Canadian indie bands of the 1980s

(Artist: the inimitable Rick Clegg; source: http://www.punkhistorycanada.ca; this three-night benefit gig was put on by my pals Rob Stocks and Nick Copus in [1987]; I played on the Tuesday night as part of “i remember not,” a one-time spinoff of my band Aardvark Safari)

This week’s Radio3 podcast is a glorious (for me anyhow) trip back to the days where you were more likely to find me on stage than in a classroom. When I graduated from high school in 1986, I had no intentions of ever going to university. The plan was simply to keep making music. Indeed, after a year off from school altogether, I only started taking classes at the U of Alberta as something to keep my mind busy during the day while I rehearsed and gigged in the evenings. Then, I took Ted Bishop‘s class on the Modern British Novel (check out Ted’s great book Riding with Rilke ) and Tony Purdy‘s class on 20th century French literature and I gradually moved to becoming more of a scholar than songwriter.

If you’re into Canadian music or intrigued by the 1980s, make sure to check out the Radio3 podcast this week. Wow, does it ever take me back… I still love the song “Just Another Day” by Go Four 3, who I saw play in a memorable 1987 show at the Roxy Theatre in Edmonton, if I recall correctly. The Blue Peter track on the podcast is another old fave, too, though I’ve always preferred their song Don’t Walk Past. The podcast also includes the quintessential Edmonton band of the 1980s and 1990s, Jr. Gone Wild. I saw Jr. play many, many times and if I were to create a soundtrack of my life between, say, 1985 and 1995, they would be a big part of it. Great to hear their song “I Don’t Know About All That” again, as well as tunes by Deja Voodoo and the song “Curling” by the Dik Van Dykes.