Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ted Axe from The Action: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1947

Episode Date: August 7, 2026

In this 1947th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Ted Axe, the first lead singer for The Action, one of Canada's first punk bands.A version of this podcast without programmatic ads is available to all Toronto Mike'd Patrons at patreon.com/torontomike.Toronto Mike'd, an award-winning podcast, is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca.If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, I'm Ted Axe in the band The Action, and we are playing at the Duke on Halloween, Duke Live, downtown Toronto and the bovine on December 11th. Glad to be here and really excited to be on Toronto, Mike. Thanks very much. As I said to you, Mr. Axe, fourth times a charm. We'll talk about it. I'm excited you're here, though. Welcome to Welcome to episode 1,1947, 1947 of Toronto-Miked, An award-winning podcast proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at great lakesbeard.com 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. Visit palmapasta.com for more. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. Catch a game at Christy Pits this summer. No ticket required. Fusion Corpsoe Nick Aienis. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline.

And Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle My Electronics.com. committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past and Ridley Funeral Home Pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto mic to debut,

it is the notorious frontman for punk pioneers, the action. Ted Axe. Ted, what a pleasure it is to meet you. Thank you so much. Should I give you a hard time for the fact that this is the fourth time Ted Axe's

Toronto Mike debut has been in my recording calendar. Yeah, my mom always told me that it was only three chances in life, so this is a real... Three strikes you're out, right? Absolutely. Shad out to the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball team. But I am a benevolent dictator, and

I thought, after I went camping, I said, let's give Ted Axe one more chance, and it was worth it because you're here now. Can I, a little more deep. I know. This is so petty of me because, you know, you're a punk pioneer and I've got some great music and we got to, I got to grill you about some claims, which I believe to be true, but I still got to grill you. That's my job. I'm an award-winning podcaster. But you were in

the calendar. And then I feel like you realized it was going to be a long commute and you said, fuck this. I'm out, right? No, no, no. The first time, maybe. And then you were in the calendar again because you changed your mind. And then I think you had a, maybe you had a bad back or something, you had a cortisone shot? Well, I think the first time it was a bad back. The second time it was just a case of too many drugs.

And I think I rather spaced on it. That might have been the third time. Well, you know, who's tracking? As only I am. I'm the only one petty enough. But that one, that one did irk me, though, because I was like in the basement

listening to the action, Canada's first punk band and excited that Ted Axe was going to be here. And you just didn't show. And eventually I wrote an email like, Ted, what happened? And you're like, oh, yeah, you blanked on it. You were on what? Pain killers? Something like that. Yeah. Okay, but you're here now?

Yes, yes. Okay, all is forgiven, Ted X. Is that your real name? Show me your driver's license. I need to know. Are you really a Ted X? Of course. Of course, you know, there's only so many axes in the world and my family had to be blessed with the axe name. That's too convenient, like, you know, because they call a guitar an axe, right? Like, it's a cool name. And I'm in the action, so it kind of went with it.

is your real name. Of course. That's unbelievable. Like, you were born to be a rock star. Well, there you go. You had no choice. What, you can't be an accountant with a name like Ted Axe. No, no, I suppose you could.

You'd be a priest or something. Well, hi, high priest is. Okay, let me ask you just a little bit about your relationship possibly with another FOTM. Okay, so Bob Ray. Ah, yes. I'm just curious because we're going to get into the whole, you know, punk origin. story from the mid to late 70s and then we're going to talk about what's going on today. We're going to cover a lot of ground.

I think it's important. That's why Toronto Mike exists to capture conversations like this. But Bob Ray is not a punker. He's not listening to the action. No, no. Do you have any relationship at all with Bob Ray? Just curious how you came up to Bob Ray. You.

I did my homework. You have made a claim that the Ray family were on Redo Lake, like opposite you. Yes, that's true. The Rideo Lake. My my parents owned a cottage there and

the Ray's cottage was opposite it. A little bit ways away, but you could see the island every day from it, from my place. But did you ever meet Bob? I never met Bob. My brother and sister would go over to the Ray's cottage

often and yeah, so the Ray's were kind of like the ideal family up there on the lake to speak. Well look, that's how the other half lives. You were living that way too. You got a cottage on that

lake. Yeah, but our cottage was kind of really run down and it was really old and it wasn't like the race. Was there electricity? There was only plumbing. I mean, there was only

what they call it? You're not running water. but a... Oh, well? No? I don't know. Crank the handle. Okay, that. Yeah.

What's that called? I can't even remember it. All right. So, okay, so it wasn't quite like the, uh, the ray cut. It was an outhouse. Oh, yeah. I used to call those kibos. Does that word exist anymore?

I grew up calling that a kibo because that, when we went camping with the, the scouts, we call it a kibo. Uh, but I never hear that song. Like, like, I still call it. I go camp. I go, there's the kibo, which is like, oh, this is a washroom with, like, no, you know, no electricity. We had a pump.

This was a pump. Oh, a pump. Yeah. I was a Boy Scout. I was a patrol leader of the Bobberlink patrol. Okay. And this is, is this in Ottawa?

Yeah. All right. So take me back then. It cares. Because I'm obviously very interested in the action origin story. So like, like when, and is it 1976?

When does the action form? Well, the action formed originally in 75, 76. And to the chagrin of many punk. Rockers. It was a band that played at the Shawleyer Club in Hall, Quebec. Six nights a week, five sets a night of covers from that period. And I think from Nazareth, Queen, Free.

Right. And I know I've told the story before. No, but you've never told it on Toronto, Mike. I need any great detail in this tracks. And the punks would go, you're not real punk. you're not real punk at all, are you? You know, you played in this.

Well, you know, what happened, I suppose, was that the guitarists were much better than the usual punk bands because they'd played all this stuff before. And people seemed to think that punks were, came up just listing, suddenly playing punk without listing to anything else. But actually all the punks in England

listened to classic rock that's called now, the queen and rocks and music and that kind of stuff. And in fact, the sex pistols were, I picked the producer from Rock's Music. All right. So you're the action morphs. Like, so it morphs into a punk band?

I went to England in 76. Okay. And I came back with... With an accent. I came back with an accent. I hear it. Actually, I was born in England. Okay.

So how old are you when you come... Let's go even further back. I need to get this TEDx origin story. And then we'll talk about the action, obviously. But like, how old are you? you when you move, I guess, to Ottawa? Well, I moved to Ottawa. It's only like two years old. Okay, so no accent yet.

Well, I was slightly, yeah, I was gone to the kindergarten, I suppose. Okay, so you're in Ottawa, and then you moved back to England in 76? No, I just went there on a visit. And at that point, I went to the 100 Club and saw all these punk bands, like the vibrators and the vibrators and the jambers and clash and whatever. at the 100 Club, and went into sex, you know, the store. But I had really kind of Peter Frampton-looking hair, and Peter Frampton was on the side of the buses.

He was like the rock star at the time. I remember going to the 100 Club into the washroom and into the loo and into the skinhead with an armband on and a big trench coat in his skinhead. So he was going, serve city USA. Yeah, I was like, oh shit, he doesn't like my long hair. So, anyway, we came back, I came back, and the action all had kind of long hair, long as share, and we started listening to, I gave them the tapes and the stuff that I brought back,

and I'm like, oh, this stuff's really good. Let's do some. Let's incorporate in our set. So we started incorporating it in the set. And then there was a club in all that were called the Raiders Den, and we started becoming a house band there. The Rodgers Den brought in bands like Teenage Head and stuff from Toronto. Then we started going to Toronto a bit, met the vial tones. So that's how the punk thing happened.

So your trip to England, you get exposed to the burgeoning punk scene. Yeah. I guess that's 76, like you said. You come back. Now, who else was in the action? Like, you know, it's not just Ted Axe Solo. Like, who's in the action? They were these brothers.

The brothers were actually the guys who formed it originally, and they actually auditioned me. Okay, they needed a singer. Yeah, yeah. So it was Paul Fenton, who kind of became my closest friend. He kind of looked a bit like Keith Richards. So we were kind of like the glimmer twins of the band. And then there was his brother John.

It was a real tough, kind of like a street tough guy. and Michael, really young they brought him in his bass player and Michael's also a Fenton? Yes. Okay, so you got three Fenton bros and Ted Axe. Yeah.

Okay, okay. And when you bring back these albums or whatever, you picked up in England in 76, and shout out some of the bands again that you would have brought back to Ottawa from your trip. Oh, vibrators, clash,

the sex pips. pistols, just a, yeah, just a bunch of early punk albums like that, okay. And then so the Fentonbrose, all three of them, they listen and say, yeah,

we like this sound? Yeah, well, they were really into the Rolling Stones. Sure. And I guess they could see some similarities. Paul Fender played slide guitar in open tuning.

So he was kind of already kind of a Keith Richards guy and because Richards played that way as well. and so yeah they liked it they thought was wow this is really rock and stuff and you because you're bringing you know the all these these these these British bands but when when are the the influences coming from America right because you had your yeah you have that England scene going on and then you got like sort of a New York scene going on of the Ramones and stuff like when does that enter the fray

I don't think it really ever really did yeah so we were kind of just kind of into the English stuff, I think. Well, I need to play some of the action. Because I think most listeners of Toronto mic right now, I'm guessing they're not cool enough to even know the action. I feel like we're introducing them to the action. And then I will grill you.

Like, I got to hold your feet to the fire, Mr. Acts regarding claims of being the first. Like, I am of the belief there's not really a first anything, but you got to kind of say one of the first. But I do want to drill into that in terms of Canada. Okay. But you're ready to listen to some action? Yeah.

What channel should I watch? My fucking tell me proud. If he's on my blink and I'm going to get up my girl and say, ain't got the money. He's on my blink and I'm a girl and say. I'm picking my guitar and I don't you know I'm gonna miss for myself. Get all the things I used to know. Don't you know I'm gonna miss on my son?

The TV's on my blink. Don't you're gonna miss all of my TV? Say my TV's on my fucking and have a car and say you're a blink on my guitar. TV's on the blink. That's my show's on the blink. Galk shit down. Got a mess.

Oh, TV's on the blink. That recording sounds pretty damn good, Ted Ax. Oh, thank you. It was live. Yeah, you can hear the crowd at the end, kind of bleeding in there,

cheering. So that's alive. But normally I hear a lot of these like, you know, mid to late 70s, punk recordings, and they sound like potato, man. Right.

This sounds great. It was recorded in a theater-type room at Tempo Studios. And right across the way was Mahogany Rush, which was like, you know, the big Canadian band at the time. So it was like a really good studio, tempo studios, was like one of the major studios in Montreal. And live on the floor, right?

Live on the stage. Live on the stage. Yeah. Okay. When, be very precise, if you can, Ted. I'm really jogging your memory here. But when was that recorded? Yeah, that's a good question.

Well, this is a part of the hazy details as I drill in to find out if you are the first punk band in Canada. Right. I think that was recorded in 77. 78. I'm not sure. Okay. You know, you've done some drugs.

Yes, yes. Probably 78. 78. Yeah. Okay, but it would be early 78. Well, yes. I'm helping you. I'm doing.

I is, yeah, absolutely. And that's TV's on the blink. And that was a, like, you released that as a 12-inch, right? Yeah, it was a 12-inch, right? Yeah, it was a 12. 12 inch and it was on played to be played on 45 RPM. Oh. And it was an EP.

Right. And radio stations played it on 33. So we were always like, my TVs on the Blake. Really? Yeah, as we had the film, it was supposed to be played on 45.

That's funny. Yeah. So what stations would be playing that in 78? God, I'm not sure. What are these magic stations? I just can't imagine. Yeah. Who's playing that in 178.

College radio, actually. College radio. CKCU with my Ottawa, Carleton University. It was a big supporter of us. So you put out that 12-inch, maybe early 1978. TV's on the blink. Good recording there. And I'm wondering at that time, though,

I'm really jogging your memory here, but are you aware, at this time, are you aware of other punk bands in Canada? Oh, yeah, of course. Name check. I need names. like shout out the names you're aware of in Canada. Oh, DOA, pointed sticks, teenage head, vows,

oh, yeah, those were the major ones, I think. Okay. But are you, this is, you're on the hot seat here, Ted Axe. Are you ready to make the claim to me that the action is Canada's first punk band? Well, you know, teenage head was supposedly around in 75 as well. So it's kind of like we started in April. I don't know, they started in June. Who really cares, right?

But it is somewhat of a good promotional tool. Although the punk community is really kind of up in arms whenever I mentioned that. Well, that's why I thought it was controversial because... You're not the first...

You ever heard of teenage head? Right. But teenage heads. So they were kind of doing almost like a... Early 60s. There was like a 50s type, rockabilly type deal. See, I don't even know

if they were really... you know, well, who knows? I mean, what's the, you know, names? Right. But, you know, Frankie was, you know, we backed them up a couple of times. Frankie wore black under his eyes and he was really kind of interesting because of that. So, and they got around a lot more than we did. And they were from Hamilton and they played Toronto a lot more than we did.

So a lot of people know about them and they're still around. Well, they made a talk about them, right? where, you know, TVO, you can watch the teenage head doc and educate yourself, but where's the action doc? Maybe this is it. Yeah, there was, making it now. There was a doc to be made when we reformed in 2009, but it never got off the ground.

The guy came in and sort of filming everything and, uh, huh, yeah, I remember this guy, I'm going to call him up. There was a bit of, uh, well, we had a lot of TV coverage because, um, what happened in Ottawa was, uh, we played, a high school no this was before when we first came out I phoned up all the media

in Ottawa and got the TV stations down the newspapers all to our little place was about as big as this called the pit and they came in with TBK

and we I made sure that garbage was all over the ground so it went and collected all this newspaper rolled it up yeah they waited through the garbage and it was a big TV got my girlfriend to put non-toxic

blood in her mouth and spray it into her girlfriend's mouth. So it was kind of a scene when they came in. Oh, I can imagine. We were on the 6 o'clock news. We were on all the papers and the papers like Pankets, Ottawa. Right. They were trying to scare the parents.

Like, don't let your teenage teenagers get seduced. Yeah, and then we played a high school in Dunrobin, Ontario, which was close to Ottawa. It was a Halloween dance, and they had these jackalanchions on the car of jackalandants that they had

all made and supposed to be a nice student dance, but I smashed the jackalansans and had green slime. It was a toy of that period. Okay. It came out of my mouth and pretended it was vomit. They thought it was vomit anyway. Right. There was a rip in my pants. It was kind of up near the crocs, so nothing really happened, but they...

Still risque. Yeah. So, um... Scare these people. Well, they were cowering in the hall by the end of it. When you were smashing those jackalantrons, you could have said, hey, let's change the name to smashing pumpkins. Well, there you go.

Yeah, that's very good. I like that one. You can borrow that one. I came home. I was a bit of a provocateur. Yeah. So I phoned up the papers the next day and said, you know, we were banned from the Audub musicians union.

It never happened. But it was all over the papers again. Obscene punks. So let me, I'm going to read between the lines here. You get a lot of attention for saying the action is Canada's first punk band. But if you're a scholar, like if I, I don't know, who am I going to call up, Gary Top? Who am I going to call up? Jason Schneider.

whatever. If you're a scholar of the punk scene in Canada, you might realize that you're one of the first punk bands, but you're not the first punk band again. I think it was first punk band for sure. So that's a different claim. Like I believe that to be true. Who did I have on?

The guy from Furnace Face, I'll ask him, slow mo. I'll ask him. But I got to ask you with the accent because we've now been talking for a good 20 minutes here. And you sound like you're, you just came off the boat from England. Oh, really? It's not good? When you listen back, everybody listening thinks I'm talking to a Brit right now.

But if I'm right, you're two years old when you arrive in Canada. And yeah, you might visit, you know, you might visit England now and then. But are you putting on that accent? Well,

my father was English. Okay. Yeah. So maybe hearing your dad's accent growing up. But have you always spoke with this British accent? Only when I'm doing it if it's like Toronto Mike. Okay. I wonder, like, though,

Yeah, well on stage as well, close. Okay, but it's part of the TEDx persona, even though TEDx is your real name. Absolutely. Okay, love it. So I got more questions, and we're going to talk more about the action, but I got another song I want to play here.

All right? And I like, although this is actually probably the longest punk song you'll ever hear. Do the strangle. Oh, well, I don't have the strangle here. I have a cover here. Let's play it. All right, this begs the question.

Ted Axe, could you name-check some of the key influences for the action? I know you've named-checked some bands you brought back from England, but here we are with... This is Lou Reed, I guess. This is a Velvet Underground? Yeah, Lou Reed was one really kind of more Paul's influence than mine. But the New York bands were definitely an influence, actually. Iggy from Detroit,

Lou Reed from New York. I like the New York dolls a lot. I don't think they did. And they were kind of proto-punks, really, New York dolls. And, yeah. So those were the American ones. And Rolling Stones was the big,

big influence from Paul. And the Allman brothers. And Rory Gallagher, he liked as well. Interesting mix here. You got a whole mix here. Yeah, so that's what they sort of, you know, the press started picking up on that and going. It was kind of like,

Rolling Stones Mix and Allmer Brothers mixed with early English punk Now it's a bit different Because we don't

We don't have Sly guitar on the band anymore Okay yeah We're gonna Don't worry We'll get to the New iteration

Of the I'm still Still collecting Because I'm gonna do a little True or False Deal with you here Is it true The action

Open for The Ramones Yes the Ramones It was a grueling A few dates with the Ramones, went across in Flint, Michigan. The thing with the Ramones was that we were with Montreco Records out of Montreal. He was run by a guy called Tony Roman, who had alleged mafia ties. It was a bit of a scary dude.

Okay. We had to say, no, no, no, no. It never happened because he wanted all money that we made, which wasn't very much. from the tour it was in the contract we signed a really kind of shoddy deal a shady deal as well with the on track of records and so um I ended up uh coming up with this story that we were stalled going in to the states and we didn't play with the remotes and that is depending on where you look online it's like oh they did yes they did no they didn't

is it. So, well, now the story's got. You know, he's dead, so. Yeah, okay, now that the story can be told. So Tony Roman, not a cuddly fellow. No, he was nice enough to sign us to his label, but it was very, he kind of was known for unscrupulous contracts with his artists. And it was a Montreal label.

We went to Montreal. And I think John was the leader of the band. He signed the first deal that he came. across. Right. Yeah, I suppose we should have. You didn't run and buy your lawyer. No. You know, we were so stupid that we got his lawyer to look at the contract. Oh, whoa. Never a good idea. No, no, no, no, no. They just cross off a zero. That's what they do if you do that here. It's worth noting Tony Roman was a bit of a like a singing star in Montreal on the 1960s. Okay. Montreal Vett. Montreal, Mike would be all over the Tony Roman story and talk to him here. My goodness gracious. And like the, you

released an EP, right? Yeah. Okay, so what was the EP called? TV's on the blick. Of course, of course. Yeah, and he released it with a safety pin in the corner

on cardboard, black cardboard. His whole vision was to get it into Zellers and it was chain stores like that, Woolworths. And it eventually did end up in Wolvers and Zellers in the delete bin. Well, better

to get there, that way. I think that's more punk. Yes. You don't want to be beside Elton John. Right. Of course. Of course. That's where I'd want to go. Yeah, but that was his vision. So he recorded us at tempo and he brought in a few of his friends.

And I remember being very drunk the whole time in the action, unfortunately. Okay. So are you still drinking? No. I've actually done to drink it all now. Okay. Well, that's unfortunate because I was going to give you some fresh craft beer, but I'm not getting... If you're, like, in recovery, are you in recovery? No, no, no, no. Okay, okay.

Well, I don't, I don't want you to fall off any wagons here, but, you know, you're welcome to re-gift it to somebody. I must be with the only punk in the world that doesn't drink beer. Well, there's a whole straight-edge movement in punk in some circles, and they don't forget, forget beer, okay? They don't drink coffee. Like, they're really boring. Oh. Yeah, I mean, Biff Naked's in this movement or whatever. Like there's no drugs, there's no smoking anything, no weed, but there's no alcohol of any nature.

I don't think there's coffee. I don't think, I'm not sure they can even have meat. Like there's a straight edge movement where it looks like you're just living our very safe and boring life. Well, I'm a vegetarian. Okay, you're, you're. Vegetarian punk. You're a vegetarian. This is the worst segue ever because you're a non-drinking vegetarian.

And what I have for you, Mr. Axe. Do you have some meat here as well? I do. This is terrible. I wish I knew you were a vegetarian. It didn't come up in my research. Because I have a lasagna in my freezer that I was going to send you home with, but it's got beef in it.

Man, you know, Ted, this is your punishment for blowing me off three times, okay? So I didn't know you're a vegetarian, and I apologize to you profusely, because Palma pasta did send over that lasagna. And Great Lakes sent over the fresh craft beer, but here's what you can consume.

You can consume the history of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. They play at Christy Pitts. I feel like the action should perform, and we're going to get to the reformed action in a moment. And I guess it's the 50th. Yeah. Okay, the 50th anniversary tour that's kicking off at the coming up. We're going to talk about that very shortly,

but I think you guys should perform the national anthem before Maple Leafs game at Christy Pitts. I'm just throwing it into the abyss. Good idea. Shout out to the Maple Leaf Baseball. Shout out to Recycle My Electronics.ca.ca. because even in Ottawa, are you still living in Ottawa?

No, I live here now. You live in Toronto now, okay, okay. But even in Ottawa and in Toronto across this fine country, if you go to RecycleMyelectronics.ca, if you put in your postal code, you can find out where you can drop off, like old electronics, old tech, old cables, old devices,

don't throw them in the garbage, those chemicals end up in our landfill. Go to Recyclemyelectronics.com. And shout out to Nick Aini's, his podcast is called Building Toronto Skyline. He's got another with me called Mike and Nick, and he stepped up with the good people at Fusion Corp to help fuel the real talk on this show.

So we can dig into the action. And I don't hear enough about the action in the wild. I hear of all those other bands you mentioned. You hear about them. You don't hear about the action. Why is it you think there's a lack of awareness about Ottawa's The Action? Well, that's a good question.

I don't think we play Toronto's, much as we should have. Fenton brothers didn't want to really tour after the Ramones thing. It was, the romantic version would be, it wasn't like that at all. It was like screaming crowds

with knives in there between their teeth coming at us and little dressing rooms that were closets because the headliner got all the good stuff. Right. So we didn't really come to Toronto a lot

at all. And I remember we made, at the violtones here. We played downstairs at the Isabella Hotel. And Nazi dog, Steve Lecky came up to us and said, you guys, y'all got to play. I'm 18 by Alice Cooper, but change the lyrics time, 15, or we're going to beat you up.

Really? Yeah. That sounds like Lecky. Yes. And he had this thing going on in front of me. I remember I was singing. And he had a, I guess, a little person there. And they were snorting or, um,

I don't know what you call it. Not spitting, but through their nose. Snot. Snot rockets. Snot rockets to each other's mouths like this. Dude, that's the grossest thing I've ever heard. Well, it was kind of effective. Get a little person to...

In a leather jacket. Of course, of course, of course. Yeah, man, we did it. When Lecky passed away, I had on Liz Worth, who wrote a book about the early punk scene. And we talked about the real talk. about Steve Lecky. That dude had some issues, man.

Oh, really? Yeah, he had some issues. But, you know, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, no longer with us. And that nickname, I'm sorry, man, that did not age well. I don't understand that you got to explain to me why Nazi stuff, paraphernalia and swastikas. How did that ever get aligned with the punk movement? I know, probably when Woke came in, I don't think that was very popular, his name. with woke.

Well, it's not even woke. It's just being a decent human being. I mean, the Nazis annihilated millions and millions of people. Jewish people, you know, people of color, homosexuals. When I was in England,

it was the same thing. There was, like, a lot of guys wearing the Nazi armed band. Guy was saying, Serv City, he would have a Nazi army. So I'm really not sure, but I guess it was like

fascism, you know, was cool to the punk movement because it's sort of a fascist movement in a way. Okay, well, keep your swastika. from my fascism. I don't believe any of that. I'm glad to hear it because that's some bullshit right there.

Absolutely. Okay, we're on the same. We're on the same page here. Yes, yes. Did you ever play a gig for legendary Toronto concert promoters, the Garys? I played a gig with the Garys, but it was much later. It was with, we opened in another band I was in called Chrome McKee in Toronto in the 80s. I had a band in Toronto called Chroma Key with my wife now, then my girlfriend,

and she was the singer, and I was the guitarist, and we played for, oh, God, what was that band called? Anyway, we played our RPM. Dr. Lematics. Oh, wow, yeah. We opened up for them, yeah. Okay. And I don't think Top wanted to pay us, actually.

well listen I'll phone them now I take stored a hundred dollars from them I'll get on the phone with Mr. Top right now Gary did you actually pay it my goodness okay I was going to say we should have had the action at the last pogo at Horseshoe

Tavern yeah that would have been good it's really kind of I'm finding now reforming it that it's so unknown that you know it's going to be interesting to see what the crowds should do show up especially in the okay so promote do it

again, we're going to dive into this reformation here in a moment here because I do want to take you back and ask you about one more thing here. But where remind us, when and where can we see the reformed the action with TEDx on lead vocals? We're doing a little Ontario tour

and it's a kind of tour where we were able to drive back to Toronto that night or the next day. Actually, the next day, because we'd be staying in a hotel. But it wasn't like, it's not like a major tour where you're going. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

is kind of just little four hours, within four hours. Okay, give me like a city and a date. We're doing Toronto here on Halloween at the Duke Live in the East End. Okay. Yeah. And December 11th at the Beauvoir. Okay. Okay, so two Toronto dates there, but you'll be in a, in other, within, you know,

four hour driving distance. Yeah, yeah. Is there a website you can send people to who are like, I got to see the resurrected the action. This is like a 50th anniversary tour. Right. And it's all new guys. No brothers.

No, the brothers didn't want to be in it. This time I wrote my phone poll and I said, do you want to do the action? So I'm going to be resurrecting. He says, no, and he says, no money in it. Yeah. That was a kind of, yeah. But we're doing Kingston places like Kingston and London

and Windsor. Windsor What about Ottawa? We're doing the... Well, interesting you said it because Ottawa is coming up on September 12th at the Dominion Tavern. Oh.

And we sold it out back in 2009, two nights in a row. Okay. And that had the brothers in it in 2009. Yes. So you're curious, I guess you don't know the answer, but like,

so you said September 12, right? Yeah. The Dominion. Okay. That's like the kickoff for this 50th anniversary tour. Okay, worth the drive to Ottawa. But, like, how will the action be received all these years later if you're the only, and you weren't, you're the founder, I guess.

I found out the brothers founded this thing and hired you with the lead singer, but you're the original lead singer for the action. Right. I'm the only original member, but, you know, if you look at all these guys reforming, like suicidal tendencies, it's only the singer left. So people are kind of used to that. I think now that idea, Oasis, it's just the two brothers. They made more money in this last tour than they made their whole career. There is a kind of thing for nostalgia happening now. We don't know how we're going to be received in Ottawa,

but we're just kind of going anyway. There's a bit of a conspiracy because the Fentons are huge in Ottawa. In fact, John who perished several years ago, has his own day. John Fenton Day. So there's a bit of a conspiracy like, well, we're not going to know if we're going to come, not because the fan is on in it.

Okay. So we're going to talk about, you know, because we talked about there was an EP that came out, and we talked about Tony Roman with Montreco. Montreco, am I saying that right? Montreco. Montreco. Okay.

But the obvious question there is, where's the LP? There was no LP made. We went into the studio again and recorded some tracks that do exist, one called Seafood Mama. pressed pig and a couple of others, but they were never released because the thing was, I think we fell out with Montreco.

Well, or they went down. He might have been a little greasy. Is he still alive? No. Okay, Tony Roman would be a guy I need on Toronto Mike to drill into this history. But shout out to Ridley Funeral and we lost Tony Roman.

Okay. So here, I'm going back here because I failed to mention this. This is episode 1947. Wow. I am told by the official historian, the official Toronto historian of the Toronto Mike podcast who's watching us live right now at live. com,

Jeremy Hopkins, he tells me, it's funny I mentioned the horseshoe tavern. He tells me the horseshoe tavern opened in 1947. So I just wanted to connect those dots for everybody. That's kind of interesting, small world story here. Okay.

I wasn't around back then. 1947 was a good year, I'm told. Okay, but here's what I want to ask you about. So we talked, just, you mentioned briefly your dad was British, I think you said. And we talked about, you know, you have a cottage, you had a cottage, you know, may not have had all the niceties of the raised cottage, but, you know, still,

I understand your dad was Canadian ambassador to Mexico. Sure or false. Now, my punk credibility is really going to go down now because, you know, I didn't come from a working class family in Thatcher's post-government England and I didn't come from a one room apartment where my mother had to work

on the street or whatever to supply the family of food. We came from a rather interestingly well-being family, well-to-do family. My father was the ambassador to Mexico in the 70s. His excellency.

Wow. And however, you know, if you look at some of the the kids that come from these families, they are actually really much worse than in terms of delinquency than a lot of the poorer kids. Because we had something to prove, like, fuck you, dad. Rebell? Yeah. What are you rebelling against? You can fuck. Yeah, you can fuck dead eggs. You can swear. What are you rebelling against? What do you

got. Well, you know, they want you to come be like them in the diplomatic corps, wear a suit. When I went to Mexico to visit my dad, my mother and him were already divorced, but I went down there to go to art school. And I was a hippie. I came, I think, in bare feet to the embassy and long hair. And he got a RCMP report. He showed me the envelope that came in and said, top secret. So you'd get your son out of Mexico. He's going to ruin your reputation. He's doing drugs. He's in a rock band there with a Mexican rock band.

And I got a limousine ride to the airport with two Mexican motorcycle police, one on either side, making sure that I didn't escape. Make sure you get on that plane and get your ass back to Ottawa. Yeah, that's right. Wow. Okay, to me, this is fascinating because when you say you're doing drugs, though, we're talking about like cannabis, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, in the sense,

70s. They were treating cannabis like it was cocaine, right? Yeah, it was illegal. Yeah. Insane. Okay. We'll be telling our great grandkids, oh, back in my day, they called it dope and they treated it like a class narcotic or whatever. Okay, so the

RCMP actually wrote your father a letter, like a top secret letter, basically saying, get your kid out of Mexico. He's smoking weed. He's playing rock music in a band. We're going to get a a limo and you're going to have Mexican motorcycle cops on each side of the limo and we're going to watch

them, they're going to watch you go to the airport. So TEDx gets on that plane and that plane takes TEDx to Ottawa and TEDx don't come back to Mexico. Have you been back to Mexico since then? Yeah, we can go back on a vacation to Eastland Moher's island of women. Where's this island? I'm taking notes over here. It's off the coast of Cancun. Okay. I've a little ferry ride over. Listen, I'll kayak over there.

Are you kidding me? Island of women. I'm serious. Now I know what I'm doing this winter. Right. There's an island of women. Well, I didn't see my dad for eight years after that. And he eventually moved to Los Angeles. And then we went down to L.A.

Visit him in the N. And I ended up staying for 12 years in L.A. You spent 12 years in L.A. Okay. Well, that's where the British accent came from. Yes, yes. If you're a Brit in L.A., you got a maid. Okay.

See, we're learning a lot about you. and I could see why you would want to suppress this origin story to a degree because there is something about, I mean, some famous musicians kind of got caught with this, right? Like vanilla ice, right? I'm sure one of your favorite artists of all time, Mr. Axe. But like he was spinning a tale about, I'm from the streets,

and he was kind of creating this origin story that might have been more acceptable in hip-hop at the time. And then it was revealed, like he's grown up in, I don't remember, suburbs of Dallas or something like that. So sometimes there's a tendency to print the legend, and, you know, you have, I got a cottage and Rideau Lake, and I got a, my dad's an ambassador to Mexico. It doesn't really fit the punk ethos of this time period in the 70s.

Okay, now I know why there's a crowd fall out with me. I didn't realize that before. I was like, these punks are kind of going, fucking out. Yeah. This guy is pretending he's a punk. He's not really a punk at all, is he? 100%. Comes from, he's an ambassador's son.

he's, but I did get kicked out of Mexico and got an RCMP letter to my dad and that kind of proves something, I think. But I think you'd be rejected. They would be rejecting you for that. But also, I don't know when you start making the claim and I know it is more truthful to say that the action is Ottawa's first punk band.

But I don't know when you start making the claim that the action is Canada's first punk band, but I'm telling you the scene is going to reject you for that because they're going to point to the vial tones and the diodes and the polls and the polls Already have. It's already happened this last

in the last couple of months. Crash kills five. Shout out to Don Pyle, right? The Demics of Stark naked in the flesh tones who were... Diodes.

Yeah, diodes. Lettronjay. The diodes were a close runner-up. I think they maybe started a month after us and teenage head. Teenage head for God and Rebels? Teenage head started about a month after us.

We were April 75. I think... DOA in Vancouver. You got a... We know we were on DOA's label. In 2009, we were on sudden deaths. We got the album, the EP released, re-released by Joey Shidhead.

Joey Shidhead, okay. He's now a politician. Yeah, does he, does he have the order of Canada? No, I might be thinking of Art Bergman. No. He's got the order, okay. Art Brigman, I think, got it. But that's another band.

Okay, so let us play, because we're going to talk about, you know, post-action here, but here's, like, a TED Act song that's not the action. You want to hear a bit of this? Why not? You can't stop me, Ted Axe. See, now we have Midtown Gord's attention.

Okay, this is my own worst nightmare. This is you solo? Yeah. Okay, so now, walk me through this. Okay, why does the action break up? There was no LP, right? You had the EP. We talked about what's going on of Montreco records and everything,

but LP never comes. What happens to the action? Well, I got a haircut, got into David Bowie, and Paul didn't like that. And he wanted me to be, you know, his Mick Jagger through his Keith Richards. And he claims that he fired me in Ottawa, but I actually just left to go to Toronto. So I moved to Toronto with my girlfriend and my cat in a taxi cab. How much of that cost back then? The guy gave us a free ride.

Free ride. Yeah. Free ride. Wow. Yeah. How did you, what did you have to do for that? Actually, I think it was $100, actually. Okay, so you just left.

Yeah. Yeah, just left. Yeah, because I think we played a bar in Ottawa, and I started doing this whole thing behind a curtain, like a silhouette, kind of the theatric thing. And Paul realized that I was kind of taking away from the band, ethos, ethos of. Sure.

The punk. Yeah, because now I was being like the, you know, the performer, David Bowie kind of inspired guy. Well, can I, this name was dropped earlier, but I'm getting Alice Cooper vibes. Alice was a big influence for me. Even the song here. Yeah. It's not quite welcome to my nightmare, but you're always. Right, right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My own worst nightmare. And I think a lot of us feel that way sometimes. And you mentioned Steve Lecky. Yeah. Who's a name in the band. won't repeat here, but he wanted you to play. I'm 18, except I'm 15. Did you ever do that? No, I refused. Good for you. Yeah. Don't get bullied by this guy. Yeah. Okay. But there, I mean, I'll tell you, I'm a big Alice Cooper fan. And that's a great song. I'm 18, but, uh, big Alice fan. But Alice, very theatrical.

Assumed the persona. Yeah. I remember I was hitchhiking to the killer tour, which was in town in Ottawa. And I was hitchhiking down, uh, one of the main streets there. And the roadies picked me up. Alos Cooper's Roadies picked me up and passed something back to the back seat was like a huge iceberg of Peruvian cocaine with a $100 bill

and it's like what am I supposed to do with this? I don't even know how to do it so it's a little razor blade there so by the time we got to the concert I was well numbed out that's an incredible story yeah I saw it right from stage so I was sitting on the stage

and watched the house Cooper killer with you know he had I think they had the guillotine at that point. Or no, it was the noose. Listen. But you know, you get him off that stage and he might want to golf with you. Yeah, he was different back then. They didn't have securities.

So people were pulling his jumpsuit off, trying to pull it off. He slipped on the stage. The bubble machine was going on. I think they had trunks, three trunks of props. Well, look, clearly inspired you. So you literally, you and your girlfriend, your cat, you just get in a cab and you head to the big smoke here. So you arrive in Toronto, like take me from there. Like, how do you pick up your music career?

So you're no longer in the action because you just up and flag. You buffied, as we say in Toronto, Mike, you buffied the action. Like you buffied me a few times before we finally made this happen. You're now in Toronto. What's next for you musically? Well, in Arlington. And Arlington was like not the same as it is now. It was the bakery and a couple of fish stock short stores and a couple warehouses and that was it.

and it was right near the mental health asylum where my brother worked. We moved in with my brother. Just started forming this. I started writing songs like more inspired by Japan, the band Japan, Bowie and Bar House. And it all kind of, and also Grace Jones and Nina Hagan, because my wife was singing.

My girlfriend at the time was. So I was just playing guitar and writing. And what's your wife's name? Soma. Okay. Yeah, Soma page. Okay. So she had kind of beyond,

and she still does have beyond supermodel looks. So it was like we should have made it. I think we were. What was the name of this? Chroma key. Chroma key, right. Yeah, I think we were even before the Eurythmix. It was like one of the first duos.

And there was a duo in Toronto at the time. Rockaway Beach was a big hit. I remember the name of them. Okay, well, okay. So keep talking here. I'll find out about, there it is. It's a... Chrome a key.

Hold on here. Yeah, so I think I'm glad I quit the action because I wouldn't have written all these different kind of genres of songs. And there was a very mysterious stage show. And we played with bands like breeding, ground and were some of the Toronto bands at the time

yeah a trolley bands of the time and it's not Mark Malibu and the Wassegas is it? No that's another band okay I'm not I played the Rivoli law okay unlike Nirvana the band the show they

you play the Rivoli okay now what about a band I'm going to ask you about a band here let me ask you Mr. Ted Axe about Sister Hyde. Yeah, Sister Hyde was a band I formed in Seattle. I moved to Seattle from L.A.

Actually, moved to Vancouver, and then after a year in Vancouver, it was kind of boring, moved. But moved back to Outer States and lived in Seattle for nine years. So I formed that in Seattle and then brought it up to Toronto, and played in Toronto with Sister Hyde as well.

And you guys were signed to Heart of Steel Records. Right, an Italian label, Heart of Steel Records. You've lived a life, Ted Axe. When you're born Ted Axe, you have no other options, really. That's right. You have to be into rock. It's destined here.

It's destined here. And then the song I played, that's from, is that from sex horror violence? Yeah, it's from the album Sex Horror Violence by Ted Axe, produced by Rob Sanso. Some 41. Yeah. Okay. And then you got your EP, the count of rock. So tell me, why did you decide to reform the action?

I kind of want to revisit that part of my life in a sense and to prove that older punks can do it still. You don't have to hang up your studded gloves. You have to keep on doing. No, but the real reason I think was I just wanted more people in the audience. A TEDx for some reason, you know, actually the origination of the original thing that happened to get me back into the action was you've had them on the show here. Paris Black.

Yeah, he was here recently. Yeah, yeah. I saw that. He got his album here somewhere, yeah. Right, right. Good friend of mine. And so Ted Axe is his wife's and favorite band of Hala. Oh, there you go.

You got abs like that, Ted? I do not, actually. No, no. And anyway, he wrote me and he said, why don't you just get the action back together or just call any badger in the action because I've looked it up and you are. the godfather of punk in Canada. The real deal.

I don't know about that. You know what? I'm now on board. As your PR arm, Ted Axe, just keep saying, because I know, I know it's not true. Okay,

it's not technically true. But, I know, I'm shocking you, I'm shocking you like it's Alice Cooper shock time here. But I think you keep saying Canada's first punk band because that's outrageous.

And I think that gets attention. And you might piss off some punkers. And I, you know, but, but you're going to, at least you'll get, raise some awareness. Right. You know, I was, I'll be honest with you. I never heard of the action. I wasn't even aware of TEDx. But I was intrigued to drill into this.

How could you not be? I know. Well, listen, I'm more of a Paris black man myself, okay? But I was, I was, I was interested to drill into this claim, which I, like, this is outrageous, Canada's first punk band. I needed to drill into it. Now that I talk to you, I kind of get it. It's like, I don't know, it's like you'd see Ozzy Osbourne on stage or Alice Cooper. It's part of the whole production here, you know.

And the action, they were there, you know, you've got EP, that great sounding EP, great song from you said early 78. Yeah. So you were there. You know, you aren't making shit up. No, no, no. You're not the first. I was in in the action. Was it called the action?

Yeah. in 76. So who's to say that I'm not, wasn't Canada's first punk band because I know teenage head they say started in 75. So were they really punk in 75?

And is there really a first anything? Well, this is a thing. Yeah, but you know, yeah, this gives me a lot of attention. But when you go on the punk sites like punk Canada, they are brutal. When you put anything, I'm not going to put anything up on punk Canada

because every time put something up on there. It's like, who the fuck are you to say this and wherever you are you? Well, you know what's working against you? Ottawa. I think that works against you. If you were based in Toronto, I think it would be a whole different legacy. Yeah. Yeah.

I call it hot, Ottawa. It's so hot though. Because no one considers Ottawa like a hotbed of punk in the No, you know, and Ottawa, I always thought it was a bit of a sleepy kind of pastoral town. What is? It's like a government town, right? They go to... Yeah. They take Sundays off and they wind things down.

by 7 p.m. Yeah, but when you're in a punk band in Ottawa, it is semi-political, I think, because it is a politician's town. And when you write, you know, when they have something like obscene, punk band, obscene band by the Ottawa federations of musicians, it does become semi-political, I think, in a sense,

and I was on talk shows there. And, yeah, it was like, oh, my God, punk in Canada, punk in Ottawa. But yeah, it was a place I just wanted to get out of. And I was kind of pissed off that the fentons didn't want to tour because I just wanted to get the fuck out of the... Yeah. So, yeah, well, the fentons were holding you back in the action.

Like, who knows what could have been? They were young guys, so it still kind of wonder why they didn't do it. But they just wanted the comforts of home. They wanted their cottage in Green Lake, and they wanted to sleep in the nice beds. I already cracked the code, okay? And this kind of speaks to you as well, except you obviously have the hustle and drive.

You're here right now. You're still going, like, what you've done. You've got the hustle, man. You've got the game. But you guys just weren't hungry enough, man. They weren't hungry enough. Like, this is why the punkers come from like, oh, you know, typically it's like poverty almost,

where it's like that's, you got to be hungry to make it in this game. And you guys were too comfortable, especially the Fenton brothers. Yeah, the Fendons, which didn't seem to be, didn't seem to want to have the rigors of the road and especially when we did those Ramones dates are like, oh God, let's get the fuck out of here.

Jeez, that's your break, the Ramones. Well, this is it, yes, this is it. And no matter how difficult it was, I was like, you know, I remember I had a biker who was in Flint, he handcuffed himself to my mic stand. And he was ready to take on people

that were rushing the stage. And I remember this chick came up. she found out it was my birthday, and she came out of a birthday slice of cake with a candle, and then smashed it right in my eye. Oh, that's punk for you, man. Yeah, it was punk, but, yeah, I went to get out. They didn't want to get out.

And you just left? I just left, up and left, finally. Grabbed your lady, grabbed your cat. Yeah. Let's go. Big smoke. So I say, I say to people listening to Toronto punks, and don't hold it against me.

You know, I happen to be there, and now I'm here. Yeah, you owe nobody an apology. Yeah, yeah. You were there. You did open for the Ramones. You did release the EP. I played music from the, from 78, the 7-inch or whatever it was. I played it.

I like how it sounded, man. And it's been reissued, right? Reissued on Rave-Up records? It is reissued on Rave-Up and Sudden Death. Right, sudden death. Yeah, well, then we left Sudden Death, and I found out that Joey was still selling it, even though we weren't getting any money from it.

So we had to phone him up and say, excuse me, like some money. He did give us some money. That's punk for you, man. That's punk for you here. So I would, as I speak to the nation now, I'm going to address the nation as Toronto Mike, award-winning podcaster.

The action and TEDx deserve your respect. Okay. Go get, I don't know, can you buy the, can you buy that first EP? Yeah, well, it is on. on discogs. I don't get any money from it, but it's the collector's item now.

TV's on the blink. So they're selling it for a lot of money. Well, what about if you just want to hear it? Like, can you stream it somewhere? Yeah, it's on YouTube. Yeah, it's on YouTube. All right, so guys, come on. Go to YouTube,

listen to TVs on the blink, give some respect to TEDx and the action. And I wish you so much luck with this reunion tour. But I want to remind you, like, if five people show up and you play your ass,

off for five people at the Dominion on September 12th, 2026. That's the most punk thing in the fucking world. See? There you go. You're playing of house money here, but I hope it's a big success. And I hope people listening, check out the resurrected the action,

the 50th anniversary tour. Ted Axe, now in FOTM. Yeah, at the Beauvine, December 11th, and Halloween at the Duke alive in Toronto. And you know, when we talk after this, I'm going to find out if the accent disappears. There it goes. Okay.

Wow. You know, I was telling myself when you Buffy the third time, I'm all choked up just thinking about it. I said, I'm sorry. You know, it's just I get up for an app, whether it's Ted Axe or Keith Richards, okay? I get up for an app. Like, I get myself. I set it up and I start to get excited about the conversation.

So then when it doesn't happen, because you, you know, I don't know, you're in painkillers or whatever. you blank on it or whatever. Whatever. Like I feel this like emptiness. And then I get a little pissed off. And I get like, fuck this TEDx guy who blew me off again. I'm not letting this guy on Toronto Mike.

And then I literally went camping. And then I just felt the softening. Like I touched grass. Oh. I didn't smoke the grass. I touched the grass. And then I said, let's give Ted Axe one more try because I really would like to talk to him about the action. Well, you're probably the only guy in the industry who would have done that.

So you know, you're right about that. You know, somebody, a beloved FOTM who's in the Hall of Fame, sent me a gif of Charlie Brown kicking the football, and Lucy pulls the football. And he was suggesting, giving you a fourth chance, I'm Charlie Brown. But you know what? I'll own that. I'm proud to be Charlie Brown.

There you go. And I'm glad we did this, man. Thanks so much. Let me shake your hands, sir. Oh, my God, yeah. Cheers. And I'm sorry that you don't drink the booze I brought you, and I'm sorry you can't eat the beef and the lasagna.

I feel awful about that. I will tell you this. So how far are you? You don't have to give me an exact address, but whereabouts in the city do you live? I'm up, you know, the salsa parade that happened recently? Of course. Yeah, I'm right around now.

Okay, so give me a major intersection that's somewhere nearby. Oh, God, Dufferin and St. Clair. So I can bike there. I can bike to Dufferin and St. Clair. You know what? I'm going to talk to the good people at Palma Pasta and see if they can send me over a vegetarian lasagna. Yeah.

And then I'll like it to you. Thanks so much. Because you earned it, buddy. Crazy. And that brings us to the end of our 1,947th show. 1947. The year the Horseshoe Tavern opened. But my friend here never played the Horseshoe Tavern.

I did. I have. When? Just played it recently with TEDx. Ted X band. Jeez, is there anything I should have, like you wanted to, I don't want you to have that long. long track home.

Oh, I didn't, is there any... You know, you could spit it out now. I can't believe I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. Let's see. Anything that you want to say here? I'm also an artist. I paint every week at Forest Hills

Art Group. Okay, well, multi-talented man, Ted Axe. Oh, there you go. We love to see you down there at the Duke on Halloween and please dress up like your favorite punk character. Absolutely.

And I would love to see you up the bovine because that guy wants an audience. Go to TorontoMike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs and much love to all who made this possible. That is Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Nick Aini's Recycle MyElectronics.C.A. And Ted, here's something for you. Is it here? Yeah. That is from Redley Funeral Home. It's a measuring tape.

It's a level. It's a flashlight. It's a bottle opener. Wow. A memento from your visit. You don't have any coffins or anything handy to you? That's Alice Cooper's department.