Back in the summer I stumbled across some photos of all-girl Toronto band from the 70's band called the Sleeze which had originally been posted on Facebook by a photographer who couldn't remember anything about them. Intrigued I reposted them asking if anybody knew anything about them and while nobody did plenty of people were fascinated (especially the gals in the Curse, B-Girls & Toronto) so I kept digging. I contacted the photographer who had worked for "The Agency" (Toronto's biggest music bookers in the 70's) but he didn't have any more info but he's still digging through his files though and promised to get back if he finds anything else. Then somebody found an article about the retirement of Lesley Soldat who had worked in radio which mentioned that she had been in such a band in the 70's so I tracked her down, sent her the pics and asked if that was indeed her band and she got back (probably after getting over her surprise and deciding I wasn't a total weirdo) and confirmed that it was.
So after a few more emails here's the story; Lesley was a model, artist & scenester in early 70's Toronto who decided to form a band with some friends circa 1971 in spite of not being an actual musician (yet). Once they figured things she would play bass she bought herself a second hand Fender Jazz Bass and went to work. There were a few lineup changes over the course of a few years. The orignal band was called Mama Rues Jive Band with members Lesley Soldat (bass), Christine Bissonette (drums), Dee McGraw, Martha Smith and Gail Moss. The line up for the band in the promo shot were; Lesley (bass), 16 year old Lucy Faiella (guitar), Charni (last name unknown at present) (keys & vocals) & Christine Bissonette (drums). Leslie explained that when she started the band she didn't actually play an instrument so until she could afford a bass she jammed on spoons which is somehow both Punk Rock AND Hillbilly (or Newfie) at the same time. By contrast Lucy who was only 16 had been playing guitar since she was eight. The pictures already posted show her new Strat but she already had a Tele and practiced 8 hours a day.
L-R; MOIRA CONNOLLY (vocals & guitar), LESLEY SOLDAT (bass), LUCY FAIELLA (guitar)
The rehearsal shots were an later lineup with Patti Burns (drums) and Moira Connolly on vocals. There was also a new keyboard player Pam Marsh who may not have been present at that date. Lesley says that Marsh & Faiella were more experienced musicians describing Lucy's guitar as "Red Hot" calling her the star of the band and described them as having a "Punk Rock attitude" even if the term wasn't commonly in use for a few more years. They predated the Runaways by a few years and gigged regularly for the next few years but mostly in Scarborough at clubs like the White Castle, Knob Hill & Running Pump although they did play Larry's a few times in it's early days as it switched from being a strip club.
LUCY FAIELLA
They never released anything although they did record some demos which are probably long gone and broke up some time in the mid-70's. The fact that they spent most of their career in Scarborough (when the subway stopped at Vic Park BTW and it was literally a different town), never released anything and broke up just before the Punk scene really started around 77 explains why they got forgotten until now.
PATTY BURNS
I told her if they had just stuck around a few more years they would have been part of that scene and those recordings would be collector's items now (so would the drummer's t-shirt, I would totally wear that) but what are you gonna do? Lesley went on to play with McKenna-Mendelson Mainline before moving into radio and becoming a painter. At least a couple of the other girls continued on in music in some way but she's lost track of them.
L-R; MOIRA CONNOLLY & LESLEY SOLDAT
After the initial post a couple of the gals did in fact get in touch or turn up. First we have a colour band pic sent by keyboardist Pam Marsh who stumbled onto the original post and sent it in. In this lineup we have left-to-right; Pam Marsh (keys), Lucy Faiella (guitar), Lesley Soldat (bass), Patti Burns (drums) as Pool Sharks in all their 1970's Scarborough glory.
L-R; PAM MARSH (keys), LUCT FAIELLA (guitar), LESLEY SOLDAT (bass), PATTY BURNS (drums)
Also guitarist Lucy got in touch and shared a couple demos of her next band she formed with drummer Patti called Lupa (name taken from their names Lucy and Patti) later adding singer Shirley Neuman and Windsor bassist Lynne Wilson (AKA Lynne Serridge) who had played in Detroit with the Quatro Sisters in their band Cradle after Suzi Quatro left for a solo acreer in the UK. Lupa recorded some demos around 1975. More importantly for everyone who wanted to know what they sounded like while the demos Sleeze recorded are probably long lost Lucy did forward these two Lupa demos being as close as we are likely to get as the original Sleeze demos are considered long lost and of poor sound quality anyway.
LUCY FAIELLA
The first is "Brush Cut" which was a Sleeze song written by the teenage Lucy about their manager who she was pissed at. Thus it's a reasonable facsimile of Sleeze's basic Punky approach although the sound quality is not great and both insist that the Sleeze version was far angrier and more aggressive. It shows them as a proto-punk band like early Flamin Groovies, it has a good groove and some blazing guitar and strong drumming. Lucy insists it's really missing Leslie's aggressive bass though and the Sleeze version was stronger.
LUPA ~ "BRUSHCUT";
The second "Hold On" was a 70's rock ballad Lucy was less happy with. By this point their manager was probably trying to mold them into a Canadian Fanny who were getting some buzz at the time (although it didn't last). It's OK and would have made a decent album track and it does have not one but two classy guitar solos but if their manager thought this type of 70's FM radio fare was going to get them their break he was a) completely missing the coming trends as this sort of 70's stuffiness was about to be blown out of the water by the coming hordes of Glam/Glitter, Punk & Power Pop and b) didn't understand what he actually had here. At any rate Lucy was not impressed and they broke up too.
LUPA ~ "SHIRLEY J";
Various members did go on to other thing with drumer Patty and singer Moira starting an all-girl Hair Metal Apple Viper in the 80's which gigged regularly. Lucy and Lupa singer went on to play as country rockers Lynne & the Rebels until Lynne moved on to Windsor and went on to record a couple Country albums in the early 90's.
LYNNE & THE REBELS ~ "IS IT OVER";
Lesley as stated worked until recently in the industry side of things with consoderable success. As one might expect they all ended up getting married. Original members Martha Smith and Gail Moss died years ago.
LUCY FAIELLA
Speaking of Scarborough I actually grew up a few blocks away from the White Castle on Kingston rd (which is not be confused with the American hamburger chain) where the Sleeze played a lot of gigs. Of course it wasn't a club anymore by then. I think it's condos now because of course it is.
THE WHITE CASTLE TAVERN PROBBALY IN THE 1950's
The Knob Hill was on Eglington rd and was a notorious dive bar that had strippers during the day and at night became the place in 1970's and 80's Scarborough to see bands like Teenage Head, Max Webster, Moxy, Toronto, Goddo, Arson and Lee Arron and was commonly referred to a the Knobby. In the 90's it became a strip club under the name Caddy's in the 90's and was finally demolished in 2020. Anybody who went to the Knobby, Larry's or the White Castle more than once is now considered immune to COVID and most other infectious virises.
THE KNOB HILL BEFORE
AND AFTER
Incidentally if any remaining members of the Sleeze should read this (Hi BTW) you may want get in back in touch. As for everyone else who showed an interest; meet Lesley Soldat and Lucy Failela and thanks to everyone who chipped in with clues, this was a fun piece of musical detective work now we just have to find those demo tapes🎸
CRADLE ~ "LAST LAUGH";
APPLE VIPER
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