LMOTV

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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. This morning (September 5, 2024) Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario group:

"Here's some more Reg Quinton pics, this time it's LMOTV at Call The Office the first week of January 1986 and appears to be 2 different shows in this set of pics.

 
It looks like Jim Zucchero, Kevin McKeon, Paul Brennan and Gary Kaufman."

LMOTV were one of our favorite bands from that era. They were young, smart and quirky. And often very funny, you can see in the photos that they are laughing and enjoying themselves.

I commented that "I'm pretty sure this is one show. They had two drummers -- Dave Andrew, and Ray Martini. Dave and Ray switched back and forth on drums and singing lead. See discussion here from 2021". When I wrote that up I was in communication with several of the band members. Jim Zucchero was, and perhaps still is, an academic counsellor at King's College.

Steven Frank commented, "Loved this band. Saw them many times at the Vic Tavern too. Singer and sometime drummer Dave Andrews’ delivery was unique, cerebral and comical."

Andrew McPherson commented, "Soooo great. This was before my time as singer in LMO, so it’s awesome to see Dancing Dave Andrews on the mic. And there wasn’t a show when I didn’t live in fear of Paul’s bass headstock taking out my arm. The good ol’ days."

Mark Rocco Newbery commented with some lyrics from the Big Valley (a commentary on Sarnia), "Is it lunchtime yet? Over there there's a snack bar." That's still a great tune and I'm pleased to have a copy of their tunes in my iTunes library.

Many thanks to Dave for sorting through these old photos of ours. He's a much appreciated archivist of the music scene we so much enjoyed. There are many out of focus and poorly framed photos here that I had not shared before.

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

Circle Jerks

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On Tuesday December 17, 1985 we saw the Circle Jerks at Bullwinkles in London, Ontario. When digging through my old slides during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2021 I bumped into a few slides of the event which I have scanned and then rendered as high contrast B/W for effect. It happened a long time ago and our memories have faded. But I do remember they were touring the "Wonderful" album, which I still have. The band was really intense and wild on the stage. The lead singer, Keith Morris, had on a walking cast -- he had fucked up is leg/ankle at some previous gig but soldiered on for us in London.

I see there's quite a few videos on Youtube of the event by user downtownlive (not sure who that person is). The video quality is pretty minimal but the sound, which was recorded off the soundboard, is pretty good. Apparently that recording was made with the band's permission.

The framed poster in the photo album was shared on Facebook in response to a posting of mine. It's part of a collection belonging to John JC Craig. John tells me that it was Dan Rudbal (October Crisis, Black Donnellys) who gave it to him. I used to shoot bands at local clubs (like the Circle Jerks) and collect posters as well.

This note and photo album were created '21/02/07.

Golden Calgarians

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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. This morning (October 30, 2024) Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario group:

"Here's some more Reg Quinton pics. This time it's The Golden Calgarians at Call The Office circa 1985.

 
From the pics you can see the weekly calendar they used to have behind the old stage.

The Golden Calgarians were from Calgary (no kidding) released a couple of albums and singles in the early 80's. Believe they had played the Embassy a couple years prior."

I must confess I have no recollections of this event, but then it was nearly 40 years ago. I confess that, at first glance, I thought these were pictures of the Napalm Babies! We had some school friends from Calgary but have only visited a very few times (like in 1980 on our honeymoon!).

There is a bit about the band on Discogs, on Bandcamp, and even a video of "It's Fun to be Alive" on Youtube. Call the Office (the bar at York and Clarence) is long gone and sadly missed. 

Many thanks to Dave for preserving these memories and organizing our photos.

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

No Means No

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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. This morning (Saturday, November 16, 2024) Dave writes in 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario group:

"Here's some more Reg Quinton pics, this time it's No Means No playing somewhere in London, early 1980's. Any help on venue or date appreciated.

Posted these pics as Dead Bob is playing Rumrunners this weekend."

Dan Rudbal adds, "I’m pretty sure that it’s the Call the Office show, so June of ‘85" and shares a poster from the event that I've included in the photo album.

Jamie Conyers adds, "That was the first time I saw them. T shirt and an ep$10" but thinks the location might have been another bar, "Looks like Kelly's/ Bullwinkles when the stage was at the back(south) wall. It was moved to the side ( east ) wall."

Jefferey DP comments, "I remember seeing them a couple of times at Call the Office back then… sweaty summer shows that blew my mind!"

I have no recollection of the occasion when these photos were taken. I recall, if memories are to be trusted, seeing them one time at Mingles but that is a vague memory. The photos are in pretty crappy condition (dusty, poor exposure, poor composition) but here they are for posterity.

Many thanks to Dave for preserving these memories and organizing our photos.

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

Suffer Machine at LRAG

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The photo album at left includes some color pictures of Suffer Machine and some BW pictures of other bands at an all ages event held at the London Regional Art Gallery (LRAG) sometime in either late 1984 or early 1985. I've shared to Facebook and asked for help.

It turns out there is some debate about exactly when this happened. Mark Favro (the Mr. Luba of LubaTunes who loves beans) has a video of the "Great Gallery Event 1985" posted on YouTube and the notes on that video clearly say it was 1985. I agree that the video matches the event I've captured some of in these stills. But Mark thinks the date on the video is in error and the event would have been Friday Dec.7 1984 — he has a poster of the "Great Gallery Event" (1984). See the poster at his BOF page.  Unfortunately that poster headlines Sheep Look Up rather than Suffer Machine so something is wrong. The other explanation is that what happened doesn't match what was advertised. And that's not uncommon.

Frank Shaw, the voice for Bits of Food at this event, wrote "Suffer Machine headlined with Dormant Checker Effect, LubaTunes, Bits of Food and Omerta. It was called the Great Gallery Gig and cost I think 2 or 3 bucks. Can't remember the exact date. There were a couple posters of the event. Mark Favro has video of it. Fun times!" Frank's recollections seem to match mine. Although I don't recall LubaTunes playing that night — Mr. Luba (Mark Favro's personna) usually performed with an ugly rubber face mask — Mark has provided video evidence that LubaTunes were there!

Pete Tangredi, who was the voice for Suffer Machine, writes that there aren't very many pictures of his band. I am happy to share what I have here. He thinks the event was in 1984 so perhaps it was. He is able to provide some details though and writes, "Always very cool to see old photos surface. I’m sorry I can’t help with dates (I probably didn’t even know the date when it was happening). I am also clueless as to the other band. I do however remember the names of the other players in my band: Patrick Eynon (guitar), Stephan Beckhoff (keys), Greg Rinehart (bass), Chris Serratore (drums)." 

There's a picture of Pete in full voice from this event that Brian Lambert used in Graphic Underground: London 1977-1990 (2013). There's quite a few of my photos used, with permission, in that excellent book about those misspent days and nights.

The other bands (I'll assume it was Dormant Checker Effect, LubaTunes, Bits of Food, and Omerta) were clearly part of a collective of young teens who were well connected to the London art scene and especially the infamous Nihilist Spasm Band — their music was, in some measure, an update of the NSB.  The Curnoe and Favro names are part of the NSB and the London Arts landscape. That helps to explain why this event was held at the LRAG! Mark Favro has a "Bands from the BOF Shelter" web page which documents some of that early history.  I have some photos of Bits of Food and others from that group of young people performing in a Wortley Village church hall (St Stephens now long gone) at around the same time. We lived nearby and attended with our teenager foster child as it and this were all-ages events.

Daniel Rudbal provided some more information on Facebook about one of the bands. He writes, "..though I never saw them play.. 2 members of OMERTÀ, John Dillabough and Steve Gardner ..were also members of the very first line-up of the BLACK DONNELLYS".

I have included some photos of a C90 released by LubaTunes and correspondence that accompanied the tape. Mark Favro (Mr. Luba) who would have written the note to us writes on the Facebook thread: "You must have owned a copy of the LubaToons magazine. We put an ad in there to buy the audio tape. Actually you probably bought the magazine at the Great Gallery Gig as we were selling them there" and he included a link to Mr. Luba and LubaTunes playing at at the event.

After posting the above, thinking that I had researched this as best I can, I went looking through my scanned band photos and found more color pictures from the event including the other bands mentioned (but not LubaTunes). I've added them to the photo album.

Many thanks to all who responded and helped me with this blog.

This blog page composed during April of 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Terminals.

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On '21/04/29 I asked on the 1980's Punk Rockers in London, Ontario Facebook group:

"Digging through old slides I have these color photos of the Terminals at Victoria Tavern (helpfully identified by Dave O'Halloran) circa 1984 which have been shared before. 

But then Google facial identification found some additional BW photos from another concert (I know not where). If you have any thoughts, memories, etc. about the Terminals or either of these events please share. 

I'm curious about the drummer in the BW photos, that can't be the same as in the color photos. One is Pete Timmins but surely they're different people. The BW drummer looks so much younger."

And, sure enough, I quickly got the answers and feedback from loyal fans of the era. Dave O'Halloran identified the Victoria Tavern in the color slides and named the players: "Terminals at Victoria Tavern and 84 sounds right for the date. Mike Timmins gtr/vocals, Dave Clark grt/vocals, Laurie Wedge bass, Pete Timmins  drums."

Dave and others quickly identified the young drummer in the black and white photos as James MacLean who drummed with them from '79-82 when Pete Timmins took over the roll. He also pointed out that all of this is well documented in What Wave #24 (which I have somewhere). In any case, that information helps to set the time frame for those photos. 

After some discussion there's agreement that those BW photos would have been for a gig at the Embassy Hotel (Mike Timmins recalls the poster created by Dave Clark as seen behind James which advertises Aug 9, 10, 11). Dave O'Halloran recognizes the ceiling tiles, etc. as the Embassy. From What Wave #24 I see that Laurie Wedge (bass) and James MacLean (drums) were together in the band in '81 but Mike Timmins assures us that this gig would have been in '82. So I'll tag those pictures as being from Aug 9-10, 1981 at the Embassy Tavern, London. 

Michelle Lundy noticed, if you do a close up of Laurie Wedge’s pant leg in the BW photos, you'll find the slogan "So I kill children".  Quite the punk ethos!

The band had some avid fans who remember them fondly. On the Facebook thread we have:

Larry Brandt: "Love this. All these people were great. (and no doubt, they still are) (not quite sure what to say about those shorts Dave..... LOL)"

Ian Trotter: "These guys where crazy entertaining"

The thread got lots of engagement and several comments on the photos which I'm happy to share.

The Terminals are mentioned in "The Beginnings of Punk Rock in London" (What Wave Dave O'Halloran's blog) and appear on the What Wave #24 compilation (Side B): "The Terminals – D Generation:  Hardcore punk. Think D.O.A. The kind of stuff your parents hate. 1984 studio sessions." The London Music Archives hosted by CHRW (sadly offline at this writing) had a 1984 single: The Terminals - "We Killed" b/w "Don't Yell, Buy Us Beer". There's much more to discover if you dig deeper.

Given all the above it's not exactly clear when the later gig happened. I have arbitrarily filed this in my blog with a summer of '84 date and I'm happy to share these photos.

This blog composed during April of 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Slides and negatives were scanned in 2012.

The Dicks

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Sometime during the summer of 1984 (I suspect it was in June) Kate and I were in Cincinnati for a conference of mine. As I recall this  was our first road trip together into the USA, we had rented a car for the trip, and we made it a bit of an adventure exploring the Ohio backroads on the way down and the greater Cincinnati area while at the conference.

One of our fun music adventures was to see "The Dicks" play at a seedy Newport, Kentucky bar just across the river from Cincinnati (we stayed in nearby Covington, KY). We really didn't know much about the band but figured out it was a punk night out and we were up for it. The photo album at left has some pictures of the event.

The pictures show that the "Big Dick" (real name Gary Floyd) really threw himself into the music. He's a big guy, quite intense and by the end of the evening he's soaking wet from sweating.

Wikipedia tells me this was the "San Francisco" and 2nd version of "The Dicks" with this lineup: Gary Floyd (vox), Tim Carroll (gtr), Sebastian Fuchs (bass), and Lynn Perko (drums). Lynn is notable as a female drummer. They had released the LP's Kill From The Heart (1983) and would follow that with These People (1986) which I have. If I were to put a name to their music I'd say, "hardcore".

The band was formed in Austin in 1980, then moved to San Fancisco in 1983 and folded in 1986. In 1988 we were in San Francisco and saw "Sister Double Happiness" (with the Big Dick singing) open for the "Butthole Surfers" (another Austin band). We've been travelling to Austin for many years now with our first visit in 1990. We love the music we find in Austin but no longer follow the punk scene.

There was a local opening act that night, whose name I've forgotten. There's some pictures of them in the photo album. The bass player is a striking young woman in the Joan Jett mold. The notable thing there was the dancing style. The bar had a very large dance floor and the fans were into a style of dancing that involved running around the floor swinging their arms and taking long loping steps. We'd never seen this before, I believe it's called "skanking".

Another tidbit — after the show we discovered that I had locked the keys in the car. Some of the locals at the show helped us break into the car. A police patrol drove by while we were doing that but didn't seem phased by a couple of young men breaking into a car in front of a seedy bar on what would have been "the wrong side of town".

This blog is filed on an arbitrary date in June of 1984. Slides were scanned and these recollections composed during the pandemic lock down of May, 2021.