THE VILETONES
The Viletones were a Canadian punk band from Toronto, led by Steven Leckie, a.k.a. “Nazi Dog” or “Dog” on vocals. Other members from the original line-up were Freddie Pompeii, (some sources list him as ‘Frederick DePasquale’) on guitar/vocals; Chris Hate (Chris Paputts), on bass guitar/vocals, and Mike Anderson, a.k.a. “Motor X” on the drums/vocals. They were active during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. (More from Wikipedia)
As to the music, well, I can’t say it better than the liner notes: “Rivaled only by the Viletones, the Ugly were the crassest, rawest, loudest and most obnoxious band on the Toronto scene”. Those rivals were led by a spoiled rich kid who went by the name of Nazi Dog, and they had the support of some members of the music establishment that were also slumming.
Their most infamous moment came when a punk rock concert called Outrage was being filmed in Toronto, and the Ugly were excluded from the bill. About midway through the concert, they threw a flaming guitar at the Viletones while they were singing “Danger Boy”. Nazi Dog put out the fire; after a while, he busted up the guitar and threw it into the crowd. But the Ugly had the last laugh when they stormed on stage and snatched up the Viletones’ instruments for an impromptu performance of “Disorder” that lasted less than a minute. After they pulled the plug, Mike Nightmare then fought it out with the Viletones’ Freddy Pompeii until Mike was literally thrown back into the crowd by the bikers who were on security detail. It is all still on the film though, to this day. (Ironically, Mike Nightmare also got beaten up pretty badly by one of the musicians who worked with Chris Spedding on Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, Phil Lynott; Spedding later remastered their compilation CD Disorder).
Toward the end of the liner notes on the CD are quotes from the bandmembers: from Sam Ugly and Raymi Gutter in 1996, and from Mike Nightmare and Tony Torcher from 1977. Three of them talk about their place in the Toronto punk rock scene and such, while Torcher simply says: “F--- the Viletones.”
I can’t explain why, but the purity and no-apologies tone of that last quote has really impressed me over the years. Many times I have thought to myself that if (God forbid) I found myself in the hands of a gang of terrorists, sharpening their knives to lop off my head, the first thing I would say when they turned the camera on me would be: “F--- the Viletones!”
(November 2011)
