Into the 80s: Great TORONTO Bands - continued from page 1
Liner Notes - 1
As if upon safety-pinned wings, so too came the Artists. Looking to be more than part of the scene -- they wanted to MAKE the scene. Having survived the first wave of newborn acts, punk gave way to New Wave and all the permutations that renegade radio station CFNY-FM could manage in the short time it had already been on the air.
With the "Spirit of Radio's" seal of approval, The Extras managed a modicum of notoriety - not only as BB "Nyet Nyet Soviet" Gabor's backing band before he signed with Anthem Records - but for a novelty song about a condom and the frustration of using same, called "Circular Impressions". The Extras would release several records in the early '80s including "Can't Stand Still" featuring one of the first Canadian animated music videos. The song on this compilation, "State Of The Heart", recorded in Los Angeles, is a rare over-looked gem in the band's catalogue that was never released because it was overshadowed by a Rick Springfield Billboard Top-30 hit song by the same name at that time.
Another Toronto act that was unearthed by CFNY was Bullseye Records founders Moving Targetz who had spent the better part of the early '80s languishing at campus radio with their version of distopian jangly guitar rock. Nerve Magazine had likened the sound to "cats in a dryer". But a two year stint in the recording studio developing a contemporary British sounding synth-pop album called 'Bulletproof' landed them on 102.1's 'Independent Network' program hosted by Liz Janik. Included here is the song Janik made into an underground hit -- "Private Life".
Progressive rock had died at the end of the '70s like disco before it, and seeing the tide turn convinced Toronto band WhistleKing to look elsewhere for inspiration. With a musical style change the band became The Kings, and this new rock and roll attitude paved the way for their successful career which began with a US major label deal with Elektra Records. This led to the massive international radio hit "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide", produced by Toronto native Bob "Pink Floyd" Ezrin. The song included here, "Is It Wrong", is from what guitarist Mister Zero calls "the album that shoulda been an album", meaning it was from a group of recordings that never saw the light of day. Some of the material from those sessions later morphed into what became their early '90s album 'Unstoppable'. "Is It Wrong" is the only Kings song that features a split vocal between members David Diamond and Sonny Keyes, and is also the only Kings song to be co-written by Diamond, Keyes and Zero.
Former American pop star Bob Segarini (ex-Wackers, Family Tree, Roxy) had moved from California to Montreal and then to Toronto in search of a new career path. With stints at CHUM-FM, CITY-TV and Q107-FM in Toronto, Bob also had the luxury of a continued solo career first with A & M Records and then Wolfgang Spegg's fledging Queen Street friendly label Bomb Records. Segarini's first full solo outing, 'Gotta Have Pop', has become iconic and led critics to liken him to 'Canada's answer to Nick Lowe'. Seeing the British comparison as an opportunity to invade another territory, the album was released in the UK but not without some changes. Bob's "Living In The Movies" contained a reference to the word "fanny" which is British slang for a female body part. And so, the song was remixed with a new, inoffensive line substituted and it is this version we present here.
The Toronto underground music community was also a very small, close knit family. Segarini had worked on Goddo's 'Best Seat In The House' LP with engineers Doug McClement and Blair Packham in 1980. Blair was also a burgeoning songwriter and had his own plans for pop stardom with his band The Jitters. Nearly five years of the nightclub grind, and after a line-up change that saw the departure of drummer David Quinton (Mods, Stiv Bators Band) to a law career, The Jitters received placement on Q107's famed 'Homegrown' new talent compilation album in 1986. It was the contest song, "Last Of The Red Hot Fools", that attracted the attention of Capitol Records Canada and a record deal. It is this third recording of the fan favourite of the song that's included here.