NFG/63 Monroe - Record Release

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Our friend Dave O'Hallaran (aka What Wave Dave on CHRW) has been sharing on Facebook, with our grateful permission, photos that we had taken of various bands back in the 1980's. Today Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario:

"Here's some Reg Quinton pics of 63 Monroe playing live at Records On Wheels circa 81/82.

Records On Wheels would have been on the north side of Dundas between Clarence and Richmond at the time. It was the first chain record store to actually have a punk/new wave section, a great import section with lots of punk/new wave records and they sold singles on the counter. And you could get your local releases here and they had some great window displays. (anyone have pictures of the window displays?)."

I'm pretty sure it was the record release of the NFG/63 Monroe EP on a Saturday morning. There was a good crowd. They played a short set from the elevated area at the back of the store. The store was very near to Nash Jewellers which is now the London Music Hall of Fame. I think the show was cut short because it was very loud and nearby merchants weren't too happy with that.

Members of the band at that time were Scott Bentley (aka Steven R. Stunning) on voice, Markii Burnaway (guitar), Pete Dekoker (bass) and Jeff Roth (aka Rooster) on the drums. Rooster isn't visible in any of these photos. Clearly they're on their transition from snotty nosed punks to the alt-punk glam of "First Date". We loved every incarnation and even had them play at our 25th Anniversary.

I'm not sure if these photos have been shared before, I suspect they have. But, in any case, many thanks to Dave for his work organizing these old photos and figuring out the location and time for many of them. I've spent a bit of time enhancing these photos — they were very dark. 

Rather than a "See also" section, I invite you to search the blog for other photos of this and other bands from that era.

Conning Tower

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Our friend Dave O'Hallaran (aka What Wave Dave on CHRW) has been sharing on Facebook, with our grateful permission, photos that we had taken of various bands back in the 1980's. Today Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario:

"Here's some more Reg Quinton pics. This time it's Conning Tower at Bullwinkles circa 1984.

At this time the band consisted of Mark Goodwin, Linda Harvey and Billy Wallace. They released one 7" record with Brian Hodgson on drums in 1984.

Bullwinkles was on King St, south side between Richmond and Clarence. The building is still standing and went through a number of names; Kelly's Boogie Parlour, Bullwinkles,  Salt Lounge and for awhile it was a mall."

Mark Goodwin was an incredibly talented fellow and formed several bands over the years (Second Thoughts and The Magic Bin Men are mentioned in this blog). While I never knew him personally, we did establish a bit of back and forth on Facebook. I recall that I was after a copy of some music of his that I had lost. He was glad to share but expressed an embarrassment over some of his efforts. Everyone lands a clunker some time. If any were clunkers, they were only a few. Sadly he passed away recently at the very young age of only 64 years. See his Montreal Obituary.

Most of these photos have been shared before — see 2021 Conning Tower post in this blog. In that post I was sure the bar was Key West. Dave and Dan Rudbal have convinced me I was wrong. Dan writes "Reg, that is indeed BULLWINKLES ..the stage was eventually switched to the back wall, these photos are when it was along the East side wall."

Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing photos and figuring out the location and time for many of these.

Robin Graves & The Lost Fear

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Our friend Dave O'Hallaran (aka What Wave Dave on CHRW) has been sharing on Facebook, with our grateful permission, photos that we had taken of various bands back in the 1980's. Today Dave writes in The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group: "Some more Reg Quinton pics. This time it's Robin Graves & The Lost Fear at the Cedar Lounge April 1982... They were a rockabilly sounding outfit with Perry Puckett on vocals/guitar, John Ondrasek on bass and don't know who is on drums."

I recall that these guys were definitely into the "glam" side of things — that's pretty apparent. The playing wasn't as tight as it needed to be. However, others were pretty keen and have fond memories. Ruby Canterbury says, "they were great." There are friends and fans in the pictures but I suspect this might have been one of their few gigs ever. They were opening for 63 Monroe that night.

There are some very poor quality photos here, out of focus, etc., but there are a few gems. Usually I'd prune an album down to just the few photos I'm especially proud of. Dave is more encyclopedic in his choice of photos to share. But for an historical record here it is.

63 Monroe

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Our friend Dave O'Hallaran (aka What Wave Dave on CHRW) has been sharing on Facebook, with our grateful permission, photos that we had taken of various bands back in the 1980's. Today Dave writes in The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group: "Some more 63 Monroe pics from Reg Quinton, this time at the Cedar Lounge circa 1981/1982."

Bob Loblaws comments: "I remember they played one night when I still worked there as a waiter, they both came in wearing pig masks"

These photos are awfully dusty and dirty. I really ought to dig them out and scan them again. I can't recall but I suspect these were shot on movie film — there was some crazy deal that returned prints, negatives and positives. Processing was crap, hence the crappy scans. I've spent a bit of time adjusting exposure but really ought to dig out the originals, clean them up and rescan.

However, it was a fun crazy time at the Cedar Lounge. That's Markii Burnaway in guitar, Jeff Roth (Rooster) on drums, Peter Dekoker on bass and Steven R. Stunning (Scott Bentley) on voice.

Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing photos and figuring out the location and time for many of these.

Forgotten Rebels

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Our friend Dave O'Hallaran (aka What Wave Dave on CHRW) has been sharing on Facebook, with our grateful permission, photos that we had taken of various bands back in the 1980's. Today Dave writes in The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group:

"Here's some more Reg Quinton pics. This time it's the Forgotten Rebels at the Cedar Lounge circa 1982.  

It's the This Ain't Hollywood lineup of the band; Mickey DeSadist on vocals, John Welton on bass, Mike Mirabella guitar and Robert Allan on drums. 

Anyone have any clue who the videographer is?"

Peter Lambert responds that it's Michael Grelecki.

Kate made friends with Rob's girlfriend at one of the Cedar Lounge gigs. The band was staying overnight upstairs in a pretty cruddy environment. We invited the band to come stay with us the next time they were in town and they did on a few occassions. I recall one time when they assured us that no, they wouldn't need to stay with us. That surely tonight they'd get lucky and have some warm bed and hot girl to stay with. Nevertheless, later that night, after we had gone to bed the guys sheepishly arrived looking for a place to stay.

These black and white photos are pretty dirty, someday I may go back to clean them up a bit. The film we would have developed in our basement darkroom in old south. The cameras we were using at the time were a Canon A1 and a Canon AE1. There seems to have been some flash involved, that would have been a Vivitar 285 flash on a handle mount and bounce card. I see fish eye distortion — that would have been a 16mm Sigma lens. Pretty much all of that gear is long gone.

And the pretty girl in the photo is my Baboo — Kate! In the background I think I see Dave's wife Rena.

See also

• Forgotten Rebels Cedar Lounge 1980
• Forgotten Rebels Brucefield Concert 1981
• Forgotten Rebels Cedar Lounge & Fryfogles 1982

Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing photos and figuring out the location and time for many of these.

Zellots

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Our friend Dave O'Hallaran (aka What Wave Dave on CHRW) has been sharing on Facebook, with our grateful permission, photos that we had taken of various bands back in the 1980's. Today Dave writes in The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group:

"Here's some more Reg Quinton pics, this time The Zellots at the Cedar Lounge, London ON, circa 1980.
At this time, the band consisted of Christine DeVeber, Catherine Destun, Jane Colligan and Craig McGauley on drums. Later Greg Moore joined on drums full time."

The Zellots were a great band and there were lots of comments remembering them:

Kerry Piper: The Zellots were an incredible band. RIP Chrissy. 

Various Artists: One of my favourite London bands. These are great shots.

Kelly Mulvey: OMG I loved this band soooo much🎶💕

Debbie Weir Cairns: Loved the Zellots!

Rob Gliddon: They were sooo good. And Lou Reed said it best...

Kate and I were fans as well. I recall we had a tshirt made where we had printed with "Zellots" written out in random fonts — like a ransom notes with letters clipped from various papers and magazines. We never knew the band beyond seeing them perform several times.

Chrissy DeVeber, lead guitar, passed away recently in London; here's her 1992 obituary. The Zellots did reunite for a gig in London back in 2012 for the Graphic Underground, a book by Brian Lambert celebrating the artists, posters and music of that period. Several of my photos appear in that book.

See also

• Zellots 1980 — many of these same photos
• Zellots 2015 — grab bag of old photos
• Graphic Underground 2012

Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing photos and figuring out the location and time for many of these.

The Verge

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Our friend Dave O'Hallaran (aka What Wave Dave on CHRW) has been sharing on Facebook, with our grateful permission, photos that we had taken of various bands back in the 1980's. Today Dave writes in The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group:

"Some more Reg Quinton pics. This time it's The Verge (and possibly the Earwigs), from Exeter ON and probably 1980 at the Cedar opening up for NFG.

Pictured are Pete Dekoker, Dick May, William R Parsons, possibly Jeff Rooth on drums, Mike Smith and others. Any help on the others names appreciated."

Markii Burnaway replies "Little factoid: I jammed with the Verge and got the idea to bring Rooster and Pete to form a new 63 Monroe."

I have some faded memories of this event. The Marilyn Monroe poster does mark it as an NFG/63 Monroe event. I do recall there was some Nazi punk stuff with this band that I found very disturbing —I've asked Dave not to share those photos but there are some in the album that give a hint to what was going on. I didn't like it a the time, still don't, especially after having been to Auschwitz in Poland (2003). Some of that anarchy punk stuff I'll put down to youthful indescretion, but I won't celebrate it. 

From the photos it looks like I was using both cameras, one loaded with B/W, the other with slide film. We used to develop both in our darkroom. Photos would have been scanned sometime around 2005 for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. I still have the negatives and could scan again for higher resolution.

Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing our photos and documenting the scene.