Trouble In The Camera Club

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Anyone check this out? Don Pyle's book looks like basically a history of the late 70s/early 80s Toronto punk scene, something that has never been documented as well as NYC or the UK stuff but which was still pretty vital.

You can preview it on Amazon, looks interesting with a lot of super rad archival shots.

I think I might try and get me a copy of this.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

Ha, i was just gonna ask how many pictures of VILETONES graffiti were going to be in there, and I see that there's an intro by Steven Leckie. Looks interesting anyhow, though I was never as big into Toronto's punk history as I was the other major scenes.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

I looked inside. It's awesome. Man. Iggy with Bowie and Blondie at Seneca? Lita Ford on stage at the El Mo with the Runaways...the same place I played? The CN Tower with fuck all around it? What a great price, too, i checked to see if they had it at any bookstores around here. No dice.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Yea, it looks extra read. I don't see any of the legendary Turkeynecks show at the ElMo though, that one where they drove into town in a really big truck and did that Forgotten Rebels cover? Kind of a big one to leave out.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

They'd have to censor the shit out of the book for that.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

So could I find this in any one of the record and book stores I went to in Toronto, you know, the city that this book is about? No. No I could not.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

Amazon.com can ship it right away, but amazon.ca will take 2-3 weeks. Which, after my run-in with them over the DiLeo collection is not going to happen.

What's funnier? Don Pyle did a book release in Hamilton for this.....this past Saturday.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

No shit? Where? I was in Hamilton that afternoon. Too weird.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

It was at night, at a club with Burnin' Ethyl and a couple of other bands. My friend Pete, the guy who's singing for Teenage Head now, was singing with Burnin' Ethyl that night.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

My grandmother's name is Ethyl.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

I know.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I finished this the other day (thanks Mark!) and it's a good read. It doesn't go into crazy detail about any one particular band or club but instead gives a general overview of what the various venus were like. Some are still around, The El Mocambo and The Horseshoe for example, but most have been bulldozed or turned into something else since TO has become more yuppified and cosmopolitan.

The real reason to check this out though is for the pictures. These aren't the professional glossy shots you usually see in music books, they're instead captured on often times over exposed film by a kid just learning to use his 35mm camera. There's a spontaniety to them that is pretty aweomse, the kind you can't get from a bunch of posed shots captured in a studio. They do a good job of documenting what had to have been some awesome shows, like Iggy playing with Bowie backing him, Dead Boys and Viletones together, great stuff like that.

You don't need to have lived in Toronto to enjoy this. Anyone with an interest in 70s punk and prepunk would really dig this.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

I'm gonna get a copy soon