Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dave Rave: Toronto Mike'd #1427

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

In this 1427th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Dave Rave from Teenage Head about all things Teenage Head, losing Frankie Venom and Gord Lewis, The Shakers, The Dave Rave Conspiracy and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada and Electronic Products Recycling Association. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1427 of Toronto Miked! Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Advantage'd Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada.

Valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921, today. Making his Toronto Mike debut is Dave Rave. What a name. Love it, man. Nice to meet you, Dave. How you doing? I'm so glad to be here, man. I'm happy. What a great show you have and to be part of it is exciting.

Okay, let's slow down here, Dave Rave. I need some elaboration. You've heard you've heard an episode of Toronto Mike. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, your show is well known and and people people, I think people go to it because you get you you you tackle a lot of different subjects and yeah, I call it the current that you put the thermometer in today, right? What else you know, cut through all that PR bullshit that's going around. Like let's go straight to the talent, straight to the artist, and let's have a long form conversation.

Absolutely. I got Dave Rave in my basement, and I wanna celebrate that. Okay, I got a, it's called Burst. It's an IPA from Great Lakes Brewery. You have a Canuck Pale Ale. Ooh, this is really good. But you gotta crack it in front of the mic.

In front of the mic? This is a serious operation here. Okay, here we go. Alright, go ahead. Psst, psst, psst. Oh. In stereo. Sad sound.

Right, so cheers to you, Dave Rave, man. Cheers being here, thank you. And did you come from the Hammer? Yeah, I came from the Hammer today. You know, I'm not that bad considering we had a Super Bowl party last night in Oakville and it was such a good deal that we, it was, it could have been, I could have been more intoxicated than I did get, but everybody around me certainly did, but I knew I had to be good for today.

The game went to overtime. They have the new overtime rules. So it's like, once you got to get a grasp on this, so both teams are going to have a possession no matter what. And, uh, I thought it was a thrilling end. That was quite the, uh, quite the game. And you know, when you look back, that extra point that was missed by San Francisco, that this game doesn't go to overtime if they hit that extra point. Well, number one, they finally got to what the CFL already do. Cause a CFL, it was everybody gets the ball. And when they usually just do it, if you've got Because CFL, it was everybody gets the ball. And when they used to just do it,

if you got a field goal, it's not, football's not like hockey or basketball, you know, which is a back and forth sport, it's a possession sport, right? So I never understood the NFL, this amazing billion dollar industry, not get something so simple. And us Canadian League, you know,

based on thousands got it right. So I'm glad they finally did first of all, it made the game more fun. Absolutely. And fair. Now, okay, you mentioned CFL, so I'm gonna jump to a course. So there's a whole whack of great questions for you. Sure, yeah. This is sort of a teenage head deep dive,

but it's more than that. Absolutely, yeah. Cause you've got other great stuff on your book. We can talk about anything. Okay, this is gonna be amazing. I'm very excited. And Mike Rogatsky. Yep. Love the Hamilton content. You know, I, I hear from Mike and I want to shout out Jake the snake and all these cats who like, when I do a,

and I got a question coming up from Hamilton, Mike, what a great community. This Hamilton man, when I, when I have an episode with somebody, I don't know, be it Steve Pagan or Tom Wilson from junk house, who's the unofficial mayor of Hamilton. He certainly is. When I have these episodes, Stephen Brunt, Stephen's awesome. You know, Damien Cox is from Hamilton. He'll talk it up. So when I, when I do these Hamilton episodes,

the Hamilton contingent comes out. Rogowski says, can you ask Dave what's his favorite Hamilton tie cat moment? Oh, well, you know what? I'm meant to be selfish here. We got to play the Labor Day game, the halftime show. And I think as a young lad who got when my dad in 1968 got me got a season tickets, which I dreamt, you know, the year after they won the company didn't have a good year that year they did after that they won in 67. So didn't have a good year that year. They did after that, they won in 67. So, but to be there with my boys, you know, with Gordy and Stevie and, you know, Gene,

and I know Frank, how many games did I watch with Frank over the years? You know, it was magic. You know, it was like, it's like one of those things you go, when you're a little boy, you go, wouldn't it be great to be able to play it this place and it happened man and that's I think that's probably one of the greatest moments in my life you know really because you it's a childhood what year was this that was just before the pandemic 2019 you know

and a little bit of the drama before that there's a doc on teenage head you know of course my face yes and gourd on teenage head, you know, picture my face. And Gord was suffering, you know, from illness and not feeling well. So we didn't even know if he was gonna make it. That whole summer we cheerleaded him into health and he made it and he played stunningly good, which I'm proud of him. He did it, you know.

You know, my heart aches. I know we're gonna jump around a bit here, and we're gonna get back to this. We don't have to have any order. Thank you. Cause that'd be impossible to keep this chronological. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, you mentioned Gord and Gord, Gord Lewis, and just my heart hurts when I think about the tragic end of Gord Lewis. Like what an absolute tragedy, not only to the Hamilton community, but teenage head fans across this country. I mean, just do you mind sharing a little bit about Gord? Absolutely. Well, I know Gord since, believe it or not,

since the first grade. And we both went to Catholic school together in Hamilton. And he came, I still remember he came in late in the year because he was from a different part of Hamilton. We were all the West End. And he came in and I always remember because he got fresh money, because he used to get money in the beginning of the year. And I always wrecked everything. I lost everything because that's just my nature. I still do. But he

of course was very neat and kept everything. So I remember being jealous that he got this new fresh money. And but yeah, from the beginning, he was a competitive, amazing guy who was unique. He was quiet in one way, but but he had the sportsman mentality of competition and and He he didn't want to lose it anything he did I remember playing chess with him and if I was gonna beat him he just knocked the board off You know, I played we were you know, all two boys together. We played baseball together, hockey. He was actually, I was talking to a fellow friend of ours,

we all grew up together, Mike Conrad the other day, and they played hockey in Boston, and the Boston Bruins were interested in him in 1970, maybe to be a goalie. So that's how good he was. That's how good he was. He was like Roger Crozier in the days of the, the toe saved goalie and he, the one time I was a defenseman,

the one time I was going to score, finally score a goal. He put the toe save out and stopped it, which we, he wasn't, he'll let me score a goal. Are you kidding? I bugged him with it all my life. What is it with rock stars in this country and being a goaltender? I've heard from more rock stars, right? Yeah. Who is it? Oh, Brother Bill from CFNY was just on the program and he was talking about the time.

No, he scored a hat trick, but he didn't know who the goalie was because they were wearing a mask. And he's in the dressing room and he sees, oh, the goalie is Gore Downey. Was he a goalie too, Gordy? Gore Downey was a goalie. He wrote that lonely end of the ring.

That's right. That's about his personal experience. Those boys were heavy hockey guys. Even like, and they were Boston, he was a true Gordy. Gored down, he was a Gordy. He wrote that lonely end of the ring. That's right. That's about his personal experience. That's right. Those boys were heavy hockey guys. Even like, and they were Boston, he was a Boston Bruins. He's like Harry Sinden was his godfather, right? Well, I didn't realize that. I think so, and I think, you know, in that Courage video, he's wearing this Bruins sweater.

That's right, Harry Bruins man. Which pissed off a lot of us, and then we found out Harry Sinden was his godfather. So he came by it, honestly, but there's definitely like a correlation between like the Canadian rock star and being a goaltender. Well, you know what, it was weird because in the 60s, as kids, we were, you know, I always had one ear on music

and one eye on sports, and then somewhere along the line, music just took over. But it didn't mean we didn't like sports, but now you can keep them together. At that point, you sort of had to separate them. You were either a jock or a cool guy, a sports music guy. And we went into the, ended up going into the music end. But then in the 80s, when we were beyond the road, me, Frank and Gord always,

whenever we were playing out West, we'd always go see a game. Cause we would be only going on 11 and the games were always at seven. So we get to see the jets, the oilers, uh, saddle dome. We went to see them, uh, Canucks. We always got to see games. We saw the great Gretzky era. City of Champions, man. Yeah. So we became, in the 80s, we became back to real big music fans, became okay. Frank would tape the Leafs game and somebody would always tell him to score.

Don't tell the score. I think as Rahm Eklang came over and told me like all of the Canadian rock stars, they wish they were musicians. Like in all the Canadian rock stars wish they were hockey players, right? They wanted to be athletes. And all the athletes wanted to be rock stars. Yeah, I got to play the Cops Coliseum rockers

versus the players, right? The Leafs alumni. And I had no idea that I was being picked to play the game. just the players, right? The Leafs alumni. And I had no idea that I was being picked to play the game. And so I'm practicing, practicing, and then I finally go, who are we playing? And he goes, Leafs alumni. I almost cried.

I went, I can't play, I'm not that good. I haven't played enough. But they said, don't worry about it. So I stuck on right wing and play with Andrew cash remember, you know politics Yeah, of course Andrew's a great sentiment. He was fast. I'm a big skydiggers guy. They were cool. Yeah Yeah, and we had you know, I was in Hamilton to see skydiggers in December Peter would come to me in it. I think my line was

cash with um Rick Emmett on left wing and I was on right wing and we had the three brothers That play Hanson Brothers. No, well, they like the Hanson Brothers, you know Strange animal Gowan brothers were first class. Okay, so you just you're your name drop in a whole bunch of FOTM here friends at Toronto Mike. They just want you to be brave to know you're now an FOTM. Oh, I'm honored. Thank you. And I gotta say, I'm listening to you in the headphones now for the past, we're really early in this up,

but like, okay, you're a Hamilton guy, but you got an accent, right? Like where's this affection coming from? Here it is. Yeah. In 1989, I left the boys. I said, okay, you know, I realized it was time. And I said, I don't wanna be teenage all my life,

but not against being teenage, just saying that I knew that this was a point in my life where I went, I'm either gonna stick with this band forever or I'm gonna go with a greener past, not greener past, but different past, and a New York City possibility came came and so I took it. With a fellow Canadian, a guy named Gary Pigold, a Mississauga boy, actually but really poor credit.

Let's say poor credit, right? He said I'm poor credit. Yeah, he's not really. So Gary and I accidentally got into New York City at a new music seminar, a friend of his, another fellow Canadian knew of an empty place that they needed to be taken care of. So I stayed there till a very long time. So you got a little Jack Armstrong going on there. He's got that Brooklyn thing.

Yeah. So for two years, up two years before when, when, when I rejoined teenage head, when Steve Astley back, I, he, Steve said, you can stay in New York, we're not playing, we don't play that much. Well, unfortunately, but fortunately, we ended up doing a lot of things together up to the pandemic. And we put out four records, reissues like we reissued the first album,

Steve Kane won us and we did a greatest hits called uh, Steve Kane that won us and we did a greatest hits called, um, uh, uh, fun comes fast. Then they reissued tornado. And now recently we just did, um, live at the heat wave and also to reissued the, I'm going to ask you about that. The, the, the Markie Ramone album with the, with the head teenage head. So as a result, I am staying here. Okay. And I'm coming back to the Hammer. Okay, listen, glad you're back. Glad you're back in the Hammer. Thank you.

I'm glad you're here. I feel like this is all just the pre-game show, man. Yeah, yeah. I wanna thank somebody. Nancy Malek, do you know Nancy Malek? Oh, I was gonna thank her too. We're JigsCoke here. Yeah, I love Nancy.

She's amazing. Okay, so Nancy wrote, she's like, have you had, you know, you can have Dave Ravon. And I'm like, what do I have Dave Ravon? She basically connected us. She was amazing that way. Yeah, thank you, Nancy. Well, we reconnected at the Andy Kim show, and Ralph Alfonso has this band called Damn Truth,

and Ralph was coming into town, and he said, hey, I'm in town, we're doing the Andy Kim show, Damn Truth, I went, cool. And then anyhow, that day, he said, do you wanna go? Because I can, because of Nancy, he told Nancy that I was talking to her, he said, she invited me to come to the show. And it was fantastic show. And Tom played and damn truth

were amazing and we got to see Rush the guitar player man Alex Leibson yeah like Alex play and the of none is that that's his band now right yeah well he was playing with Andy you know so okay yeah do the great night backstage we we we hook up and talk to Nancy and we said, hey, how you doing? And it's great. We reconnected, it's beautiful. Okay, this is all beautiful. Now, Dave Rabe, look, I gotta see your driver's license. Can't be your real name, right?

So what is your real name? My real name. Well, I was today in getting my blood work and it did say, my health card said DeRoche. Okay. He's a French man from New Brunswick. My dad was a New Brunswicker. Sure, okay, like a Katie in it, right? Oh yeah, I could eat. Okay, he's a French man from the from New Brunswick. My dad was a New Brunswicker. Sure. Okay, like a Katie in her

Okay. Oh, yeah, I could eat. Okay, beautiful. So KK a long time radio personality who sadly she tells me she left radio to she said it was too toxic radio I thought was sad when I got this note from KK radio is too toxic She's gonna try to find a gig outside of the industry But she just wanted to write it and say, no questions, Dave, just declaring lots of love and support over the years. So that's from KK. Well, you know, radio at night, right?

We used to, I used to watch TV during the Gulf War. And at night I would listen to the Yankees when I was living in New York on WABC. And then after that, the stuff that was said on radio could never be said on TV. And I thought, it's interesting the difference between when people visualize, see something talking versus listening.

And because I'd hear stuff like politicians and different people saying things, I thought radio is way more interesting still today than television. Because television, I mean Bill Moore got got Left he had to leave his members show on ABC W on ABC Politically incorrect. Yeah for minor stuff compared to what you would hear on on radio like opinions were broad And and you know for the right and left

Right. Yeah, so radio, I always think, when you just hear voices, it's way more challenging and cutting edge. Susan Day, and I hope I'm saying it right, D-E is how the last, we're gonna start, we gotta talk about teenage head. So the question from Susan is, what's a teenage head? Okay? Okay.

But let's start with, let's get to the origin story, and then I'll chime in with all these questions along the way. But basically tell us about forming teenage head. I guess you're going back to the mid 70s. The thing about it is it, I was always in, I always had an ear for music and it was in my family. So I, when I was in grade nine, I would be talking to a fellow friend of mine, Ralph Nicole and Frankie venom,

who was then Frankie Kerr was in row one, I was in row four, and after about two months of me and Ralph always would talk about music, the current stuff, hey, you're the new Elton John record, Frank came over quietly just before Christmas and I played drums, would you like to get together and jam? So this quiet guy on row one finally spoke, and I went okay so I

grabbed a couple of buddies and we all went to his house just after that Christmas that year. It was really cold and that was sort of the beginning of the relationship of Frank and I in the bands. Not yet teenage head but just us playing together and Gordy I knew him all along, he was playing a little more, like he started taking guitar around. I remember showing him something, I was taking a Mel Bay guitar book,

and I showed him a couple of my exercises, and he learned pretty quickly. So he was playing, Steve was playing, Nick had an older brother who was actually really, really good and played like Allman Brothers in real music, like all that stuff that was hard to play. So Nick was already playing, me and Frank were already playing, but Steve and Gord were sort of jamming, the two of them. And I think somewhere along the way, everybody eventually connected. I think around 74, that's why this is the 50th anniversary.

And Steve talks about it, but here's the crazy thing. By the way, it's Steve Mann Marshall's birthday today. So I talked to him and he said, hello. Okay. Hello to Steve. Happy birthday. There's a question for you about him. Okay. It's about the name. So he gave him, he's got two last names. What's going on there? Okay. I asked him that. I said, I was looking on, but let me give credit to Dawn said who says Dave might not have the answer to this, but why does basis Steve man also go by Steve Marshall?

Well, I have the answer now. Cause I asked him, I said, Steve, I got this question. This might be the question asked. So he goes to me. That was my middle name. I think he was named after an uncle of his, Steve Marshall. So Marshall's his middle name. And sometimes he just goes by that. I think he, cause I think, you know, showbiz, we all sort of had different names. Right. Gordy was, yeah, Gordy was lazy legs. Louis, Frankie venom. Right. Mr. Kerr, Mrista Venom, you know? And he got that name because I think Nick's mom said,

Frank always was, you know, very, very cheeky. And he'd say something cheeky that, you know, that moms and dads wouldn't maybe always appreciate. And she goes, Frankie, Tongue's Venom. Well, what's Nick's last name? Stepanets. Okay, Stepanets, okay. So we got, so basically it's you, Frank Kerr, who would go by Frankie

Vandam like you just said there, Gord Lewis, Steve Mann and Nick Stipanitz. Yeah, all of us played in various variations. And what are you doing with the band? Like Frankie's lead singer, right? Well, not yet. And then I, you see, but I was already playing and doing stuff after me and Frank. Eventually we were in a band together. We all got into different, with different people. And Frank stayed playing with Mike. I ended up, we had so many guitar players at the band that me and Frank initially started

that I eventually left. So basically Steve and Nick, basically, Steve and Nick, no, Steve and Gord got Frank to come in and play drums with them. They never really had a proper lead singer. So I would go in and sing when they needed a show. Even Nick, before he was drumming, he would come in and sing.

They had different people that came. So that's really the gritty of it. And then eventually Frank, to get somebody who was always in the band, Frank flipped over, like I said to Gordon, Frank's actually a really good singer because I had a book of, a friend of mine gave me a book called Beatle Songs in Three Chords.

Okay. So that's like 1971 and it was like 100 songs and it was just all the easiest chords, not the right ones, but the easy ones. So Frank would always pick up the book when we would take a break and sing Beetle songs or Dawn Maclean songs, whatever, American Pie, he would always pick up the guitar and sing.

So I knew he could sing. So me and him sort of stood together. So you start maybe you're kind of on leads at first and then Frank takes over. But you mentioned you leave, so this is where I get confused. So you found. Well really it was really Steve,

see the idea of teenage head is Steve and Gord because they were playing together. And me and Frank and Nick were in different bands playing. So the real core of that band is those two, which I'm only learning now. Really? I asked, we and Steve talked about this week. So the core of the band is those two.

That would separate Teenage Head from everything else that we were doing. So we all were stepping in and eventually Frank came in, I would step in, Nick would come in, and eventually, Nick eventually did join the band full time. I'd be there for recording sessions and playing, but I wasn't full time in the band in the beginning. I would be playing rhythm guitar along with Gordy,

because they had another rhythm guitar player, but they let him go. His name was Steve Parks. So he sat, you know what? go. His name was Steve Parks. So he's at, you know what? He goes to Simply Saucer. Yes, now the thing about all this stuff, it sounds now convoluted,

but really all it is is that we all live in the same neighborhood, and I would take one day, I would take a bike ride there. Or Gordon and Frank would come over on their bikes in front of my house And say hey, we need you were recording coming down. So it wasn't ever complicated It was just people like gordled around the corner for me We all knew each other so it wasn't like now and wasn't like some some you know big it was just okay

What are you doing tomorrow? We knew we ought to shake. We're doing a street dance. Why don't you sing? Okay? I'm in do you remember the first gig for teen we ought to shake. We're doing a street dance. Juania Singh. Okay, I'm in. Do you remember the first gig for Teenage? Yeah, yeah, it was a street dance right on Hillview, which where Frank lived. And then Steve even wasn't there because Steve went and was a roadie and Steve always like, I think somewhere

in his collective conscious, even though him and Nick, Steve, him and Gorge started the band. He wasn't at the first gig But they did do stuff goofy stuff They did they they goofed off in that before that but if I think the official gig was we're sitting and playing at Hillview at A street dance and we started off with the song search and destroy By Iggy Pop. Yeah. Yeah, we did teen generate mystery girls by the Dolls,

California Son by the Dictators, because Ramones hadn't existed yet. Ramones didn't exist yet. They did, but we didn't know. Right, CBG. Yeah, Raw Power, all that stuff was going on. What other song? Chatterbox by the Dolls.

Yeah, Chatterbox, I see you squac a lot. Come on, give me some. See, at that point, it was sort of music that nobody liked, and I wish I am always attracted to that, in a way. Even though I liked the conventional rock, like everybody else, I was a big bad finger fan. I loved all the stuff that was going on, the faces. But this music, which was sort of on the outskirts, was sort of cool music.

So I didn't mind it when I'd go to Gord's house and listen to it. They were outside the box. And where does the name Teenage Head come from? Teenage Head come from. Okay, here's a crazy little story. And when I was young, I used to go to the, to buy magazines.

I went to the smoke shop in our neighborhood and I saw this really cool psychedelic and I knew Rolling Stone magazine. Right. And I would get that once in a while, but then I saw this really cool magazine with a psychedelic cover of a guitar on it. And I went, wow, that's really, really cool. And on the back was pictures of the flame and groovies. And it said, if you get subscribed to this magazine, you can get teenage head the album by the flame and groovies. Now here's the crazy thing. I just thought it was such a cool cover and cool articles.

I didn't know who Lester bangs was at the time, but there's cool articles. I buy the magazine drive on my bike over to the swings. Now there's little swings. Think about this. Go hard. And there was a couple of girls that used to hang out. Yeah. Great eight, right? Girls hang out. Yeah. Grade eight, right? Yeah. Girls hang out at the, right by the school that did, George Allen, Gord comes riding over cause he knows his girl's there too,

on his bike and he goes, Hey, what's going on? I go, I just bought this new magazine called Cream. And Gord looked at it and went, oh, that's really cool. He went and bought the magazine too. Then he comes back and goes, I really liked that name, Teenage Head. It. Such a cool name on the back of the cover.

Right. And so I think even in grade nine, he already was thinking of that name. He had some other names for the band, maybe the Jets and a few other things, but that name Teenage Head stuck in his head. And now if you remember the name Head in those days means what guys used to hang out together. he's a good head He's a good I don't know this this is what I was it was it obvious the connotation we think of it today No, that was no fellatio Nothing to do because it wasn't called that then it was called a good head. It was headshot

Okay, it was all to do more with drugs, you know, head shops, and they were like poster shops with psychedelic stuff. So a teenage head was a young dude who was ahead and into cool music, right? So it changes now, you know, as time goes on. It's like the Beach Boys, you know, like teenage head, because he's a teenage head, you know? And don't forget in rock and roll, the song Teenage Head by the Flamin' Groovies is about these guys who don't forget in rock and roll with a song teenage head by the flaming groovies is about

These guys don't want to go to Vietnam, right? So I'm a monster I got a rev the teenage head Teenage monster California bone and bread, you know, then he's got rotten air in in Vietnam and all that stuff you know so the Flamin Groovies were cool guys and never got big but they were a cool band you know amazing yeah so Dave rave Dave rave I love this fucking name you know question came in on the live stream by the way how did I get it well how'd you get because I'll tell you I know like off the top my head I can think of three Dave raves like these guys

Are all just busted because I'm thinking a Dave rave Ogilvy. For example, he's the only he's the main my main other raver Okay. Yeah, you to compete for like SEO and Dave rave, but where is your rave McIntosh? Okay, I have a note from yeah, I almost zoomed when he's in the UK I think or so he is now I got a note from him on Facebook and I almost booked him and then he wasn't feeling Well, and we're gonna try to get you going again. Oh, you got to get him. I'd like to hear you at Macintosh because he had that cool magazine, Nerve. Okay, you know what? Gear Joyce, if you're listening, Dave Rave and I have this Facebook connection, we have

Facebook message. He's a big fan of Toronto Miked and it was wild because that conversation was happening around the time I was kind of talking to Ogilvy, Dave Rave. Yeah. And then you come into the picture and I'm like, oh, there's so many Dave Raves. Yeah, there's only the three main ones. I mean, there's other Dave Raves that we don't know about,

but leave them alone. He's the key thing. My Dave Rave came from, picture my face, and here's what happened. In 77, Teenage Head are gonna do their single their first single and um gordon i can't remember we're in gray because we're in college now and gordon says to me he goes because we always gordon didn't want another guitar player he got rid rid of Steve and the reason why was so simple. He saw the Ramones. And it's not that simple. And I think in 76 when he saw the Ramones, he went, that's what I want. And Gord's a forceful personality even though

he's quiet and an easygoing guy, but he's a forceful personality. Strong. I think he related to Johnny Ramone. But he still wanted another guitar player. That's me. And because we could play off each other and I get out of the way. I know his... because he's got this thick sound. It's like a... right? With a downbeat. But I could do that... I could do the high stuff. I could play in the high range with him. So I knew where to get out of the way of his thick sound but do a little high stuff in it and Yeah, so we're rehearsing for Pitch in My Face and the B-sides Tear Me Apart and we're gonna go to I think Sounds Interchange and

it's in the punk era and everybody's rocking and there's a store called Star Records where we're rehearsing. And Paul Kouback might have been the manager still then. So we're rehearsing, rehearsing. And there's a guy who everybody in 1977 had a name or an attitude. So even the people who came and seen you play. So there was a guy named Mike Mope. Great name, right?

Love it. Still around. Okay. Comes into the rehearsal when we're rehearsing goes, look who's on effing guitar. Take you know, it's Dave Effing. You can swear by the way. Okay, well I'll say it up there. I'll say anyhow just for the effing. It sounds more fun. Dave Effing rave. The effing went and the rave stayed. So I got anointed by the mope and they got you know the guys laughed their heads off. Yeah it's Dave Rave! I got chosen to be a rave and I liked it because Mr. Shit, I like Mr. Shit but it was sort of limited you know it was a name that was rock and roll like Buddy

Holly had rave on which people were doing, right? Real kids were singing real Rave On. Yeah, so it just stuck with me from then on. And I remember Nazi Dog saying, we're fucking Dave Rave. And we were backing down the horseshoe and I went, okay, I got this. I'm okay now. Nazi Dog, you know, Steve Stephen Leckie gave me ability. It was cool.

There you go. ["I Want To Say It"] Ha ha ha ha. Sounds good. Still sounds amazing. That's an amazing record. So that's 78, right? May 78.

78. Well, we recorded in 77, but it came out in 78. I think about May or April of 78. Now here's a funny little story. I finally get the single given to me. We're on Epic Records. Wow. IGM.

Big time. And I had to go to a wedding. I remember because Frank and his chord dropped. The singles gave me a couple. I went to the wedding and left the car But I was hot left left the records in the car. They melted so I never even got a chance to hear I still got I kept one of my little orders because I said yeah, I remember this moment Fucking amazing now, you know everywhere when I was growing up I'd hear about teenage head

This is iconic punk band every time I'd hear about Teenage Head, this iconic punk band. Every time I'd hear Teenage Head, it didn't sound punk to me. Like I'm just curious, would you consider Teenage Head a punk band? Well, it would happen. Really simple. The original punk music and actually me and Ralph Alphons were- FOTM Ralph Alphons. Yes, yes.

This guy's the real deal. Yeah, and we were down at the South by Southwest and Clemberg was doing a thing on CBGBs. It was all these CBGBs people, which is what we got lend into. Cause you gotta remember there's a story how music comes to right. So punk rock, which we call punk rock, comes from dolls, Iggy, dictators, like the stuff that was on that first set to Teenage Head. When 75 there was no

punk rock, it was just outside rock and roll music. Lou Reed was sort of in there. Bowie was an influence, you know, Eno, that stuff, Roxy music. So this music put into a pot and out of that pot, including bubblegum, of course, the Ramones came from it. Blondie came from it. But if you listen to all very diverse bands, and Clem Burke said this when he was talking about the CBs era and he goes blondie when we were playing we were doing trying to do 60s girl stuff mixed in with some who drumming like wild shit right the Ramones he said we're doing this sort of like 1910 fruit gum company with leather jackets and fast rock and roll. Like, you know, like, sort of like, do like the old records we would get on the 24 power hits,

you know, like that kind of music. You know, Jimmy, give me a, Indian, like, they were doing that and then, you know, talking heads were doing their art school thing. So they, everybody was doing, television was doing this weird guitar stuff. Right. None of them, he goes, now, would be considered punk.

It was just outside the FM rock world. It's like an attitude more than anything. Yes, FM rock world, freedom. And then he goes, Steve Bader's band comes along, and he goes, that's technically the band that now the image of what we call punk. It was that kind of, you know, the dog collar, it's the whole, that whole thing.

Now, I was in a band in Canada, in New York, with Billy Fika, and- Name the band. Of television, and Lauren Agnelli from the band, the Washington Square's Nervous Rex, and with Gary Piggin and Coyote Shippies. So we had this band and Billy, we were driving some gig somewhere in the Midwest.

And he starts telling me when him and Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine are trying to find the gig because the doll scene had crashed. And Unganos and those clubs, he said, were all hard rock clubs. You had to have a record deal to get there. So they went around the city and they found CBs, right? So it was, which was at that time a country Western club.

CB is country blues. Yeah. So they asked in Hill, he said, yeah, come on in on Sunday afternoon. He said there was always a coupon underneath the thing, terrible vibe rats, but they gave him the place to play. There was a pool table, the bikers would play. So everybody from downtown all over started coming to the show

That's the real roots of punk that teenage had came from right now that then the British thing which became like like pistols and and and Clash and that style we we more lean to we love the pistols I'd like the clash love generation X, you know We loved a lot of it. I also we also loved Nick Lowe and Dave Edmonds and that stuff, too You put them all together that to me is the original punk Graham Parker else You know, could you say Graham Parker's punk now? Not really Elvis Costello, right? It's but as it went along it mutated into very educational,

man. You explain it really well to you. You should teach it a course at McMaster. Oh, I should. I'm going to ask the guys at McMaster. But it's just what happened. And then it's remembering it. And then that next level of bands after teenage head, I remember going over to the old, um, uh, on, uh, where the city TV used to be record peddler. Right. And I remember him, those guys, you know, Ben and them. And I remember him, those guys, Ben and them showing me those bands from the West Coast,

like Jello by Afra. They took it even a little more, Henry Rollins, the West Coast punk bands. It's funny, but we were, I was, during Christmas time, we did this Christmas show and I was invited to go and the cone from some 41, he was there and we talked all about this.

He was asking me all the questions. He said, I never go to after this parties. And he goes, but we sat and talked for hours about this stuff. And he loved it. And I was really, you know, he, I was nice to, you know, what a guy who's in a big famous band and they tour and they're on this big tour.

He's just as interested about what our era, would you really ever see SNF, SFNU? I went, yeah, we played with them in Winnipeg. You know, like, it's just, you went through this in your life, right? So it was cool and you gotta share it. Love it, you know, and it doesn't, you know, like, it's just, you went through this in your life, right? So it's cool, and you gotta share it. Love it, you know, and it does, you know, when I read, for example, on Wikipedia or whatever, and it always says something like, Teenage Head or a punk band from Hamilton, Ontario,

but then I listen to a song, which I'm gonna play later, because I'm gonna ask you about this other band you kind of left and started up, but we'll get back to Teenage Head, because I have a million questions about it, but Let's Shake, like, if I listen to Let's Shake, Mm-hmm. So, I'm, you know, it doesn't sound like a punk song. Yeah. But in, but you see, so cause it, cause it's a contextual thing. Like it's like, um, uh, you know, people now go, wow, you know, with whether, why were the Rolling Stones so hip in 64 or 35? Cause listen to Dean Martin. So when you hear that, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, it was like, whoa, what's that? Dean Martin, everybody loves him,

so in the middle of, da, da, da, da, ah, and all in all, we're just another brick in the wall, or when you hear, I in all, we're just another brick in the wall. Or when you hear, you know, I'm just around about. You hear all that music. Or, you know, Jefferson Starship.

We built this city in the middle of all that. They hear, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom. That's like wild shit, man. Like that's crazy. What's going on with those guys? You know, they don't even know how to play they I remember Kim Mitchell going and who I like and was we hung out with Them this year, but him going in 76 because he had to open up for them. Oh, yeah

I remember in the article in the CPI magazine goes these teenage head guys, you know, they have to they don't three chords They make music and that's bam. bam, bam on the drums. Right. And that's the way it was heard. Now, eventually I'm sure he changes mind as he goes along, but in 76 when he's doing, you know, think about love hangover and all that stuff, which we liked, we went and saw Max, Toronto with Contos, right. But at that point here, what we did, it sounded like lunatics, you know, like even like something like Blondie Which you think okay, that's pretty good pop music right right to hear Clem Burks drumming You know, it was great and Nick Lowe doing cruel to be kind

It was wild like cruel to be kind Eagles didn't write cruel to me, you know, like it's all in context So, you know what? This is really making it clear. And I appreciate this. Cause I'm born in the mid seventies. So it's like, you know, I'm trying though. I'm talking to cats like you and I'm trying to like understand the context, but this makes sense to me.

Yeah. Cause it was, it was really in a weird way. Like cause the British rock punk rock was because Britain was really having a hard time in the seventies, right? The Duel. And so it was more clash, you time in the seven days, right? The duel. And so it was more a clash, you know, London, Scotland, but in our world,

we was more like, we were rebelling, we wanted our place in the big rock world, which wouldn't allow us, and we had to fight in, right? Because that was it. Let's get on cue, come on, you know? Right. Did you play the last pogo at the horseshoe? Were you there, Dave? I was at the show, but I was, I, I would always come on for tune,

but yeah, it was done so quick that it never, I never got on and it was a big riot and all that stuff going on. Yeah. Okay. So it was pretty, pretty, pretty brutal night, you know? Yeah. Well, uh, help with this. Okay, so maybe a little more detail on the last Pogo before I play Let's Shake. But before I even come back the teenage head, let me just play another song that's not teenage head. Okay. And then we'll talk about these guys.

Okay. Oh, the shakers. Oh, yeah. Loosen my head or my employers rope I wanna be ready so I can cope in Timing, timing, time, time Well it's moving on by me And time, I just moved out to Hawaii And time, I want a first class nurse Taking good care of me

Gonna check my breathing very carefully Throw my body with a stethoscope I wanna be ready so I can cope in Timing, timing, time time. Sometimes you feel catch up the wheel when I'm heading into something that's beyond my control. Oh, hang on. You gotta go. I want you to hear something. Hang on. I want to hold the key. Listen to this.

I'll take the ride. You know who that is. Mr. Lazy Lake Lewis. So here, fill me in here. Okay. So like you said, this of course, this is the Shakers. Who are the Shakers? Okay. And now the Shakers, it's happening, uh, like with Teenage Head, but not Teenage Head. Okay, here's he go. Yeah.

It's so easy to understand once you know it. Um, what happened is it, because, and that's Gordy on the guitar, he's on this track too, um, what happened is it, I was playing, was playing and Teenage Head Steve, Frank and thing. I was already, I was because I was more diverse than those guys. Steve and Gore didn't have, they weren't singers. I was already in 71 playing coffee houses because I was always a singer songwriter. I could sing so that was that era. Those guys, so when I was, when Teenage Head started,

I was already playing. So they would always have me in, and plus we could do a harmony, I could do harmonies. So we all sang together. So me, Rick, Frank, we're originally in a band together, when we way back in our first band. So we, because of nature my personality, I kept playing. So I played with Rick and then the drummer clothed

my cousin. So we're all Westdale boys again. And then there was a guy named Tim Givens who was from the west east part of the mountain. He used to play around the coffeehouse. So when we got together to write these songs, we never thought, like I never thought of punk rock with Rick in that gang. I did that with Chanchette. It was more doing the acoustic, playing the coffeehouse, playing the Nervous Breakdown, going down to the OCA, doing that stuff, playing the coffeehouse scene

that was big at the time. Willie P. Bennett, Murray McLaughlin, that era. So that was going at the same time as this. So when we actually decided to get together and make a record, I went, I got my cousin on drums, and I said, Gordy, do you wanna play guitar? And Gordy said, sure. Because we heard Nick Lowe and Dave Edmonds and that the pub rock thing and we said, okay

I said now there's a place to do a shaker thing because at that point there was no no place for this kind of music We loved the Everly Brothers. We love all that stuff, but there was no place So when we heard that music like Dave Edmonds and Nick Lowe and Elvis and all that stuff and they were producing the jam Then we got a place to do this kind of music, right? So of course because we're all in the family we opened up the teenage head Which I would play the teenage head show then Gordy would have me up to play With them and then Gordy would come and join us at the end of our set so it's like it was just natural because we all live together and the play with them and then Gordy would come and join us at the end of our set.

So it's like, it was just natural because we all lived together. And matter of fact, we're getting the Shakers back together now, just cause there's nothing else to do. And I actually was gonna get Steve to come and play a bass on the track, but he's way to hell up in Minden now. So we didn't even got in time to get him to come down,

but Steve was gonna design the art album for it. So it's just, now the thing about that song in time, which is what it's the bittersweet of that song, sad, because that great guitar solo and Gordy would come in, is that that was his last solo before he got in the car accident. And it was just before that happened. And we had him down and we were hanging out. I mean, cause this isn't, is this in New York city? This is no,

this isn't, this isn't the showcase. Yeah. He's going to go to shoot horse. You're supposed to go. Okay. I'm very curious. So I'm very curious about this. I'm also got to talk to you about heat wave. And I also got to talk to you just a little more detail on the last POGO. So here's, let's talk about the last Pogo. Yeah. And then I want to hear a bit, if you don't mind, actually maybe I'm gonna play a little Let's Shake and then we're gonna talk about Heatwave because that's in June 1980. Then we got to talk about the car accident with Gordy and that you know, you know, and the success of Frantic City and

the showcase gigs you're doing in New York city and what happens with the car, car accidents in the 1980s. So what do you remember about the last Pogo? I just remember it was, uh, see when I got there was, it was just chaotic and because of it was just, it just seemed like it all, the horseshoe, right? Yeah. Yeah. December 78. Yeah. You know, and, uh, yeah, it's one of those things I, I watched the, the, the horseshoe, right? Yeah, yeah. December 78. Yeah, you know, and it's one of those things I, I watched the, Ralph, we were doing a thing with the diodes. We did a little side project called the Gordon Lewis band cause Gordon wanted to do a couple of tunes

before I rejoined the band. And Gene, our drummer, Champagne said, let's do it. So we put together these shows at the Phoenix and Ralph played some of this stuff, like some of the stuff he had from his club and also Pogo. And it's actually pretty amazing stuff. I can't believe it happened.

And the Phoenix was called the Diamond, right? Yeah, the Diamond. And even before that, it was, I even had another name before that. We did it before it was even called the Diamond. Right. Yeah. So what happened is that I would do stuff

and come down later on. And I remember, all I remember is sometimes, you know, Frank would look at me and go, this is screwed right now. Or this is, you know, like, you is like Steve's drunk, can you play bass? Yeah, I go, what the hell? I'd rather see Steve drunk play bass. But that was just chaos, and that was my main thing.

And I remember all this, because I was like, let's go downstairs, we'll get out of that way, and all that stuff. So a lot of times I wasn't even in the thick of it all, because we'd be jumping in the back room or something like that, you know? But there was a riot at the last. Yes. Yes. Yes.

So in cops do shut this down. I mean, it's a documentary film. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this was a, was this a Gary's presentation? Yes, it was. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember it was chaos. And I remember, um, cause I remember, I remember being always, you know, you know, the horseshoe side stage, of course, all these people just revved up and it was a, but it was to me at first that's happened all the time at the shoe and the early days teenage head when we change, I play was always chaos. There was always something going in those really early days. And it was to me, there was, I mean, I remember being

at what the hell, the place where the Elvis did those Masonic temple, right? They would do shows and crazy things would happen there. Like, you know, I remember fights break out and teenage heads manager brow are getting punched in the face. And that was just seemed to be the normal thing. I always felt there was going to be some something's going to break loose. And that's what I, on the other hand, I liked that about it. I love that feeling of danger, you know, that something could happen. Well, this is the punk ethos, right?

Yeah, yeah. It was, it was, and you know, um, and it was loud and nutty and, and, uh, one in the, in the groove was just crazy, but it was exciting. I said, can I remember up to that point? I went, I'd love to be able to go back to, cause he, one of the things I think that we were, we were wishing would happen, the drag of the hippie era is that we would hear these stories about the who and the marquee club in the sixties in the riots from, you know, the rumble. Well, that the rumble and brighten it from the straight cats, right? We would hear the rumble and Brian. Yeah, we would hear about the mods fighting and all that

stuff. And it didn't happen at a gym crochet show, right? It didn't, you know, like, you know, it was, so I was hoping, and you'd hear about these stories when, you know, bands would play and they'd be taking pills all night and go crazy. It wasn't happening. So when the punk thing started happening, I was like, this is like that here, isn't it? Wow, it's like when we used to hear about the 50s

and Gene Vincent and, know, and, um, in England and it was really exciting. I just thought that so that night I always thought, well, I thought it was exciting. You know, it was crazy, but I thought it was exciting. Yeah. And I didn't mind getting a little bit scared, you know? Okay. So on that topic here, so we're going to play a little more teenage head and then we're going to talk about this heat wave. Yeah, sure. I need all the details on the, the heat wave festival. So for those keeping track at home, okay. So here's a jam that comes out in, uh, in 1980. And then later, I guess when you're, you're, you're touring to support, uh, frantic city, the, the album that this is on, then the Heatwave Festival, which is in August, and let's get the

Deets here. That's at Ontario Place Forum, right? So a little more Teenage Head, and then back with Dave Rave. Maybe we'll hear Dave Rave over this thing. Let's hear. Great bass. punk words words. Alright, things are really cooking now. Let's shake big head in this country. Tell me what you can about this time in the history of Teenage Head. Well, the background is that the first album, even though it was great, at the time it was a disappointment for the guys in terms of sound, not the swarms. And everybody was really wanting to get a better sound. And with the Shakers, we went and recorded at Grand Avenue, when I brought Gordy down. And Daniel L'Enroi, we know the great Daniel was then was Dan L'Enroi, and he was engineering.

So what had happened is it sounded so good on record, even though we didn't really have a band yet, the Shakers, it was just a concept. It sounded so good that Radio picked it up and Y picked it up, Chum Man, CKLC, and it had that, we wanted to do something like Rockpile, Dave Edmonds, like Trouble Boys, right? So Gordy does this ripping solo. I remember, we're in the car, we're going to play, going to Larry's Hideaway. And teenage head's manager at the time was Jack Morrill. Frank, me, Gordy in the car, I'm driving. And our song, Out the Door, comes on the radio and Chum are one of the stations.

And Frank just goes, listen how effing good this song sounds. How come we got our, right to Jack? We gotta do something. So they send the band. Jack makes a deal with Grand Avenue and Hamilton to recut top down. we got to Jack, we got to do something. So they send the band, Jack makes a deal with Grand Avenue and Hamilton to recut Top Down, but they don't know who Dan Landweiser is in Toronto yet.

So we got to get Stacey Hayden to produce it, who had just finished working with Bowie, David Bowie on the live, Saturday Night Live. So we go there, we cut a new version of Let's Shake, of the Top Down, which is killer. Right, it's got rock and roll and it's got acoustic guitars, we're putting acoustic stuff, bongos and even Lamb are then was a good engineer. So it went really well.

AIGM put us a single beside with Kiss No Carpet. So when they're going to make the record deal, they get a deal with attic and then uh instead of going back to grand avenue, which I thought they may be sure of, but they did an almost just good job. They went to Kensington sound here in the Kensington market and a good bunch of guys though and Stacey produced it. He passed the audition from top down and uh and we started cutting at Frantic City. But everybody was really prepared. That song was just called Shake at the time, Not Let Shake. It was a keyboard, there was a harmonica,

stuff like that going on on it. We added some acoustics and so at the time the Koma do vocals, I'm with Frank, we're right beside each other. And all of a sudden in the blue of the middle of a cake, he pulls his pants down. And just as underwear smiling away and he's singing it and dancing it. I don't wanna break the take, cause I used to shadow him vocally. If I could, me and him could do double,

I would shadow him. But I didn't wanna laugh my head off off because that's just the way he was. He was so funny and so much energy that you could use infectious. Anyhow, that whole album at Kensington really took time. Not going to fall for the same thing that happened on the first record. Gonna get a good sound this time. And Stacey did a good job. And Greg Roberts was the engineer who eventually from that record got a job at Grant Avenue and became one of the main engineers and a great guy and did eventually went back to Change Header to do a live record. So it was pretty cool, you know, like it was done over, over yeah which this song here now this was the A side now the sax comes from and you you'll know this in 19 you know the way pop world works so they have this cool is a cool tune called Just

Friends acoustic guitars right and all of a sudden this is Daisy to make the song pop, really pop of the era. Gets Rick Morrison, great Toronto sax player. There he is, right? Because at that point we had... Yeah, right. Of course. Every song had to have that sax to get onto the radio. This is going to be the AM. This is Attic get onto the radio. Because it's gonna be the AMs, they figured,

this is Attic Records signs the band, this is the song that's gonna be the break them over from punk to Q107 world. And mainstream, sure. And Chum AM and ACKLC, all the stations, right? So this is it. Okay, let's hear a bit more here, come back to it. And that's a 12 string Yamaha.

Here we go. Take that sax out. See, he's even got that, like, and which would probably come off the Saturday Night Live Randy Brecker thing, you know? Yeah. So was that coming from Attic? Like, I was hoping you'd spend a moment because- Attic Records, yeah. Because we lost both founders, right? Yeah. FOTM Alex May Mayor and Tom Williams.

Yeah, good guys. Two years. Yeah, interesting. I was just writing a piece on my blog about walking on sunshine. Yeah, ways because addict guys kind of basically make that a hit in Canada. And then they get through Ralph Alfonso. Yeah. Yeah. Look at this world, man. Everything's connected here.

Okay, so. Disconnected and connected. They were good guys, right? Al Mayer and Tom. Yeah, you know, I knew, I remember me and Tom, I thought Tom, Al was the business guy, and he was quiet and reserved and very busy. But once he left the business and became on Facebook,

then he became friends with everybody. And he would be talking to me, I go, Al Mayer? Talking to me? No! What the hell? I felt honored. He's like the king of Canadian music. God, man. Just let listeners know that there's a really cool episode of Toronto Mic'd with Al Mayer. You get all these stories. Yeah, that was amazing. From Killer Dwarves to Maestro Fresh West, you know, it's all... Yeah, sharp guy. Yeah, fascinating. Okay, and now I'm ready for the Heatwave Festival. But before that happens, I just want to tell you something, and Heatwave will lead it to

Heatwave. Sure, take your time. something and heat wave, it leaded to heat wave. When, when attic listened to the record and, and sign the band, there's two songs that they thought out of the record, how the record should be on the radio or something of mine a side and let shake was put on the B side in retrospect. What happens is they put it out and they make it becomes a double hit. Right. So add it go, okay, how can it even be bigger? So they go to this, um, is they put it out and they make it becomes a double hit.

So Addict go, okay, how can it even be bigger? So they go to this place that does, because now with Addict, the heat wave, the band's now smoking, right? They just, they got Addict to heat wave. It's the punk rock Woodstock, right? The punk rock Woodstock, Elvis Costello, talking heads and even Canadian band The King has got on it.

Yeah, Mr. Zero, of course. A late edition, late edition and all the different... The pretenders are on that? Yeah, so it's an amazing event. The 52s? Teenage head get added onto the bill, flown to the show. But, uh, but let's shake becomes like played actually probably more than something in my mind at certain stations. So Al and addict guys go, okay, what can we do? So they do a cleaned up version of the song. They go to a, a basically, um, a company that does

that kind of research market research and what don't they like about song? Would they like it was on? So you're instead of real ugly, it's real nice and lovely, all that a company that does that kind of research, market research, and what don't they like about song? What they like about song. So you're instead of real ugly, it's real nice and lovely, all that stuff. And they put a new version out with a B side of I want to love you. But a song, the radio program has go, ah, you're not fooling us. Never know over at CKO. See goes, that's not teenage head, you know? So they should, in reality, they shouldn't have put, let's shake on the B side. They should have put another song on the B side, but they didn't,

they, and maybe put that as a second fall up single, let's shake. But these things happen, right? Nobody's perfect. Right. It's all part of your story now, man. Like for those youngsters out there, wondering about this Heatway festival, let's tell them like, like 85,000 plus at most. And I don't, I think it was, it looked like even more, you know, like I'm because it's a big racetrack. Okay. If you look at the pictures, North of Bowmanville, yeah, it's these racetrack and it looked as far as you can

see, there's people and it was a big, big racetrack and it was amazing. And what a moment, like it's, you know, it's funny cause I don't know why it doesn't get celebrated more by the rock press, like even English or American because. Yeah, what a lineup. It was an amazing lineup. And it was the first time when the talking heads brought their horns. Elvis was at his peak and so was Dave Edmonds and the Carly and Carla was there.

And he was pretty heavy show, you know, of rock and roll music. The pretenders were big. Yeah. It blows me away that, you know, that sometimes punk rock gets put down because of the, in terms of its merit, musical merit, but those, all those bands were influential

and amazing bands in the Incredible moment and Teenage Head. There's an album now finally out if you want to get it you can go to this I think it's a S I N G It's a it's a marketing company and they're putting out you can get the video you can get the album You can get the cd. It's well worth it. There's a whole bundle, yeah. So that's the heat wave, yeah. That's you guys opening Heat Wave, okay. Then there's the infamous Ontario Plays Forum show, which comes up often on this program,

I'll just warn you here, but you were there, were you there for that one? It was there at the, what do you call it, where we, cause we were doing a birthday and we were there at the end. Okay, so were you there like, the way I hear about it is this. It was chaotic.

Yeah. Riot. But I always need to talk to someone who was there and they were like, I need the truth. What was, what would basically happen as they oversold it, people in the inside didn't know it was going on, what was going on outside. But because they stopped the people coming in, but you even correctly, if I'm wrong, I don't start outside. But because they stopped the people coming in. But do you even sell, correctly if I'm wrong, I don't start going to the forum till like the mid 80s, but like you don't sell it, right?

Like it's don't, isn't it like, you don't sell tickets to the forum, right? Don't you just get into Ontario Place and then- I think that's how it works. Yeah, yeah. But I think too many, I think too many people came. And when people couldn't get in, they started swimming, they started doing anything they could to get in.

And that's when the police got involved. And so Gordon, when the cops, when Goldmail asked him, what do you think about that? He said something like, you know, the cops, you know, overreacted or something like that. And which created a bit of trouble because the police didn't like that. You know, the police, the Toronto police, and they've got a long way to go still mark my words. But back then, particularly completely lacked chill. Like go listen to Pucka orchestras, you know, express or whatever. Right. So,

and the thing is to also Toronto, like after that day, I think they stopped playing, bringing Ontario. Well, this apparently you guys killed rock and roll concerts at Ontario place. Yes that's true. For like several years. Teenage had stopped the like they they they didn't do it they were doing other shows but not. Burden Cummings only right? Yeah I guess you know even though you know like he's got his own way to rock. But no but and also CNE too I think they stopped a couple of shows there, but then eventually then Alice came and it got shut down too. And it just caused a little reaction.

They even made the Rolling Stone magazine rock show. Headlines, man. Yeah, it was, you know, I think that point was in teenage heads. If you look at a the trajectory of a band, that was at the peak, right, in around that period of time. It was, cause it's like, a band, all bands have a trajectory, you know, and like Elvis when he was on Ed Sullivan or something

like that, you know, and then, but that was like the Ed Sullivan show for teenage head. It was like, yeah, everybody. And that's when I call, when you like, like the example now, that Taylor Swift, she sure can run, can't she? I mean, you see that Ed, the way I joke on the thing,

I don't know much about football, but that Taylor Swift's gotta be a fast runner. You know, but I mean Swift's gotta be a fast runner. You know what I mean? But I mean like, you know, like little moments where like, you know, where the world gets reminded of what's going on. And I think at that point, it showed all of Canada, not just, it wasn't just a punk rock thing no more. It was a Q107.

It really transformed from the Vialtone era into the Q107 era. And I'll be honest here, but Canada, like as fellow musicians, we really wanted to do, I know Gordy and we always talk about, we want to be like what was happening in New York. We were wanting to go to Detroit, anything, one of course, and that wasn't happening here at that point.

It wasn't happening here, and that's why it was so important to get to New York in the end. Good segue here because you're just talking about ride in the high here, right? The frantic city and then of course Heatwave and then the riots at Ontario place. That's, I think that's good fucking press for a punk band. Okay. I think that's cool.

But here we are now Attic records starts setting up these showcase gigs in New York city, right? Cause you gotta get a big U S record. Yeah. Teenage head needs a big U S record deal. Yeah. And this is a few people are going to come out. Yeah. And what happens with, uh, with your dear friend, Gord Lewis, with the accident? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's, it what happens with with your dear friend, Gord Lewis with the accident? Yeah. Yeah

well, it's it was it's a tragedy because It's it anytime something happens that you go. What if it's like watching a replay if the quarterback only Threw the ball to that guy not to that guy Extra point. Yeah. Yeah, that little stuff that happens, it causes so much debate. And I'm sure, like, you know, in Gord's mind, he replayed that for the rest of his life. It's, it's, it's a bit of a tragedy in a way, you know, because it's, um, he, I'm sure he goes off only that didn't happen and, um man. Yeah, so, you know even Palmerston and a show arena show and supposed to go home and a guy who was driving the

Van I think might have had one or two and him a little extra that he shouldn't had it was not before our new awareness of alcohol, which we did now then and Missed a turn. Like in those country roads, it's like that guy, that hockey team. Yeah, in Humboldt. It was that, and I think the mistake that happened was that he moved, because everybody else got hurt,

but he moved and you're not supposed to move when you get an accident like that, right? So he was in the hospital for a pretty heavy time. He went to Kitchener and it was a lot of pain. And I think that pain continued through his life, obviously, medication and all that. And it took a while. And everybody who's still fans of the band,

but the band got David Bendis to play guitar, Jack, the manager, and the band got David Bendis to play guitar, like Jack, the manager. And it might have been the wrong guy because then David was a jazz guitar player, but the change heads manager picked him because they were a guest association. So instead of going da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da you got back, the momentum, the fans were there. That window closed.

But the momentum was there. The fans didn't leave, fans didn't go, wow, we don't like you no more. You just had momentum, which is hard. And it took a bit of the spirit of the band, you know? And then when we got to Tornado, I didn't think it was a bad album, but the spirit was gone.

And I remember being in those sessions and David Bendis produced it and it wasn't as exciting as it should have been. So I liked the songs and now they reissued the record and the record is a good album. It is a good album. It's just not as good as it could have been. That's all. You know? In this era here, now now the, now, okay.

So that's sort of a tragic tale. It sounds like there was an opportunity there. The crash, everything. And it doesn't, doesn't come together for teenage head, but elephants and stars says one thing they didn't touch on in the documentary was their brief turn as teenage heads. Yes. So this is tied to that kind of, right? Well, when teenage head, when Al Attic Records didn't get an American deal for the band, Jack the manager said, we got to get American deals. So he started looking around even though the band was heavily contracted with Attic. So he finds that MCA is interested. And I

think his name was Leslie Anderson, lovely lady, I remember her well. And she come into the sessions and she liked it. So all that hard work of getting off of Attic and a lot of bad spirits there were there. She brings the record to LA. And the guy in LA, they like it. They like the records, good. But you know what's not gonna float in the Midwest America.

Right? Not gonna float in the. Right, because now head means something completely different. Yes, and also, so add the heads, and now it's a little more, little easier to take, like talking heads or something like that, you know? So the record gets put out,

but unfortunately, incident that, you know, so the record gets put out and but unfortunately Incident happens record deals Irving A's off took over the label and Everybody who signed the band got fired So all that work shit law and he needs that shit. Yeah and all that work that was there It didn't matter anyhow, right? So when we did the reissue, we brought it back to head, you know, like the way it should have been. Well yeah, I'm looking at your shirt right now.

Yeah. I got a shout out in FOTM real quick, who he's actually just retired from the business, the record label side, and he's vacationing now, and I've been following his adventures on Facebook, but shout out to Ivor Hamilton. Ivor. Ivor, who might be the the biggest teenage head fan I know.

Loved Ivor. And the Shake is too. When I remember when we brought the single and he played it, I remember it was the old days of CFNY, you could see the DJ. He was coming, I went around five, he opened the door, there was no secretary. Yeah, right by stars.

And I gave him the single, he goes, thanks man. And then I remember getting in the car and there he was played it within about five minutes. It was a fantastic, I mean, they continued to make great was a great station. Let's face it. They promote, let me promote then for his birthday in a, so I ever was here when he retired and we, we covered a lot of ground. We always talk about teenage head when Ivers on, but in early March, this,

so coming up in about less than a month. I have David Marsden returning to the basement. You're going to have David here. Mars bar is going to be here. Yeah. He's been here before, but it's been a few years and we're going to, you know, do it again. When the king, the king, I, well, you know, I'm in my little life, my sister was four and a half years older than me. So as a result, at the sixties, I went through her eyes. So when I was six years old, we listened to Dave Mickey, five 90 and she had to single. So we even had the single of it. We listened

to them all the time, C H I Q and um, we loved them, you know, and, and he went from there and suddenly went to chum. suddenly. He went to Chum. Yeah, he went to Chum, which. I think he went away like to Montreal or something. I think when you were a kid, like also don't forget, I was just interested in what the hockey games is, whether it was music when you're like seven, eight. Yeah.

Oh wow, what's going on with the Leafs and the Habs. And so I wouldn't follow everything, but I was listening to music, so my sister, and he was the man. And then as time went along, I remember't follow everything, but I was listening to music, because of my sister, and he was the man. And then as time went along, I remember we were sitting, we played Teenage Head, just to fast forward the tape. Yeah, great line by David Marsden.

He liked our electric guitar album, the one I'm singing on, and they played it. They started playing us again, because they'd stopped playing Teenage Head. It was no longer, it was Q107 area. It was other music they were playing. So we got back on, and I remember we got to play with Don Burns, who ran it, remember?

He had us play a party, a private party, and they were all there, and Dave was there. And Gordy goes, Dave, why now? And he goes, you know what it's like, Gordy, in the music industry, sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down, you're back goes, you know what it's like Gordy, in the music industry sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down, you're back up, you know? And I remember what a great little, you know, that's Dave Morrison, that sense of humor that he had.

What a brilliant guy. So early March, it's less than a month, he'll be back here. I'll send you regards there. But you mentioned electric guitar, okay. So Basement Dweller, shout out to Basement Dweller, he's actually on the live stream. Hello, so basement dweller shadowed to basement dweller. He's actually the live stream I don't know the center. He says what was it like working with Daniel Lenoir and Malcolm Byrne on? 1988 electric guitar album plus he just wants you to know everybody needs somebody is still a kick-ass beauty of a tune

Oh, that's true. Sweet man. Fantastic. Well, just simple very simple very simple is that Danny was a Hamilton guy and we I learned singing with Dan because I I'm a good good with tunes and I learned quick and in the 70s a performers Acoustic scene didn't want no they called leakage meaning that they didn't want symbols and everything they wanted every wanted what they called leakage, meaning that they didn't want symbols and everything. They wanted every... it was like the Pink Floyd era, right? Every instrument, there couldn't be a sound that leaked. So I would do, for singers so long as I would be the guide, they

called the guide vocal. I would quietly guide the band. It wasn't my... I learned their songs, do it. And Danny was the engineer. Right. You know, it was great because Bruce Coburn's bass player would be there. Gordon Lightfoot's drummer. They were these guys who were Don Potter, who would was work. Ed Roth, who we spoke at Rick James. He's always heavy, technical guys, and I would have to guide him and not screw up. So I did it.

And, you know, I remember Dennis Pendruth, Murray McLaughlin, and these were the guys we looked up to. And so that's how I could know Dan. So basically when I brought Gordon to meet Dan, I said, Gordon, meet Dan. Maybe in the next album we can do it with him because he's good. He's good and he did our Out The Door single, the Shake A Single and Gordy plays great guitar and

anyhow, so as time went along we stayed in touch and eventually you knew what a guy like Lam was something was gonna happen even though at the time and I remember I had a few Rock and Roll lawyers in Toronto. I won't mention their names now because they're gone. But I remember them telling me, this is the foresight of the industry. That land law kid, he's good but he's never gonna make it. That's fine. But anyhow, guess what?

A year, two years later I'm at this music conference, same guy goes, you gotta get this land law guy, he's the guy. Same guy went, wait a second. Come on, that's what my little lessons in the music industry, they don't know. They don't know. They't know nobody knows but anyhow so Danny was what we stayed friends all those years Danny had just come back from doing some U2 stuff I was recording we were recording that probably the Joshua tree is yeah yeah and I said what are you doing you know come on over would you know where we're

recording do you want to bring your guitar over Danny's always good for a go he like Gordy's guitar playing slipped in the car what we didn't tell our engineer Marco Pano that was Dan could we figured with a prejudice to him right so he just comes in and Dan's going put your two amp like he's giving them the landlord directions hey put your two amps here do this here do that there you know and then and Mark's like okay and then I remember after he leans at me as Dan's playing, he goes, is that? I go, we could look, we're all, we did on purpose.

We're all laughing going, yes. And he went, oh, because at that time, so was huge. And Joshua Tree was big. Massive. Yeah, so. Big as it gets, right? Yeah, so you know. So for Basement Dweller, we're gonna finish up this song

so I can enjoy some Great Lakes. And that's Gordy and Danny playing guitar live in the studio together. If you listen to the guitar and you never think... Yeah, so Gord's doing That's Gordy. And then Dan is doing that. Gordy was a great guitar player, man. And then there's, you can hear that. That's Danny. Dude, I'm loving this, man. Yeah. What took you so long? I'm telling you. You know it was like,

Nancy? That Nancy, she's such a good person. Fucking love this. Yeah, so it was fun to do that. And then he did another track called Girl Irradiates That Charm. And it's Danny on that, he has a crazy little story about that record.

Danny does this great rough mix of this song. Danny on that, here's a crazy little story about that record. Danny does this great rough mix of this song, and we were all like, oh, it's so great, you know? And the guy who helps the engineer, who's supposed to put it on the real tape, doesn't. Puts it on a cassette, and we're like, are you numb? That's land law there. You put it on, he goes, I didn't know you wanted me

to put it on a real tape. You numb. Ding, ah. We laughed, eh? Love these stories. Okay, so I'm gonna give you, you've earned this. You've more than earned it. But you're enjoying your Great Lakes, is it good?

Oh, it's great, man. Yeah, yeah, me too, buddy. Nothing's better, man. Playing some teenage head, talking to Dave Rave, getting the full story, enjoying your Great Lakes is it? Oh, it's great. And yeah, yeah, tasty buddy Nothing's better man playing some teenage head talking to Dave rave getting the full story enjoying my Great Lakes I'm sending you home with back to the Hamilton with some Great Lakes beer. Thank you. What lovely pint Do you like Italian food? Love it in my freezer upstairs Don't leave here without your palma pasta lasagna You're gonna love it. I have nothing. I haven't got to this. Just come and eat this tonight.

I'm going to get to this, go to the store at this. You can eat that tonight and tomorrow night and maybe the day after there's a little, it's just delicious. There's lots of it. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Palma pasta. Where that was Palma pasta. Oakville. So kind of between where you live and I live. We'll have to go there for regular dinner. Palma pasta.com. You won't regret it. live and I live. OK, we'll have to go there for regular dinner. Palma pasta dot com. You won't regret it every time.

I kind of know from Peter Myers, who's Mike Myers, his brother, and Paul Myers, his brother, and he's he that's what that's basically that's where they get all of their delicious Italian is Palma pasta. So when you check it out, they become regular customers. So thank you, Palma pasta. We shout out Great Lakes. We we shout out Great Lakes, we shout out Great Lakes Brewery, but we shout out Ridley Funeral Home. And here is a measuring tape for you, Dave

Ray. You never know you got to measure. You never know when you're going to need it. So thank you to the good people at Ridley Funeral Home. In fact, soon we'll be talking about death, sadly, but pillars of our community since 1921. Also, there's a great podcast from Raymond James Canada. It's called the advantage investor podcast. It's hosted by FOTM Chris Cooksy. Whether you have somebody looking after your financial investments or you currently manage your own investment plans, the advantage investor provides the engaging wealth management information that you Dave the rave value. the rave is Ogilvy you're just Dave rave value as you pursue your most important goals and last but not least I'm sure Dave you've

got like a drawer full of old devices and cables and old don't throw that in the garbage because the chemicals end up in our landfill go to recycle my electronics dot CA and you'll find out a place near you. You can drop that off. It gets properly beautiful. Okay. We're going to do some housekeeping here. Okay. Notes came in. Dave rave is coming on. We're going to talk teenage head. I got so many notes. So Mike Hannafin, he's an FOTM himself. He was actually on CFNY as a sports guy working with Fred Patterson on the Peding each show. Yep. Shout out to Mike Hannafin. He says, he's in BC now. So many memories saw the

head so many times in college pubs in the early eighties, the blind duck at Irrendale college college, then later saw them a lot while working for CF and why I still have a cassette tape of their awesome live show on why this from a spats nightclub and a total hats. Where was that? It was right up by the airport. Okay. We would, we played the very closing night. Yeah. Okay. And the place was nuts and a cock about now back to the horseshoe. The whole place got destroyed. Everybody went crazy. Missed all the good stuff. As part of their frantic city release promotion, as far as I know, it only still exists on a reel to reel tape. Phil Evans, Captain Phil, he did promotions at CFY back then, or Earl Veal, might know more. So I'll follow up

and find out if they have it. I discussed my final teenage head concert on a Toronto mic episode 1056. If we can go back and hear Hannah Finn talking about you guys. Seeing them in Vancouver in May 2008 at the venue club, the same night Rush played at the arena. What a fluke double bill he says. Frankie was only singing about half the lyrics of any song. Makes sense. He had cans of Budweiser at various spots on the stage and just moved between the beer cans for a swig.

A few months later he was gone. We're gonna talk about that in a moment. I have plenty more memories, but maybe save them for the micumentary. That's something I do when I dive deeper. This is a big teenage head doc right here for Dave Rafe. How, how challenging was it to take Frankie's spot in 85? The band obviously accepted him and he had a history with all of them. But what about with the fans? Did you always figure it was going to be a temporary thing until Frankie came back? Well, at the time, Gordon's bed set, like when Frank left the band. Now, he's an interesting thing. After Teenage Head, after Jack Morrill, and it's unfortunate this is not in the doc because you can only have so much time on a doc and they had a there was a

point of view they were trying to put across which is more the day Gord's illness at the end and I understand that but there's another doc if another doc was done we could even go into what happened in the 80s. Frankies illness, right? Yeah, and I just think when the band let go of manager, Jack Morrow, we lost our, there was always like a point of anger and it was the manager. Now the anger had gone and we all went up. We started fighting each other, which was a bit sad,

and a lot of people who maybe would have, Jack would have done, he could have, we had to now talk to these people, and we became the managers, and it was a lot of work between me and Gord, it was really tough. And Frank and Nick, there was just all this weird stuff that started happening. And so when Frank and Nick left the band,

Gord was resolute, no, not gonna be back in the band again. This is gonna be the new band. And we were gonna start from square one. And when we found Jack Pedler as drums, we went from Blair Mojo Martin, who was a cool, cool, cool front man in the eighties. And we liked him a lot.

He had a real icky thing. And he was a real, he really helped us in that, the beginning when the fans were wondering what the hell's going on. We don't have social media then. So a lot of people didn't know, and you know, was on the radio, but a lot of people didn't know. So we'd be in the outskirts and they'd be like,

where's Frank, where's this this so it was a bit scary at first for me but I because I'm a I'm like Dave Gilmore right I just get on the ice and I play. I'm Doug. I call myself Dave Gilmore. I'm the hockey guy. I'm the Doug Gilmore. You know what I mean? I'm the hockey guy. You know, like the hockey. I was thinking Pink Floyd or what is that? I know not that Gilmore. I'm the Doug Gilmore. But then Dave Gilmore went through the same thing with Roger Waters. So, yeah. But I mean, but, but yeah. So I became the Gil. I got on the ice and said, I'll be the captain. Don't worry at all.

And if you guys believe in me and Gore did, and so did Steve, I split, I took my, put my rhythm guitar down and started playing. I didn't want Frank to split. I took my put my rhythm guitar down and started playing. I didn't want Frank to leave. I had so much fun playing with him and I was really good. You know, Tell me about Kate. So I talked to lots of people who knew Frank venom. And you know, I don't, you know, I don't want to make a practice of speaking ill of the day. I never met Frank and I don't know. But I'm not certain he's a sweetheart. You know what I mean?

Like, like, like, like what kind of a guy was Frank venom? I'll just give it a little context for those who are learning about teenage ed for the first time. You know, what kind of guy was he really? Okay. Cause in October 20, 2000, so October 15th, 2008, Gordon Lewis announces that Frankie venom had died following a battle with a throat cancer.

Now they were going to Hamilton was going to erect a statue for Frankie venom And then it got canceled because people were criticizing like you're spending public tax dollars You're spending public funds to commemorate a man who used illegal drugs I forgive him for that But it was convicted of domestic assault and a lot of people have like less than kind words disabled Some people have less than kind words disabled Frankie. He wasn't universally beloved So what's the real talk on Frankie Vanham as a human being?

Well, the guy that I knew wasn't perfect. But on the other hand, I always thought he had a great sense of humor. I always thought that he was always good to me. I only know my relationship with him. It was another era and it's implying now we can't like, I think when, when, um, that happened with the statue, it was a different era. And I think that, um, it was a certain group of people didn't want that kind of statue in

town. And, um, it's too bad because I honestly thought, like I've known, again, maybe I have an idealized version for them, but I just know for me and him, I always got along with him. I thought he was funny as hell. I never, I just thought that he was brilliantly talented. I thought that nobody could go, he, you know, he went from drums to guitar to singing, uh, very hard to do.

Um, and he was a, he, I thought to me he was the original, amazing front man that came from Canada, like a unique, he, he set a new, a new, a new style that didn't, that, you know, without him, you know, got gored down. You don't got, he gave permission to all these people to be rude, but also, but rude in a fun way. Like if you don't hear stories of Gord Downey being rude, right? No, no, because he comes from another era. Gord was, Frank was more just, he had that rock and roll. It's that, you know, gritty, but, but he, But he was rude to me in a way that was not personal rude.

Like I don't think Frank would make fun of somebody if he didn't know them. Like he was more just that cheeky rude. Like, you know, like. So like no, no, oh, is that hardcore logo? Yeah. Like that, like which is probably modeled a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think modeled a lot. Yeah. I can't know. I'm definitely who you Dylan's doing. Yeah. I think you spit in your face and yeah, that punk. It was all in context of the time, you know, and, you know, I knew, I just knew him as a great singer and a great songwriter. And, and, uh, you know, the being obviously when you know somebody, it, that changes everything. Maybe if you didn't know him, if you were just in the room

and you go, wow, that guy's rude, but I was, we were too busy laughing. You know, I just had so many, I have so many great memories with him. Well, I'm sorry for your loss again. Yeah, you know. I never met the man, so I can't be the person. But I know what you're saying.

I know what you're saying. It's just, I do talk to lots of people who knew Frankie Venom and there's- Yeah, he could be, he could be, he could be honest beyond his, he needed to be like, I remember, there's no giving example. Like we were in a bar one time and this guy comes up to him and he goes, Frankie, you're my favorite singer. Now me, I would go, Oh, thanks. Frank goes, as if you know,

which is funny as if you would know. And then the guy buys him beers all night and they're hugging each other by the end of the night. How do you do that? Like it's a persona, right? Yeah, it's a persona. What's the name of that character? Something Dick, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It'll come to me in a minute, but that, like, yeah. You gotta live that. And he lived it, like it's not, you can't imitate, but I mean, a lot of guys want to be that, but yeah, you know, I got a kick out. I was laughing my head off. I'm going, he, I couldn't do that, but he could. And he did it in a way that was charming and funny. And,

and next thing you know, that guy's buying him beers all night and you know, he's there, they're walking out hand in hand, right? You know, like, ah, thank you. Here's a question that ties in nicely to this conversation. It's Hamilton Mike. So hello to Hamilton Mike, listening in Hamilton. My son and I will be at the 50th anniversary show in April. So tell us about this 50th anniversary show

before I read the rest of Hamilton Mike's note here. Well, Steve figured out that the band actually started in 74. And that's when he- I started in 74, by the way. Oh, really? There you go, yeah, exactly. So he, you know, realized it's time to, you know, I started in 74. I started in 74 by the way. Oh really? Exactly. So he realized it's time to celebrate it and he went out and Steve found a cool place.

They made an offer at this place called Carmen's Banquet Center and we thought it would be a really cool place to put together a celebration. I don't know exactly what Steve's got planned but he's going to have pictures and stuff like that that I think he's gonna have pitches and stuff like that that I think he's gonna show. And he's gonna have Gord Lewis's nephew play before us because he wants to keep the Gord tradition going, you know? Yeah, it's like when the big man's nephew fills in now.

Yeah, Jake, yeah. When you go see, yeah, Jake Clemens. Yeah, yeah. FOTM Jake Clemens at East Street Band. I'm supposed to see Bruce in... Because he got hurt, didn't he? Yeah, you you know he had a, he had a, yeah. Hernia. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm supposed to see him in November. I hope he's good. And uh, yeah, I always, whenever I think of Bruce Springsteen,

now I, there's a great story told many times, but you told it on Toronto mic by the aforementioned mayor of Hamilton, Tom Wilson and Tom Wilson talks about, you know, meeting Bruce who liked one of his songs, Jesus Sings the Blues. And he was staring at Bruce's tits. So Tom Wilson got caught staring at Bruce Springsteen's tits. It's a great fucking story. Okay. So let me get to these notes here because I miss them. You've been amazing. I don't know how much time I said I'd take, but I'm going to go as long as you want, man. I'm chilled as long as you, you, you, I're going to go to the kids. I'm just going to be in, just going to be in

traffic anyhow. So romantic traffic, which Mike from Kdub. Oh yeah. I'm in the middle of the Hamilton Mike. I'll get back to Mike. Yeah. Yeah. So romantic traffic will make more sense. Yeah. Hamilton Mike says, I know Dave took over for Frankie back in the eighties, but how did it feel then and versus how it felt after Frankie died to take over such a pivotal role? How about for Trent for Gordy? How about Trent for Gordy? And then he says, I have huge respect and love for Dave Rave and he's a massive Trent fan because Hamilton Mike is such a big Headstones fan.

He named his kid after Hugh Dillon. There you go. Well, it was, you don't, first of all, number one, you don't replace Frank. So the first few months was tough because I understood the fans because I like them. So I was a fan too.

So as a friend, as well as a friend. So, I mean, he's one of the most charismatic guys I ever met and one of the funniest guys. So I loved him. And so when Gordy said to do it, I went, are you sure? And he goes, no, do it. So I did it. I just said, I'll be me.

I'm not going to imitate him. I even purposely let my hair grow long so I wouldn't have that short look that he had for the first year or two. But it was tough at first and then after we kept playing the audience started realizing it's not a gimmick, we're doing the best we can, the songs are important. Then we added the new songs. So the first time it was good, and it started rough and it got good. And I was ready for anything. I was ready for booing. I was ready for anything to want.

And I wouldn't have blamed them. So we didn't, I never took, I was on the audience's side. But then when I left the band and went to New York and Frankie came back, which wasn't planned, because that was, we did three, I think three years or four years doing that without him. Then I left and Frank came back and I thought he did a great job coming back.

But then when we lost him, I was in Paris when it happened, Paris, France, and I had, it cost me a grand his death because it was a days before you can get plans in Canada and everybody called me and everybody did the interviews. Oh, telephone calls. Yeah, so the calls to you cost, you would get charged both ways and you could not do it. You had to take the call. So it was it was really sad and then when I had again I had no plans to redo the band I thought the band was gonna break up but then they got another guy in for a little while to sing. I know that. And then what happened was me, me and Gordon, Steve, Jack Peddler, the drummer at the time got

di-vite-divite-divite-dilitis? Divite-dilitis is called? Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah. So he couldn't play no more. And they had to do a fundraiser. I happened to be back in town and I was at the show and the singer who was supposed to be, I think his name was Pete. Pete McCauley. Didn't make it and so they said, would you do it?

I went, okay, I'll go, why not? So I came up and started doing it and it was like an Elvis movie. Seriously, like you know an Elvis movie where you get some of the things and the whole planet starts slapping. Everybody started, they were so happy. And I looked at Gordon and Steve and they were happy.

And about a week later, Steve pulled me up and said, hey, I think what happens at Deb, Deb and Deb realized when she saw the band that Steve was happy and felt like we're home again. And she said to Steve, maybe, you know, I'm sure if he was thinking about it, his wife sort of said, you know, why don't you call him then? I think there was sort of a combination of the two

that they probably had talked about it. And then Steve called and then since then, of course without Frank, it's a different world, right? And it was nice to be with Gord again and play with him. Well, you were there at the beginning, right? So it's- Yeah, so I was back home. It's like going home again, like beautiful. Family, family.

You know, I talked to Steve today and he said to say hello. Hello. And you know, the birthday boy and he wants to keep the band going. And I said, whatever you're doing, cause Steve's been there from the beginning, I'll back you. Cause he's, Steve is one of the greatest guys in the world Whatever you're doing, because Steve's been there from the beginning, I'll back you. Steve is one of the greatest guys in the world and one of the great bass players. He stood behind all of it.

He saw the crazy things happen with Frank. He saw crazy things happen with Gord. He was there and he was steady the whole time and he still is. He's one of the most amazing guys I know. And I've known him since when he was a baseball pitcher in Wild and Fast. He beamed me. But he's always been an amazing guy.

Solid, honest, and straightforward. Amazing. So I was teasing romantic traffic. Co-write by the way, I'll read the question first here before I tell you the co-write. The co-write is score depth of course, but Rob Pruse has a co-writing credit.

Rob Pruse, everybody will be here twice next week because we're gonna do a toast episode of Bob Ouellette, but he's gonna come back to kick out jams of Liza Fromer because Liza revealed her first ever crush was the keyboardist for the spoons, Mr. Rob Pruse. So we're gonna do this nice little thing for Liza. Okay, so Mike from K-Dub writes in, was the keyboardist for the spoons. So we're going to do this nice little thing for Liza. Okay. So Mike from Kdub writes in and says, teenage head played our

Catholic high school in grade nine, without going into too much detail. Live bands were banned for four years after that until the spoons with Rob Prues played in ninth grade, grade 12. So whatever went, he's not going into detail, whatever went down with teenage head playing at this high school, uh, they had to ban rock and roll for four years. Yes. Well, this is where Frank's words are a little, maybe, you know, I'm used to him, but maybe,

maybe he should have said what he said. I got a mic from K-dub. Write me and give me the scoop here. I'll share it with Rob Pruss next week. James Edgar, great friend of the show. James comes out to many a Toronto Mike listener experience. I'm just going to let everybody know TMLX 15, that's the 15th Toronto Mike listener experience is taking place June 27 from 6 to 9 PM.m. at Great Lakes Brewery in Southern

Etobicoke and we're gonna all be fed by palma pasta and you Dave Rave you're invited by oh thank you June 27 6 to 9 p.m. that'd be amazing Dave Rave shows up James Edgar says fun fact they played my friend's wedding at this ain't Hollywood and Hamilton whoa so maybe 2009 or 2010 okay around then okay so and Connie wrote in to say there's a teenage head cover band called disgusting oh really Connie's still trying to process this so there you go I swear I've heard there's a is I think another being called frantic city to I think maybe tune okay you go tell me about the Dave rave conspiracy.

Okay. Well, when I went, when I left the band in 1989, I was a fooling around in the studio and, uh, you know, Hamilton was really small, small city at that time. It still is, but it was really small. And, um, basically I, um, went in the studio. I met this guy named Gary Gold, Gary Pick Gold, who was legendary writer. And I had a couple of tunes that I tried to bring in to Teenage Head, but I realized the energy at the end of my tenure with Teenage Head was starting to wane. So after we did the Ledger Guitar, I think we were just burned out, to be honest. The band was burned out.

And we worked so hard between 85 and 89. So there was a thing called the New Music Seminar in New York and I recorded a couple of tunes and I played them to Gary and Gary liked them and he added a whole bunch of stuff to it. We did this track called Farman Aids Rain. It was a really fun little weird tune that we had never tried before. So when we were at the New Music Seminar in 89, a guy who was a friend of Gary's called him up, found him when we were at the hotel we were at the Edison and said, hey, would you ever want to live in New York? And I never thought of that in my life. It was a dream, but it was a, and so he goes, he's a friend of his, he needs somebody to sublet it. And then when we found out the price was like 400 bucks

a month, I went, oh my God, that's affordable. It's cheaper than what I'm paying in Toronto. So we moved there, and now that we were there, we got this guy from Toronto who was a band called Shark Skin who had produced Shadowy Many and the Shadowy Planet. From the odds, right? I feel like Shark Skin, is that an off-street of the odds? That's That's the I know you're thinking of the West Coast. Okay, there's a difference

This was in Toronto, but I know but they agree shadowy many shadowy. Yeah So his name is coyote shivers so he had produced a song by them and he came and he ended up coming to New York and then we thought let's get a band together because we're all here us expats right right and we but but you know we've tried to find who's gonna be in the band and Washington Squares were really popular at that time in Toronto and we were down in Toronto and Gary said you know Lauren the bass player plays bass so we we went and saw her play and we said hey would you play bass on this track we're doing? And she said, sure.

She was really nice. And then we said, we need a drummer. And the drummer was Billy Ficke from television. And we said, would you want to play Bill on drums? And Bill said, yeah, sure. You know, no problem. And then we realized this could be a band. And so in 1990, just as the Gulf War was starting, we started this little

band called The Conspiracy. Coyote gave it a name Conspiracy because in 1990 the whole time the Bush was in power, there was a lot of conspiracy going on. Not like it is now, but different. Yeah, but it was Gulf War Conspiracy. So yeah So we he named it the conspiracy. And then we just started. I was living in New York now. And we just started playing in New York and touring in the States. And we made we put on an album called Valentino's Pirates, which is a song, Patti Rock. And then we did another album actually after that.

And that that lasted. We lasted until 94. We played all over the conspiracy. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I'm gonna roll right into another one here. I wanna hear a little more Daybrief Conspiracy. Yeah, yeah, it was a cool band. Billy was great.

And I became friends with the television group, you know? So he passed away recently. Dizzy Tommy, yeah. And I revisited Markey Moon, and I can't get enough of it, man, like- A great record. What a great record. What a great records You know, my only complaint is it's too short. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. All right. Let's listen a little bit of this Oh, yeah, That's cool. There you go. Dave Rafe conspiracy. The weight of the world is too much Weighing down like a stone

There you go. The Dave Rave conspiracy. Yeah, that was my first record ever cut in New York City. We cut it at the RCA Studios, and Gary remembers that they were changing it to BMG. Just as we, it was the last day it was RCA. They were bringing the BMG letters on. That's right. To replace it, it was sort of cool. Very cool, man.

So what are you up to these days? So obviously the 50th anniversary coming up of, you're getting the Shakers back together. What's going on? Yeah, well, what's happened with me is that, when I went to New York, I was very influenced by, believe it or not, of all people, after we did the conspiracy then I did a

Me and Lauren had a duo called Agnelian rave and then when that ended I did this I got into this jazz period which I was fun because New York's got all these jazz people I met this guy named Mort McKevon and really cool we did a bunch of records three records all on bongo beat and then I did some solo records here with records, all on bongo beat. And then I did some solo records here with Jamie Vernon from Bullseye. And it's funny because there's so much stuff that happens, you just forget. You want to, not to shrink it down, but we did a couple, I did a couple albums. He reissued my Valentino's Russian record. This album came out only in Russia, remember. And Valentino's Pirates.

Yeah, yeah. And so, I mean, there's people I know who collect copies of this record. They look, the Russia, and they find people. Like there's this guy said, I bought six copies of it from people in Russia. Okay, you know, whatever. That's like when the curtain was just coming down. Yeah, exactly. That's why it just happened. I remember when the guy went up to us, he saw us playing, he goes, can put Paul McCartney's record out and he goes I like you use guys good Dave rave

You know you put out you play a folk a rock sound so we Brought this record. He said you we got to come over to Russia, which we did a video from that some Russia and So he he's about we were gonna call us ourselves the conspiracy, but he said, no group. So we actually group. That's why I became the group. There are no group, no conspiracy in Russia. It's just like today, right? But anyhow, so we did that. So as time went along, I worked with Bill with Jamie and then and Lisa Miller. And of course, I was working with Nancy here in Toronto and we were doing the Agnelli and Rave stuff in Conspiracy. Then I made solo records and then I was asked to come to go to Minnesota.

I met this guy and I was doing a show from Minneapolis and he said, I would love for you to come to Minnesota, I'll play drums for you. And I started a whole career in Minnesota. I got a whole career, seven albums. I'm play drums for you. And I started a whole career in Minnesota. I got a whole career, seven albums. I'm on album number eight. We just had a single called Learjet that got played around, played around the world. It's a really cool song. So there's like, let me get this right, man. We got, we got Prince and we got Bob Dylan

and we got Dave Rave. Yeah, I just got back. Now here's the crazy thing that yeah, it's insane. I remember one time I was um at REM show and um a friend of mine um Lou Mary Lou Kylus was a big fan of them and so we go see you you know, R.E.M. They're at their top, they're doing Losing My Religion. And I remember we enjoy the show. Two months later, Mary Lou messaged me, he goes, hey, Dave, Pete Buck's playing with his band, the Minus Five, at the smaller room.

Okay, so we go down, we watch it. Then two months later, she goes, Pete Buck's back in town, he's got this band called the baseball project him and Steve win Okay, we go down to that Then I've done the two weeks later two months later another Pete Buck band comes in and I went how many pants? I'm Pete Buck have so finally I asked him I go what's going on when we go backstage And he goes it's America man. When we go backstage and he goes, it's America, man. We just keep playing.

And he influenced me. He goes, don't stop playing. R.E.M. is my, that's the big band. That's the moneymaker. Yeah, and I do everything I want in between. And it influenced me, honest to God. You know that too. Okay, Ron Hawkins does that, right?

Like he's got lowest of the low and that's kind of the moneymaker. He's got the two good assassins and the red, the nails and the whatever, solo stuff, all this other stuff on the side. That was sort of influencing, it was Pete. Chris Murphy's doing this too. Yeah, that's right.

He's in like a hundred bands. Yeah, well, you know, I didn't plan it that way. So Pete Buck just said to me, I say yes. He goes, when something comes up in a pro, you know, so him and Scott McCoy do this. So it influenced me. I went, okay, then I'll do that too. Why not? If something comes up in a pro, you know, so him and Scott McCoy do this. So it influenced me. I went, okay, then I'll do that too. Why not? If something comes up. So I went to, to, and in Minneapolis, everybody does it.

They all got different bands. I play with a guy named Rich Mattson, who has the North stars. I met the, um, uh, what do you call it? Uh, different people. Yeah. I got it became, so now over the last 15 years I'm part of the Minnesota Sound. I had no idea. You never know until you ask what's going on. So we just made a single last year. We put an album, I'll get you a copy of it, called Seven. And we had a song called...

It's also a Prince song by the way. Yeah, I know. Well, that's the seventh album. So it's Minnesota. They got that weird sense of humor. But I love playing the the governance. It's now one of my, one of my most favorite things to do. And I love touring in Minnesota and I love going to guys treat me like a king, Craig and Rich and all the musicians there. They've been really, really good. I got to know Gary from the Jayhawks, you know, um, who just, you know, uh, he's now lives in Canada and Montreal and it's good, you know, who just, you know, who now lives in Canada in Montreal. And it's good, you know.

Life is good for you. And now so I, now following that project, I've learned that one of the things that we can do and the experience that we have, you gotta mentor. So when you see somebody like, so for about 10 years, I mentored a young lady named Haley Rose, who is wonderful singer, very Aretha Franklin. And I thought, Hamill's more of a punk town, somebody like. So for about 10 years I mentored a young lady named Haley Rose who was a wonderful singer, very Aretha Franklin. And I thought, Hamill's more of a punk town, not in blues,

but not R&B. So I did a whole thing with her for 10 years up to the COVID. And then I met another young fellow named Evan Rotella, who's very Americana, which I've never done neither. And I like to do things I've never done. So Young Evan and I wrote together and he made an album and we did a tune and now I'm gonna be playing Cameron House next week, tomorrow. Amazing. Tomorrow's tomorrow?

Yeah, Tuesday. Tomorrow's Tuesday. Yeah, with Evan, I brought you a CD. Okay. And Evan's a young lad who's 18 and now Tom Wilson and Steve Kane they they've all started hearing about him What makes him unique is that a lot of 18 year olds don't like John Prine and Steve Earl and Bruce Springsteen And and he's now even

He's for 18 year old. He's already been writing for 10 years Wow, he's actually really for 18 year old, he's already been writing for 10 years. So he's actually really not 18 in music literally. So he, I wrote a tune for his album, and that's been really fun. So I'm gonna, he's getting his first break. That's tomorrow night at the Cameron House. Yeah, and he's doing all month. He's gonna do one with Basil on Thursday,

then one after, a week after mine. And then he's gonna have Astrid Jung do it. So I said, I wanna be part of that. And you know, cause you got a mentor, you gotta pass the word on, you know. Okay, so let me play on our way out here. Let me play a song and just get the story here. And I gotta say, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Dave, it was fun. What a deep dive and just so fascinating. And I gotta get you that lasagna from Palma Pasta. Yeah. We got to take a picture by the tree before you drive back to the hammer here, but I gotta ask you about this. Oh, the trues. The trues. Yeah, yeah, I wrote that with song, this song with them. I know, I know, that's why I'm playing it. I forgot about that, yeah, yeah. I'm here to remind you about your life. Yeah. So, give it a little taste of this. I forgot about that. Yeah, yeah. I'm here to remind you about your life. Yeah.

Give it a little taste of it. I like this song. Jack Douglas produces. Oh yeah. I love those boys. I love them. They've helped me a lot. They've done Jack particularly.

Oh, I got an album I did with them. If you wait. I haven't heard this in a long time. That's all you can do. My mistakes. My mistakes. My mistakes. My mistakes.

My mistakes. My mistakes. My mistakes. My mistakes. My mistakes. My mistakes. My mistakes. My mistakes. I haven't heard this I won't be safe when I'm on my way to another lonely place. Learn to stay. So you co-wrote this? Yeah, yeah. Okay, good for you, man.

Work of the trues, man. That's a big fucking deal. Yeah, when they just started, and they were just like, again, talk about mentor. I knew Vic in his, Jack Ziprick, the bass player, his dad, when we used to play in Halifax. And he would always be talking about his youngs,

his son's band before they were called the Truths. And when they came here, just around time when 9-11 happened, they blew me away how good they were. But they still didn't have the sound, they just had a few originals. So I said, let's write then. And this was the first one we wrote together.

And they didn't put on the first album because I don't think they were at that place yet. It was more suitable for the second record. Well, I when I we're going back a few years now, but when Paulie Morris, who was the man who helped build the White House of Rock at hits 97.7 in St. Catherine, I remember Paul. Yeah, he helped. He was playing a lot of trues before anybody else in the country. Like he jumped on that early and he's quite proud of like, helping them get going, helping the trues get going by playing them on hits 97 7. Yeah, you know what? During the pandemic I did here's another little project I did.

I did a thing called Dave Raven, the second responders and we got together just a little low-key project and it was me and Jack the bass player because we both knew if we didn't do it we'd probably die from alcohol, drugs or something. We had a play at work and we both did it with my cousin from The Shakers and guitar player Mark Foley. We had a big studio available that Glenn Marshall had in Hamilton. It was a big, called the Cotton Factory, which they put shows on, but it was empty. So we were safe. We felt, okay, we're safe.

And Jack's one of my favorite people. And we lived, thankfully, I'll get you a copy of that. We called the second responders because we knew we're not the first responders. Don't call us. Don't call musicians. We might take a while to get there. Right? Second responders, good name.

We're the second responders, you know. Amazing thank you for playing that i haven't heard that for a while it's nice yeah it was very nice and i knew you had a writing credit on it so i said let me find out about what the hell dave rave was doing with the trues but man this 50th anniversary thing you got going on with the teenage head, fucking sounds cool and this chat was amazing and again, you got to come back man, you were great. I'd kick out the jams with you. Oh it's fun man. You know it's really funny because I love it because it's a mosaic and you can try to

do what's it called, a logical way to it but there's really no logic to it. Music has just always been like that. It's people who connect and and getting along, you know, like we go, hey, you know, it's that's what I love about music. It's magical, you know. Do you think Teenage Head got their just desserts? They got the flowers they deserve? Well, you know what? It was a great band. The music has lasted. And I always say if you if you can make any music that lasts, when you think of all the music that's been out there in the world, if it lasts, then you've done your job.

If somebody says to you, like all this beautiful reaction, I think it makes Steve happy and I know Gordon Frank up in, I don't know if Frank's in heaven, but he's somewhere close to it. Maybe they're all eating probably, there may be, what do you call it, where you go to get the barbecue sauce? They're more in that area. Wherever that is, you know, the ZZ Tots base players there and you know, all those guys are all there.

Maybe Sid Vicious is probably, you know. Well that's where you want to go, right? Oh yeah, you want to go there. You don't want to go on the plane with, you want to go on the bad plane, you know, it's more fun, man. So whoever those guys are, I know that they're looking after us and you know, it's a beautiful thing, you know. And that brings us to the end of our 1427th show.

You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm at Toronto Mike. You're at Dave Rave on the app formerly known as Twitter, but is there anywhere else you want to send people to find out what's going on with you? Well, you know what? I'm just at Facebook and on Instagram, you know, Dave Rave at Insta and also Dave Rave. I got the page and I also got my own thing. So can you come there? You know, I've, uh, I always, I'm always posting, taking pictures of people in action. Love it. Yeah.

Thank you. And much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery. That's Palma Pasta. That's Recycle My Electronics. Nancy Malik. Nancy Malik. We couldn't have done this without Nancy Malik.

Yep. Raymond James Canada and Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow when I'm dropping the FOTM KOTJ episode. Cheesiest love songs just in time for Valentine's Day. See you all then. Yes I do, I know it's true, yeah I know it's true, how about you? I'll end picking up trash and then putting down rogues And their broker in stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am

But who gives a damn because Everything is coming out rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms me today And your smile is fine, it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is road to being great Well I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Shak'likur

But I like it much better going down on you, yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms us today And your smile is fine, and it everything is rosy, yeah Everything is rosy and gray, yeah