I like to call this photo, 'Young Pretty Ray"
This is likely after the show where Jaine and Edgar first met. Ray Condo foreground, Clive with his back to the camera, and the side of Peter's head as he looks at Clive.
Another great night...this was the evening that I shot some of the footage for the Crazy Date video on Peter's camera. The camera didn't close properly, the batteries were nearly dead and on top of that, the lab accidentally partially opened the canister while developing the film...but the guys still loved the footage...and possibly more because of the destruction...they saw it as fitting their psychobilly, retro esthetic. The dancing woman in these photos is Siobhan, who was a former girlfriend of Ray's. She came to shows quite regularly for a long time. It's funny about the people in the audience...some look so familiar, but I can't put a name to them. I love seeing the long view of how The Cameron looked in those days..it was such a great room. I wonder what will happen now that the place is up for sale.
Jeanne was a Ray Condo regular from the earliest days through to the last show he performed in Toronto. She was always perfectly made-up, and dressed in her own unique style, incorporating rockabilly classics with fans and leather accents that were never part of the original culture. Jeanne loved to dance, again in her own style, theatrical, stagey...sometimes her 'leather accents' would include a bullwhip that she would use as a prop when she danced. During this time,, she alsos ran a 'boutique' at The Matador, The Kitty Galore Boutique, where she sold rockabilly clothing and accessories and assorted vintage, on Friday and Saturday nghts after the regular clubs had closed. Ray and the Goners played at the Matador a few times after their shows...for a time there, it was one of the hottest rooms in town. I'll find the pictures of them playing there eventually. Probably somewhere on a roll with other things.
The photos in this post are from the release party for Crazy Date, the Hardrock Goners, first album. This was a great party, it seemed like everyone with a name on that scene in Toronto was there, photos include local artist Melanie Mellody and Ivan Doroschuk of Men Without Hats. The show was phenomenal...so much fun. The title track for the CD is available at the myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/raycondo
The first day of classes at Ryerson, I met Heather Morgan, in the first photo here. We both knew the band and attended this show together, Heather shot the picture of me here (forgive me for using it twice in the same blog). It's been a while since I scanned these negs, so I can't swear they are from the release party for Crazy Date, but I'm putting them here anyway, because it feels like they might have been. I've always thought the photo, whille one of my best ever of Heather, is really about the couple beside her, the one eye of the woman staring directly at the camera as the shutter trips pulling the focus from the subject.Peter Sandmark, the Hardrock Goner's drummer, was living with my cousin, visual artist Tracey Nelson, in 1985 (they're now married and living in Victoria, BC). I first met him when they stayed at my place the night the band did their first headline gig at The Cameron House. Peter and Tracey came by first to my place to hang for a bit and we met up with the rest of the band later that evening for dinner at Natraj, an Indian restaurant on Bloor.
The band was talking about the coverage they had gotten for the show, in particular, the Q107 dj, who had announced the show as "Hey, look who's playing tonight...Roy Condom and his Rockhard Boners...some bands will do anything to get their name on the radio...and this time...it worked!". Ray was disgusted...even as we all laughed about it. Didn't hurt the attendance at all, it was a packed out show.
Clive up front on the uptight bass, Edgar in the background on fiddle. Clive was and is always totally fascinating, (as all of the guys in the band were), a musicologist with an encyclopediac knowledge of early american music, particularly obsure artists. I always see Clive in my mind as pointing at a record player and excitedly recounting the story of the performers on whatever was spinning.
Edgar and I discovered that we used to work together in our late teens bussing tables at The Spaghetti Factory in Gastown, in Vancouver. I still remember the going away party when Ed left him walking away from the restaurant and those of us still working waving at him as he left...rather dramatically from the patio. Alcohol may have been involved. It was great making that reconnection...we were in Gastown in fact when we realized...the band was in Vancouver for 6 weeks during Expo 1986 and booked to the hilt, I was back home visiting family during the exact time. By cosmic coincidence they arrived the day before I did and I left the day before they did. It was so much fun. But that's not what the picture is about, this is at a show in Toronto at The Cameron. I'll find some pictures from the Vancouver trip and post them soon. Sure, no one's reading this but me, but may as well try to paint a full picture.
Doreen Chung was a local punk rock party girl that all the men lusted after. She was a fan of Rays and came to many, if not all of the early shows at The Cameron House. Her mom ran a restaurant/club in Chinatown, just a few blocks away from the club. She was 16 at the time this photo was shot, although no one knew that at the time. The photo was also shot in 1986, right around the same time as the photos below. Doreen is now married and living in Switzerland.
