Can you guess? No? Well, for the aspiring punk rocker in the family, or the music history buff, or old Grampa there with the greying Mohawk — DVD’s of the infamous 1978 concert The Last Pogo are for sale in our store. Twelve bucks! That’s Black-Friday-crazy, my friends!
When former Viletone Steven Leckie took to the stage at The Last Pogo 30th Anniversary Bash at the Horseshoe Tavern back in 2008, he told the audience (to paraphrase via shoddy memory) that he could “…quote more lines from A Clockwork Orange than things my father told me.”
In one of the three interviews we did with Leckie for our soon-to-be-completed project The Last Pogo Jumps Again, he also said that the short-lived 1977 club Crash ‘n’ Burn was “…like our own little Milk Bar.”
Leckie likely had witnessed this cinematic ultra-violence at the New Yorker and Original 99 Cent Roxy Theatres. (Hey, American friends — that’s how we spell “theaters.”)
Nash the Slash‘s first appearance was at Gary Topp‘s rep movie theatre The Original 99 Cent Roxy around 1973 when he performed a live soundtrack to the Dali/Bunuel film Un Chien Andalou. A few years later, in 1977, Roxy usher Colin Brunton would mimic the infamous razor-across-the-eye gag in his short film Bollocks, (which also featured The Viletones and The Ugly), substituting a safety pin and a cow’s eyeball for a razor blade and a sheep’s eyeball.
Around the same time Nash the Slash would move into the flat above the Roxy, becoming a sort of Phantom of the Roxy.
Poster for an unfinished Dali film that was to be the third in a trilogy started by Un Chien Andalou and L’age D’or.
After Bollocks Brunton made The Last Pogo and has now been working on The Last Pogo Jumps Again: A Biased And Incomplete History Of Toronto, Hamilton, and London Ontario Punk Rock And New Wave Music Circa September 24 1976 to December 1 1978 for the past five years. Pristine dubs of The Last Pogo and Bollocks have been struck for use in the new film. (For film nerds out there, fancy-ass and pricey Technicolor Labs didn’t know what “A” and “B” rolls were; kids these days, huh?)
Smoking a joint and watching Amos Poe and Ivan Kral‘s film Blank Generation at his New Yorker Theatre in 1976 inspired Gary Topp to build a stage and start booking bands. A little more than three months later the stage was set for an amazing string of shows.
Wow, spell much?
One of the staples of both The Original 99 Cent Roxy and The New Yorker, Performance was the film that included (supposedly) real sex and drug use, and which also famously fucked up actor James Fox for years.
This handmade (i.e. hand-lettered and drawn, no computers, no Letraset) poster from 1972 was made by artist John Pearson, and courtesy of Gary Topp.
This guy is so high.
So said Slick Rick the Ruler a.k.a. RR Cool Jay a.k.a. Ricky Romero, the ace-in-waiting for the Toronto Blue Jays in regards to the hated New York Yankees after the Jays took two (and maybe three) this weekend. Y’know, just seeing the word “punk” twigged us, and we recalled that in 1977, when Steven Leckie of The Viletones was cutting himself with a broken beer bottle at the Colonial Underground, the newly inaugurated Toronto Blue Jays were playing their first game in the snow at Exhibition Stadium. Around the same time, the worlds largest erection — hey-o! — was being completed: the 1700+’ giant dildo (complete with rotating head) called The C. N. Tower.
The awesome concrete boner was immortalized by first-wave punk/new-wavers The Poles in one of the first and best singles to come out of our awesome scene. Track the evolution of those early days of punk and end it around the time of The Last Pogo: four days after the Horseshoe Tavern was trashed that night, Blue Jays center-fielder Vernon Wells was born. Which, y’know, is just a round-about way of sneaking our beloved Blue Jays into a post about our film, and pointing out just how far Toronto has come in the past 30+ years.
“Toronto is always in the process of inventing itself,” said Existers lead-singer (and editor of Shades Magazine) George Higton in our interview with him. Punk Rock, The C.N. Tower, The Toronto Blue Jays — they can’t help but be intertwined in our continuing examination of the history of Toronto punk and new-wave from September 24 1976 to December 1 1978.
Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain.”
The Dadaists in the 1920′s turned the artworld on its head by doing stuff like turning urinals on their end and calling it Art.
The Velvet Underground 1966; John Cale in the foreground.
“And there would go the secret plot, the piss had missed the hole in the pot, like that ancient teenage dream, from soul to poisoned soul to poisoned soul,” so sang John Cale post Velvet Underground, pre-CBGBs.
In Toronto, Viletones‘ lead singer Steven Leckie promised to kill himself on stage at Club Davids on Hallowe’en 1977. Pogo director Colin Brunton captured much of the performance (as well as The Ugly, Wayne Brown pretending to hang himself, and the infamous Mr. Shit eating a goober off of a friend’s hand) for the short film Bollocks that he made with Elizabeth Aikenhead and Patrick Lee; said footage to be recycled for the new movie. “I’ll be dead by the time you see this film,” Leckie said directly to the camera when we interviewed him last summer for The Last Pogo Jumps Again. “When the Viletones played CBGBs in 1977, he promised to kill himself then too, but he didn’t follow through,” said Punk Magazine co-founder John Holmstrom.
Hugo Ball; 1916.
“Dada represented the least inhibited challenge one could imagine to the ideology underlying bourgeois culture and art: it was anti-patriotic, anti-aesthetic, and anti-conventional in the extreme. It was also, in principle, against permanence, yet, paradoxically, it left a legacy of enduring works.” Ooh la la! That’s what something called the French Literature Companion said.
“All I got out of it was a headache,” said CBC personality Hana Gartner in 1977 when she listened to Teenage Head. Lead singer Frankie Venom could only shrug and grin. Thirty years later kids were still going to Teenage Head shows, and Gartner continued her long slog towards a comfortable CBC pension .
Man Ray 1922
Hand drawn artwork by John Pearson; courtesy Cheryl Daniels
The poster above was hand drawn by artist John Pearson for the midnight screenings of Pink Flamingos at The Original 99 Cent Roxy Theatre in 1972. Who would have guessed that six years later Edith Massey (Edie the Egg Lady) would get up on stage at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto backed up by the original Viletones (less Leckie) and pound out a set of tunes including our favourite “Hey, Punks – Get Off The Grass!”
Big thanks to Cheryl Daniels who sent us a nice little pile of jpgs today, including the gem above.
And just like lovely Miss Edie, we’ve got so many little eggies, but we’re still starving for more. Today we’re off to the wilds of Barrie, Ontario, to interview Marion Lewis of The Hummer Sisters, and this weekend we’ll venture down to St. Kitt’s to chat with Teenage Head‘s buddy and inspiration Slash Booze. So many little eggies. We’re going to eat them all before we go to sleepie.
Huntz Hall as Glimpy McColsky and Leo Gorcey as Muggs McGinnis in the 1944 movie.
A Blake Street Boys lies on the stage during The Last Pogo while people stick safety pins in him.
In The Last Pogo Jumps Again: A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978 we focus on an explosively creative time in Toronto’s cultural history, with an emphasis on the musicians. Next week director Kire Paputts interviews The Blake Street Boys.
Lowrises on Blake Street courtesy movein.to.com
The Blake Street Boys weren’t a band, they were a gang, a loose collection of east-end rowdies that lived in the Ontario Housing Corporations apartment complexes (the “projects” for our American friends) around Blake and Boultbee, near Jones and Danforth in the east end of Toronto. Some of them still live there.
Pogo H.Q. got a call from “Hawkeye” a month ago, answering a relayed message left by us at Circus Books and Music. He said he’d try and round up Ally, a fondly remembered Blake Street Boy, and talk about back in the day.
Steven Leckie introduced The Blake Street Boys to the scene by using them as bodyguards. Whether he needed muscle is a moot point; they became a gritty, uglier texture of the scene and a striking contrast to the OCA (Ontario College of Art) crowd. They were not loved by all. “They’d just beat people up for the hell of it,” said Tony Torture of The Viletones. “And if they couldn’t find someone to beat up, they’d beat up each other.”
The area they lived in was tough, and still is. (During a movie shoot at local high-school Eastern Commerce a few years ago, Pogo director Colin Brunton was gobsmacked to learn that within the first four days of the shoot, there were two stabbings, one attempted suicide, and an attempt to pick the pocket of the location manager. By the end of the following week, the production had to hire pay-duty police to guard the lead actresses’ body-guards because of death threats from a couple of grade twelve twenty-year-olds.)
The grooviness of Greek Town on the Danforth has never reached east of Pape, and the Blake Street Boys ‘hood is still intact in all its harsh glory. Which, frankly, makes it more interesting than the gentrified neighbourhoods just a few hundred yards west.
Everyone’s getting busy with the Kwanza/Hannukuh/Christmas (pick-your-own-pagan-holiday) season getting started, so we won’t be posting very often over the next few weeks. But it’s not like we’re not doing anything. Far from it, dear blog readers. Far fucking from it.
Left Coast Second Unit Director (L.A. Division) Amy Bellings is on the case, getting ready to chat with graphic artist/photographer Rodney Bowes on the beach in Los Angeles, and find out all about Rodney’s take on the original punk scene in Toronto for our epically titled multi-platform feature film extravaganza The Last Pogo Jumps Again: A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978.
The Last Pogo Jumps Again Christmas party, 2009
Co-director Aldo Erdic is putting the finishing touches on his nifty half-hour Diodes documentary circa 1977: The Diodes, and needs to put that to bed before diving back into the 900+ minutes of footage from 2008′s Last Pogo 30th Anniversary show, certain to be one of the many DVD extras on our project, the tortuously tongue-tied project titled The Last Pogo Jumps Again: A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978, scheduled for release next year.
We love the fact that Santa gave up undressing halfway through taking his right sock off. That and the nutsack peeking out.
Producer/co-director Colin Brunton is busy working on a kids TV show and killing time between shots and meetings collecting more jpgs (thanks Imants, Gail, Robert, Patrick, etc.) and pondering ways to release the cumbersomely yet very accurately titled multi-media monster The Last Pogo Jumps Again: A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978 and reminding people that the DVD of The Last Pogo is still available, and it’s only twelve bucks. $12.00! The Last Pogo Jumps Again Shipping & Receiving Department awaits your orders. Just click on the “Store” link on the left.
Co-director/editor Kire Paputts continues to upload the interview footage of late (Tibor Takacs, Lucasta Ross, Joe Keithley) and tinker with our four and a half-hour cut, and is excitedly getting prepped to shoot his new half-hour short film — working title Roadkill (WTF?!) — with local talents Julian Richings, David Huband and Amy Rutherford.
Julian Richings, actor. Really, who else would you cast to play John Cale in a movie? One of Canada’s best.
Cue the creepy music sting as Julian’s silent and sullen lead character cuts open and prepares to exact his taxidermy skills on a dead animal. Then get your hankies out for the ending (and not in a Pee-Wee Herman type way, if you know what I mean, and I think that you do. )
John Cale, musician. Really, who else would you cast to play Julian Richings in a movie? One of Wales’ best.
Wheeee!
But maybe most exciting music-wise over the next while is the show next Tuesday the 15th at the Cameron Tavern.
Steven Leckie at the Last Pogo 30th party; photo by Edie Stiener.
Original Toronto punk/artist/provocateur Steven Leckie will hit the stage with new band Fleur de Mal, featuring keyboardist Alex Topp and guitarist/percussionist Blair Richard Martin (late of 80′s band The Raving Mojos) at a show at the soon-to-be-missing, never-to-be-forgetting Queen Street West landmark Cameron Tavern.
Alex Topp with Steven Leckie & The Solutions! at The Last Pogo 30th, 2008; photo Edie Stiener.
With arrangements by the talented Ms. Topp, the eight-piece band Alex has assembled (WTF?!) for this one-time-only show will be performing crazily inventive covers of two Velvet Undergound songs. And we’re guessing that this is a show That Should Not Be Missed.
L – R: Somebody’s arm, Alex Topp, somebody, Andrew Haughton (Major Grey) and Gary Topp.
Also playing that night are catchy tunesters Major Grey and Lorraine Leckie, (who amongst other things happens to be Steven Leckie’s ex.) A winter’s evening of history in a building doomed to a duller fate. $10. Be there, and dress nice ’cause we’ll probably shoot it.
And speaking of the soon-to-be potentially Disney-fied version of it’s former self Cameron Tavern, veteran punk, killer bass player and infamous coxman Sam Ferrara is displaying his metal sculpture wares there at his annual holiday show. Opening night is Thursday, December 9th. Get there fast and stick a red dot on something, ’cause Sam’s stuff goes fast.
Google artist Teppo Manninen for more neat drawings like this.
Courtesy the punkpaper.free.fr
Lucasta Ross plays with Steven Leckie & The Solutions! at the Last Pogo 30th bash December 2008; photo by Edie Steiner
Lucasta and the rest of the B-Girls in 1977; photo by Rodney Bowes
The Last Pogo Jumps Again co-director Kire Paputts is busying himself prepping his short film, but still has time to track down and interview more of the folks we need for our sprawling documentary. Last week it was ex-B-Girl Lucasta Ross, the interview taking place in her amazing goth abode.
Meanwhile, down in L.A., filmmaker and Last Pogo Jumps Again contributor Amy Belling spent a few hours with original Viletones manager Tibor Takacs. Tibor (with partner Stephen Zoller) broke off his arrangement with The Viletones when he decided enough was enough, and split for L.A. to pursue his film career. He’s worked steadily ever since.
Mickey Skin of The Curse dangerously stands up on an arcade ride; photo by the ever amazing Rodney Bowes.
Kire also managed to sneak in an interview with…drumroll, please…the parents of Mickey Skin from The Curse. The only thing cooler than that is the fact that Mickey’s mother often went to shows by The Curse back in 1977. Yo, mama.
Photo of Paul Cook by S. Fitzstephens
We thrilled to find out that Sex Pistol drummer Paul Cook had recently discovered our blog, and had forwarded one to Viletone Freddy Pompeii. It was a taste of the collection of newspaper clippings we’ve filed away since starting this project back in June 2006. And we know it’s the real Paul Cook, because he was on Facebook. Make friends with him as well as other Facebookers like Albert Einstein and Elvis Presley. F’real.
Land suitable to build a house on in Florida that you can purchase from us. Plus you get a free Last Pogo DVD!
September 24 1976. The Toronto Star’s Peter Goddard looks forward to the “undistinguished band from the Queen’s area in New York…”
September 26, 1976. Peter Goddard likes the Ramones.
Someone takes out an ad in the Toronto Star, November 1 1976.
The Sex Pistols swear on TV, December 10, 1976.
Steven Leckie takes out an ad in the Toronto Star classifieds, December 11 1976.
Patti Smith plays Toronto; local media are not impressed. December 20, 1976
EMI fires the Sex Pistols; January 10 1977
Keith Richards is busted for heroin in Toronto; March 8, 1977. Days before the trial, Mick Jagger would visit Freddy Pompeii and Margarita Passions’ New Rose store to buy all of the “Free Keith” tee-shirts that they created. Influenced by a heart-warming tale of a blind Rolling Stones fan that Keith cared for in Toronto during their shows, the law in Ontario decrees that The Rolling Stones will play a concert at a school for the blind in Ontario. Keith Richards later credits his Toronto bust as one of the best things that ever happened to him. He gets off the junk.
Toronto’s Globe & Mail takes notice of CBGB’s; April 23, 1977
July 16, 1977: The Viletones, Teenage Head, The Curse, The Diodes and The Dents go to CBGB’s in NYC.
August 1977: Elvis is Dead, and “Disco Beat” announces that the gay club David’s will now host punk
Davids opens, and Polanski changes his plea; August 6, 1977.
Toronto, October 1977
