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STIFF LITTLE FINGERS – At the Edge
NICK SMASH, one of Toronto's earliest documentarians on the punk scene,is back with a look at the Club called The Edge. 40 years earlier, The Edge started booking shows thanks to the Garys. Nick has put together an issue of Smash It Up to collect stories and unseen photos on the shows that took place there. Nick presented on the edge in recent appearance in his Library series and he agreed to come in and do a supplementary piece for his Alone and Gone series on EXD. You can get a copy of Smash It Up #40 through Nick Smash on facebook for $10.00 ppd. Here is the playlist that we used in the airing of this interview.
NICK SMASH – The Edge
MARTHA AND THE MUFFINS – Echo Beach (Dindisc)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
BB GABOR – Soviet Jewellery (Anthem)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
CHELSEA – Right to Work (Step Forward)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
PENETRATION – Don’t Dictate (Virgin)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
THE SLITS - Difficult Fun (CBS)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
ULTRAVOX – He’s a Liquid (Live in Philadelphia)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
THE MODS – Reactions (Ugly Pop)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
XTC - Life Begins At The Hop (Virgin)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
BLUE PETER – Do The Robot (Ready)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
KINETIC IDEALS - Life in Shadow (Mannequin)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
PROTEX - I Can't Cope (Polydor)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
THE GOVERNMENT - Flat Tire (The Modern World Incorporated)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
NASH THE SLASH–Dead Man's Curve (Cut Throat / Dindisc)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
BATTERED WIVES - Angry Young Man (Bomb)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
THE SPOONS – Nova Heart (Ready)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
DOA – Nazi Training Camp (Friends)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
999 - Feeling Alright with the Crew (PVC)
NICK SMASH – The Edge
TYRANNA - Back Off Baby (Rave Up)
On January 24th of this year, Nick Smash of the RENT BOYS INC. was in town to do an exhibition on the CLASH and to promote his new book "What You Don't Want is What You Get", which outline his time in England with the RENT BOYS INC. and THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS. He arranged to meet up with Dave Howard to go over the details of that adventure. THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS are an important part of the Toronto post punk scene. This story reflects the flight that creative types undertook to make a go of it. This is a conversation between Nick Smash and Dave Howard telling something akin to road stories which talk about some of these exclusive recordings, stories behind them, influences, and people in the scene that they were apart of in the mid-80s. We get stories about the squats, the rehearsal spaces, folks in the scene. You can download the show here.
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - Baby Come Back (live at the Rock Garden on July 4, 1986)
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - The Murder of your Smile (live in Manchester on July 26, 1986)
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - I Feel Good (live in Manchester on July 26, 1986)
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - Just Another (live in Manchester on July 26, 1986)
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - Camberwell (live on the BBC, Janice Long)
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - Nothing to Say (live in Valencia, Spain)
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - Nothing to Say (produced by JJ Burnell of the Stranglers)
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - Plastic Horse ()
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - How Was I to Know ()
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - Pleasure of Pain (live in the Netherlands)
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - Shakin' All Over (live in the Netherlands)
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - The Killing Time
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - Rock On
THE DAVE HOWARD SINGERS - Road Warriors
Tonight's show features the best new releases from April, a feature on Toronto's post punk origins courtesy of Nick Smash, and a demo feature by Ottawa's Durs Coeurs. Download a copy of tonight's show here.
LAST DAYS - Torn In Two Parts (Blame the Victim)
BURNOUT - Survivors of Suicide (T Live a Lie / Blast House)
LACE - Youth Hinge (Iron Lung)
DROPDEAD - The Final Chapter (Armageddon)
HVAC – T&S (Self-Released)
KORROSIVE – Maniac (Distort Reality)
WARSICK - Fight to Break Control (Unreleased)
Y2K - Sickle Swings (Self-Released)
GOVERNMENT FLU - Misplaced Anger (Refuse)
AGENT - Endless Disposal (Ciabatta Brain)
S-21 - Year Zero (World Gone Mad)
NOSFERATU - Spectator (Self-Released)
HEADSPLITTERS - Severed Hand (Self-Released)
HELLO BASTARDS - If Not You, Who? If Not Now, When?(Refuse)
SCRAPS - Wrapped Up (Be Yourself)
RENDER USELESS - Desperation Days (Slow to Burn)
Top 10 - April 2017
URANIUM CLUB - That Clown's Got A Gun (Static Shock)
HAISTELIJAT - Plenta Kohounaa (Nuuhkaja / Joteskii Groteskii)
PIERRE & BASTIEN - Sympa (SDZ)
HUMMINGBIRD OF DEATH - You Had Better Enjoy Treating People Like Shit While You Can (To Live a Lie / Riotous Outburst)
BEARTRAP – Kneel (To Live a Lie / Riotous Outburst)
THE UNKNOWN THREAT - No Escape (Self-Released)
ACCIDENTE – Complicidad (Pfia)
CAREER SUICIDE - Row on Row (Deranged)
VIIMEINEN KOLANNA – Tie (Self-Released)
ABNORMI - Sota on Helvetti (Self-Released)
CONCEALED BLADE - Blame Game (Beach Impediment)
CORRECTIVE MEASURE - No Acceptance (Refuse)
Nick Smash, of Smash It Up zine and Alone and Gone, put together a look at Toronto's post-punk origins through a series of hard to find compilations and cassette releases, which is timely given how much of the current scene is influenced by early new wave and general outsider punk. Here is a closer look at some of what Toronto had to offer. Thanks to Aldo Erdic for his production work on this.
BREEDING GROUND – Mind the Gap (Self-Released)
WOODS ARE FULL OF CUCKOOS – Awesome Penguins (Self-Released)
DAVE HOWARD SINGERS – When Will It End (DHS)
KINETIC IDEALS – Deadman's Cadence (Self-Released)
FIFTH COLUMN - Hit the Dirt (Urban Scorch Compilation)
THE PARTY'S OVER – Half Life Curve (Urban Scorch Compilation)
THE STURM GROUP – Upon a Nerve (Green Fuse)
RENT BOYS INC. - High Meat (Self-Released)
L'ETRANGER – Light in the Morning (Sounds from the Streets)
BLOODFIRE – Natty Dub (Self-Released)
JAMES GRAY – Come out of your Shell (Nervous Recordings)
THE VITAL SINES - Rhythm of Dark (Self-Released)
UGLY MODELS – Not for Me (Smash Tapes)
Tonight's demo feature is from a band from Ottawa. This was recorded in 2014. You can download the demo from bandcamp. The band is playing at Varning.
DURS COEURS – Piege (Self-Released)
DURS COEURS – J'en Al Vu Assez (Self-Released)
DURS COEURS – Les Memes Histoires (Self-Released)
DURS COEURS – Coeurs Durs (Self-Released)
Nick White (a.k.a. Smash) is in town to launch his new book on the period of music in Toronto between 1979 and 1984. Situated in one of the worst economic times with political crises abound, culture responded. Garnering musical influences from the UK and the States, Nick looks at what these bands brought to Toronto by way of influences. He starts out with the Clash's show at the O'Keefe Centre and what punk rock looked like in a world music context which threw open the doors to all sorts of music experimentation which are around today. We talk about fractured scenes, but this was the apex or the blueprint for when it all happened. Toronto being a receptive music market soaked it all in and spat it back out with an underground scene that has scene little by way of recognition. Nick takes you through the bands like the Rent Boys, the Dave Howard Singers, Breeding Ground, Kinetic Ideals, V (pre Parachute Club), Hunger Project (Pre-Cowboy Junkies), the Hi-Fi's (Pre Blue Rodeo), the Rheostatics, The Mods, Truths and Rights, Lillian Allen, Third World....The list is endless. Nick also takes us into the world of the haunts where the musicians honed their sounds like at the 291, the Bev, the Cameron House, The Cultural Centre and all sorts of places. He explores how various mediums started up like zines and campus community radio, CFNY, as a result of being shut out of mainstream media. And he gives great insight into what touring bands brought like U2, Echo and the Bunnymen, Killing Joke, the Specials, The Jam, Madness, the Buzzcocks. It's all here. Flirst hand accounts with gonzo journalism which is beyond dedication but borders on fanaticism, which demonstrates the fan part of fanzine. With photos from his brother Simon, some of which appeared in Toronto Calling five years prior but so many more in this book, it is like a more cut and past version of Trouble in the Camera Club but the next chapter to follow. Nick will be at the Rivoli between 1:00m and 4:00pm playing some of the music captured in the Smash it up comps to also give you a flavour of the sounds of the time.
Stir It Up looks like a version of Nick Smash's Smash It Up. Stir It Up is pretty close in name and would be a clever play on the name Smash It Up. And there is lots of reggae content inside this issue which justifies the Bob Marley song title. In fact there is a review of a Bob Marley tribute concert inside that took place at a club that I have never heard of called Fourth World (167 Church Street). The show took place on May 17th which is close to Bob marley's birthday and featured Toronto reggae acts Truths and Rights, 20th Century Rebels, and Leroy Sibbles.
There is other reggae content like the intro and quick interview with a white reggae band called the Customers. There is a piece on another little known band Bloodfire. And there is an interview with the drummer from Steel Pulse, which may be the same interview as the one found in Rebel Music.
Interestingly, this issue also features a lot of punk bands that had reggae influences like Stiff Little Fingers or had interesting bass sounds like Gang of Four. The zine starts out with an interview with JJ Burnell from the Stranglers who I learned recently tried to play bass like he was performing at a Jamaican dancehall. The interviewer wanted to find out how much they were into UFO theories with the Meninblack theme. But JJ really wanted to discuss the validity of sub sonic sounds which is really about getting back to his thoughts on bass playing when you think about it.
There is a handwritten interview with Andy Gill who plays guitar in Gang of Four. They played a number of times in Toronto and this show was on Canada Day in 1981.
There is a review on a show that closed the Edge, which had a certain Last Pogo symmetry to it because it was he garys and it was the club they went to after they left the Horseshoe which was signified by that Last Pogo show.
There is an interview with Teardrop Explodes that looks like it is printed on fullscap and the quality is difficult to read. Someone had access to school equipment. There is a review section which fits in with a lot of new wave releases that came out at the time. I totally enjoyed reliving those and they included reviews of the Cramps, the Stray Cats, Killing Joke, Kraftwerk, Simple Minds, Pig Bag, Siouxie and the Banshees, Wasted Youth, Dead or Alive and Basement 5, which is the first review I have ever read of Basement 5. This demontrates how broad the spectrum of punk was back then. It also explains the interview with Kinetic Ideals which is the only interview i have read of the band. They were a new wave band from Mississauga, who had their own release and I would see their flyers when I was first getting into punk. And this is one of the things that I really appreciate about the zine. it covers lots of old Toronto punk including ads for old punk stores like the Record Peddler or Vortex or even Hot Wax, which I never heard of.
There is a great piece on a Stiff Little Fingers show that sounds like it was a regional appearance because kids from Montreal came down to see it. The show was at the El Mocambo and the piece spends a lot of time slagging the bouncers who weren't letting kids in. Some of those kids started a fire in the back alley of the club and the fire department got called, but it didn't seem to effect the show. The show happened on Monday June 29th (1981).
This issue also has the best interview that i have ever read with Vancouver's DOA. The interview has Joey Shithead, Randy Rampage, Dave Gregg, and Chuck Biscuits.
There is also an interview with a little known band rom Pittsburgh called Carsickness. They came up to the play with the Fall.
Thanks to Dhaibid James (Moondog Ballroom) for the loan of the issue to scan and put up.