MIKE NIGHTMARE
Punk rockers often pick out wacko names; frontman Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys, drummer Rat Scabies of the Damned, and of course Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious of Sex Pistols are examples. Usually it is just one or two bandmembers who do that, but all of the Ugly did: Mike Nightmare (singer), Raymi Gutter (guitar), Sam Ugly (bass), and Tony Torcher (drums), plus soundman Johnny Garbagecan.
Sam Ugly (who was only 16) and Tony Torcher had played together in a Anglophile band called the Markeys that played a lot of early Stones, Yardbirds, Animals, Kinks, and Who songs. After they heard the first Ramones album, and after several of the early punkers came through town – Patti Smith, Talking Heads, and Iggy Pop – a new direction was clear; and the band brought in lead singer Mike Nightmare and his brother Raymi Gutter (when original Markeys guitarist Brian Vadders wouldn’t cut his hair) – good thing, too, because it is Gutter’s guitar that really stands out here. The band started out with the name Rotten and changed it when they heard about Johnny Rotten.
The Ugly were truly scary people who played what they termed “hoodlum rock”. Bassist Sam Ugly recalls: “One of the biggest problems in the progress of the Ugly was that one of us was always in jail. We had to cancel a lot of shows. We’d play out-of-the-way joints so the cops had trouble finding us and [singer Mike Nightmare] would wear a disguise.”
That’s Mike Nightmare on the CD cover photo with about as ugly an expression as possible, along with his equally ugly trademark yellow sunglasses.
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 once 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”.
(November 2011)
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Items: Mike Nightmare
