63 Monroe, Firehall

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

"Here's some more in the face of the band shots from ace photo Reg Quinton.

This time it's 63 Monroe (likely 1982 or 83) at The Firehall. The Firehall was part of the Talbot Inn complex and is usually only remembered for the many blues acts that played there. In the mid to late 70's there were many bluegrass and folk musicians playing there. And then in the late 70's/early 80's they hosted a number of local punk/new wave acts among them NFG, Uranus (there's a picture at the London Music Hall Of Fame), Second Thoughts and 63 Monroe. There were probably others but I can only remember what I saw. They were usually well attended shows and dancing was allowed on the small carpeted area in front of the small stage. This is another timely post as The Final Firehall Reunion is happening April 7th. 63 Monroe morphed out of NFG, became First Date for a short period and then went back to being called 63 Monroe. Hope that makes sense. At this point in time they were heavily into the NYDolls/glam/Damned sound, plastered in makeup and dressed the part. Check any NYDolls album cover for reference. They were so into it they even named their house Babylon and had a loyal following of fans that would show up at out of town gigs. 2 of the members, Scott Bentley and Pete Dekoker still play under that name to this day. Their annual Toys For Tots Show are always loads of fun for a great cause.

This is only a portion of the pics taken by Reg at The Firehall. It appears that bassist Pete Dekoker was in a dark corner out of the stage lights so seldom appears in these pics. His input is essential the the band's sound. Drummer Jeff 'Rooster' Rooth passed away in the late 80's."

In the What Wave group later that day Dave adds:

"We were at just about every 63 Monroe gig in that era but don't recall this one. I do remember the earlier version of 63 Monroe with Mark Deroux and Peter Lambert in the band playing The Firehall maybe for a weekend? They had to play a couple sets and Mark was new in the band at the time and was playing so hard his fingers were bleeding! I was the idiot that kept yelling at him to keep playing as I was dancing like an idiot on the carpeted floor. Beans and beer make you do stupid things."

I recall the event. We had recently purchased a 16mm fisheye lens. I was really pissed with no inhibitions and right in there finding out what it could do. Nobody seemed to mind. I recall giving Rooster a print of him on drums from this session. Some of the guys would visit us at our home in Wortley village. We'd play Trivial Pursuit and drink my home made beer. Wasn't that a time? 

These would have been available light push processed film (probably HP5, I'd have to dig out the negs to be sure). Developed in our basement darkroom probably days or weeks later. My 2015 notes in this blog suggest this might have been 1983 but that would have been a guess. See that entry for more photos.

Usually I'd prune an album down to just the few photos I'm especially proud of and there are several here I really like. The close up above of Markii playing would make a great T-shirt. Dave is more encyclopedic in his choice of photos to share. But for an historical record here it is. Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing these 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.