Forgotten Rebels

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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 (July 31, 2024) 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.

— 2024/12/20 I have moved this post to the approximate date of the event.

63 Monroe, Victoria Tavern

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Today, June 3, 2024, we're in Brisbane, Queensland but our archivist has been busy with old band photos. 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:

"Some more Reg Quinton pics of 63 Monroe, this time at the Victoria Tavern on the main floor. Classic lineup of 63 Monroe; Markii Burnaway, Steven R Stunning, Pete Dekoker and Jeff Rooth. Pics are circa 1982"

The Victoria Tavern (I also recall it being called "The Bucket of Blood") was not on our usual path but we did see some shows there. This evening documented in pictures was particularly exciting. There are some great pictures that capture the excitement on stage and in front.

There is a gig this weekend at the Palasad back in London where 63 Monroe and friends will celebrate the re-release of their 1980 EP NFG/63 Monroe. Unfortunately we'll not be there to document the mayhem. I wish we could be.

Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing photos and figuring out the location and time for many of these. Once again many of these photos have been shared before. This is a fairly complete set of photos in need of pruning and editing. That will await another day.

— 2024/12/21 I have moved this post to the approximate date of the event ... sometime in 1982

63 Monroe, Mingles

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June 2, 2024. Today we're in Brisbane, Queensland but our London Punk music archivist has been busy with old band photos. 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 Reg Quinton pics of 63 Monroe. This time at Mingles, which was part of the Talbot Inn complex at Dundas and Talbot. It's the classic lineup of the band; Steven R Stunning, Pete Dekoker, Markii Burnaway and Jeff Rooth and circa 1982 (possibly later)."

This is just a small smattering of photos, many poorly exposed and out of focus, none that I'm particularly proud of. But as an historical record, here they are.

Many thanks to Dave for his work organizing photos and figuring out the location and time for many of these old and faded memories.

— 2024/12/21 I have moved this post to a year that approximates when the photos were taken

Zellots

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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, May 19, 2024, Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario:

"Here's a couple of Reg Quinton pics of The Zellots, no idea of the place or date."

Likewise I have no recollection of where this gig happened. It looks like Greg's drum kit is on a temporary stage held up with milk crates. It would have been in or around London. Doesn't look like a club, perhaps a field concert of some sort?

— 2024/12/21 I have moved this post in my blog to an approximate date for when the pictures were taken. I assume this is sometime around 1982 but that's a wild guess.

Zellots, Fryfogles

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May 15, 2024. 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:

"Here's some more Reg Quinton pics, this time it's the Zellots at Fryfogles circa 81/82. At the time, the band consisted of Catherine Destun, Jane Colligan, Chris DeVeber and Greg Moore. Lots of familiar faces in the crowd shots."

John Ondrasek commented, "I believe Shakin Jack opened that night. Jane let me use her bass. I have a picture, somewhere." No one, as yet, has been able to tell me who joined the band on harp.

These photos got a very good reaction from those in the groups (Dave also shares these posts in other Facebook Groups). In part it's because of the fond memories of dancing wildly like the young fools we were. The are quite a few audience pictures and people really like spotting their younger selves. I'm especially pleased to see that our friend Peter Tangredi has pulled out and enhanced some crowd pictures from this collection. I've added those to my album. His crib of Mark Deroux all sweaty and dancing is especially nice. Kevin Fox commented, "Great pic, and after the teeth knocked out incident in front of the Boot." There's got to be an interesting story there!

The B/W pictures are awfully grainy and filthy, terrible exposures, but they do capture the excitement of the moment. One from this session made it into Graphic Underground, a 2012 book by Brian Lambert celebrating the artists, posters and music of that period. Several of my photos appear in that book; it's no longer in print but might be found through rare book collectors. (Just checked Amazon Canada has a couple of copies but want over $1,000 each!!).

Dave posted all the photos of ours that he found, some were too awful but I'm happy to have them shared for others to enjoy. In the album above I've spent a little bit of time to clean things up, crop and enhance the exposures where I can. But I really need to go back to the slides and negatives ... they're somewhere in the basement waiting for me.

Many thanks to Dave for organizing the photos, figuring out the location, date and time. It's work that is very much appreciated — by those who were there and by Kate and me.

— 2024/12/21 I have moved this post in my blog to the approximage date of the event.

NFG/63 Monroe, Record Release

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May 6, 2024. 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:

"Here's some Reg Quinton pics of 63 Monroe playing live at Records On Wheels circa 81/82.

Records On Wheels would have been on the north side of Dundas between Clarence and Richmond at the time. It was the first chain record store to actually have a punk/new wave section, a great import section with lots of punk/new wave records and they sold singles on the counter. And you could get your local releases here and they had some great window displays. (anyone have pictures of the window displays?)."

I'm pretty sure it was the record release of the NFG/63 Monroe EP on a Saturday morning. There was a good crowd. They played a short set from the elevated area at the back of the store. The store was very near to Nash Jewellers which is now the London Music Hall of Fame. I think the show was cut short because it was very loud and nearby merchants weren't too happy with that.

Members of the band at that time were Scott Bentley (aka Steven R. Stunning) on voice, Markii Burnaway (guitar), Pete Dekoker (bass) and Jeff Roth (aka Rooster) on the drums. Rooster isn't visible in any of these photos. Clearly they're on their transition from snotty nosed punks to the alt-punk glam of "First Date". We loved every incarnation and even had them play at our 25th Anniversary.

I'm not sure if these photos have been shared before, I suspect they have. But, in any case, many thanks to Dave for his work organizing these old photos and figuring out the location and time for many of them. I've spent a bit of time enhancing these photos — they were very dark. 

Rather than a "See also" section, I invite you to search the blog for other photos of this and other bands from that era.

— 2024/12/21 I have moved this post to the approximate date of the event.

Robin Graves & The Lost Fear

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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, April 29, 2024, Dave writes in The Cedar Lounge - Blue Boot group: 

"Some more Reg Quinton pics. This time it's Robin Graves & The Lost Fear at the Cedar Lounge April 1982... They were a rockabilly sounding outfit with Perry Puckett on vocals/guitar, John Ondrasek on bass and don't know who is on drums."

I recall that these guys were definitely into the "glam" side of things — that's pretty apparent. The playing wasn't as tight as it needed to be. However, others were pretty keen and have fond memories. Ruby Canterbury says, "they were great." There are friends and fans in the pictures but I suspect this might have been one of their few gigs ever. They were opening for 63 Monroe that night.

There are some very poor quality photos here, out of focus, etc., but there are a few gems. Usually I'd prune an album down to just the few photos I'm especially proud of. Dave is more encyclopedic in his choice of photos to share. But for an historical record here it is.

— 2024/12/21 I have moved this post in my blog to the approximate date of the event.