Radio - Thursday, February 25th, 2021

We put together a special one hour show looking at black artists within punk and punk influenced by black culture. This show is available for download here. 

We started one of the first all black punk band from Detroit made up of three brothers - David, Dannis, and Bobby Hackney. They self-released a single in 1976 on their own label Tryangle Records and were re-discovered in 2009 at a reunion show.  

U.S. scene
DEATH - Freakin' Out (Tryangle)
PURE HELL - Noise Addiction (Welfare / Puke 'n Vomit)
BAD BRAINS - Pay to Cum (Roir)

U.K. scene
X-RAY SPEX - Identity (EMI)
THE CLASH - Police and Thieves (Epic / CBS)
THE RUTS - Jah War (Virgin)

THE STRANGLERS - Peaches (United Artists)
THE SLITS - Typical Girls (Island)
BONA RAYS - Getaway Blues (Flashback)

Ska revival (post punk)
THE ENGLISH BEAT - Whine & Grind / Stand Down Margaret (Go-Feet)
THE SPECIALS - 10 Commandments (Island)

Canadian scene
D.O.A. - War in the East (Alternative Tentacles / Fringe Product)
THE 20TH CENTURY REBELS - Unemployed Expert (Rebelution)
THE YOUNG LIONS - Law Breaker (Unreleased)
L’ETRANGER - Goliath (Sensible Record Company)

Radio - Friday, December 28th, 2018

Basement Sessions
Two Tone review

THE SPECIALS – Enjoy yourself

Ska is party music. “Enjoy Yourself” is one of the most obvious party songs by the Specials. But I played the songs because it was the opening song in a set that I got to see as a 14 year old kid at the Police Picnic. I think that was in 1983 out in a farmer’s field in Oakville. And the Specials was my first exposure to a ska revival scene that was growing out of the post punk era. The played right before the Police and it was the song “Enjoy Yourself” that left an impression on me, but I was yet to learn about the first record which would have even better hits.

I thought we could start off this second tribute show to ska with a guy who recorded the first SPECIALS album. A musical encyclopedia unto himself and now a Canadian citizen. He hosted the music show Spectacle. I am talking about ELVIS COSTELLO and on his first record he had a reggae inspired number called Watching the Detectives.

Early Roots to Two Tone
ELVIS COSTELLO – Watching the Detectives – Recorded that first Specials album
COVENTRY AUTOMATICS – Blank Expression – for the snow reference
AKRYLYKZ – Ska’d for Life (Polydor)

That was the Akrylykz from Hull. They were mostly art students that formed a ska band and featured Roland Gift who would go on to sing in the Fine Young Cannibals.
We started off without Elvis Costello and that was followed up by a band that became the Specials called the Coventry Automatics. I played Blank Expression because of the snow reference.

Up next are a few sets about what the ska revival inspired. First off some bands that came from the skate scene and tried to take it mainstream starting off with Fun Boy Three featuring the singers from the Specials. They had a hit called the Lunatics are taking over the Asylum, but we are going to play a song that features a band called Banarama that also would go on from the seeds that ska sowed. This is “The Farmyard Connection”.

2 Tone spin offs
FUN BOY THREE - The Farmyard Connection
THE COLOURFIELD – Colourfield - More 60’s inspired band that would lead the way for bands like the Smiths to enter the fold
CULTURE CLUB - I’ll Tumble for You

That was Culture Club and I know it is a bit too commercial for my tastes but they were probably the most popular band to do something with that ska feel. They wrote Karma Chameleon that referenced the rastafarian colours and would get covered by dancehall artists. They were gender identity forward thinking with the sexual ambivalent front singer decades before issues of gender assignment would take to the mainstream. Not a two tone band but within the sphere of reference for sure. And has made recent cameos in the Housewives series.
Before that was the Colourfield also featuring Terry Hall from the Specials. They were 60’s inspired and would go on to pave the way for bands like the Smiths to come along.

Next up is the Clash a band noted for many reggae influences but this is off the “Black Market Clash” album written by Willi Williams. I would hear this song at a Stone Love set in Fletchers Land on an oldies Tuesday night while two groups of people rocked singing along over an open sewage gutter. I was probably the only person who knew the song from the Clash but I was hearing the Willi Williams song for the first time.

THE CLASH – Armagedeon Time
BASEMENT 5 - Riot
CITIZEN FISH - Nite Klub

That last song is a cover of the Specials one of many over the years. Citizen Fish formed from some of the greatest punk bands in England which started with the SUBHUMANS and then became CULTURE SHOCK. They had an acid rack sound inspired by the band before which is a UK reggae band called Basement 5. I think Don Lets was part of the band. They were very influential on the Subhumans.
Up next is a set on British Reggae which was happening simultaneously with the punk and ska scene. Starting with a band from Handsworth that used to play with punk bands at Rock Against Racism shows. Steel Pulse and the song “Sound System”.

British Reggae scene
STEEL PULSE – Sound System
UB40 - Food for Thought
ASWAD - African Children

Aswad started as far back as 1975. They had so many great songs and “African Children” was a song I first heard on their “Live and Direct” album which was the first time I realized that other places had a Carribean carnival just like us.
We also heard early UB40 which is from the first record. The first two records were double albums which contained an album and a dub record and neither of them were repetitive. we heard “Food for thought”.

Ska had an impact here in Canada. Locally the Rock Against Racism scene was taking their cues from England though a band called the Young Lions. They had a practise space called the Garage. One of the bands that practised there was from Malton called the 20th Century Rebels. They released their own 12” called “Rebel Vibe”. I made my own 20th Century Rebels shirt and the family of the sax player lived on the same street that I grew up on. Here is the most ska version from that record “Unemployed Expert”.

Influence of 2 Tone across the pond
20TH CENTURY REBELS - Unemployed Expert

Zine - Local Smash #20

This is issue #20 of Smash It Up, which is a Toronto punk fanzine put out by Nick Smash. This issue came out in December 1981. The issue starts out with a road trip diary for the Young Lions and 20th Century Rebels for a nuclear disarmament benefit show they play in Montreal. It didn't go so well.

There is an article on the Professionals who played the Voodoo Club. there is bits of an interview with Paul Cook in the piece.

There is an interview with Simple Minds who are from Scotland. This was the second time they had come to Toronto and was around the time that "Sons of Fascination / Sister Feelings Call" had come out because the band talks about it in the interview. They are pretty chatty and down to earth which is surprising to me because I saw them play Maple Leaf Gardens when they were a bit full of themselves and scolded the audience for coming up on stage. Difficult to think of them as the same band.

There is an update on Toots and the Maytals who had broken up and then gotten a new band together to come back up to Toronto. This is the man who wrote "Pressure Drop". There is a lengthy interview with Echo and the Bunnymen at their second show which took place at the El Mocambo. I think all the shows were happening there after the Edge closed down.

Jill Heath does an interview with the Young Lions where she starts out with the show in Montreal. They also cover:

- the song "United"
- the song "Goodnight Belfast"
- the Toronto Sun newspaper
- the song "One Little Nazi"
- and a big show they have organized featuring seven of Toronto's newest punk bands.

Jill Heath also does an interview with the ska band from Vancouver called the Villains. it was at a sold out show at the Masonic Temple on November 14th, 1981 and they were booked to come back for the end of December to play the Headspace for 8 days which was unheard of back then.

There is an update on Toots and the Maytals who had broken up and then formed with a new line up. This is the guy who wrote "Pressure Drop".

There is an article written about Youth Youth Youth, which is one of the only pieces I have ever seen written about what I would consider Canada's best hardcore band. The article provides some insight into motivations behind their songs and some interpretation into lyrics. There are a couple of quotes from Rob Mallion the guitarist and they mention that the third issue of Civil Disobedience had come out. They refer to Civil Disbobedience as a political zine that members of the band published.

There are some record reviews of John Foxx of Ultravoxx and Bow Wow Wow.

There is an interview with a band from Toronto called Boys Brigade. They sound like a percussion based dance new wave band similar to bands like Bow Wow Wow or Pigbag or Parachute Club or Norda. There was lots of other bands doing that same sound. Boys Brigade formed out of members of Arson and the Androids. I don't think they ever went anywhere because I never heard of anything about them outsude of this interview.

There is a write up on the Pinkertones who relocated to Toronto from Halifax.

There is an interesting scene report on Liverpool that writes about bands like Big in Japan, the Spitfire Boys, Crucial Three, the Nova Mob, the ID which became OMD, Dalek I Love You, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Teardrop Explodes.

There is a show review of Siouxsie and the Banshees at the El Mocambo.

There is a review of a Start Dancing show at a hall on Claremont that motsly describes the V-Necks.

There is also a review of an Iggy Pop show at the Music Hall.

This is courtesy of Daibhid James and his archive. Daibhid hosts Moondoog Ballroom on CIUT.

Zine - Stir It Up

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.

Zine - Rebel Music, Issue #1

Rebel Music is put together by people involved in our local Rock Against Racism movement. This group took their cues from the British organization and was motivated to start up to oppose the Klan who were trying to organize in Toronto. Interestingly the main interview is with Steel Pulse, who are a British reggae band that wrote a song called "Ku Klux Klan". Steel Pulse were part of the British RAR movement and shared stages with the Clash and the Sex Pistols when they first started. They payed a show in Toronto on May 8th, 1981 at the Concert Hall and James was able to talk with the drummer after the show. They spoke about the two tone scene and the Brixton riots among other things. The zine also features a well researched piece on the local reggae scene in Toronto which profiled Leroy Sibbles, the Twentieth Century Rebels, Truth and Rights, Bloodfire, One Love, and DJs and record stores on where to find reggae in Toronto. It is an amazing resource. The cover was made by Noxious Art.