The punk scene started up in Toronto in late 1976 and there weren’t many places to play. When The Viletones began burning bridges in ’77, with owners scared to let them into their clubs, manager Tibor Takacs had to search for someplace new. He ended up at Club David’s, a gay nightclub at the intersection of two laneways near Yonge and Bloor. (Read about
David’s history here ...
Okay, not quite yet, but here’s hoping. Original Viletone Freddy Pompeii has been starting to lobby his Facebook pals to nominate The Viletones to Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Haven’t heard of it? Don’t worry, you ain’t missing much. The Research & Development Division of The Last Pogo Jumps Again haven’t been too deep into any sort of investigation or anything, but something’s kind of rotten in Denmark when apart from ...
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 ...
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, ...
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, ...
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 ...
Check out http://www.geocities.com/urotsukidoji_1/ugly.html for more Ugly stuff
And the hits just keep on comin’. For anyone new to this site, you should know that for the past couple of years in Toronto there’s been a bit of a surge of musicians getting together to pound out old tunes from the 1976/77/78 punk era in Toronto and Hamilton. Some, like The Forgotten Rebels and Teenage Head have been doing it since those ...
The Screwed — Cleave Anderson, John Borra, Steve Koch and Steve Scarlett — continue their almost weekly assault on the senses as they hit Graffiti’s Bar and Grill for a late afternoon shin-dig and hullabaloo this Saturday at 4:00.
And if he couldn’t be busier, a couple of months ago Cleave handed over a song he’d written and recorded called The Last Pogo; we’re sure to squeeze it into the ...
Chris Haight at the screening of The Last Pogo at NXNE, June 2008.
We’re making plans to get The Last Pogo out on DVD by December 1 this year, the 30th anniversary. Since the original Pogo is but a scant (yet action-packed and aurally exciting) half-hour, we’re going to beef up the DVD to a full two hours with “extras” and a couple of “easter eggs”.
The Last Pogo Jumps Again studies the evolution of Toronto from small town to big city and it’s pop/counter-culture lifestyle during the early and mid-70s. It centers around the first wave of Toronto punk rock and new-wave music, from the Ramones playing the New Yorker Theatre in ’76 through the police shutting down Teenage Head and causing a riot at the Horseshoe Tavern’s infamous “The Last Pogo” concert in December 1978.
