Saturday April 18 is International Record Store day, and to join in on the fun, we’re going to be giving away free copies of the 1978 short film The Last Pogo. The first ten customers who buy The Last Pogo Jumps Again DVD at Toronto’s Soundscapes, Rotate This, Sonic Boom or Tiny Record Shop on Record Store Day get a free copy of the short 1978 doc, The Last Pogo. (You can watch a trailer for The Last Pogo Jumps Again by clicking here.)
A guy at Sonic Boom said “So, is this like, a sequel or something?” No, bub, it’s branding at its worst!
The Last Pogo (1978) is a half-hour film about the last punk rock concert at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern when it was run by The Garys, the fabled promoters who introduced punk to Toronto when they brought the Ramones to the New Yorker Theatre in 1976. In May 1978, they took over the Horseshoe Tavern, an equally fabled working-class bar in the then barren Queen Street West area. The movie chronicles the concert, their last punk rock show at the Horseshoe, featuring The Secrets, The Mods, The Scenics, Cardboard Brains, The Vileones, The Ugly, and Teenage Head. It ends with the police shutting the show down and causing a riot. And it was shot on glorious colour 16mm film stock. The DVD includes a commentary by original Viletones bassist Chris Haight, and a twenty minute set by The Scenics.
At The Last Pogo, 1978. Photo by Edie Steiner.
THE LAST POGO JUMPS AGAIN studies the evolution of Toronto from small town to big city and its pop/counter culture lifestyle during the early and mid-70s. It centers around the first wave of Toronto punk rock and new wave music, from the Ramones playing The New Yorker Theatre in ‘76 through the police shutting down Teenage Head and causing a riot at the Horseshoe Tavern’s infamous “The Last Pogo” concert in December 1978.
London had the Sex Pistols, New York had the Ramones, but Toronto had a punk movement all its own. In the end, the Toronto landscape by the late 70′s was forever changed with the infusion of the DIY / punk / alternative culture(s) movement. Six years in the making, The Last Pogo Jumps Again successfully explores the whys and wherefores of what was arguably one of the most exciting but misunderstood movements in Toronto’s history.
“Documentaries don’t come more hard-core than The Last Pogo Jumps Again. 4/5.” — NORM WILNER, Now Magazine
“…so engaging that one could imagine a similar documentary about the CBGB’s/Max’s Kansas City getting a prime time slot on HBO. But this is Toronto…” ALAN JONES, Vice/Noisey Magazine
“…definitely worth seeing and the standard-issue punk doc talking heads (Rollins, Grohl, Morris et al) are nowhere to be seen.” AL QUINT, Suburban Blog
“The best documentary of a scene I’ve seen to date.” JON WURSTER, Superchunk, Mountain Goats, The Best Show
“The best punk roc doc I’ve seen.” NARDWUAR THE HUMAN SERVIETTE
“...a first-rate home entertainment sausage sack stuffed to overflowing…a Joseph-Conrad-like tugboat ride into some kind of Living Fucking Hell that always feels like a Heaven as imagined by Anton LaVey –GREG KLYMKIW, The Film Corner
“A brilliant time machine.” — DAVID MARSDEN, DJ
“…something of a major find: not only does it restore this period and its players to something like rightful status in civic history, it reiterates just how explosive the movement was and how f*#ked it is that it’s been forgotten…a scene that was intense, fleeting, vibrant, crazy and more than a little bruising.” – GEOFF PEVERE, GLOBE & MAIL
“…enthralling and brilliant, hilarious and sad.” -DON PYLE, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
“…a primer for neophytes…an indulgence for viewers with longer memories.” -ADAM NAYMAN, GridTO
“.. a must-see.” -AUX TV
“…a history of Toronto’s role in the snottiest of musical movements” -TORONTO STAR
“The amount of information presented is nothing short of staggering… the editing is spectacular…infinitely quotable and thought-provoking, as well as frequently hilarious and distressing. It’s all killer, no filler.” -POPSHIFTER
“…exhaustive and woefully overdue” -GLOBE & MAIL
“…one heck of a past.” — PETER HOWELL, Toronto Star
“…go see it if you can cuz it’s really fucken great, and not nearly the wankerfest these things can often be.” BRIAN TAYLOR, Rotate This, Vinyl Record Store, Toronto
“LPJA is as important as Elvis: That’s the Way It Is, The Last Waltz, Gimme Shelter, Don’t Look Back, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart and Dig!” DAN DERBRIDGE, music fan.
“Lots of fun.” -CHRIS FRANTZ, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club
