{"id":1747,"date":"2017-09-12T13:17:37","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T17:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/?p=1747"},"modified":"2019-11-25T18:37:54","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T23:37:54","slug":"how-the-queen-street-west-scene-began-pt-2-oca-bands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/2017\/09\/12\/how-the-queen-street-west-scene-began-pt-2-oca-bands\/","title":{"rendered":"how the Queen Street West scene began, pt. 2: OCA bands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>How did a bunch of kids in suburban Thornhill ignite a Toronto music scene and bring new energy to Queen Street West, now a hip urban neighborhood? My last post<\/a> introduced the key players and forgotten bands in the so-called Thornhill sound, but their network, activities, and energies would need to relocate and expand in downtown Toronto to make the QSW scene come alive. The ways they made this transition and the motives that impelled them go a long way to explain the arty, DIY nature of punk and new wave in this period.<\/p>\n

You know, obviously, the formative stuff might be in high school, but it\u2019s weird, it seems to have happened, took off as we got to the university, college level. And again as we all drifted downtown to Toronto, then it became a little bit more substantial at that point. But the bands that started forming prior to Toronto, you know, sort of got more serious once we all seemed to drift to Toronto for university and work, and we\u2019re all hanging around the same bars and clubs and that kind of thing. [Carl Finkle]<\/p>\n

I think we were all just occupied with going to school and getting out of the house and moving downtown, and we were listening to stuff that [excited us], mostly not [from] Toronto. Getting those influences and starting our own thing. Not because we were trying to start a thing, but a thing was happening. And we weren\u2019t connected to any other \u2014 I wasn\u2019t connected to any other scene going on in Toronto. [John Ford]<\/p>\n

The punk scene began at the Ontario College of Art. [photographer Rodney Bowes, quoted in The Last Pogo Rides Again<\/i> (2013)]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE THORNHILL SOUND LEAVES HOME<\/p>\n

It\u2019s necessary to distinguish two distinct developments in the emergence of the Queen Street West music scene, although the Thornhill sound had a hand in both of them: one, the rise of seminal \u201cOCA bands,\u201d and two, the galvanizing of a music scene by an extant art scene. The first is a fairly straightforward story to tell.<\/p>\n

In 1972 newlyweds John Corbett and Martha Johnson found a two-story apartment in the Beaches neighborhood of downtown Toronto. To help out on the rent, they let Johnny MacLeod, Carl Finkle, and Owen Burgess move in; the newlyweds and their extensive record collection took the downstairs bedroom, while the bachelors slept upstairs. MacLeod still apologizes to Martha about how loud the guys were.<\/p>\n

Man, it was $180 a month down in the Beaches; this was before the Beaches had taken off. This would be about 1972. Of course, Owen was working at the time; John and Carl and Martha and I were I guess all going to school. And all the Thornhill gang were visitors frequently and so forth. [John MacLeod]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two ephemeral bands emerged over this one-year residence.<\/p>\n

The Dogs<\/strong><\/span>: Steven Davey on guitar, Johnny MacLeod on bass, and new friend Michael Robertson on drums. MacLeod remembers, \u201cSteven decided [Michael Robertson] was a drummer, so he was the drummer!\u201d The Dogs reportedly laid down at least one song to tape and had hometown compadre Chris Terry, by then a film student at York University, film them. [At this point, I should make my recurring request to the participants or anyone else to let me know if any of this material becomes available for online sharing.]<\/p>\n

This would be like, to our knowledge, the first band called that [the Dogs], but not that original nowadays. I was kind of encouraged to be this character called Jack Martin, who was sort of like \u2014 the easiest way to describe it would be kind of like an Elvis Costello-looking guy\u2026 I do know Chris Terry made a movie about us where it\u2019s kind of like \u2014 I do know there\u2019s a scene where I borrow my dad\u2019s \u201868 Skylark, and I\u2019m driving Steven Davey over to Carl Finkle\u2019s house. And Chris filmed that as we pull into the driveway, you know, as we\u2019re going to do some recording in Carl\u2019s basement or something like that. And then we went over to York and did a song called \u201cTeenagers From Outer Space,\u201d I think. I think, and I\u2019ve never seen this \u2014 this is 1973, right, or \u2018-2. I haven\u2019t seen this thing ever, but I do know Chris made the film. [John MacLeod]<\/p>\n

Vaguely remember the name. Don\u2019t think I ever saw them play. [John Corbett]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Swami & His Swinging Turbans<\/strong><\/span>: The second group, composed of John Ford, Johnny MacLeod, and Owen Burgess, was even less of a band. The Turbans were \u201cstrictly a studio group, a jazz trio Klaatu,\u201d remembers Burgess.<\/p>\n