Demics

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These are some scanned images of the Demics performing around 1980/81. When you hear people talk about "seminal" bands it seldom applies. For the Demics, it was and is appropriate. They were ground breaking in the punk movement in London, Ontario.

Their song "New York City" captured the moment. 

In the photo album there's a set that are clearly from the Cedar Lounge in London with the original line up of vocalist Keith Whittaker, guitarist Rob Brent, bassist Iain Atkinson-Staines and drummer J. D. Weatherstone. 

There's another set of photos that were taken at an outdoor concert north of the city (I think it was near Brucefield in 1981). You can tell it's later as Iain's hair is much longer. Rob Brent has been replaced by Steve Koch on guitar.

These photos were scanned around 2005 using a Dimage II scanner I had bought to scan wedding anniversary pictures (on the occasion of our 25th). These photos have been in circulation for some time. For example, some are found in this YouTube posting of a live version of "400 Blows".

This note composed during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2021. I've arbitrarily filed these in my blog as October 1, 1981.

Los Popularos, Embassy

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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, April 2, 2024, Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario:

  

"Here's some excellent pics of Los Popularos, taken by local photog Reg Quinton.

Believe the date is Sept 1981 and definitely at the Embassy Hotel, London ON. Originally thought it was Pointed Sticks and was in contact with their FB page and they were able to confirm it is Los Popularos. Pictured are Tony Bardach on bass, Gord Nicholl on keys, Bill Scherk on vocals, Art Bergman on guitar and Zippy Pinhead on the drums. Tony and Gord were both in Pointed Sticks, hence my confusion. Any corrections, please LMK.

Believe I was at this show and definitely saw Presence (audio exists from this show of them thanx to that white styrofoam head spotted in the crowd, ie Peter Moore) but being a weeknight, may have had to leave early.

As an aside, if anyone has a copy of Los Popularos Born Free EP (mine's gone missing) or their 7" I'm into trading/buying/whatever."

I recall seeing this band. The bass player with a mess of hair hanging over his face was pretty strange. The Embassy, now long gone, was an east end bar in London on Dundas. We saw several bands there over the years.

Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing photos and figuring out the location and time for many of these photos. I don't think that any of these have been shared before today.

There are some very poor quality photos here, some are out of focus, but there some gems. Usually I'd prune an album down to just the few photos I'm especially proud of. I've always said the secret to taking good pictures is to take a lot of bad ones. Dave is more encyclopedic in his choice of photos to share. So, for an historical record, here they are. 

See Los Popularos on Discogs — I see they've cribbed a photo from this collection.

— 2024/12/21 I have moved this post in my blog to the approximate date of the event ... sometime in September of 1981.

Brucefield Field Concert

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I posted a call for memories to Facebook on April 11, 2021. I am looking for help with some old photos scanned during March of 2021 (during the COVID-19 lockdown). Sorting and digitizing old photos has been a pandemic project for me.
I'm looking for your memories .... there was a field concert near Brucefield hosted by Richard Stevens in the late summer of 1981. Kate and I were married just a year then and had rented a car so we could go and stay for the day — I wanted her to see the Demics who had moved to Toronto and weren't around London as much. In spite of a very good concert lineup there weren't a lot there to see the show. The concert was out in a farmer's field, the stage was a flat bed trailer. I'm told there was even a pig-roast but I have no recollection of that.


During the day the Forgotten Rebels played (that would have been the first time we'd seen them), another band that I can't recall (it might have been the System from Toronto) and later in the afternoon it rained quite a bit. We hunkered down in our car and saw a twister coming down but it never touched the ground. The Demics played after sunset when the rain had let up and I've shared those pictures before. There has been some previous comments/posts on this event.


This photo album has some crowd pictures, the FR's and another band I can't recall. If you were there and can share some memories that would be great. I've added my pictures of the Demics from the same event which have been shared already.


David Clark recalls: "Best moment of the day was Mickey DeSadist [of the Forgotten Rebels] saying something about the punk rock revolution being powered by a Honda generator."


Dave O'Halloran recalls: "That was August or Sept 1981 somewhere near Brucefield. Posted some pictures from this gig a little while ago and the farmer's name that owned the field, Richard Stevens came up. Apparently there was a pig roast there as well, but can't recall. The System from Toronto played, along with Zellots, Forgotten Rebels, Demics and probably more...."
Ps. I'd really like to identify the second band/bands, if you can help, let me know. Apologies for the poor quality BW photos. They're what I have.


Since we're not sure when this event actually happened during the later summer of 1981 so I have arbitrarily filed it in my blog under August of that year.

East Coast

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In early July we explored a bit the East Coast of Canada. Kate and her ARF colleagues (Bob, Brian and Louis) had an EAP conference in St. John's Newfoundland. I was invited to come along, carry the luggage and join in the fun. On this adventure we were in St John's, St Pierre and Miquelon (France), Cape Breton, Halifax and Peggy's Cove. That's Peggy's Cove in the picture at left.

We arrived to find St John's much cooler than we had expected — we had left sunny and warm to find it about 9C, overcast, raining, windy and people were in their parkas! But the weather did turn around to 20C and more. I recall sunny days where we visited Quidi Vidi Harbor and hiked over Signal Hill to come down into the Battery. While we were hiking Signal Hill the boys in our gang went out to sea with a small fishing boat — they got to talking with the fishers and were invited along for the ride. There was a conference day where we visited Cape Spear, Quidi Vidi (again), a fishing village south of Cape Spear and back again to Signal Hill. I had time of my own, while Kate was at the conference, to explore the city. 

We stayed in a student residence at Memorial University where the conference was held. There are several pictures where it looks like our room was party central. It was. Some of our group woke us up early one morning — they were going to attend the AA meeting and wanted to know if we had anything left to drink. One of these all night boys was Kate's boss Bob (an Episcopalian minister).

We spent several evenings exploring the bars in town. I recall getting into one bar that had only just reopened at midnight (it had been closed for some serving violation) and staying very late when they were supposed to be closed! Kate danced with Louis and Brian. We went home in relatively decent time, some of our gang staggered home very late. All the worse for wear given our plans for the next day.

After the conference the gang of us hired a taxi to take us to Fortune on the Burin Peninsula where we took a ferry out to St Pierre and Miquelon. It was a long hung over drive across the Avalon Peninsula to the north west (past places like Come by Chance) and then down the Burin Peninsula to the South and west. Google maps has it as a 4 hour drive. It seemed like a very long drive over mostly scruffy land.

The ferry to St Pierre and Miquelon (we were in the largest town at St Pierre) takes an hour and a half but at the end of the ride you're in France! Fortunately Louis, who was born and raised in Montreal, had a good command of the language. In spite of this being a struggling fishing village one still dined late and formal. And our hotel seemed to have old European plumbing — we couldn't have more than one shower going at a time between our two rooms. The water flow was a meagre trickle. The three men (Bob, Louis and Brian) shared a room next door to ours.

So we had a day in France and then flew back to Canada on a small turbo prop plane arriving at the Sydney Airport on Cape Breton Island. There we rented a car and headed off for what should have been a 4-5 hour drive to Halifax where we were expected that evening at a dinner party hosted by some friends from the Nova Scotia equivalent of ARF. We loaded up with a case of beer for the car ride and each of us got a bottle of wine to take to the party .... when we arrived at the party we were late and only one bottle of wine remained.

That evening, at some fancy hotel in downtown Halifax, Brian and Louis had had enough of Bob so he stayed in our room. Late in the evening, I must admit alcohol was involved, we three scaled the fence to go for a swim in the hotel pool. A very tolerant security guard came around and sent us home to bed. They could have kicked us out! Lee, the secretary who had booked us into the hotel, had us listed as Reverend Brooks, Doctor Graham and Professor Quinton — only one of those titles was accurate. Kate did finish her PhD. some years later, I never finished mine.

The last morning Bob and Reg went to Peggy's Cove, which is only a short distance to the south. It's a pretty spot with a lighthouse and sheltered bay. Reg discovered that there were all these wild mussels in the bay and tried one ... raw .... Later that morning he was sick as a dog and we almost missed our plane back to Toronto.

Looking back I'd say "We were kinda crazy then".

— Slides from 1981 scanned in April of 2023, these notes prepared from hazy memories of the adventures.

Nach Dem Tode

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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 9, 2024) Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario group:

"Some more Reg Quinton pics, this time it's Nach Dem Tode at Fryfogles circa 1981.

At this time, the band consisted of; Rob Gliddon, Brian Lambert, Donna Turner and Maurice Carroll."

Some details — Rob Gliddon (formerly of NFG) plays bass as does Brian Lambert (formerly of The Enemas). Donna Turner is voice, I gather that's Maurice Carroll on keyboards and, although not listed, I'm pretty sure it was Peter Lambert (Brian's brother and formerly of NFG) on the drum kit. As might be expected their music was very bass centric; it was also very experimental and well outside the "punk" mainstream. You could dance to it but it wouldn't be a pogo!

I do recall this event, I had a mono-cassette from the event that I passed on to Brian a few years ago. That's been digitized into my iTunes collection without song titles (that's the cover I made above for the iTunes album). There was also a cassette, "The Crow Dancer", that came out around 1986 and that's also digitized into my iTunes collection. Brian has a lot of his solo work available under Nach Dem Tode on Bandcamp including the "Crow Dancer" but I'm sure it's not the same.

Rob Gliddon says "This was either the pre-Stranglers show or when we opened for the Stranglers. The Free Press described us as 'Amateurish dirge music'". As we never went to the Stranglers show (I would remember that!) this must have been the pre-Stranglers show.

Google translate tells me that "Nach dem tode" is German and means "after death". That might give an additional hint to the musical style.

Again, many thanks to Dave O'Halloran for sorting through these old photos and sharing them for others to enjoy. The photo album Dave shared to Facebook has a lot of duplicates. I've pruned it down here but left the poorly composed and badly out of focus ... for completeness sake.

— Postscript. In early September Dave found some B/W photos (scanned negatives) of this event which have been added to the collection. He had originally guessed that these new photos were from a Cedar Lounge event and posted to the FB Cedar Lounge group but Rob Gliddon and I both agreed that these were from the same Fryfogles event (the clothing matches). Most of these B/W photos are dirty, grungy and many are sadly out of focus. But there's always a gem in the rough to be found.

— 24/12/20 I have moved this post to the approximate date of the event.

Zellots, Mingles

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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, May 11, 2024, Dave writes in The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group:

 

"Here's some more Zellots pics by Reg Quinton as Reg pointed out that I had already posted the Zellots pics from the Cedar. 

This time it's at Mingles, possibly opening for Simple Minds circa 1981 with Greg Moore behind the kit."

In these photos the band consisted of Christine DeVeber (guitar), Catherine Destun (voice), Jane Colligan (bass) and  Greg Moore (drums). Christine passed away recently in London during the pandemic; here's her 2022 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. There are some tunes available on YouTube — see, for example, the Empty Victories playlist.

Dave had previously shared some photos of the Zellots at the Cedar Lounge which were taken earlier (different drummer, BW photos). I do recall seeing Simple Minds at Mingles and I'm pretty sure this was the opening act — the stark lighting is what sticks with me. 

Mingles was a bar at the corner of Talbot and Dundas Streets in London. The Firehall (see 63 Monroe at the Firehall in this blog) was attached on the Talbot Street side. We saw several bands at these bars back in the day. These bars and buildings are long gone, like the Cedar Lounge which was down the street one block on Talbot, and were replaced by the Budweiser Gardens (a large arena complex) which has a faux-frontage to mimic the original Talbot Inn hotel.

Many thanks to Dave for organizing the photos, figuring out the location, date and time. It's work that is very much appreciated.

— 2024/12/21 I have moved this post in my blog to an approximate date for the event... sometime in 1981

Leon Redbone

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Kate and I saw Leon Redbone at Fryfogle's Tavern in London some time in 1981 (I'm not sure of the precise date). Wikipedia describes him as

"Leon Redbone (born Dickran Gobalian, August 26, 1949 – May 30, 2019) was an American singer-songwriter and musician specializing in jazz, blues, and Tin Pan Alley classics."

He had a lovely baritone voice and played guitar. There was a small group with him including a Tuba player. He also had various "props" to keep things interesting including a starter's pistol which he pulled out and fired when attention seemed to lag. Scared the hell out of everyone, but certainly got their attention!

At the time Kate and I lived in a brownstone walkup across from the city hall in downtown London. Dundas Street and Fryfogles was a short walk away. Fryfogle's played all sorts of music. Leon Redbone would certainly fit into the "all sorts" category. At the time we were exploring various music styles; this was one end of the bell curve.

This note and photo album composed in April, 2021. The blog entry is filed on an arbitrary date in 1981.

Radio 4

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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 (November 2, 2024) Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario group:

"Some more Reg Quinton pics, this time it's Radio 4 at the Cedar Lounge circa 1981.

Radio 4 sorta morphed out of VD Teens and Raw Dogs, 2 bands that played a few shows in London. Later Radio 4 evolved into the much better known Sheep Look Up in 1982. Sheep Look Up released an EP, cassette and appeared on a couple compilations. At the time, we believed they were one of the local bands that were going to make it. They had the talent, the originality, the drive, the songs.....just not in the right place at the right time.

Pictured are; Mark DeRoux, Matt Owens and Brian Bouge. The drummer could be either Paul Venno or Brian Embry."

There are some sadly out of focus pictures in this small collection which I'd normally not share. Dave likes to archive them all so here they are for all to enjoy. I've removed some duplicates.

Many thanks to Dave for preserving these memories and organizing our photos.

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