The Week John Lennon Died, In Toronto

Since everybody's posted about the death John Lennon (and Darby Crash of the Germs BTW) here's what was happening in Toronto that week, which was typical for the busy Toronto scene of the era;



U2 played the El Mocambo (I don't know the openers);

U2 ~ "I WILL FOLLOW";


The Romantics with The Poles and Johnny & The G-Rays at the Danforth Music Hall;

THE ROMANTICS ~ "WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU";


THE POLES ~ "CN TOWER";


JOHNNY & THE G RAYS ~ "SHE'S GOT A MONKEY";


Jim Carroll also at the El Mocambo;

JIM CARROLL ~ "THE PEOPLE WHO DIED";


The Inmates at the El Mocambo;

THE INMATES ~ "STOP IT BABY";




Teenage Head at Larry's Hideawy;

TEENAGE HEAD ~ "LET'S SHAKE";


L'Etranger & the Young Lions at the Edge;

L'ETRANGER ~ "ONE PEOPLE";




THE YOUNG LIONS ~ "PRAY FOR JULIE";


Nash The Slash at the Edge;

NASH THE SLASH ~ "19th NERVOUS BREAKDOWN";


FM at the Nickleodeon (note; Nash The Slash had founded FM around 1976 but by 1979 he had gone solo and been replaced in FM by Ben Mink);

FM ~ "SURVEILLANCE";


The Spoons, The Scenics & the Outriders at the Edge (the first Spoons gig with keyboard player Rob Pruess);

THE SPOONS ~ "NOVA HEART";




THE SCENICS ~ "WAITING FOR MY MAN";


Goddo at the Horseshoe;

GODDO ~ "SO WALK ON";


Not listed here but I am reliably informed that the Blushing Brides played in Hamliton that weekend

THE BLUSHING BRIDES ~ "WHATCHA TALKING ABOUT";


Later that month; the Vapors at the El Mocambo;

THE VAPORS ~ "TURNING JAPANESE";


Chris Spedding at the Edge;

CHRIS SPEDDING ~ "MOTORBIKING";


Toronto at Ryerson Theatre;

TORONTO ~ "WHEN CAN I SEE YOU AGAIN", "START TELLING THE TRUTH" & "YOUR DADDY DON'T KNOW";


The Cry at Headspace;

THE CRY ~ "I'M NOT LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE";


The Grottybeats at the Jarvis House and The Northgate;

THE GROTTYBEATS ~ "GOT YOUR NUMBER';


David Wilcox at The El Mocambo;

DAVID WILCOX;


Frank Soda & the Imps at the New Shamrock Hotel;

FRANK SODA & THE IMPS ~ "HIGH TIMES";


Rhinegold (with Larry Gowan) at the Knobb Hill;

LARRY GOWAN ~ "KEEP UP THE FIGHT";


Cinema Face at the New Shamrock Hotel;

CINEMA FACE ~ "YOU DRIVE ME OUT OF MY MIND";


Prism at the Danforth Music Hall;

PRISM ~ "SPACESHIP SUPERSTAR";




The Downchild Blues Band at the El Mocambo;

DOWNCHILD BLUES BAND ~ "SLEEP ALONE";


The Whiskey Howl Blues Band at the El Mocambo;

THE WHISKEY HOWL BLUES BAND;


Oliver Heaviside at Spats and the Nickleodeon;

OLIVER HEAVISIDE ~ "LEVEL CROSSING";


The Cameo Blues Band (with Dave Bingham, ex of the Ugly Ducklings) at

THE CAMEO BLUES BAND ~ "GIMMIE THAT HARP";


Professor Piano & the Deltoids at the hotel California and Ollie's;

PROFESSOR PIANO ~ "ONE TRACK OPEN";


Bob McBride (ex of Lighthouse) at Alastairs;

BOB McBRIDE ~ "HORSE WITH NO NAME";


Carlene Carter at the El Mocambo;

CARLENE CARTER ~ "I FELL IN LOVE";


Roy Young (formerally with Long John Baldry) at Alastairs

ROY YOUNG ~ "WILD COUNTRY WINE";


The Persuasions at the El Mocambo;

THE PERSUASIONS ~ "BUFFALO SOLDIER";

The Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project; Cancon Edition

Cancon; New Wave Edition;

STURM GROUP ~ "TO THE BALTIC";


Sturm Group were a Toronto band in the 1980's who were basically in a similar genre to artsy post-punk groups like PIL, Joy Division, Wire, Pere Ubu, Section 25, Modern Eon, Clock DVA, Jass and Section 25. They put out three albums along with an earlier cassette before breaking up in the early 90's. There was also a side project named Norda who put out an ep. Bassist Walter Sobzjack went on to be a producer and play in Raggadeath in the 90's.

STURM GROUP ~ "TWENTY";


For both these instrumentals I used two George Melies films from the 1900's.

SIMPLY SAUCER ~ "MOLE MACHINE";


Simply Saucer were an Art Punk/Noise band from Hamilton in the late 70's somewhat similar to the Fall and Wire with a heavier Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. They only released a single but did record an album that was released some years after the band broke up. This instrumental track uses a 1920's German Dada Art film by Walter Ruttmann.

FM ~ "STARLESS";


FM with Nash The Slash were part of the first wave of Toronto Punk scene of the late 70's although they were really more of a Prog Rock band. They recorded one album before Nash quit and the band carried one for a couple more albums with Ben Mink. This King Crimson cover is from the early Nash era and uses a George Melies space travel film which seems fitting as Nash was also known for composing music for silent film showings.

THE SPOONS ~ "NOVA HEART";


The Spoons were one of the few bands of the Toronto early 80's scene to find some degree of international success. They started out as a similar vein to early Simple Minds and Ultravox before adding more layered keyboards similar to the Human League and OMD when the had a couple of hits like "Nova Heart" and "Arias & Symphonies". After that there sound became more mainstream and less interesting although they did have a few more hits. This vid uses an art film from the 1970's be George Cupp and Steve Elliot.

Nash The Slash & FM (And The Dishes)

Nash The Slash; All good punks know that prog-rock sucked, and was in fact one of the reasons why punk happened. However in Toronto at least there was one exception, Nash The Slash and FM. They were an artsy prog-rock band with influences from the reasonably cool side of prog (like King Crimson) who were considered acceptable by most punks. This was partly due to Nash's "Mummy wearing a tuxedo" persona (although he did not start out that way) but also due to FM's reasonably non-pretentious air and their willingness to be part of the scene at all. Unlike the British Progs who ran screaming from punk. Nash (whose real name was Jeff Plewman)was even supposed to play the legendary "Last Pogo" concert which was recorded and filmed, he is even listed on the concert listings. Unfortunately he injured his hand and could not play. It helped that FM was formed in 1976, concurrent with punk, and like the punks had to struggle to find places to play at all in Toronto's (and Canada's) live and radio scene at the time which was focused on tired cover bands. FM recorded one album, "Black Noise" and scored an appearance on TVO (an Ontario version of PBS best known for children's programing like "The Polka-Dot Door" and revivals of classic B&W movies) before breaking up and sending Nash off to an eccentric solo career in which he would play literally every instrument, even on stage. He recorded several solo albums with moderate success in Canada and Britain where he was cited as an influence by Gary Numan and John Foxx's Ultravox. These alternated with FM reunions and shows in which he played soundtracks to silent horror films like "Nosferatu". Off stage he was a nice polite balding middle aged guy with glasses. One of the first shows I went to was actually an FM show at the Copa Klub, which is now long gone.

FM ~ "PHASORS ON STUN" (ON TVO 1976);


FM ~ "BLACK NOISE"


Another not-quite-punk-but-still-kinda-punk band of the late 1970's Toronto scene was The Dishes. One of the first bands on the Toronto scene, the Dishes were definitely of the early Roxy Music art school genre (also openly gay) that many these days don't consider punk at all but at the time they were an important part of the scene, for a lot of the same reasons as FM; lack of places to play, lack of record company support, lack of radio airplay, media hostility and willingness to support other such bands. They recorded an album, played a lot of gigs, managed to appear on TVO and then broke up and missed playing the iconic Last Pogo. After they broke up drummer Steven Davey formed another band called the Everglades in which he sang. They actually did play the Last Pogo and appear on the long out of print album, but not the movie. Then they broke up too and he went on to be a music writer for the Toronto Star. Later he moved on to Food Critic for Now Magazine he died suddenly this past week.

THE DISHES ~ "TWILIGHT ZONE";


THE DISHES ~ "MONOPOLIES ARE MADE AT NIGHT";