63 Monroe, Firehall

63 Monroe in 1983 at the Firehall on Talbot Street in London around 1983. Scott Bentley (Steven R. Stunning), Markii Burnaway, Peter Dekoker and Jeff (Rooster) Roth. The evolution of NFG but just as crazy.

These are high contrast (push processed) black and white photos and most were taken with a very wide angle lens which explains the bent instruments. There's some nice photos of Markii as a guitar god, Pete on bass and Scott in full voice but what I really like is the photos of Rooster on drums. We miss Rooster.

I was a little tipsy that night and felt no compunction about jumping up on stage and sticking my camera right into everyones' faces. Usually I'm too shy for such silliness but it seems to have paid off with some in your face photos!

Here's the photo album.

NFG at the Polish Hall

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NFG was a notorious punk riot on three chords in London, Ontario. These photos are from a 1979 gig at the Polish Hall. Peter Lambert thinks they were probably opening for the Demics, or it might have been the Sidewinders.
This is the original version of the band -- pre Mark Deroux on bass, pre Markii Burnaway on guitar, pre Rooster on drums. There's Simon Lewis and Larry Gifford (he's wearing a beret) on guitars, Bob Gliddon on bass, Pete Lambert on drums and Scott Bentley on voice.

Put your big boy panties on now.

Here's some photos from the show.

The Forgotten Rebels

The Forgotten Rebels are/were a Hamilton punk band who sometimes played in London. These photos are from a couple of gigs in 1982 at the Cedar Lounge and at Fryfogles -- both bars are long since gone.

Mikey DeSadist (the pimply faced wastrel in the photos) was the singer and wrote their tunes .... "Bomb the Boats and Feed the Fish", "Elvis is Dead", "No Beatles Reunion", etc. We often wondered if these outlandish sentiments were in jest or not and we did ask -- the band sometimes stayed with us when they played the Cedar Lounge.

While I can take credit for some of these photos my school chum Neil Farnsworth (who shot our wedding photos) was involved as well. You can find him in a few photos with one of my Canons and a 16mm lens. So he takes credit for some of these photos.

In those days we'd buy 50' rolls of TriX film, wind it onto canisters and then Kate and I would develop it weeks if not months later in our kitchen. 

Some of the negatives in this collection are in awful condition -- dusty, scratched, etc. But they're historically interesting for some of us.

Here's an album of photos and another from a different gig from back in the day.

NFG at the Cedar Lounge

NFG at the Cedar Lounge, 1980. Scott, Markii, Bob and Pete (and do I see Mark Deroux). Another wild night, many a wild night ...

Here's a photo album.

Hey Loretta!

Last Wednesday we went to see Hey Loretta (Blair and Tara) at the Blackshire in London where the burger special is actually pretty special. Kate had a veggie burger and it too was pretty special.

These photos suffer from the abysmal lighting. Nevertheless they're here to share.

The Enemas

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The Enemas were a college band from Guelph who played a few times at the Cedar Lounge in London (where these photos were taken). I think they scattered on graduation. The Enemas were one of my favorite bands of that time — circa 1980. I recall seeing them "before Kate (BK)" as I was discovering the punk scene and avoiding my Ph.D. work.

 
The group was Greg Jarvie (drums), Oliver Kellhammer (vocals), Derek Graham (guitar), Blaine White (guitar) and Brian Lambert (bass). Brian Lambert (on bass) was a London native who we made friends with. His brother Pete drummed with NFG/63 Monroe.

Here's some of my photos, B/W and color as well, from back in the day.

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If you liked my previous color album of the Enemas you might like these B/W photos from a concert around Christmas of 1980. Again, at the Cedar Lounge. Joe Wyatt (why'd you do it?), Picture yourself (at Guelph!) Redneck Teenagers, and more...

The group was Greg Jarvie (drums), Oliver Kellhammer (vocals), Derek Graham (guitar), Blaine White (guitar) and Brian Lambert (bass).

I have a very rough C90 cassette of some of their music that Brian gave me. He has recently posted a couple of their tunes, using some of these pictures, as YouTube videos. See The Enemas - Joe Wyatt (2020) and The Enemas - Gang War (2020) both from the same 1979 "Living Room Session" (1979).

See also more of my blog on the Enemas (2020) and the Graphic London Underground (2012).

The Polish Hall

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The Polish Hall, on Ann Street in London, Ontario, was sometimes a venue for all age punk shows in the early 1980's. This is from a concert I attended with my chum Sandy from UWO -- this must have been the spring of 1980 before Kate and I met. I recall two bands shown here -- the Stoves and the Regulators. And several in the audience who attended in costume. I enjoyed the music immensely but I have vivid memories of a ringing in my ears that lasted for hours. It was a fun time.

These photos are to share with those who can recall those exciting times. This was a punk concert at the Polish Hall in London, Ontario. It's either 1979 or early 1980 (definitely "Before Kate"). There were several bands playing to an enthusiastic all ages audience.

Photos are of two bands -- the Stoves and the Regulators. It was loud, really loud. I recall my ears ringing for hours afterwards and not knowing what the hell had gone on! I don't recall ever seeing either band again...

Here's some photos from the event.

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Postscript: this event was in fact a Halloween Party on November 2 of 1979 with NFG, The Sinners and The Regulators on the billing. The event is better documented by Various Artists (Brent Wootton) in his My Life in Concerts blog (2020).

An Austin Hodge Podge

2015-02 - Austin: This is a hodge podge collection of photos from our stay in Austin during February and March of 2015. There's pictures of our road trip with the cats (we drove to Austin). Some of the cottage we rented in the Bouldin Creek area of town. Biking on the trail around Lady Bird Lake (aka Town Lake). Lots of restaurant shots (our guests, Kate and me too). I am posting several albums of different events/topics which you might find interesting as well.

Strange Brew

2015-02 - Strange Brew: Strange Brew Loungeside is a great place in south Austin to see live music. It's a large coffee shop in a non-descript mall with an attached lounge for live music which might hold 150 people at most. Each night they'll have three or more different performers with an hour and a half for each. We like it because the acts are often people we follow or of a type that we ought to follow. And we can go to early shows which is important for geezers like us.

It's a place where people listen to music -- there's even a “Silence” sign to encourage patrons to be quiet. While you can get a drink here it's not the noisy bar scene.

This year we saw Jimmie Dale Gilmore of Flatlanders fame (with Chris Gage and David Carrol supporting); The Hems (a talented pair in the style of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings) who I'd really recommend; Chris Gage has a regular gig and we went a couple of times when his guests were Danny Britt and Jeff Tveraas; Matt the Electrician has a regular gig and we caught Slaid Cleaves who I'd really recommend; we saw Butch Hancock of Flatlanders fame (with Bob Livingston and Richard Bowden supporting); caught a CD release party for Stephen Doster; and bumped into James McMurtry one night when his son Curtis was playing.

There are lots of places in Austin to see good live music. This is one of the best. HIghly recommended.

KDRP Larry Monroe Tribute

2015-03-11 - KDRP Larry Monroe Tribute: On our last night in Austin we went to a KDRP Sun Radio Live Broadcast a Guero's under the live oaks. The live radio show is a regular Wednesday event for the last three years -- last year we luckily caught a Joe Ely show on our last night. This show was a special all star tribute and another stroke of luck for us.

The show is to become an annual tribute to Larry Monroe, a DJ at Sun Radio who died in January of 2014. Sun Radio is an independent station funded by the community and very supportive of local music. You can find them on the Internet and stream all their shows. Larry Monroe, who we knew nothing about, was a mentor to many of the DJ's and a free spirit who refused to be bound by corporate playlists. He carved his own path and is much admired by performers, listeners and fellow DJ's at KDRP and other stations.

The first hour of the show you might recognize Butch Hancock who was the first performer (with his son Rory), then Jimmie Dale Gilmore (with his son Colin). We were very impressed with Guy Forsyth with his band (and very young daughter joining in). We had caught Guy at a Saxon pub show one Monday night and were well entertained both times. Butch, well, can you ever get too much of Butch.

The second hour had Bill Carter with Gabe Rose (we saw Bill last year at Strange Brew), then an older fellow Tex Thomas (aka Harvey Young?) and ended with Van Wilkes (an amazing guitarist).

The last hour (yes this was a three hour free/donation show) had Two Tons of Steel from San Antonio (we had seen them here earlier in our trip), Eve and the Exiles (she looks like a young Chrissy Hynde) and the Le Roi Brothers. This set was really rocking.

The show closed with the ensemble singing "I'll Fly Away". Quite the show and a wonderful ending to our Winter Escape to Austin Texas.

Townes Van Zandt Birthday Bash

2015/03/08 17th Annual Townes Van Zandt Birthday Bash at the Cactus Cafe: Butch Hancock organized the 17th Annual Townes Van Zandt Birthday Bash at the Cactus Cafe on the UT Campus in Austin on Saturday March 7 -- Townes' birthday. This was a sold out event with a large cast of characters including Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Jimmie Lafave and many more who were new to me. This is an annual event that Butch organizes to celebrate the music of one of Texas most gifted writers who lived hard, wrote and performed well and, unfortunately, died young.

We (Kate, Cindy and I) had good seats up front where we chatted quite a bit with Rory Hancock, Butch's son on electric Fender. And we made friends while waiting to get in with a couple of very pleasant young men who work at the Mohawk (a bar on Red River) and are rabid fans of Townes' music. They bought me a beer -- Firemans No 4!

So many of our music adventures are vicarious adventures for our friend Pat who introduced us to this music many years ago. Pat loved Texas music but would never have travelled to experience it for himself. Instead we do that for him. It would be wonderful to return home and tell Pat about this show, seeing these performers and learning to love Townes many tunes. That cannot be.

Anyways, some pictures from the event... and, as I've said before, can you really get too much of Butch Hancock?

Joey, tell me it ain't so!

This was a WTF moment at Waterloo Records on Lamar in Austin -- a Joey (Shithead) Keithley of DOA fame bobble head doll. And it was clearance priced too!!

The artwork was nice and the figure reasonably accurate but oh Joey, tell me it ain't so!

Austin Hill Country

2015-02 Hill Country: This photo album documents some of our adventures in the hill country around Austin during our winter trip of 2015.

We made it out of the city a couple of times to investigate wineries -- there are some good ones (but beware many are using grapes grown in other parts of Texas). We also found a place growing and pressing olives and brought back some really good olive oil.

One of my favorite BBQ's is the "Salt Lick" near Dripping Springs. I was very surprised to discover you could also get Salt Lick BBQ at the airport!

On one of our wine tours we went to Poodies Roadhouse near Spicewood where we saw Tessy Lou and the Shotgun Stars -- I liked her music but the sound system wasn't very good.

And finally there's some pictures of Gruene Texas where we had a lunch at the Old Mill and caught an afternoon show by the Bo Phillips Band at Gruene Hall.

Gary P Nunn at The Broken Spoke

2015-03-06 Gary P Nunn at The Broken Spoke: Friday night at the Broken Spoke with Gary P. Nunn and the Sons of the Mother Lovin' Bunkhouse Band! Wow! Gary does Texas dance hall music and the Broken Spoke is the perfect place. We arrived early for the dance lessons which seemed to be a loosely organized wrestling match. But the music started so too did the dancing -- Texas two steps, waltzes, line dancing and more.

Over the years we've seen Gary at the Broken Spoke several times, the first back in 1990. Then a couple of years ago at the Luckenbach dance hall. He's always a treat -- "London Homesick Blues", "You Ask Me What I Like About Texas", "Town and Country Taverns" and so many more original tunes. We bought his latest CD, "Taking Texas to the Country", to add to our rapidly expanding collection

The Broken Spoke continues. You wonder why it hasn't fallen into the ground.

South Congress (SoCo)

2015-02 South Congress: Kate and I were in Austin this winter. We stay south of the river near Congress Ave -- an area also known as SoCo. This album is a hodge podge taken in the area. Street scenes, posters, neon lights and some dinners and events at Guero's Taco Bar where you'll often find us on a sunny weekend afternoon.

Austin, Misc Music

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These are photos from various gigs we caught while in Austin during our winter stay during February and March of 2015. There are other albums I've already shared for some of the shows we saw. This collection is a bit of a hodge-podge but might be of interest to some. 

It begins with Sunday breakfast at Threadgill's and an odd punk reunion at End of an Ear (a record store just around the corner from our place). 

Then on to the Broken Spoke where we saw Amanda Cevallos. She recognized us from previous visits. We also saw her as a presenter at the Ameripolitan Music Awards where Tara Dunphy (of Rizdales fame) was up for an award. 

We caught Terri Hendrix with Lloyd Maines at the Cactus Cafe on the UT campus. We saw her last year as well. 

Then some pictures from the Ameripolitan Music Awards. One of the highlights (beyond the local connection with Tara) was the award for Billy Joe Shaver as one of the founders of the genre (truely he is). As Billy Joe was not well that evening Joe Ely (who we really love but seldom see) accepted the award for Billy Joe and sang his song "I'm Gonna Live Forever". A real highlight of the evening. 

An oddity about Austin Music. They have live music every where, even at the airport! Ray Benson (of Asleep at the Wheel fame) has a bar there..... and you can get your Salt Lick BBQ at the airport as well. 

We caught Christy Hays at Patsy's Cowgirl Café out by the airport one night. And we made it out to Donn's Depot one Monday after the El Mercado to see Chris Gage play. He has a regular gig with interesting people dropping in. 

We saw James McMurtry, Kasey Crowley and bunch of great writers at the Quarterly Tertulia at the Continental Club Gallery. We also saw James at a CD release one afternoon at Waterloo Records. 

We went to the Saxon Pub a few times and caught David Grissom (recommended by some folks we met early in our trip), Guy Forsyth and the Hot Nut Riveters (a really fun band -- we also saw Guy at the KDRP Larry Monroe Benefit on our last night) and a cow poke Bob Hearns who had just picked up a lovely hand built guitar from some luthier in town. 

This year we were in town for Butch Hancock's birthday celebration of the life of Townes Van Zandt at the Cactus Café. Lots of interesting performers doing Townes tunes and another opportunity for us to see Butch and Jimmie Dale. Townes is held in very high esteem. He's a writer whose legend lives on. 

There's some pictures of CD release gigs at Waterloo Records -- Steve Earle and James McMurtry. Both excellent. 

We saw Tessie Lou and the Shotgun Stars at Poodies Hilltop Lounge outside of town and Bo Phillips' Band at Gruene Hall near San Antonio. 

KUTX MapJam is an outdoor event where you bike from place to place in East Austin. Again the weather was perfect. I was really impressed by a young singer and band by the name of Ruby Jane who performed at the French Legation. Quirky voice, interesting tunes, strong band and she plays violin as well. 

Another musical find for us was Mike Stinson who we caught at Ginny's Little Longhorn saloon. Great tunes that I can't stop humming. Really glad Kate bought the album -- sorry we didn't buy both!

Maria's Taco Express is an odd restaurant that features live music. On a sunny day it's a great place to be for lunch. Food and drinks are excellent as well.

We caught Los Pinky's, a Conjunto band, at the White Horse. A real dive of a bar (apparently it used to be worse), but an interesting place none the less. And I like the accordion and guitar twang of Conjunto -- I only wish I knew more Spanish. 

The final gig in this collection is the Annual General Meeting of the Healthcare Alliance for Austin Musicians where we caught Marcia ball and Shelley King. We had fun.

SoCo Homes

2015-02 - SoCo Homes: When we're in Austin for our winter escapes we stay at a Vacation Cake property on S 2nd near Oltorf. It's a great spot in a neighbourhood where you can walk or cycle to interesting places in the SoCo (South Congress) area -- Guero's, The Continental Club, etc. This album is a collection of photos of homes we see as we bike around what we've come to think of as "our" neighbourhood.

The area was, and in part remains, working class with modest cottages often built by the original owner. But it's a transitional neighbourhood. These modest homes on what now counts as big lots are being snapped up, torn down and replaced by landscaped brutalism architected homes which occupy the entire lot.

At one time this was an area where we thought about buying a winter retreat -- these days where a lot value property is half a million or more it's well beyond our reach.

Nevertheless, while we can, we return each winter to a place we love where live music can be heard every night at many interesting places,

Street Art, Austin

2015-02 - Street Art, Austin: Here's some street art found in Austin TX on a recent visit. I may not know art, but I know what I like.... ;-)

Austin Markets and Museums

2015-02 - Markets & Museums: This photo album documents some of our favorite markets and a couple of museum visits we made during our winter stay in Austin.

While we usually shop at the local HEB supermarket we occasionally find our way to one of the Fiesta supermarkets where there's a real Spanish feel. Tortilla's by the truck load, lots of interesting peppers, Spanish papers and magazines, cheap wine, huge tomatillos and even fresh cactus. I've tried fried cactus with some freshly squeezed lime juice. It tastes fine but the worry about cactus prickles make it less than fun.

We found some Robert Earl Keen Honey Pils at our local CVS store. Everyone in Texas is a fan of REK -- here's another good reason.

We have a nice gift shop we frequent, the Austin Gift Company, near Lamar and Ben White. It sells lots of locally crafted things and is a better bet than the stuff along 6th downtown. There's a "Day of the Dead" lunch box in this collection.

There's a couple of photos of the HEB and Whole Foods. We used to be really keen about Whole Foods (it started in Austin) but are now pretty devoted to our local HEB. HEB also has a couple of upmarket stores that compete against Whole Foods -- they're called the "Central Markets". We go there sometimes. Sometimes we're there to see music as they have a dining area with live music (it's Austin after all). We saw Rosie & the Ramblers at Central Markets on North Lamar. She's very accomplished, really enjoyed her music. We saw a blue grass group Silas Lowe at Central Markets, Westgate in South Austin. One oddity at these dining areas attached to the Central Market -- you can order food and wine from the servers there but some people just opened food and wine they bought at the store! A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and some music.

There's also a couple of pictures of farmer's markets. We usually catch the Saturday Downtown market and the BlueBonnet market on Sunday. There are some vendors that we buy from regularly.

Finally there's some gallery pictures from the Blanton Museum of Art (just north of the capitol) and from the Mexic-Arte Musem on Congress just south of the capitol. In another album I have pictures from the San Antonio Art Museum.

Esther's Follies

2015-03-05 - Esther's Follies: Esther's Follies is a comedy cabaret on 6th at Red River in Austin. We've been to the show several times over the years and always have a good laugh.
This year we went when Cindy was visiting and had a dinner at El Sol y La Luna across the street. We arrived early and got good seats right at the front of the stage.... this made us a target for the performance and Cindy was dragged onto the stag. I had to endure the long stare -- who will blink first me or the magician!
As always we thoroughly enjoyed the show and would recommend it to all.

Robbin' Graves & the Lost Fear

This was a gig by Perry Puckett and friends (can't recall the name they went under [it was Robbin' Graves & the Lost Fear]) at the Cedar Lounge in London sometime in 1982 or so. I don't know the name of the band, or band members or how they evolved in the London scene --- any help would be appreciated.

Brian Lambert has shared a b/w version of Perry, I thought I'd share my album. The band was all geared in up bright colours so these original scans from my slides do them better justice.

Here's the photo album.

Texas Chili Parlor Bar

2015-02 - Chili Parlor Bar: The Texas Chili Parlor Bar on Lavaca in Austin is a simple rough hewn place serving simple Tex/Mex food -- their signature dish is a “bowl of red“. It's famously mentioned in the Guy Clark song “Dublin Blues”  where he writes “I wish I was in Austin, in the Chili Parlor Bar drinking mad dog margaritas and not caring where you are“.

We've been aware of the place for years but had never stopped in. This year it became one of our “go to” places for lunch or a dinner on our way to the UT campus. Kate, as a vegetarian, was a bit leary but was pleasantly surprised by their vegetarian Chili. I mostly stuck to a spicy “bowl of red” 'cause as Tom Russell wrote “You don't put beans in chili, you don't water good wiskey down”.

We liked the place so much that we took both of our visitors. A bowl of red laced with raw onions, jalepenos and cheese with a mad dog margarita to wash it down. Yum.... Although it was hard to get a margarita without the salt.

I found their rules to live by interesting:

No Lone Star
No Checks
No Fries
No FooFoo drinks
No talking to imaginary people

I wonder what would happen if you broke the rules? I mean, after all, Lone Star beer is again made in Texas. No need to get ornery about that.

Zellots

The Zellots were one of our favorite London Ontario bands of the early 1980's. These photos are from the Cedar Lounge, Mingles and Fryfogles. Clubs and buildings which are long gone. It was the best of times...