Deja Voodoo

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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 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario:

"Some more pics from the Reg Quinton collection, 10/22/1987 Key West London ON.

This time it's Deja Voodoo, Montreal duo who formed the Og record label, releasing records by The Gruesomes, Jerry Jerry, Dik Van Dykes, the It Came From Canada series and many others! 

Deja Voodoo were a 2 piece that played a crude lofi bundle of energy they christened sludgeabilly. Totally unique sound that had it's limitations due to their equipment, ie guitar with only 4 strings and drum set with no cymbals. Ya, you read that right and they kept those principles until packing it in, in 1990.  They had a rabid following (including us) that would flock to their shows! And they had some great songs that did well on the college radio charts. 

Their limited equipment made it easy for them to do cross Canada tours as they would pack everything really tight and hop on a Greyhound Bus for the next show. Initially they travelled cross Canada in an Edsel, but they had issues, needed a part that couldn't be found and it was scrapped.  That part surfaced not long after the Edsel's demise. Included an Edsel pic for reference.

These pics were taken at the Key West, London ON by Reg Quinton. KW was on the west side of Talbot, between the Brunswick and King St, second floor. Small place with a small stage but had a great rock'n'roll atmosphere with Steven R Stunning and Bob Bradbury behind the bar.  As you can see from the pics, the place was packed that night! If memory serves, there was a lineup and as one person left, another came in.  We didn't take any pics that night as it was too crowded and glad that Reg did. Audio survives from this show.

There's some familiar faces in the crowd surrounding Deja Voodoo; Rob Leclaire (RIP), Rena O'Halloran and I need some help with the other names.."

My memory of the evening is much the same. It was a packed house, crowded, quite intense and a lot of fun. This would have been the only time I ever saw this band. But I do recall other events at Key West. It was a tiny venue as you can tell from the photo — the audience is right on top of the band.

Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing photos and figuring out the location and time for many of these photos. I don't think that any of these have ever been shared before.

There are some very poor quality photos here, most are out of focus, but there is one gem. Usually I'd prune an album down to just the few photos I'm especially proud of. I've always said the secret to taking good pictures is to take a lot of bad ones. Dave is more encyclopedic in his choice of photos to share. But for an historical record here it is.

See also Deja Voodoo on Discogs.