Wars in Transit, Cedar Lounge

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Our friend Dave O'Halloran (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, March 30, 2024, Dave writes in The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group: 

"Another post from ace photog Reg Quinton, this time it's Wars In Transit at the Cedar Lounge. Unfortunately there's only a couple pics and not the greatest quality, but it's all we got.

Wars In Transit were from Guelph ON, late 70's/early 80's artpunk in which the bass plays a pivotal role in the songs. Lyrics very abstract but at the same time quite engaging. They were a big fave of the late Peter Moore and he did a live session with the band circa 1981 that aired on CHRW. Peter's comments that aired are hilarious and perfect in context about the time and this city.

In 1982 the band released a self titled cassette that became one of my faves. Full cassette info has been added to Discogs.

The band consisted of Greg Jarvis on drums, John MacLeod on bass and Matthew Budden on guitar/vocals. Matthew appeared in several other Guelph combos later.

 

I've been able to date these pics as Dec 22 or Dec 23 1980 at the Cedar Lounge playing with the Enemas (pics of them will appear here at a later date). I remember being there for at least one of the shows as I was on Xmas break from school.

 

Also recall seeing Wars In Transit at I believe one of the Polish Hall gigs on Ann St in London ON.....anyone have info?"

Some interesting discussion followed:

Rob Gliddon: I have a cassette of their studio stuff, am unsure if it is from Peter Moore's sessions, or not. Nach dem Tode played with them a few times here and in Guelph. I think they opened up for A Certain Ratio in Guelph as well. Brian Lambert may have clearer memories of that.

Dave O'Halloran: Hey Rob, is it this cassette? Cause that's all I'm aware they released but there could be more: Wars In Transit - Wars In Transit (on Discogs).

Rob Gliddon: Yeah Dave O'Halloran that's the one I have, somewhere. Discogs has only 22 copies are known, does that mean I could be rich?!?! I definitely got my copy from Matt. They liked us and we liked them. Arty bands clump together. A great rhyming couplet from the cassette, "The nude is lying naked, And the naked is lying nude, Ones a piece of art, The other's a piece of food". I could pass it along to you if you would want.

Dave O'Halloran: Bought my copy many years ago and loved it from day one! Just digitized it this week. And now that quote above is going to be stuck in my noggin'.....LOL Gonna message you

Page Graham: We were doing so many live shows at CHRW back in the early '80s it was amazing! Unfortunately, due to the high cost of 1/4 recording tape, a lot of them get lost in the ether...unless somebody transcribed them to casette. 😉

I have no recollection of taking these photos. But if they were fronting for the Enemas then no doubt I would have been there. These look like available light, push processed B/W film. The grainy effect is nice, the lighting was pretty awful. Once again I would have pruned this down to a few photos worth sharing, Dave is more into archiving everything.

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

Ps. I've convinced Dave to stop using superlatives like "ace photographer". Kate thinks he means "ace" as in the movie "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" starring Jim Carrey.

— 2024/12/21 I have moved this post in my blog to the approximate date of the event ... ie. 1980/12/23

Enemas Again!

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Dave has been busy! Our friend Dave O'Halloran (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. This morning (August 29, 2024) Dave writes in The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group:

"Some more Reg Quinton pics, this time it's the Enemas at the Cedar Lounge, either Dec 22nd or 23rd [1980]. Actually able to date this one as I was at one or both these shows on Christmas break from Fanshawe.

The band consisted of: Brian Lambert, Oliver Kellhammer, Derek Graham, Blaine White and Greg Jarvie and were based out of Guelph ON."

I will refer you to yesteday's blog post for more information and links to previous posts. Suffice to say, this is clearly a different event from the two posted yesterday. I assume Dave has dated it accurately. 

Many thanks to Dave for his work sharing these memories. There are some very good photos that I'm especially pleased with in this album.

— 2024/12/20 I have moved this post to the approximate date of the event.

Enemas

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Our friend Dave O'Halloran (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. This morning (August 24, 2024) Dave writes in The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group:

"Some more Reg Quinton pics, this time it's the Enemas at the Cedar Lounge circa 1980. Looks like it's at least 2 different shows.

[The Enemas] were from Guelph and played the Cedar, Polish Hall and possibly other London locations.

The band consisted of Brian Lambert, Oliver Kellhammer, Derek Graham, Blaine White and Greg Jarvie.

They didn't release anything during their tenure, but did appear on 3 compilations; Animals Fight Back (cassette from London put out by Chris Richards), Hide #3 (artzine and cassette from Guelph) and Slippery's Club Hits (cassette from London put out by What Wave)."

I've gone through the photos Dave posted, eliminated duplicates and sorted them to show the two events. I also commented that I've blogged a bit about the Enemas (2015) and again Enemas (2020) so most of the pictures here will have been shared before. I believe the band scattered after they graduated from University; Brian remains an acquaintance of ours. I suspect the last time they played together might have been at the Graphic Underground London (2012) event celebrating Brian's book which helped to document that time.

An interesting comment was posted on Facebook by Henry Martinuk where he shares a Vimeo posting:

"The Dogs, The Anemics (my band), and The Enemas at The Woodshed in beautiful downtown Guelph, March 8 1980. The sound is extremely lo-fi"

Many thanks to Dave for sorting through these old photos of ours. He's a much appreciated archivist of the music scene we so much enjoyed.

— 2024/12/20 I have moved this post to the approximate date of the event

Forgotten Rebels

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A Facebook post of late April, 2001: Calling on your recollections, comments, etc...

I've found some very gritty, poorly exposed, never printed, never shared B&W negatives of mine from a show by Hamilton's Forgotten Rebels at the Cedar Lounge sometime around 1981 (I think). We used to see them a lot in the 80's -- this was probably the second time (the first being that Brucefield field party). I was shooting BW film and took a lot of pictures, the photo album is pruned of the truly god-awful but there's still a lot of crap in it. My alcohol consumption that night may explain the photo quality...

This lineup had Mickey deSadist (vocals), Mike Mirabella (gtr), John Welton (bass), and Rob Allan (drums). Not much like what we had seen in Brucefield. They had released "Tomorrow Belongs to Us" ('79) and "In Love with the System" ('80). They were working on and were soon to release "This Ain't Hollywood" (1982). All are classic albums from the era.

Kate got talking to the girl friend of Rob the drummer and somehow we managed to go upstairs in the break between sets and took some pictures. They were staying there overnight and it was not a great place .. at all. Kate invited them to come stay at our home the next time they were in town and they did a few times.

We never did figure out if their tunes were punk parody or really reflective of their held views (on Elvis, immigration, the Beatles, etc.

I recall they used to do a great version of Liam Clancy's "The Streets of London", I don't think it was ever recorded...

"Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London,

I'll show you something to make you change your mind."

Shawn Watson commented, "The Anti-Nowhere League also did a cover of Streets of London. Thanks for posting! "

Rick Smith recalls, "I knew them at that time, met them all in Port Stanley at the hotel. Just before the release of This Ain't Hollywood. About 100 of us and the band and roadies, jumped into the back of 2 U-Haul trucks. And had an after party with the band, in St. Thomas. That night they handed me the master recording of the soon to be released album. I put it in my stereo and just cracked it, first time anyone there. Other than the band had heard This Ain't Hollywood. What a effing party that was!"

I'm not sure when this gig happened but I suspect it late 1980 before we moved to Wortley Village. I have arbitrarily filed this note in my blog for a date around that time.