he’s doing now. People who were kinda messed up back then are still kinda messed up. Or dead. Or in prison. But, like, the drummer for the Cardboard Brains, back in the day, had the craziest ambition – he wanted to be a banker. And now he’s an offshore banker in the Bahamas.”

The ultimate goal? “I wanna find the cop. I’ve gotta find the detective who shut the show down. I wanna find out how drunk you were that night, buddy, `cause they were sitting at the bar all night.”

CHART ATTACK, CANADA:  “The Last Pogo is a great piece of original Canadian punk history from the ’70s. It deals with an event at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern that ended a nine-month run of spectacular punk and new wave bands from around the world gracing the venue’s stage. When the club owners had had enough, the promoters, the infamous Garys, decided to have one final blowout to celebrate their tenure.

Thus, The Last Pogo was born and a chaotic collection of Toronto punkers like The Ugly, The Mods, The Scenics, The Secrets, The Viletones and Teenage Head thrashed about for all they were worth. In fact, they got so out of control the cops showed up and only let Teenage Head do one song, which, of course, led to a riot that saw the club get somewhat trashed.

This 26 minute documentary was actually the first film by Canadian filmmaker Colin Brunton, who has since produced such films as Cube and Hedwig And The Angry Inch and has currently been working on CBC’s Little Mosque On The Prairie.

The film resembles a good punk song in several different ways. It’s not overly long, it’s in your face and you’re left wanting more. Luckily, we will get just that, as Brunton appears to be using this to get the buzz going for next year when he releases a feature length documentary entitled The Last Pogo Jumps Again, a history of the Toronto-Hamilton-London punk axis circa ’76-78″

AUSTIN CHRONICLE, TEXAS: “…neatly captured the sneer and swagger of 30-year-old punk without snickering or jabbing you in the ribs. The beauty of The Last Pogo is that it is Everypunk’s story. Skinny ties, nerdy lead singers, angry young men, short songs with sharp chords. The brief interviews reveal bursts of enthusiasm, passionate, ideological beliefs, plus the usual in-fighting between bands.”

BIG TAKEOVER, NYC:  “Wow! I’ve been hearing about this 25-minute movie for 29 years, and it’s amazing to view it now! What a window to a time that was rarely documented: the pre-hardcore, original punk era when it was astonishingly fresh, creative, rule-busting, and shot full of newborn energy/excitement…It’s not just the dancing and pogoing creatively dressed, jazzed, skinny people—no idiot slam dancing and sneers—or the notorious sweaty buzz the crowd gets from seven wired, wiry bands, or the pleasant sight of punk’s front row ringed with women—led by impossibly cute punkette co-host Margarita Passion. It’s that this was an art-meets-music lightning flash the likes of which has never been replicated. Short but absolutely essential history comes alive!

MAXIMUM ROCK ‘N’ ROLL, USA:  ““Wondering what was happening in Toronto, Canada in 1978?  THE LAST POGO documents the last night of punk rock at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern on December 1, 1978…great film.”

SUBURBAN VOICE, BOSTON: “This was the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity to see live footage of these bands and it definitely whets the appetite for more.  Because, while not all the bands here are mesmerizing, I’m a punk history buff and enjoyed seeing it documented at the time it unfolded, as opposed to a more “modern” take like “American Hardcore.” Just a few extras—commentary by Chris Haight from the Viletones that you can play with the film and there’s also a full recorded-in-the-studio set from the Scenics that showcases their taut approach.”

THE LEFT HIP, MONTREAL “The Last Pogo is a great and enjoyable document of the fashion and music of that Toronto scene of the time. Both the sound and footage are surprisingly high-quality, especially in comparison to a lot of the sadly primitive documentation from the early punk and hardcore years. The bands are good too – if you actually find yourself watching this obscure DVD, you either already know and love these bands or you will want to seek out some records after seeing the film.”

EYE WEEKLY, TORONTO “THE LAST POGO, the legendary 30-minute short documenting “the last” punk rock show at the Horseshoe Tavern in 1978, finally gets a DVD release on Tuesday.  The film features performances by Teenage Head, The Viletones, The Scenics and more, a glimpse of the near-riot that, ultimately, didn’t so much knock Toronto’s punk scene on the head as kick it into the future.”

CHART MAGAZINE, TORONTO “While Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern is a fairly conventional live music establishment nowadays, at one time it was a punk rock haven. Back in 1978, the venue was booked by The Garys (Gary Topp and Gary Cormier), who brought in such notables as The Ramones and The Cramps. They also helped nurture the thriving scenes in Toronto, Hamilton and London. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the end always came faster in the explosive punk rock world. After only nine months, the venue gave The Garys the final headbutt, so they decided they might as well blow the doors off the place on the way out. This final show, dubbed The Last Pogo, featured the cream of the local punk rock crop at that time: Teenage Head, The Ugly, The Cardboard Brains, The Mods, The Viletones, The Scenics and The Secrets. Unfortunately, it also featured the wanton destruction of the room after the cops forced Teenage Head off the stage.”

THE COAST, HALIFAX “Even if you’re not into 1970s Canadian punk, this doc is worth a watch for the crowd shots of oft-replicated skinny jeans and ties, teased hair and sunglasses. Be sure to watch it with the commentary on—Viletone Chris Haight doesn’t offer any insight, but his lack of memory of the event is pure Spinal Tap.”

VUE WEEKLY, EDMONTON “The Last Pogo features one song from each of the bands and a few short quotes from people involved with the show spread throughout its 26 minutes—the result being a film that simply captures a moment in time, rather than trying to explain exactly what the Last Pogo was about.”

MONTREAL MIRROR Finally seeing the light of day this week, three decades after its initial completion in 1979, is this short film by director Colin Brunton. The film documents the Last Pogo festival that happened on Dec. 1, 1978 at Toronto’s famed Horseshoe. Although a little light on the goods, there are great live performances by all the bands that played on the bill—the Cardboard Brains, the Secrets, the Mods, the Ugly, the Viletones (!) and, for my money, one of Canada’s best punk rock ’n’ roll bands, Teenage Head. Things are indeed a little lean here, but the bonus footage of a cable TV performance by highly underrated Scenics proves quality will always win out over quantity.

EYE WEEKLY, TORONTO The audience also gets good and angry at the Horseshoe Tavern in The Last Pogo, Colin Brunton’s appropriately rough-hewn 27-minute film about the club’s last night as a punk venue in 1978. Too bad there isn’t more archival footage on this long-awaited DVD edition — it’s augmented only by a TV performance by VU revivalists The Scenics and a commentary by The Secrets’ Chris Haight that would be more useful if he remembered anything at all about the evening in question. Oh, well — that’s Hogtown rock ’n’ roll for ya.

METRO, CANADA “…The Last Pogo, which is like Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz, only with fewer stars and higher decibels. Co-directed by filmmaker Colin Brunton and his teacher Patrick Lee, The Last Pogo comes off like a great punk song — short (26 minutes) and unsweet.   You don’t have to be a punk aficionado to enjoy this documentary, which hits theatres Tuesday. Everyone will get a kick out of the self-importance displayed by The Viletones in an interview, and some of the performances are hilarious as the musicians try real hard to be outlandish.  The camera work on Pogo is exceptional, and Brunton and Lee effectively mix interviews with concert footage from the club.  With more than 500 people shoehorned into the Horseshoe, and escalating tensions a la Altamont, this should be a shambles. Instead, we get an up-close look at the night from both the performers’ and the audience’s perspective.  That is, until the scene predictably degenerates. But when the cops show up and the chairs and bottles start flying, it’s time to put safety first. At least the sound guy recorded the scene.”

And our favourites so far:

TORONTO STAR, TORONTO:  “Punker than you’ll ever be.”

DANNY FIELDS: “It’s great!”

JOHN HARVEY:  “Now THIS is a fucken’ documentary!”

Of all the memorable music scores out there, one that has bored it’s way into the collected consciousness is the menacing and foreboding “daDA…daDA…daDA” cello riff from “Jaws”.

Oddly, that was all our external hard-drive had to say for itself after it plunged from the coffee table to the floor during an editing session a couple of nights ago.   No picture, no sound, just the creepy hum that spells certain death.    We suspect that it might have been trying to end it all, sick of over a 100 hours of punk rock, but whatever the case, it is currently in the care of data retrieval experts (at least that’s what the sign in the variety store window said), and we hope to get a positive prognosis by Monday. “But you had it all backed up, right?”, everyone and his brother have asked us. Yeah. Right.

We’re not freaking out — we do have all the original tapes — and really, for all the shooting we’ve done, it’s been relatively painless. The odd mistake (great interview with Steven Leckie; no sound), the occasional blunder (nice chat with Steve Mahon, framed from the neck down), but no big whoop, and no one’s been hurt, so knock on wood, we should be back soon.

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.

As of June 6th, it’s been two years since we started shooting THE LAST POGO JUMPS AGAIN. Yup, that’s correct: we started shooting this opus on 6/6/6. Weird. Since then, shooting every weekend or so, with lots of help from other filmmakers, we’ve compiled around 150 hours of footage, discovered never-before-seen super-8 footage of The Last Pogo concert, heard never-before-heard tapes of the evening, re-connected with lots of old pals, made up with old flames, visited too many grave-yards, watched young Ollie Brunton turn from a boy into a man, had lots of laughs, and have been gifted with tons of photos, handbills, high-school essays, buttons, stories, lies, rumours and gossip and more.

As we get set to show THE LAST POGO for the first time in almost 30 years (at NXNE; Sunday June 15th, 5:30) we rediscovered those pesky things called “self-imposed deadlines”, and looking over a calendar, made a real adult decision: we’re now going to aim to have the new film completed early 2009, just in time for the Hot Docs festival. In the meantime, back at the ranch, we’ll be putting out a fairly awesome DVD of The Last Pogo and some surprises just in time for Christmas. We’re going to add on a couple of other shorts by filmmaker Colin Brunton: The Mysterious Moon Men of Canada, with soundtrack by Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, and A Trip Around Lake Ontario, with soundtrack by Nash the Slash.

We’ve just got too much footage to go through and analyze and dissect and mess around with, and there’s still a ton of people we wanna talk to so we’re gonna do it right.

We’ve chatted with members of all the bands that were there that night — Scenics, Cardboard Brains, Secrets, Mods, Ugly, Viletones and Teenage Head — and lots of the irregulars that were such a part of the scene — Tank, Wayne Brown, Zero, Roger T-Bag, Margarita Passion, Gary Topp, Don Pyle, Tony Malone, Nash the Slash, Cleave Anderson, Blair Richard Martin, Barrie Farrell, Edie Steiner, and on and on. We’ve been slowly trying to catch up with some of the international bands that made their way through Toronto during those heady daze: so far Cheetah Chrome from The Dead Boys (interviewed in a grave-yard, natch), and Tommy Ramone from The Ramones (in front of the Pogo Mobile), and if you’re reading this, we hope to snag Hugh Cornwell from The Stranglers while he’s in town for NXNE. (Hugh? ARE you reading this? C’mon, Hugh, pleeeese! 15 minutes, that’s all we need!).

When we were at CFNY last week, ex-Mod, ex-Dead Boy and current kewl lawyer David Quinton and d.j. Bookie were talking up a big Last Pogo 30th bash this December, and we thought, “Hey…wait a minute…if we’re doing a feature film about the punk scene in Toronto circa 1976 – 1978…and it’s built around The Last Pogo concert…I got an idea! Maybe we should shoot this big party”. Like, duh!

And hey, dear reader, if you’ve got any cool stuff from that era we could film, or if you’ve got a story or gossip or rumours or whatever, drop us a line, and we’ll try and catch up to ya.

Okay, so if you haven’t visited before, here’s the deal. In 1978 we made a short film called The Last Pogo, about a very cool concert presented by legendary promoters (winners of a Toronto Arts Award) The Garys.   They pulled together some of their favourite Toronto/Hamilton bands:  Teenage Head, The Viletones, The Ugly, The Mods, The Secrets, The Cardboard Brains and The Scenics played, and by the end of the show, there was a near-riot.   Now it’s thirty years later, and we’re making a sequel-of-sorts, The Last Pogo Jumps Again, a documentary about ghosts from the past;  a cross between Michael Apted’s Seven-Up series and Christopher Guest’s This is Spinal Tap.   We’ve been shooting stuff since June 2006.   All the original bands from the show are on board, and then some, including Tommy Ramone and Cheetah Chrome. We’re trying to nail down what this punk rock thing was and is, aiming our sights on the specific period from September 76 to December 78, if you’re keeping track.

On June 15th, we’re going to show the original movie, The Last Pogo, in Toronto at the NXNE Festival; it’ll close the festival out at the National Film Board.   This will be the first time it’s been played in public in almost thirty years.  There’s more NXNE news: our buddy Chester LeBeaux is going to show his awesome “rock video” of The Scenics, one of the bands from The Last Pogo, on opening night. And on same said night, The Scenics themselves will be playing at Rancho Relaxo. So be there, be square, and all that stuff.

After a month of down-time, we’re back with a slightly slicked up and slimmed down website and all the stuff we’ve been doing since we last left you in March…

While we gone, The Scenics snuck into town. With Andy Meyers on the left coast on Salt Spring Island and the other Scenics scattered around southern Ontario, rehearsals were taped in Toronto, sent by passenger pigeon to Andy, who’d jam and sing and add and subtract notes and riffs and after a while flew to Toronto to meet the band, version 2008: long-time partner/co-creator Ken Badger, drummer Mark Perkell and bassist Mike Young. Gary Topp presented them at the original scene of the crime, the Horseshoe Tavern with lots of family and old friends there for the occasion. They had to duck out of an interview at CIUT-FM when technology failed and everything fell apart (through no fault of interviewer Greg Dick, I should add); they got lost in the wilds of Hamilton on the way to an interview with B.F. Mowat; charged through a sweat-soaked hour and forty-five at Club Absinthe, made the hearts grow fonder, and then back to Toronto (didn’t get lost this time) for a final last blast at the Dakota Tavern.

Here to have fun, make noise, and promote their awesome and audacious CD “How does it feel to be Loved”, (on ITunes!) a collection of live Velvet Underground covers, the Scenics were big and noisy and as hell-bent creative as ever, doing old tunes new ways and new tunes old school, and looking forward to coming back in June when for NXNE.

On Friday night directors Richard Fiander and Kire Paputts headed down to Healey’s Roadhouse (r.i.p. Jeff Healey) for the Teenage Head record release of their new album, Teenage Head with Marky Ramone, a collection of olden-goldies and total-effin-goodies redone with you guessed it, legendary drummer (two terms of duty with the Ramones; drummer with the most service) Marky Ramone. The former Ramones drummer couldn’t make it up here, but we got lots of good back-stage stuff, one-liners, antics and chatter and then the show for the sold-out crowd. Tight, fun, the kind of shows they’ve been doing off on and for, oh, thirty years (!). In June, they head out west for an all-too-rare trip beyond the city limits, so take note all you cowboys and cowgirls, yee-haw, Teenage Head are comin’ to town! But seriously, kids, you get a chance, go see them.

Awesomely enough, the next day we hooked up with…drumroll, please…Tommy Ramone, the last man standing of the original fabulous four, the first manager, the producer, the guy who helped with Band of Gypsys with Jimi Hendrix when he was a teenager, the one, the only. In town for gigs with his new bluegrass band Uncle Monk (named after jazz icon Thelonious Monk and painter Edvard Monck, and “because it sounds cool”). The interview was pulled together by uber-promoter and all-round good guy Gary Topp. Tommy offered up his theories on punk rock, the line from punk to bluegrass, a bit of Ramones 101 (“Joey and Dee Dee were there for fun. Me and Johnny were on a mission…to bring rock ‘n’ roll back to America”). At the end of the interview, Tommy signed the Pogo Mobile Unit’s bumper-sticker — and that’s why we’ll never wash our truck again.

Finishing up the weekend and saving ‘best ’til last, Brunton’s Ollie and Colin finally made visit #1 with legendary promoter Gary Topp who told tales of rock ‘n’ roll, Steven “Nazi Dog” Leckie, drunk cops, misadventures, the genius and genesis of punk and the lasting effect. With a steel-trap mind (and a firm-handshake, I might add) Gary talked about gigs by Suicide and The Contortions and Edie the Egg Lady and Mike DeVille, how Gus the cook would brandish a knife and threaten Nash the Slash when he’d play the Horseshoe (“too loud, too loud!”) — endless great stores and insights. He brought us down to a basement cubby-hole to file cabinets stuffed with handbill, newspaper clippings, pictures, all sorts of stuff.

Please bear with us — we’re still working out the kinks with the new website, digging up the old archives, and picking pretty pictures to show off. We plan to update at least weekly, so please check in later.