Iconic Hamilton rockers Teenage Head among inductees to Westdale Secondary’s Wall of Distinction
The iconic Hamilton punk band among the list of inductees for the Westdale Secondary Wall of Distinction
Back in the ’70s, Teenage Head bassist Steve Mahon left Westdale Secondary School one credit short of the 27 needed for a Grade 12 diploma.
It didn’t matter much to him at the time. He planned to be a rock star. Rock stars didn’t need no diploma.
Forty-three years later, Westdale principal Michelle Visca is fixing Mahon’s checkered academic past. She’s awarding him with an honorary diploma, in recognition of all those years Mahon put in at the school of rock.
Not only that, Visca is placing the entire band on the school’s hallowed Wall of Distinction, joining photos of other famous school alumni like Russ Jackson, Martin Short and Eugene Levy.
Along with the fabled Hamilton punk band, other inductees to the Wall of Distinction this year are blues singer Harrison Kennedy, jazz singer Diana Panton, Broadway actress Cassie Levy, actor/writer/musician Charly Chiarelli, political scientist and author Robert Muggah, Mohawk College dean of interdisciplinary studies Jim Vanderveken, and neuroopthamologist and Olympic sailor Martin ten Hove.
To mark the occasion, Visca has organized a public concert Friday, June 8, at the 900-seat school auditorium, featuring Chiarelli and Teenage Head.
The evening event, starting at 6:30 p.m., will be licensed and limited to those 19 years of age and older. The current crop of Westdalers, however, will get a chance to see the band perform at two assemblies earlier in the day. That’s when Visca plans to present Mahon with his Grade 12 diploma.
“We’re going to give him an honorary diploma in front of the students that day,” says Visca, a fan of the band since attending high school at Sherwood during the ’80s. “I think he deserves a music credit in recognition of all those years playing in the band.”
Teenage Head was born out of Westdale. The band’s first gig was at an evening “coffee house” in the school cafeteria on Oct. 17, 1975.
The core lineup — Mahon on bass, Frank (Venom) Kerr on vocals, Gord Lewis on guitar and Nick Stipanitz on drums — was just beginning to jell. Three consecutive gold records followed, along with a full scale riot during a 1980 concert at Ontario Place.
Stipanitz left the band many years ago and Kerr died of cancer in 2008, but the band still performs with Dave (Rave) Desroches, also a Westdale grad, taking on the lead vocals, and former Killjoy Gene Champagne on drums.
The Wall of Distinction, which has not received new inductees since the school’s 75th anniversary in 2006, will feature photos of both versions of the band. (Guitarist Lewis had earlier been inducted to the wall, but not the band’s other members.)
Visca, 53, came up with the idea of a concert in November when she met the band members during a sound check for a show at This Ain’t Hollywood.
“We started having this great conversation, going down memory lane, sharing with me their first concert at Westdale,” Visca says. “I said, you should bring things full circle and play at Westdale again.”
Mahon, 61, admits he was a bit
surprised to find himself chatting with the principal of his old school at a rock ’n’ roll bar.
“You don’t expect the principal of Westdale to be there,” Mahon laughs. “My memory of the principal was ... a grouchy old man, you know, the typical principal.”
Mahon is looking forward to finally receiving his Grade 12 diploma and expects the June 8 concert to be a special one.
“This is going to be our people — our neighbours, our friends, our family — they’ll all be there,” Mahon says.