Teenage Head still punk rockin’
Steve Mahon, bassist and co-founding member of Hamilton’s legendary punk band Teenage Head, says he always wanted to play the drums.
The venerable bassist, sometimes called “The Iron Mahon,” recalls those fateful days in Nick Stipanitz’s basement. (Stipanitz was the band’s first drummer.)
“Nick’s parents were very liberal and they encouraged their kids to get into music so making noise in the basement as encouraged with Nick’s family,” said Mahon who now lives in the scenic cottage country of Coldwater. “At the other end of that my mom and dad never would have done that. Not going to happen. So I was hanging out. And I was friends with Nick before we even went to Westdale,” he says, referring to the high school in Hamilton’s west end where the band first met and played.
“Nick and I were buddies in grade school so everybody was just a part of it,” he recalls. “Nick is doing drums and this guy from Westdale, (guitarist) Gord (Lewis), is coming over. He had a bass and a guitar. So literally the bass was just there. And he said, ‘I never really intended playing it. I always wanted to play drums.’ Then Nick got the drums and I thought, aw, I wanted drums and don’t forget Frank (Kerr, a.k.a. Frankie Venom) started off as a drummer as well. So we had three drummers,” notes Mahon with a huge laugh. “So I picked up Gord’s bass. It has four strings. I never looked back.” says Mahon laughing again because unlike Lewis, Mahon was lefthanded, and played the bass upside down for two years.
Those early basement sessions which included original members Mahon, Stipanitz, Gord Lewis on guitar, and Frankie Kerr on vocals, were to go down in the annals of punk history with Teenage Head (named after a Flamin’ Groovies song)
becoming The Sex Pistols of North America.
“Great how that worked out!” said Mahon with another laugh.
Teenage Head’s plethora of punk classics include “Picture My Face,” “Kissin’ The Carpet,” “Infected,” “Ain’t Got No Sense,” “Top Down” and “Disgusteen” plus a ton of great covers from Eddie Cochran’s “Something Else” to Iggy Pop’s “Wild One” and Vince Taylor’s “Brand New Cadillac.”
Albums include their groundbreaking 1979 self-titled debut, equally successful sophomore release “Frantic City” (1980), “Some Kinda Fun” (1982), “Trouble in the Jungle.” (1986), and “Live at the Heat wave Festival,” (2015) to name a few.
“Heat wave” was based on the 1980s legendary concert at Mosport Park outside of Bowmanville attended by 85,000 fans where the band opened the show and appeared on the same playbill as The B52s, Talking Heads, The Pretenders and Elvis Costello.
Mahon is very excited about the band’s next project — a 2017 greatest hits package on Warner Music Canada which is being pressed from the band’s original masters. That’s because, after seeing an article in the Globe and Mail, Iron Mahon called Warner President/longtime Teenage Head fan Steve Kane, and told him about some of the band’s music tapes that had been “kicking around!”
Teenage Head was a huge part of a musical revolution of punk and new wave that shook the foundations of music not only in Ontario (1978’s infamous “Last Pogo” filmed concert at The Horseshoe in Toronto and 1980s famed riot at Ontario Place) but across the world.
Fans hungered for their retro rock and roll sound, kick-ass attitude and no-holdsbarred electrifying stage shows with the notoriously unpredictable frontman Venom.
The band is now four-plus decades old. These Hammer boys have more than paid their dues.
In 1980, with the band on the brink of breaking into the U.S market, Gord Lewis broke his back in a serious car accident. Guitarist (now noted producer) Dave Bendeth (“Some Kinda Fun”) filled in for Lewis while he recovered from injuries. Nick Stipanitz left the band, replaced by Mark Lockerbie (1996 album “Head Disorder”), then Jack Pedler.
Now, Gene Champagne (The Killjoys) is playing with the current band. And longtime fan Pete McCauley filled in for Frankie Venom who died of throat cancer in 2008.
In the ’80s, Venom left the band to form Frankie and The Vipers, which also included Stipanitz. So another longtime pal/ musician Dave Desroches (The Shakers, Alex Chilton, The Smithereens, John Wesley Harding, Billy Fricca of Television) took over vocal duties.
After 27 years of touring the world, and carving out a successful solo career, Desroches, a.k.a. Dave Rave (of The Dave Rave Conspiracy), is back, with Mahon, Lewis and Champagne. He was reunited with the band when he came from New York to do a special benefit show for Teenage Head’s former ailing drummer Jack Pedler.
Mahon and Desroches say expect to hear all of the fan faves at The Starlight. “I said yes because I took this (Teenage Head) music around the world (including Italy where the crowd went wild when Desroches sang “Ain’t Got No Sense”)” notes Desroches. “It walks on its own along with the best. I know the power of this music worldwide. To play with Mick and Keith again — Steve and Gord — that’s essential for me,” says Desroches, adding this lineup allows the band to have a new approach to the whole story.
“I look at Teenage Head as two-tier band,” says Desroches.
“There is a punk core at the root that made it amazing and then there is a fun surf-pop thing as well. People around the world loved it and the combination of the two made it unique. I do not think many punks band have that. Trust me!” he exclaims with a long laugh. “If you can do one tier well, then you are lucky!”