Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond 1977-1981

by Liz Worth & Gary Pig Gold (Editor)

This gritty chronicle illustrates the emergence of punk rock in Toronto for the first time. The visionary bands that brought the original scene to life?and who still maintain loyal fans across North America?are documented in detail, from the Diodes, Viletones, and Teenage Head to the B-Girls, Forgotten Rebels, Johnny & the G-Rays, and more. Full of chaos, betrayal, failure, success, and pure rock 'n' roll energy, this layered history is assembled from interviews with those now recognized as innovators, pioneers, and outright legends in their genre. Their accounts go beyond run-of-the-mill anecdotes, venturing into the uncharted territory of sex, drugs, murder, conspiracy, violence, criminals, and biker gangs. Bold and brazen, this compilation also includes a wealth of previously unpublished photographs as well as one of the last interviews with the late Frankie Venom, lead singer of Teenage Head.

Treat Me Like Dirt captures the personalities that drove the original Toronto punk scene. This is the first book to document the histories of the Diodes, Viletones, and Teenage Head, along with other bands (B-Girls, Curse, Demics, Dishes, Forgotten Rebels, Johnny & the G-Rays, the Mods, the Poles, Simply Saucer, the Ugly and more) and fans that brought the punk scene to life in Toronto. This book is a punk rock road map, full of chaos, betrayal, pain, disappointments, failure, success, and the pure rock 'n' roll energy that frames this layered history of punk in Toronto and beyond. Treat Me Like Dirt is a story assembled from individual personal stories that go beyond the usual ?we played here, this famous person saw us there” and into sex, drugs, murder, conspiracy, booze, criminals, biker gangs, violence, art (yes, art) and includes one of the last interviews with the late Frankie Venom (singer of Teenage Head). The book includes a wealth of previously unpublished photographs. This uncensored oral history of the 1977 Toronto punk explosion was originally published in 2010 by Bongo Beat and is now available to the trade. Exclusive to this edition is a selected discography of all key Toronto punk releases referenced in the book, contributed by Frank Manley, author of Smash The State (1992), the acclaimed and pioneering discography of Canadian punk (and subsequent vinyl compilations) that activated the current international interest in Canadian punk from the ?70s and early ?80s.