Wednesday, August 15, 1984

The Terminals.

Click image for more photos ...
On '21/04/29 I asked on the 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario Facebook group:

"Digging through old slides I have these color photos of the Terminals at Victoria Tavern (helpfully identified by Dave O'Halloran) circa 1984 which have been shared before. 

But then Google facial identification found some additional BW photos from another concert (I know not where). If you have any thoughts, memories, etc. about the Terminals or either of these events please share. 

I'm curious about the drummer in the BW photos, that can't be the same as in the color photos. One is Pete Timmins but surely they're different people. The BW drummer looks so much younger."

And, sure enough, I quickly got the answers and feedback from loyal fans of the era. Dave O'Halloran identified the Victoria Tavern in the color slides and named the players: "Terminals at Victoria Tavern and 84 sounds right for the date. Mike Timmins gtr/vocals, Dave Clark grt/vocals, Laurie Wedge bass, Pete Timmins  drums."

Dave and others quickly identified the young drummer in the black and white photos as James MacLean who drummed with them from '79-82 when Pete Timmins took over the roll. He also pointed out that all of this is well documented in What Wave #24 (which I have somewhere). In any case, that information helps to set the time frame for those photos. 

After some discussion there's agreement that those BW photos would have been for a gig at the Embassy Hotel (Mike Timmins recalls the poster created by Dave Clark as seen behind James which advertises Aug 9, 10, 11). Dave O'Halloran recognizes the ceiling tiles, etc. as the Embassy. From What Wave #24 I see that Laurie Wedge (bass) and James MacLean (drums) were together in the band in '81 but Mike Timmins assures us that this gig would have been in '82. So I'll tag those pictures as being from Aug 9-10, 1981 at the Embassy Tavern, London. 

Michelle Lundy noticed, if you do a close up of Laurie Wedge’s pant leg in the BW photos, you'll find the slogan "So I kill children".  Quite the punk ethos!

The band had some avid fans who remember them fondly. On the Facebook thread we have:

Larry Brandt: "Love this. All these people were great. (and no doubt, they still are) (not quite sure what to say about those shorts Dave..... LOL)"

Ian Trotter: "These guys where crazy entertaining"

The thread got lots of engagement and several comments on the photos which I'm happy to share.

The Terminals are mentioned in "The Beginnings of Punk Rock in London" (What Wave Dave O'Halloran's blog) and appear on the What Wave #24 compilation (Side B): "The Terminals – D Generation:  Hardcore punk. Think D.O.A. The kind of stuff your parents hate. 1984 studio sessions." The London Music Archives hosted by CHRW (sadly offline at this writing) had a 1984 single: The Terminals - "We Killed" b/w "Don't Yell, Buy Us Beer". There's much more to discover if you dig deeper.

Given all the above it's not exactly clear when the later gig happened. I have arbitrarily filed this in my blog with a summer of '84 date and I'm happy to share these photos.

This blog composed during April of 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Slides and negatives were scanned in 2012.