Zellots

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More old photos from the Cedar Lounge circa 1980 with players identified by fans on Facebook in the 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario group. Many thanks to all who responded.

The Zellots were a force in the London punk music scene from around 1979 until 1984. The picture at left, and photo album (click on the image for more photos), would have been taken sometime in 1980 at the Cedar Lounge. This version of the band had Craig McGaully on drums (more often than not we saw them with Greg Moore drumming). That peaked my curiousity — I asked for help on the Facebook group because that doesn't look like Greg. Mark Goodwin quickly identified Craig as the original drummer, many thanks.

The band had Jane Colligan on bass, Chris Deveber on guitar and Cathy Destin on voice. They performed a number of their own tunes, really good stuff and ought to have gone on to better times. They were one of my favorite bands from that era. Part of the appeal, after the music, of course, was the girl band ensemble.

I have other pictures of them I'll share later. We saw them several times at the Cedar Lounge, at least once at Fryfogles and I seem to recall that they opened for Simple Minds at Mingles. These photos are fairly early, perhaps they were fronting for another act that night. I'm not sure. I have filed this on an arbitrary date in 1980 (I think this was BK but who knows).

The picture is a bit of an insight to the Cedar Lounge. The men's room was directly behind the stage (you can see the sign in the photo) and there's a bit of "cedar" decoration near the ceiling. 

The band did get back together for the Graphic London Underground concert at Call the Office in October 2012 and there's some video on YouTube of them playing that event — look for the Chris Deveber user (chrissydv17). They're older, probably wiser too, but still did an excellent job of reviving their music for us.

There's an excellent biography of the band at Reverbnation with a sampling of some of their music. See also the Zellots page at Discogs. They released a couple of singles/EPs and appeared on several collections. Empty Victories, released in 2018 from early recordings, is an excellent sampling of their music. You can listen to a version of that album at the Zellots -Topic on YouTube.

This note composed during the May 2021 pandemic lock down. Many thanks for Facebook friends who keep memories alive.

Bob Dylan

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I saw Bob Dylan at Massey Hall in Toronto on the "Slow Train Coming" tour and took some photos. It was a long time ago and my memories of the event are pretty faded ... I think I might have been there with Mike and Charlie. However, I do remember that Dylan was in his Christian phase at the time and had a big band with him including several singers backing him. I had seen Dylan at Maple Leaf Gardens several years earlier during the "Rolling Thunder" tour and really enjoyed that concert. I was not as keen about seeing Gospel Bob.

There's a posted set list but I cannot speak to the accuracy. Clearly he wasn't playing his back catalogue. Which would explain my disappointment.

The photo album is a collection of Black and White negatives that were scanned during the COVID-19 crisis in February of 2021. I assume they were push processed to ASA 1600. The pictures are pretty poor quality -- very overexposed in the highlights. It took me years to learn how to take successful concert photos. These aren't successful!

I've always said that the secret to taking good pictures is to take a lot of bad ones. This collection is proof that I've taken a lot bad ones.