The Last Pogo (1978)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Directors:

Colin Brunton
Patrick Lee (co-director)

Plot:

Grab some safety pins, practice your sneer and get ready to revisit Toronto's thriving punk scene. THE...

Cast

Teenage Head	...	Themselves
The Viletones	...	Themselves
The Ugly	...	Themselves
The Mods	...	Themselves
The Secrets	...	Themselves
The Cardboard Brains	...	Themselves
The Scenics	...	Themselves
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Margaret Barnes-DelColle	...	Herself
Gary Courmier	...	Himself
Mickey DeSadest	...	Himself
Frederick Di Pasquale	...	Himself
Roger Dirtbag	...	Herself
Gary Topp	...	Himself
John Paul Young	...	Himself

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Filming Locations:

Horseshoe Tavern, 370 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

priceless document

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

For a few months in the late 70s, The Garys - rock promoters whose name Toronto music fans of a certain age will well remember if they held on to their ticket stubs - persuaded the legendary Horseshoe Tavern to play host to their selection of the city's punk rock scene; when management pulled the plug, they staged a final concert, and Brunton was there to get it down for posterity. Every act gets one song to prove themselves. With the exception of the Viletones, who are pretty Heartbreakersish here, most of these guys sound more pub than punk - speedy blues-based rock with an admixture of swaggering attitude. Sounds pretty good - The Secrets are my favourites despite the name, and The Scenics sound more like Crack the Sky than the Ramones - but only in Toronto could it be mistaken for a revolution; Brunton is honest enough to include an admonitory insert from a Forgotten Rebel to remind us how much rougher (and more obnoxious) local punk could be. And where are the women? (over at the Ontario College of Art, if The Curse were any indication). At the end the cops show up, Teenage Head are allowed but a single number - uncharacteristically lo-fi, I guess they took the mics down prematurely - and a riot breaks out, represented only by audio and aftermath. Not the whole story to be sure, but a priceless and watchable document.