Wars in Transit

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Our friend Dave O'Hallaran (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 The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group: 

"Another post from ace photog Reg Quinton, this time it's Wars In Transit at the Cedar Lounge. Unfortunately there's only a couple pics and not the greatest quality, but it's all we got.

Wars In Transit were from Guelph ON, late 70's/early 80's artpunk in which the bass plays a pivotal role in the songs. Lyrics very abstract but at the same time quite engaging. They were a big fave of the late Peter Moore and he did a live session with the band circa 1981 that aired on CHRW. Peter's comments that aired are hilarious and perfect in context about the time and this city.

In 1982 the band released a self titled cassette that became one of my faves. Full cassette info has been added to Discogs.

The band consisted of Greg Jarvis on drums, John MacLeod on bass and Matthew Budden on guitar/vocals. Matthew appeared in several other Guelph combos later.

 

I've been able to date these pics as Dec 22 or Dec 23 1980 at the Cedar Lounge playing with the Enemas (pics of them will appear here at a later date). I remember being there for at least one of the shows as I was on Xmas break from school.

 

Also recall seeing Wars In Transit at I believe one of the Polish Hall gigs on Ann St in London ON.....anyone have info?"

Some interesting discussion followed:

Rob Gliddon: I have a cassette of their studio stuff, am unsure if it is from Peter Moore's sessions, or not. Nach dem Tode played with them a few times here and in Guelph. I think they opened up for A Certain Ratio in Guelph as well. Brian Lambert may have clearer memories of that.

Dave O'Halloran: Hey Rob, is it this cassette? Cause that's all I'm aware they released but there could be more: Wars In Transit - Wars In Transit (on Discogs).

Rob Gliddon: Yeah Dave O'Halloran that's the one I have, somewhere. Discogs has only 22 copies are known, does that mean I could be rich?!?! I definitely got my copy from Matt. They liked us and we liked them. Arty bands clump together. A great rhyming couplet from the cassette, "The nude is lying naked, And the naked is lying nude, Ones a piece of art, The other's a piece of food". I could pass it along to you if you would want.

Dave O'Halloran: Bought my copy many years ago and loved it from day one! Just digitized it this week. And now that quote above is going to be stuck in my noggin'.....LOL Gonna message you

Page Graham: We were doing so many live shows at CHRW back in the early '80s it was amazing! Unfortunately, due to the high cost of 1/4 recording tape, a lot of them get lost in the ether...unless somebody transcribed them to casette. 😉

I have no recollection of taking these photos. But if they were fronting for the Enemas then no doubt I would have been there. These look like available light, push processed B/W film. The grainy effect is nice, the lighting was pretty awful. Once again I would have pruned this down to a few photos worth sharing, Dave is more into archiving everything.

Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing 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.