Toronto's Early Post-Punk Scene Documented with Retrospective Book

BY Alex HudsonPublished Jun 8, 2015

In 2011, Don Pyle documented Toronto's first-wave punk scene with the photo book Trouble in the Camera Club. Now, the city's underground post-punk scene is set to receive similar treatment with the book Alone and Gone – The Story of Toronto's Post Punk Underground.

The book is based around photos by original scene members Simon and Nick White, which they previously shared in the 2010 exhibition Toronto Calling. It covers the years 1978 to 1983, and an announcement mentions that the scene at the time included acts such as Rheostatics, the Vital Sines, Breeding Ground, Kinetic Ideals, the Sturm Group, the Dave Howard Singers, Rent Boys Inc. and Youth Youth Youth.

The book includes fanzine interviews from the period, along with new interviews. A press release describes the book like this: "A&G portrays a city in flux; a city uncomfortable with its staid 'People City' reputation. It wasn't all clean streets and people muttering 'sorry' as they shuffled off to their office jobs. There was an underground of youth who were fired by the initial wallop of punk and were inspired by the DIY nature of the music they were hearing on the then just born CFNY, 'The Spirit of Radio.'"

The book was assembled with a zine-style aesthetic, which gives it a little authentic visual flair.

Alone and Gone will be released with a book launch in the early afternoon of June 20 at the Rivoli.

 

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