Radio What Wave Playlist August 4/2017. Jason Dickson as Special Guest
We had Jason Dickson (Co-author, along with Vanessa Brown of London 150 Cultural Moments) on as a special guest to talk about the book and London Ontario history. We had a delightful conversation, bringing up a few of the moments caught in the book as well as a few that weren’t in the book. Talked about the musical history of London Ontario, start of the punk rock scene and loads more!! It was a total blast and hope you listeners had as much fun as we did!
- Mongrels….Nice Tits….didn’t mean to play this song and hopefully no one was offended. Meant to play All Systems Go. The Mongrels are celebrating the 3rd anniversary of their monthly Rock’n’Roll Rent Party at the Richmond on Sunday from 4 till 7 PM.
- Nihilist Spasm Band….Stop And Think Shitheads….an early 70’s recording of London’s longest lasting band?!? Well covered in the book, as are its participants as they were a key part of an art/cultural movement here in London. This band has toured a good part of the world and are legends in many places, yet almost unknown in their home town. Which says a lot about London Ontario.
- The Demics….New York City….from their 1979 EP, Talk’s Cheap on Ready Records. London’s most known punk combo and their most popular tune and it’s all about leaving London! Forgot to mention that Ready Records formed right here in London as its main participants were students in Fanshawe College Music Industry Arts. A program founded by former UK Pirate DJ Tom Lodge….and was later joined by famed Guess Who producer Jack Richardson (hence the Jack Richardson Music Awards here in London).
- The Demics….Heart Of The City….live recording from the Cedar Lounge 1978, London’s infamous punk/new wave/whatever club that was at the north west corner of King and Talbot. Ironically, there are large balls located there now! This particular song sums up going down town to see the bands at the clubs in the 70’s/80’s.
- Uranus….You’re So Square….from a live recording broadcast on CHRW 3/22/1982 from the Embassy Hotel. You’re So Square was the top 10 single that put Uranus on the Canadian musical map and even allowed them to travel to Vancouver to be on CBC television. The Embassy was a hot spot form the mid 80’s onwards until closing and mysteriously burning to the ground not long after. London has an issue with former hot spots burning to the ground…ie The Brunswick Hotel.
- Uranus….Shake Some Action….from a live radio broadcast on CFNY 5/1980. CFNY was the first commercial radio station in Canada to play the punk/new wave thing when it started. Unfortunately you couldn’t receive their signal here in London. In the summer of 1978, 6X, the Fanshawe Radio station hoped on the bandwagon and started playing punk/new wave music!! That was a godsend for many of us! A year or so later CHRW started broadcasting over the TV cable network for part of London. I was lucky enough to live in the area that received CHRW! Many live shows were aired over CHRW, with DJ Simon Less (Peter J Moore who won a Grammy last year!) recording many of these live shows. You’d be at a show and see a white styrofoam head in the crowd with wires coming out of the ears. This is what Simon used to record the band.
- Jim Ashby….Speed City….from a 1970 7” that was re-released by Speed City Records a couple years back. In 1970 London was referred to as the speed capital of Canada, hence this amazing song by CJOE DJ Jim Ashby. You can grab a copy of this 7” from Speed City Records on Springbank Drive here in London.
- The Blackholes…..Superfreak….from a live recording at the Brunswick Hotel. The Brunswick was a hot spot from the late 80’s onwards and many a young combo was fermented here. Closed down a few years back and mysteriously burned to the ground right after closing. The Blackholes have been around for years, starting as Viv Sun and The Blackholes and show up at art openings every now and then. Guitarist Tom Hilborn is a well known visual artist.
- Osterberg…..London Eats Its Own….from a 10” record they released in 1993. This one is a who’s who collection of punk musicians and misfits.
- The Stoves….Just My Style….live recording from the Cedar Lounge circa 1979 and one of the bands that shoulda gone on to big things. Just listen to those harmony vocals. Drummer Greg Moore went on to play in…
- Sheep Look Up…..Burning….from their 1982 cassette and another London combo that should have and almost did make it. They did get play on Much Music, released an EP and were on the cusp of greatness….
- 63 Monroe….At The Boot….from a live recording aired on CHRW around 1980. The Boot refers to the Blue Boot, the previous name of The Cedar Lounge. 63 Monroe featured (and still does to this day) Steven R Stunning on lead vocals, a one time mayoral candidate and he even had a weekly music column in the London Free Press, our only daily rag.
- NFG…..Weekend Punx….from a live recording from the York Hotel. NFG stood for non-functioning gear or some reference to not that great. Steven R Stunning was vocalist for this combo and they morphed into 63 Monroe (there may have been a First Date along the way). The York Hotel is now known as Call The Office (with a stop at The Promised Land along the way) and is one of the best known rock’n’roll clubs in North America!! Some of the shows I’ve seen there include; The Cynics. Monomen, Das Furlines (probably the best show ever!!), Subhumans, DOA, Link Wray, The Sadies, Andre Williams, Dictators, Teenage Head, Forgotten Rebels, Paul Collins Beat and soooo many more! My fave club here in London!
- The Zellots….Soldiers…from a 1980 recording and our first punk/new wave combo to feature 3 females in the band! Another one of those band that coulda and shoulda but didn’t quite make the next step. They opened for John Cale (Velvet Underground) at Fryfogles here in London and he asked them to come to the UK to open a tour for him. The band couldn’t muster up the airfare and had to cancel. But, The Zellots are about to release their first record next month! Some late 70’s recordings they did in Vancouver when they lived there for a year or so. More details on that real soon!
- Thundermug…..Africa…..1972 single that got radio airplay across Canada and helped put us on the musical map. The members of Thundermug are still active on the local music scene to this day!
- Larry Lea….Odd Man Out….from his mid 60’s LP on Canatal Records. This is rockabilly music released when the Beatles are the second coming! Timing is everything in music luckily we have the Black Holes to cover this one! The song title surmises my life and should have been covered by The Cramps.
- Terminal Wallys….City Saviour….. from their New Old School CD from a few years back. Again, screwed up and played the wrong song, meant to play The East End, a tune about living east of Adelaide St but this song means just as much to London.
Ran out of time, but certainly not things to talk about with Jason Dickson, nor London songs to play. One of the fastest 2 hours of my life and a pure joy to talk about London.
You can pick up Jason Dickson and Vanessa Brown’s book. London 150 Cultural Moments at their bookstore, Brown and Dickson on Richmond St, at Chapters and most other cool book stores around! It’s a fun read for the reading room and brings out all kinds of trivia that you probably didn’t know.
Back next week with Andrew from Running From Daylight (new local rockabilly combo) and some of the members of Hiroshima Hearts as we do the world premiere of their brand new 7” record!!! And they have a record release party set up for September 16th at the Aeolian Hall!
You might be able to catch the archived show here:
https://chrwradio.ca/program/radio-what-wave