I remember hearing about this Canadian band but I didn’t start listening to them until recently. Deke and Dave my Canadian friends have mentioned them while following their blogs. Teenage Head was sometimes known as Canada’s answer to the Ramones.
They are from Hamilton, Ontario and met in Hamilton Weston High school… friends Frank “Venom” Kerr and Gord Lewis formed the group in 1975 with bassist Steve Mahon (later changed his last name to Marshall) and Nick Stipinitz on drums. They took their name from a Flaming Groovies song title and quickly gained a loyal following on the Ontario club circuit for their raw energy, highlighted by Lewis’guitar work and front man Venom’s antics and natural charisma on stage.
Signing with Attic Records, Teenage Head issued their sophomore effort, Frantic City, in early 1980.
They played a show at the Ontario Place Forum, a prominent outdoor venue situated in a Toronto park. Over 15,000 people showed up but they venue wasn’t large enough to hold them. A drunken crowd tried to storm the entrances, sparking a battle with the police officers on hand…multiple injuries and arrests followed. The band woke up the next morning with their name in the papers. They lost some gigs but the publicity pushed “Frantic” up the charts and to gold status.
Teenage Head released Let’s Shake in 1980 and it made it to #88 in Canada.
Let’s Shake
OOH
Give me that opener, pass me that beer
C’mon move your ass on out of here
Well I guess you know I need some money
But you are just too fat and ugly
C’mon shake
Oop, Well let’s shake
C’mon shake
Yeah baby let’s shake
(music)
Well you can’t dance, can’t keep up the beat
Well that’s because you got size twelve feet
Well don’t make me run, well don’t make me blush
You’re just that girl I hate to touch
C’mon shake
Ooh baby let’s shake
Yeah c’mon shake
Well let’s shake
(Bop! We do the bop. Go… Push down. Woo! Yeppy. Yeppy. Yeah… Bla.)
Well every time I see you dance
Hey! Where’d you get those great big pants
Just one ear, well just one eye
Just one glance and I could die
So let’s shake
Mmm let’s shake
C’mon let’s shake
Yeah baby let’s shake
(Bop! We do the bop. I really lie. Act proud.)
(music)
Let’s shake
Let’s shake
Yow let’s shake
C’mon baby let’s shake
Let’s shake!
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Ahh memories! They were a big part of the Toronto scene for about a decade & one of the few homegrown punkish acts that got national attention. They had a US contract later in decade, added an ‘s’ to their name to avoid offending more conservative sensibilities but it didn’ t work well.
Ontario Place Forum was great. Stage revolved with maybe 1000 seats circling it but it was in grassy little gulch so maybe 5000 more could sit on lawn & have a great view & sound still. They had lots of free concerts, only had to get into the park which was quite cheap.
Of course, it closed by about 1990 or so when promoters realized they could build a seperate venue next door & charge full concert prices.
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That sounded like a cool place…I can’t imagine 15,000 showing up and going crazy but it helped them a bit when that happened.
I do remember hearing about them when I was growing up .
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It is a good thing that I am not a girl, because I got size twelve feet. This group has a nice sound.
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Awesome to see Max! These guys are legends and totally had there own style.
I really like the album that followed which was Some Kinda Fun! That one too went Gold. 30 years after its release
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I’m really enjoying listening to them. I’ll check that album out next. I hope I got the short history right…man the bass player was confusing…he changed his name adn some sites listed it as Mahon and some as Marshall. Took me a while to figure that out.
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It’s the same guy lol who knows maybe he was ducking out from the law at the time!
Glad you are digging there stuff
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You know! I never thought of that! That is great.
I have another one ready to go in a few weeks.
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Awesome look forward to your spin on it ! See what I did there? Lol
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LOL
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That’s pretty catchy. I caught just a little bit of Monkees influence, possibly some Clash.
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Yea I knew Deke and Dave would like it and I really like them…they have a lot of catchy songs. Punk/Rock/pop
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not bad! I don’t understand the put-downs in the song but the music is pretty good.
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