Overview

This gritty chronicle illustrates the emergence of punk rock in Toronto for the first time. The visionary bands that brought the original scene to life—and who still maintain loyal fans across North America—are documented in detail, from the Diodes, Viletones, and Teenage Head to the B-Girls, Forgotten Rebels, Johnny & the G-Rays, and more. Full of chaos, betrayal, failure, success, and pure rock 'n' roll energy, this layered history is assembled from interviews with those now recognized as innovators, pioneers, and outright legends in their genre. Their accounts go beyond run-of-the-mill anecdotes, venturing into the uncharted territory of sex, drugs, murder, conspiracy, violence, criminals, and biker gangs. Bold and brazen, this compilation also includes a wealth of previously unpublished photographs as well as one of the last interviews with the late Frankie Venom, lead singer of Teenage Head.

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9781770410671

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Reviews

[E]asily one of the best rock biographies you'll read this year. -- Montreal Mirror (November 2011)

Every once in a while, maybe in every century, a city has its moment. And I think a lot of Toronto's moment was between 1976 and 1980. There was just an incredible amount of energy in Toronto. I think it was a pretty boring place before all of us. We kind of were the instigators in terms of changing an awful lot of the direction of the city, artistically and musically and stylistically. People wanted Toronto to be more New York than New York, but keep its own identity. They wanted it to be important; they wanted it to matter. A lot of what I see in Toronto now is the product of what we created in a five-year period of time. -- Paul Robinson, lead singer, The Diodes

Author Information

"Liz Worth is the author of ""Eleven: Eleven."" She has contributed to ""ChiZine,"" ""Clamor,"" ""ditch,"" and ""Punk Planet."" She lives in Toronto. Gary Pig Gold is a pop musicologist and veteran of the 1977 Toronto scene. He managed the ""Pig Paper,"" Canada's very first self-published music fanzine, and released the first single by the band Simply Saucer. He lives in Hoboken, New Jersey."

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