The Turning Point
It was the turning point and not the Horseshoe Tavern that was the home of Toronto Punk in the late seventies and early eighties. The building is now a restaurant next to the McDonald’s on Bloor Street West near St. George subway station. Half of United State’s “punkumentary,” Not Dead Yet, was shot there. Many bands including Prisoners of Conscience, Swindled, The Jolly Tambourine Man, Blibber and the Rat Crushers, Direct Action, APB, Youth Youth Youth, The Young Lions, Doomed Youth etc got their first gigs there. The owner was old Irish Joe, one of the saltiest old guys since Captain Highliner. He and his wife Ann kept the club running by selling to an underage crowd. Liquor was served by punkettes looking for tips. Ann used to keep a big wooden sticken under the counter with which she would beat the young punks who lost control or did violence.

Irish Joe died around 1986 and many of the punks came out in full gear for the funeral. United State hosted a punk wedding in the venue, and Ziggy from Direct Action injured himself so badly from accidentally knifing himself and bleeding over the entire stage while using the knife for a guitar solo that he could no longer play for the band. The stage was blood stained for years afterward.

Larry’s Hideaway:

Larry’s was the other punk club. Smaller bill international acts such as The Gun Club, Specimen or cramps often played here. This was the main Toronto venue of the Forgotten Rebels. Also the Viletones played here. Punks had to dodge the clientele at the hotel upstairs, mostly prostitutes and Satan’s Choice bikers. “Dressing Room” was positively scary. Closed in late 80’s. The other half of United State’s punkumentary was shot here.

Hernando’s Hideaway
This dump opened in the mid 80’s only after the real clubs (Turning Point, Larry’s) had disappeared, and punk was safe enough to turn a profit.

DMZ
This was Bunchofuckingoofs very own club dedicated solely to punk on Spadina. Most excellent while it lasted. All the real punk bands such as BFG, Random Killing, Direct Action, APB, Blibber and many others played here.

El Mocambo:

Not really a punk club. You played here when you sold out and nobody on the scene ever listened to you again. It happened to Blue Peter, A Neon Rome and L’Etranger.

The Queen Street scene:

Once upon a time before the rows of jewellery stalls, streets packed with posers and the fashion boutiques, Queen Street had real music. Nowadays a self-respecting ex-punk who survived the period holds his or her nose as he or she walks by. What made the Queen Street Scene different was the proximity of the Ontario College of Art. The clubs (Beverly Tavern, Rivoli, Cameron, Horseshoe, Cabana Room) rarely took punk acts. Instead, they demanded progressive acts who were evolving out of punk like beautiful butterflies from ugly cocoons. The trick to being cool was that a band should have a majority of members who were punks or ex-punks and be in a sense “half punk,” one foot in one foot out so to speak. Understandibly, music here was for connoseurs of post-punk new music. Change of Heart who made in big in the post ’87 age of mediocrity were, of course, laughed off the stage. Some of the most fantastic music of the eighties such as The Dave Howard Singers, The Vital Sines and The Jolly Tambourine Man came and went without major recording deals. It just shows you the industry does not know what it is doing!

Beverly Tavern
Home of the best punk/Art highbred bands. Disband, L’Etranger, The Rent Boys and Groovy Religion frequented this place. Gigs were either three days over the weekend or three days during the week. Monday’s were reserved for William New’s Elvis Mondays which gave many a punk band such as The Animal Stags, Vos is Los?, and The Polkaholics their first chance on stage. Interestingly enough, the day MuchMusic moved in across the street was the day Toronto’s most important venue for original music died. The stage was converted into a lunchroom catering mainly to Muchmusic/City-TV staff. Last band to play on Stage was Blue Acid Cheer playing a version of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid sung by S. Black.

Rivoli
Artsy fartsy hell whole that was run at the time by an idiot named Andre whose main topic of conversation was that he only dated dancers. It had a nice big room, but the band who played here lost something of their reputation as legitimate punk acts. Still, The Rent Boys, Dave Howard, Sturm Group and Vital Sines prospered here.

Horseshoe
Yepper, the same watering hole made famous by Stompin’ Tom. In the late 70’s it was taken over by the Diode’s, Battered Wives, Teenage Head and others. A Classy place for a punk band to play and maintain its reputation. 

Here is a famous acecdote from the 1970’s and 80’s. Some time around 1978 Sir Sting and The Police played there to a crowd of only three people. Every punk who suffered Toronto in the 80’s has met dozens of people who claim to be one of the three. Unfortunately, this pub was scaled down in the late 80’s, so it is now a shadow of it’s former self.

Cameron:

Good easy place to get a gig. Bar actually paid you a case of beer to play and you did not have to rely on the door to drink! Small and a little crowded. Viletones played here from time to time.

Cabana Room:

South end of the Queen Street scene. On King Street Actually. It is now a back packer’s youth hostel. Youth Youth Youth reputedly put of their most startling performance here backed by the Dave Howard Singers. Bands such as L’Etranger and others prospered in the ambiance of the tiny room.

Others:

There were, of course other places to play. The Wild Things had a Speakeasy that deserves honorable mention, there was a big hotel at Roncesville and Queen, a couple of places whose names I now forget west of Spadina on Queen, some hell hole down the street from where Hernando’s now is and so on. Sometimes the Young Lions, Screaming Sam or Youth Youth Youth got to open for big acts like the Dead Kennedy’s or The Ramones at the Masonic Temple. But that about covers everything except for the Hotel Isabella, but only Dick Duck and the Dorks and The Viletones ever played there anyway.