This New Book Chronicles 150 Years of Toronto Concert History

Since 2015, live music fanatics in Toronto have been given a window into the city's rich history of concerts through the Flyer Vault, a popular Instagram account that shares posters, footage and ephemera of T.O. shows across all genres. Now, creator Daniel Tate is set to give his project a physical form with a new book.

Tate will release The Flyer Vault: 150 Years of Toronto Concert History through Dundurn Press on October 26.

Authored alongside Grammy Award-winning musicologist Rob Bowman, the book features a foreword penned by Rush's Geddy Lee and promises to be "a visual tour-de-force" that "captures a mesmerizing history of Toronto concert and club life, ​running the gamut of genres from vaudeville to rock, jazz to hip-hop, blues to electronica, and punk to country."

The book boasts stories of "James Brown's debut performance in the middle of a city-wide blackout, a then-unknown Jimi Hendrix backing up Wilson Pickett in 1966 — the year a new band from London named Led Zeppelin performed in Toronto six times — and the one and only show by the Notorious B.I.G., which almost caused a riot in the winter of 1995."

"I started the Flyer Vault on Instagram in 2015 simply to upload all the flyers I saved when I was a little raver and hip-hop head back in the '90s and early '00s," Tate wrote in announcing the project on Instagram. "As the popularity of the project grew, I realized two universal truths: everyone loves music, and everyone loves nostalgia. Four years later, here we are."

Tate added that book also includes anecdotes from Flyer Vault followers, and illustration from Dave Murray. 

The Flyer Vault: 150 Years of Toronto Concert History is now available for pre-order.
 

 

 

 

 

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⏩ Swipe right for the full cover... _ STORY TIME 👉 I started The Flyer Vault on Instagram in 2015 simply to upload all the flyers I saved when I was a little raver and hip-hop head back in the 90's and early '00's. I thought nothing of it. As the popularity of the project grew, I realized two universal truths: everyone loves music, and everyone loves nostalgia. Four years later, here we are. This account has been so much fun (and at times exhausting) to keep up with, but I love that it's become a meeting place for people to wax nostalgic about past concert and club experiences. Therefore it feels like a natural progression to introduce the next chapter of this project: The Flyer Vault book! It seems only right to take all this epic history and try to encapsulate it in a printed volume (an almost impossible task). Thanks to @dundurnpress I had the opportunity to take a digital project and return it to its original analog form.  This book is one of the first real deep-dives into the history of popular live music in our fair city.  Working with my co-author, Grammy-winner and walking music encyclopedia @robbowmanmusic, we take it way back - all the way to when Vaudeville first arrived in the 19th century, and go into all sorts of rabbit-holes including the first gospel/jubilee shows, the arrival of the Grand Ol' Opry and country, the earliest rock n' roll shows, the arrival of Motown and Stax, the incredible jazz at Massey Hall shows, the rise of the rave scene, the genesis of hip-hop, and much, much more.  We even included anecdotes from you – The Flyer Vault followers!  The foreword is written by His Royal Rockness, @geddyimages, and also features the first Toronto venue word map by renowned illustrator @dave__murray. The book will officially hit stores on October 26th.  I don't know how many runs will be printed, but you can guarantee your copy by pre-ordering right now on Amazon or Indigo. Link in bio! 🤘🏻🤘🏻 . . . #theflyervaultbook #torontomusichistory

A post shared by The Flyer Vault (@theflyervault) on Sep 15, 2019 at 4:35pm PDT