Press Release Eight
For Immediate Release: April 28, 2008 •
Hey, Ho … Let’s Pogo!
THE LAST POGO SCREENS AT NXNE
First Public Screening of Punk Classic in Almost 30 years!
Grab some safety pins, practice your sneer and get ready to revisit Toronto’s thriving punk scene; THE LAST POGO will be screened publicly for the first time in almost 30 years at this year’s North by Northeast (NXNE) Music & Film Festival and Conference. THE LAST POGO documents the raucous 1978 punk concert held in Toronto’s legendary Horseshoe Tavern—a night of unhinged music and unbridled mayhem.
On
December 1, 1978, legendary Toronto concert promoters Gary Topp and Gary Cormier—better known as The Garys—presented The Last Pogo, a rollicking, riotous concert at the venerable Horseshoe Tavern. On the bill were seminal bands from Toronto’s punk rock scene: The Scenics, The Cardboard Brains, The Secrets, The Mods, The Ugly, The Viletones and Teenage Head. During the concert, the frenetic energy of 500+ thrashing fans in the club boiled over and a near-riot ensued. Filmmaker Colin Brunton was there with a camera to capture it all, from the irreverent punk musicians and the slam-dancing audience to the police who tried to stop the show and the firefighters called in to escort people from the premises.
Colin Brunton is an award-winning Canadian director/producer whose other film credits include The Mysterious Moon Men of Canada, Rude, Cube, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and The Safety of Objects. He is currently working on The Last Pogo Jumps Again, scheduled for release in December, 2008.
The North by Northeast (NXNE) Music & Film Festival and Conference is a myth-busting, adrenaline-fuelled indie music and film festival that takes over Toronto for four days every June. The Music Festival is recognized worldwide as the place for fans to see breakout performances from great bands at intimate venues and for musicians to get vital international exposure. The Film Festival features the planet's most eclectic schedule of music-related films—concert classics to indie docs, from Rio to Rwanda.. And the Conference puts music insiders and veterans alongside next-generation thought leaders and cyber-punk upstarts who are defining the industry for the digital age. Catch the 14th annual North by Northeast Music & Film Festival and Conference June 12-15, 2008 at over 50 venues in downtown Toronto.