GOD SAVE THE NEW WAVE (Catch It While You Can)
BEFORE THE FLOOD: To fully understand the unique New Wave situation which has manifested itself in Toronto, it helps to have a working knowledge of the city itself—before the wave hit. Before you can perform in any of the local dives lucky enough to have been granted a liquor license from the Ontario government, you first have to sign with booking agents who control just about every place there is to perform in.
GOD SAVE THE NEW WAVE (Catch It While You Can)
A Consumer Guide To Toronto Punk
by
Jeffrey Morgan
Just don't tell them you're Canadian and you might get away with it. —John Hamilton drummer, The Diodes
THE HISTORY
BEFORE THE FLOOD: To fully understand the unique New Wave situation which has manifested itself in Toronto, it helps to have a working knowledge of the city itself—before the wave hit.
Before you can perform in any of the local dives lucky enough to have been granted a liquor license from the Ontario government, you first have to sign with booking agents who control just about every place there is to perform in. If you don't like it, there's nothing you can do about it—except leave the country. (If anything, one soon learns that Toronto is a city made up almost exclusively of don'ts, can'ts, and a hell of a lot of ifs.)
IN THE BEGINNING: In the beginning there was nothing. Just a few local post-glitter bands spotting the musical landscape like the androgynous dinosauTS that they really were.