Forgotten Rebels, Fryfogles

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

"Some more Reg Quinton pics, this time it's the Forgotten Rebels at Fryfogles, London ON circa 1982.

At the time the band consisted of; Mickey De Sadist [voice], Mike Mirabella [guitar], John Welton [bass] and Robert Allan [drums]. There's a few pictures from a second show at Fryfogles with a different drummer."

Fryfogles was an important venue on Dundas St in London that was lost to urban renewal many years. ago. The Forgotten Rebels, who still perform with an evolving lineup centered around Mickey de Sadist, were a Hamilton band who sometimes played in London and area. We were fans and even had them stay with us at our home in Wortley Village a couple of times after Cedar Lounge gigs. We saw the rather crappy accommodation offered upstairs at the Cedar Lounge and encouraged them to come stay with us when ever they needed a warm place. Their hope was always that they'd meet up with some "hot chicks" and stay elsewhere ... hopes and dreams seldom realized.

Some Facebook discussion followed. Page Graham asks, "Okay Reg...'fess up! How in the world did you manage to afford so much film, not to mention processing? Back then, I was lucky to get a 36 or a couple of rolls of 24 from the Gazette for an assignment. Yeah...I was basically a broke-ass student. 😉"

And I replied, "Page Graham thanks for asking. I was a grad student in Philosophy and a sessional lecturer in Computer Science. I was, and still am, married to a wonderful supportive woman who had a good job, Kate is a PhD in Psychology, and supported my "art". We would buy film in 50' lengths, wind onto our own cartridges and develop in our basement. We weren't working on a deadline, just having fun, so pics were developed days and weeks later.. We were, and remain, "Weekend Punks". We are especially pleased that others are enjoying the moments we happened to capture and luckily saved (that's pack rat syndrome). P.s. Some of these photos may have been by Neil Farnsworth, a school chum, out with us that night shooting on one of our cameras."

Page tells us, "I was a CHRW DJ and Gazette writer around this time ('82-'85). So we were running in the same pack! Sooner or later there's gonna be a photo of me in the audience. ... and I did a punk radio show with Jeffrey DP and Philby. It was called "Ground Zero". 

Daniel Rudbal asks, "Reg Quinton is it Neil then, in the photo with Suzie Cyanide and Rhonda [Barnes] dancing?" And I point out a couple of pictures where Neil is in the frame adding, "Daniel Rudbal yup, that's Neil. He's in several photos, not sure which are his, which are mine. He finished his PhD, I did not, and moved to Maui in Hawaii. He died, cancer of course, several years ago. We did reconnect on one of our early trips to Australia. He was a heck of a guy, smart, funny and one of my inspirations around photography. We have so many regrets, to hold onto friends is so important.

I hate grave yards and old pawn shops .. for they always bring me tears ... can't forget the way they robbed me of my childhood souvenirs. Memories, they can't be boughten, they can't be won at carnivals for free... It took my years to get those souvenirs... Apologies to JP."

I do recall some of this event (there's a picture of Kate dancing) and do recall sharing cameras with Neil. At the time we had a Canon A1 and an AE1 as well as a good collection of lenses and a Vivitar 285 flash with bounce card and handle. He's using the AE1 and seems to have the 16mm fisheye lens. There's quite a few photos that will be his, perhaps some by Kate as well. No matter, these photos have been out there to be shared for quite some time now. For example, an earlier blog post acknowledges much of the above. And you can dig around in this blog for other posts and events.

Actually, around the time of "This Ain't Hollywood" we were asked to come to a gig in Burlington to shoot photos in hopes of capturing some of the excitement you see in these photos. They wanted an album cover along the lines of  "In Love With The System". Unfortunately it was a poorly attended event and nothing came of the photos taken at that time. I don't have the film as I would have given it to Mikey after the show for them to develop and proof.

Again, many thanks to Dave O'Halloran for sharing these photos and stimulating the discussion and fond memories. The photos are pretty rough, dirty, scratched and often out of focus. They ought to be cleaned up a bit and pruned down. I will still have the negatives and some photos could be salvaged in much better quality where I to have the time. But Dave likes to have them all archived, so be it.

Ps. Dave's work on these photos is keeping me from documenting our recent adventures in Australia.