Itsa Skitsa

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During April of 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I've been busy scanning my old slides and negatives. I came across some black and white negatives dated 1986 of the band Itsa Skitsa playing at what I guessed to be the Key West club in London. As always I went to Facebook fans of that era and got a load of information. 

My call for help in the 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario Facebook group went like this ...

Looking for you recollections ... again. I have some BW pictures of Itsa Skitsa I've recently scanned which seem to be from 1986. It looks like it might have been at Key West on Talbot St (definitely London). If you have any recollections to share I'd appreciate it. (I have previously shared color photos from a CTO gig).

I do recall them being very good musicians with quirky post-punk rhythms. They did have a track "Warning" on the CHRW London Underground LP (86);  there was a demo tape (again '86) with "Simple Kiss", "Tell You" and "Will We Ever". If anyone has collected more of their music I'd like to hear it again.

I believe the band had Doug Campbell - drums, percussion; Paul Scriven - guitars, vocals; Damien Seguin - guitars, vocals; Iain Staines - bass, vocals. In these pictures there's a third person singing. A guest/friend?

I seem to recall they were an evolution of the band called "Soma".

Ps. From these pictures I think they might have been called "Men w/o Shirts"

They released a self titled six (6) tune EP in 1987 (see Discogs for more information) which I have digitized into my iTunes collection. On listening again to their music I think they were in the Pop or New Wave genre.

Mark Goodwin, who was active in the London scene at the time, identified the singer "Pretty sure the mystery vocalist is DaNa STone friend of the band and all around good guy." Dave O'Hallaran confirmed my suspicions that it was the Key West club. Marcy Marcy got in contact with some of the band members and reports "the boys are racking their brains to remember these gigs, but loving the pics! Your photos are such a treasure. A gift to all the bands you photographed."

DaNa STone confirmed the club and shared the poster at left of events at the Key West in early August of 1986 which sets the date of these black and white images at either Friday August 8 or Saturday the 9th. He shared the poster and commented "Pretty sure it’s from this gig. Skitsa shows usually ended with a lengthy jam - my favs were with Doug and Marcy doing a “double drum”. I love seeing pics like this, reminding me of the great friends and wonderful Music Community that we were all part of. ;0)"

The poster is a very good representation of the music scene in London at the time. It's a veritable inventory of all that was going on. Young people making music of their own and having the time of their lives doing so. Gary Kaufman (who drummed for LMOTV) saw the poster and commented "Great to be included in that line-up....and yes, those were the days.." Kevin McKeon (also of LMOTV) recalls "it was such an exciting time with a bunch of bars within walking distance of each other that featured live bands playing original music most days of the week."

I've had a bit of a conversation on the side with DaNa STone. He tells me he's working on remastering the Itsa Skitsa EP which I had mentioned. He has a bunch of live tracks which might someday see the light of day. There are a few recordings I've found on YouTube but it is pretty sparse. We also talked about an 18 track LP "4 Days in November" they recorded back in 1984 at "ItsaBarn" where I have another connection. He confirms it was indeed the barn at Doug Campbell's home in an area called "Old South London". We lived nearby and knew his mother Mary Campbell (see also the Mary Campbell Housing Coop) as the barn was also used by our food coop. I recall seeing the band rehearse there several times.

DaNa has a history with the London music scene, Kate and I were just voyeurs on the side. He tells me he wasn’t around for Soma (I recall they rehearsed in that same barn). He writes "I’d lived in London in 79 working with a band called The Stoves - Paul [Scriven] was in that band. Doug [Campbell] and Damian [Seguin] were in Soma - I have some promo pics somewhere and I think a few demo songs - I believe with Ralph Dame and Rick Bowman. Iain [Staines], who I met in 79, came from The Demics."

At the mention of The Stoves I shared some photos from "Polish Hall - 1979 Stoves & Regulators". 

Finally, I have more color photos of Itsa Skitsa, some I've not shared before, from the same period.

• Itsa Skitsa at Call the Office
• Itsa Skitsa fronting for some other band.

These notes and photos scanned and organized during April 2021; this blog filed for the date of the August 9, 1986 show at Key West.

Michael "Cub" Koda

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Sometime in 1986 (What Wave Dave O'Hallaran remembers a show there on 4/17/1986) we saw Michael "Cub" Koda (1948-2000) perform at the Firehall in London. This would have been after his time with the band Brownsville Station. The Firehall catered more towards country, R&B, blues and classic rock. At the time I was more interested in punk and new wave.

I was shooting black and white film at the time which would have been developed a few months later. We used to buy long rolls of movie film and wind them onto 35mm cassettes. Developing film was a project often delayed until we had several rolls to tend to.

It looks like I was using available light rather than a flash so the film would have been push processed — hence the high contrast results. I never got around to looking at or printing the photos (the negatives are pretty crappy) until the COVID-19 Pandemic in the spring of 2021 when I was scanning a folder of old slides and negatives taken of bands in the 1980's. This was amongst them.

Dave O'Hallaran tells me, "I think we were there different nights, as the way I remember it, there was almost nobody at [the 4/17/1986] show and it was a weeknight. One of your pics shows a crowd and there certainly wasn't one at this show, audio tape confirms it. I remember Cub played the rest of the week there and was planning to get back, but never made it....saw him another time at Mingles and there was a crowd for that show. Those are some great pics you took Reg!!"

Scott Bentley recalls: "I did an interview with Kub for Scene magazine under an alias when he was at the Firehall. Pretty Kool guy!"

I recall little of the event but thought I'd share these photos for those who might remember more. It looks like an exciting performance and it seems to have been well attended. I must have been pretty pissed to have been taking pictures from the small stage.

This note and photo album prepared April, 2021. The blog entry is filed as on arbitrary date in the year when we saw the performance.

D.O.A. Circa '86

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D.O.A. were one of our favorite Canadian punk rock bands in the early 80's. We saw them at least three times in London, Ontario that I can recall and this photo album captures the band at their best. I recall seeing them the first time at the Embassy Hotel on Dundas, at Bullwinkles on King Street, and at the Mingles Bar at Talbot and Dundas. Their shows were always a hoot.

That's Dave Gregg in the photo at left (he later played with the The Real McKenzies and passed away in 2014 at 54 years). 

In the photo album you'll see Joe Keithley (Joey Shithead) on guitar, Dave Greg on guitar, Brian Gobles (Wimpy Roy) on bass and, I think, Dimwit on drums. I 

Brian passed away in 2014 at 57 years. 

This note prepared '21/03/17 during the pandemic and filed arbitrarily as Mar 17, 1986.

LMOTV & Sheep Look Up

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After scanning some old black and white negatives of mine during April of 2021 (this has sort of become my COVID-19 Pandemic Project) I posted to the "1980's Punk Rock in London" Facebook Group seeking some help with documenting the photos:

I'm looking for help ... again! I have some photos of a concert where "Sheep Look Up" and "LMOTV" played in London, sometime in the 1980's. I'm not sure of the date, I suspect it's mid 80's. It's in a concert hall of some sort with a large stage, I can't recognize the site. But there must be a balcony there -- some shots are from up high. So that ought to narrow things down. 

If you have any information about this concert please let me know.

Kate and I were fans of LMOTV, and even had them over to our house. I had contacted Jim Zucchero when I digitized an LMOTV C90 a few years ago (a "Basement Tape" backed with a "Studio Tape" 1985).  They were a clever quirky college band that seemed to fold at graduation.

Sheep Look Up were: Mark Deroux - bass, John Francom - piano, saxaphone, Greg Moore - drums, Will Power - vocals, Gilbert Smith - guitar. I have a digitized 4-song EP/C90 of them from 1983 and they appeared on a CHRW collection of 1986. I have other photos of them from other occasions.

In the photos I recognize Greg Moore drumming, Mark Deroux on bass in Sheep Look Up.

Gary Kaufman, who was the drummer for LMOTV, recognized the event and even had a ticket stub! It was a concert on Friday, February 1, 1986 at "the new" Centennial Hall, London sponsored by CHRW-FM (Radio Western) in cooperation with BFE  Productions. It was a concert by local bands with "The Waiting" as the headline act and with "Sheep Look Up", "October Crisis" and "LMO T.V." as opening acts.

Mark Goodwin recognized Andrew McPherson on saxophone playing with LMOTV and brought Andrew to the posting. Jeff Bialkowski identified the venue as Centennial Hall — I had guessed as much given the photos from the balcony looking down on the stage. I have reached out again to Jim Zucchero, who seems to be a Kings College, having contacted him back when I digitized the C90 tape.

Andrew McPherson had a lot of information about the event and wrote with some enthusiasm:

"Alright good peoples of the London days, thanks for inviting me into the club of wonderful memories here. This is indeed me fronting LMOTV at our beloved boomdome Centennial. I followed Dave ‘the dancing bear Andrews’ as their singer. I effin loved that band. The twin guitar attack with Kevin’s outrageous rawk posturing and Mesa Boogie ‘on 11’, Jim Z and Paul B holding down that skittery funk with Gary Kaufman rockin’ the bottom. And those insane lyrics. Heady days. I felt like such a welcome but slightly out of water guest into that well established vibe. And the Sheep. Geeeeesus did I wanna be in that band. Basically I worshipped them and the Suffers and Conning Tower. I loved Thin Line and FUNKINC!! but I secretly wanted to join everybody else’s band. Sorry MP Circelli, you know you’ll always have my heart. Bless for these pics. Amazing."

Andrew shared the pictures on his Facebook timeline and posted more information:

"Best #tbt in memory. Big thanks to Reg Quinton for these awesome pix into the past. Circa 1986, performing at Centennial Hall, London Ontario fronting an amazing band called LMOTV. I was asked to replace their super enigmatic and fantastic singer Dave 'the dancing bear' Andrews and they were some shoes to fill. I was just a snot nosed faculty of music student who had stumbled into this quirky original band. Drummer Gary Kaufman may have more to offer but they were like a mix of Talking Heads, Chris Spedding, Roxy Music and perhaps JJ Cale. I loved playing with them and these shots were from a great night with fellow London bright lights, Sheep Look Up, The Waiting and October Crisis. Man, what I'd do to have a head o' hair like that now. If memory serves, my bandmates were the aforementioned Gary, Jim Zucchero, Kevin McKeown and Paul Brennan. Ah the good ol' days. "

In the photo above of LMOTV playing we have Andrew McPherson on saxophone, Kevin McKeown in the foreground on guitar, and Jim Zucchero on the background on guitar. The band's name is a play on the "Lieitmotif" and confusingly should be written as "LMO T.V." (a convention nobody followed).

Oddly I haven't, as yet, found any photos of "October Crisis" or "The Waiting" from this concert. I have found some additional color photos of LMOTV at this concert and will add them to the album. I'll continue my efforts to organize old photos and may well come across more that I can add to.

Many thanks to all who were able to share their thoughts and memories. I am pleased that these photos have brought back your great memories. If you're after more here's photo album I can share: LMOTV at Call the Office sometime around 1985.

This note and photo album composed April of 2021 during the COVID-19 Pandemic and filed by concert date.

A postscript note left August 18, 2021 in my photo album:

Hi - This is Greg Inwood. I was the bass player in the original lineup of L.MO.TV. with Jim Zuchero, Kevin McKewon, Dave Andrew, and Ray Martini. Dave and Ray switched back and forth on drums and singing lead. Jim, Ray and I came from a UWO band called the Ecks which morphed into the original L.MO.TV. This sure brings back memories - Call the Office, the Vic Tavern, the Spoke, some dive in Ailsa Craig... And opening for Doug and the Slugs at Centennial Hall at some Liberal Party fundraiser for Paul Martin when he was running for PM (I think). We made a 4 song demo that played on CHRW. One of the songs, Landsat, made it to #2! Wonder if there is any copy of it anywhere? I have the cassette, but nothing to play it and it is probably unplayable anyway. I don't think I ever met some of the subsequent players in the band, but glad you guys kept it rockin'!

I have a C90 cassette (mentioned above) that I have digitized and am happy to share with Greg.