An old friend returns to Teenage Head
Dave Rave taking over lead vocals of iconic punk band
Anyone who attended the benefit for drummer Jack Pedler two weeks ago knows something special happened when Dave Rave stepped on stage with Gord Lewis and Steve Mahon to sing “Picture My Face” and “Let’s Shake.”
The magic that was Teenage Head was back. And it will carry on. Dave Rave is taking over the vocal duties of the iconic Canadian punk band, starting with a show Saturday, Dec. 3, at This Ain’t Hollywood.
It was an impromptu moment. Lewis had brought his guitar, expecting to play with Lou Molinaro’s band Tongue Fu. Mahon had driven down from his home in Barrie for the show and just happened to have his bass in the car. Rave (a.k.a. Dave Desroches) was there to perform with his old band The Shakers.
Pedler was recovering from surgery for diverticulitis and wasn’t expected to perform at all, but when he decided he was up to it, the other three decided to join him for a couple of Teenage Head numbers.
It only made sense. Pedler had been playing drums in the band for more than 20 years. Mahon and Lewis founded the band back when they were still at Westdale Secondary in 1975.
And Rave had been the band’s lead singer for three years back in the mid-’80s when Frankie “Venom” Kerr tried his hand at a solo career. Rave handled the vocals on the very fine album “Electric Guitar” and had been close friends with Lewis since elementary school.
So the spark was immediate. Rave returned an energy to the songs that had been missing since the death of Kerr eight years ago. For the past seven years, the vocals have been handled by longtime Head fan Pete MacAulay, a music store owner from Cambridge. MacAulay did a fine job … but he wasn’t part of the family, and it never quite felt right.
The day after the Pedler benefit, Mahon, bassist with band for 42 years, approached Rave. He asked him to come back as lead singer for Teenage Head.
Rave didn’t hesitate: “I said ‘absolutely.’ This is one of the great bands in Canadian rock and roll. Wherever I’ve gone in the world, people ask about the band. It has left an indelible mark on people in a good way.”
So it will be Dave Rave fronting the band on Dec. 3 at This Ain’t Hollywood, and hopefully for many shows to come. Pedler isn’t recovered enough to perform complete shows, so Killjoys drummer Gene Champagne will ably hold the fort for him.
Rave will still have his own projects, rocking out with singer Hailee Rose, just as Lewis will have his side project, Tongue Fu. Mahon, however, foresees a stepped up Teenage Head presence in 2017.
“It will be 40 years since we played CBGB in New York in 1977,” Mahon recalls. “That’s when all the buzz started happening. The whole punk thing had started. That’s when phones started ringing. We came home to Hamilton and played three packed shows at Kilroy’s (the Park House).”