Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Raving Mojos #deepdive with Blair Richard Martin: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1538

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

In this 1538th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Blair Richard Martin about The Raving Mojos. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

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RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto mic debut is raving mojo singer Blair Richard Martin. Blair, how are you? Not too bad. Can you see me up okay? Yeah, you're coming in like a titch hot like just a little bit Okay, so what meaning what you want me to turn the light down? Oh, no, not the light. What microphone are you using? Oh Okay, you know what? Let me just give me a sec. You know what? I'm not I'm just using the computer Oh, you know, then just back off a little bit like like a little yeah like let me hear you okay well that's

fine you sound great how you doing buddy all right good to meet you yeah you're likewise so if you are okay we're gonna roll I just want to I have a lot of questions for you because Steve Cain came over, the first and last punk rock president, and we're just chatting and he tells me his favorite band of all time is the Raving Mojos. Oh really? Yeah, his favorite band of all time. This is Steve Cain from formerly of Warner, now he's retired. But then I'm talking, so this comes up in conversation and a listener of Toronto Mic'd, Blair Packham, he's listening. And let me go to the note he sent me. I'm just

setting the table here for everybody. So Blair Packham lets me know that the the jitters, his band, the jitters and the raving mojos would gig together all the time. He once produced a demo of yours. He talked about your brother was the jitters drummer and that you were the drummer with teenage head. And then I realized how little I know about the raving mojo. So I'd love to just shut up and listen. Blair, can you set the table? Like, I mean, give me as much detail as you can, but set the table, like, what made you get into music? Tell me all about the raving mojos. Do you mind if I just sit back, listen, and then I'll rudely and certainly just ask questions as you go. Okay, great. So take me back to the beginning. Like where you're from Toronto. Okay, I grew up,

I came, I was born in Toronto. My parents are immigrants from England. They came here in the 50s. My father took a job, he, he missed out on a good job here. And as a result, he took a job in the States. So I grew up in Chicago and Newark, New Jersey until I was 11. We came back 1970, yeah, 11. And so yeah, but other than that, yeah, I've grown up, I'm a downtown Toronto guy. I grew up at, you know, I, my experience in Toronto is Bay and Bloor. I lived in the manual life center. Uh, you know, I'm a sort of an upper middle-class guy, uh, a contemporary with the, the Rosedale was, you know, rich kids from Rosedale.

Really. I'm that, that's my scene. That's where I come from. I'm at that, but it's downtown. It's a very interesting place to come from because it's downtown Toronto in the 1970s. Right. Of course, I grew up with music. Music was the real, was the centerpiece of, I think, youth culture in the 60s and 70s. And I'm a complete victim of that. You know, 70s and I'm a I'm a I'm a complete victim of that, you know, I'm a you know, that's

You know, these are the heroes is this is what you wanted to do and I am just the right age that I caught the punk rock revolution You know that Toronto a very interesting place in that time because we weren't, I guess we didn't really have a great hippie scene. The hippie scene missed us, but punk rock, we were right on time and we had a really great underground culture scene here based around, do you know Gary Topp? Of course, he's been over here, yeah. Okay, Gary Top and the Roxy Theater and the scene that came in and around that and the all his, all Gary Top and all that

contemporary, they were 60s guys a little older than myself, they set, they set the table, they set a scene, and we were really out ahead. Toronto as a city was really out ahead culturally from just about any place in the world. For example, when Gary Taught brought the Ramones here in September of 1976, this was the first place in North America that they had played outside of New York City. They played in London. I don't wanna, they were, that first album was out and people were hearing it. But this is the first place they played outside of New York City in North America.

And so those shows that over the two nights at the New Yorker Theater, you know, is historic. And I mean, it was a, you know, a theater full of people with their mouths agape, looking at something completely new. And I was one of them, lucky enough to be one of them. And, you know, it followed from there. I was a drummer. I played in a band, a local band, the Androids, who later went and moved to New York City and became smashed Gladys. I don't know if they ever meant much here, but they certainly, you know, if you look back, they obviously had some audience in the United States and two very talented people,

Bart Lewis and Sally Cato. She later became, no, I didn't know her as Sally I knew her as Karen but she became she's known as Sally Cato and they're two very talented people and I played with them I played with and then I got a band together with some friends we were trying to get a band together in 1980 and we didn't have a singer and I was gonna be the drummer and the piano player said you know hey I think you could probably sing and I'll play the drums and that's what we did. That only lasted about a year but I was by that time I was really confident in what I was doing and being the lead singer in

a band being a frontman was what I really wanted to do and I was really confident in what I was doing and being the lead singer in a band, being a frontman was what I really wanted to do. And I was writing songs, I had been picking up guitars, but mostly the bass guitar and playing single notes on the bass guitar that represented the chords and writing songs that way. And a friend of mine and I, for about a year, while I was still playing with the androids, we were trying to get a band together. And eventually we met Kurt Schefter. And after a couple of drummers, we reconnected with my old friend Miles Dutton, who is by no means a minor talent, a very talented guy.

And we got a band together with Kurt Schefter, Ken Fox, who now plays, he's been playing for 20 years, lives in New York, he's been playing with the Fleshtones, the world famous Fleshtones. And yeah, we, for about five years, we were part of what's called the second wave of punk bands, that is, hardcore was beginning to happen, and that was the predominant hard rock scene in the underground clubs in Toronto. And although we were a traditional kind of, you know, you know, want to be the Rolling Stones kind of rock and roll band, that's the scene we were part of. Like, for example, we knew the bunch of fucking goofs. Like I was, you know, Steve and I to this day are, I just saw him recently and we're good friends and, you know, we were contemporary and we used to hang around in the booze cans that were put on and, yeah, for five

years we bucked the style and, you know you know did you know did we were the Raving Mojos. Where did the name come from Raving Mojos? Oh okay well we were really desperately looking for a name and in traditions like you know you go back you look through all the old albums like we were okay should we name ourselves after the first Alice Cooper okay, should we name ourselves after the first Alice Cooper record or should we name ourselves this or that? Ken Fox and I were using the word mojo as a sort of, we were using it as an adjective actually and sort of like that is, oh wow, he, you know, like remember we, he went to

see Jonathan Richmond and he was really impressed with his leadership qualities so he would say, wow, he was really mojo. And so that was a word we were using. And I remember we said, oh well, is it the first or second? I remember it was the first or second Alice Cooper album was called Easy Action. And, you know, we were talking, I said, oh, I think somebody suggested that as a possible name. And Kurt said, no, that sounds, it

makes us sound like a couple of, like, some gay hustlers. And I said, all right, that's it. And I remembered an old bootleg by Pink Floyd, which was called Raving and Drooling. So I amalgamated Raving Mojo's and I said, that's the name of the, you don't like anything. Nobody likes anything. Raving Mojo's is the name. Love it. Now you said, you know, Raving and drooling. Then I think of the killjoys rave and drool and that's Jean Champagne was in that band and the current drummer for teenage head. And these are teenage head drumsticks right here, by the way, is Jean Champagne from killjoys.

Oh, okay. Just a fun little loop. You know, these, you know, yeah, yeah, definitely. I'm sure, I'm sure that I'm sure it's, I'm sure it's a similar, uh, etymological story, you know, these, you know, yeah, yeah, definitely. I'm sure I'm sure that I'm sure it's I'm sure it's a similar etymological story, you know, right. So so at some point we'll find out how you were drumming for Teenage Head. We'll get there. But it sounds hearing you talk about it, because I wasn't around for this scene. I was around, but I was like listening to like Raffy and Big Bird and Oscar. But. So you're younger. I'm a bit younger to be around this, this punk scene that you, I just turned 65.

Okay. I just turned 50. So we got key 15 years that now hearing you talk about the Ramones playing the New Yorker, that was a Gary's. So Gary Cormier and Gary top separately, but they've both been over here to kind of, I love hearing the stories of them bringing the Ramones to town and the police to the horseshoe and nine people showing up and all this stuff. But that sounds like when I read rock documentaries and books and I read about when the Sex Pistols

played in like England and like a hundred bands formed that night, you know what I mean? Like it sounds like this is like, it sounds like we had a scene here, but I was led to believe maybe Toronto was kind of boring and milk toast for the raving mojos and that you guys were like an outlier. Well we were but no no we were but we weren't okay our crowd was really you know hungry for this teenage head was no longer playing the downtown clubs. The they really only knew the English, the later English bands and they thought, like I don't even remember the name, like I'm trying to remember the name of the one UK subs, I remember they thought UK subs, well I don't even wouldn't even know what they sound like. These were

the big bands for them. They like this, this whatever it was burgeoning hard for type music and they really didn't know the origins of it. They, you know, they, they, you know, they had rejected, they had been largely they'd been kids who had rejected the New York Dolls and the Stooges and the early, that early iteration of, of Garage Rock and Roll. And they had caught up. This was different. They were different. So it's funny. You'd go to the, the Violetones show and they would, the Violetones, we would know them and they would be into all the same things we were into, but the crowd was listening to something different. You know, so it was, it was a, it was, um, you know, we were together at the parties and together

at the get-togethers and to booos cans, but it was very fragmented in terms of actual taste and ideas about what this music was about. There was somebody like myself, we were sort of like the Lou Reed type, oh, give me an issue and I'll give you a tissue, I don't really care about politics. And then there were kids who were really into radical social justice, what we now know as radical social justice issues. So yeah, I mean, it was, it was, it was fragmented, but it was together. It was a together scene where we would all be in the same place, but there were very fragmented opinions, very fragmented tastes. It was, it was an odd time. Yeah. And that is, I'm talking specifically about the second wave of punk. You know, those guys, they wrote that book about it, that big

coffee table book, Tomorrow is Too Late. Yes. Jason Schneider. Yeah. Yeah. And I think maybe Michael Barclay had a role in this. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Love this so much. So, so the the Raving Mojos is basically 1980 to 85 around that, right? It would be well, it would be I remember we were just getting the band together. And my old my, my, my just recently recently the girl that I've been living with, she just broken up, sort of broken up with her and she called me up on the phone to let me know that John Lennon had been assassinated. So it was like, and we were just, that was one of the first Braving Mojo rehearsals. You want to hear a fun little again, as these thoughts enter my head, I'll just spit them out at you Blair. But that same day, December 8th, 1980, the day John

Lennon was shot, the Gary's were presenting the spoons at the edge. And it's the very first time that Rob Bruce played keyboards with the spoons that very night. Just a lot of stuff seemed to be going on that night. Oh, well, wow. You know what? That's funny. You mentioned the spoons my first gig as a singer Was opening up for the spoon get out of here. It was that in Burlington. Where was that? Yeah, it was at the in Oakville What was the what was that? Something or other in the tower? I don't want to get the name wrong. I wish I could bail you out on this one. Yeah anyway it was a good I was a hotel to club in a hotel in Oakville. And how old

were you at that point? Well I mean this way 20 20 years old. Okay amazing I mean they're still going with the little Gord and Sandy are still going. You can still catch the spoon. Wow yeah. And Rob Bruce you can find him in my basement once a month co-hosting toast episodes of Toronto Miked. Oh cool. Cool. No this has been cool. So I have more questions obviously. Like one question I have. Could you know this this punk band, the Raving Mojo's popular live attraction here in Toronto for a certain crowd looking for that that kind of rock and roll? Could they get radio airplay anywhere? No, no, we couldn't. That was one of the we could not attract anything.

I mean, you know what? That's not completely true because we had friends in Hamilton, for example, and people used to come see our shows who were really big fans. So we would go do the college radio at McMaster with Bruce Mowat. But in Toronto, no, not till years later did we do anything on Toronto Radio. And the Now magazine largely ignored us as well. We were the first people to take out a recruitment advertising space with Now.

We were some of the first, you know, private people. We would take out our own raving mojos at the, you know, Hotel Isabella or Larry's Hideaway, whatever. We would take out these little $50 ads with them. But they were affordable then. They were just starting up. But they really just didn't, you know, I remember approaching them once because we were playing with a band called the Hoodoos, who later became Living Proof.

And you know, we were, I remember somebody, one of us went to Now magazine and said, Hey, you know, you should write about these couple bands and the fact that we're attracting, you know, pretty fair audiences and no, no, no, we're not, we don't write about, we don't write about particular scenes, I think was the story. So it sounds like the mainstream is rejecting the raving mojo. So you can't get not even CKLN or CIUT, like you can't get any Toronto radio airplay. Even the alt weekly doesn't touch you unless you pay for like an ad in the back there with the escort services and everybody.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And obviously it goes about saying the Toronto Sun, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, they're not writing about you, are they? Jonathan Gross did. Okay. Go ahead. He wrote an article. He had a nephew, I think he's a nephew or a cousin who went to Jarvis Collegiate, which

was the high school that a cousin who went to Jarvis Collegiate, which was the high school that our guitar player went to. And we were playing at the Jarvis Collegiate sock hop, and he, this cousin, dragged Jonathan Gross up. And so there's a big article on it. He said, Oh, I'm the Nazareth, the Nazareth concert at the gardens was shit. So I, we went, went to higher ground and we went up to the Jarvis collegiate sock hop where, you know, for five bucks, there was a really good rock and roll show of some guys who really know their history. Uh, basically that was the gist of the article. And he also, he was doing a TV show on CBC at the time. He tried to do something with us, but it didn't, it didn't gel and his idea didn't come off.

So we sort of abandoned it. But he, Jonathan Gross was supportive. Yeah. It's funny. This is the second episode of my podcast, Toronto Mike in a row in which Jonathan Gross was mentioned because my last episode was with Peter Gross and we talked about Johnnick Jonathan Gross playing in a band called the battered newsmen and Then I reminded Peter the fun fact that she couldn't remember but you know, you are Seinfeld, you know, you're Seinfeld references

Not I know not really but Peter I know, not really, but. Not that I hate her. But the Fusilli Jerry episode, so the episode Fusilli Jerry, I think that's the Ass Man episode, if you're a Kramer fan. But basically, long story short, Jonathan Gross helped write that. His sister Marjorie Gross, who sadly no longer with us, she was a writer, co-writer of this episode of Seinfeld. Oh, wow. There you go. I didn't know that.'m here to Blair. I'm full of fun facts for you here. Okay, so now

Obviously, you're not a you're an independent band, right? Like so how do you finance? Recordings and like tell me a little bit about how you know a fan of the raving mojos could You know bring home an album and play it on their hi-fi stereo. Well, they couldn't until 2000 and what was it 2004, I think we put out the CD. No, what was happening then, and I think we this is where we kind of missed it, although we had our We did have an independent cassette tape that we released. Five songs which we recorded because we did a film, which you can see now on YouTube. It's called Manish Boy and it's directed by Paul Fox, who is a well-known and successful director of film and television now. He directed some of the,

he directed Schitt's Creek and some of those episodes and some episodes of that, the last, oh I forget what it was called, the Anne of Green Gables, the last Anne of Green Gables show. My name is Emily, I can't remember the name, I'm not going to pretend, I'm not going to, but he directed some of those episodes and he directed a film which won some awards at these Scream Horror Festivals and he's one of the first things he did was he got some money and we were we did a film and part of the thing was we were we were shooting at the the turning point and we had time left over the comfort sound Doug McLemann was there with the comfort sound mobile unit and

We just went ahead we played five songs and that's as much tape as we had and so we had this tape that circulated for four years which you know people remember really fondly I guess some people still have it. I don't know if anybody's ever posted that online and I don't know if I have anything other than a I don't know if I have a copy of it somewhere because I have all the stuff here on all the master tapes and stuff. Well, this is what I'm asking. So obviously I wanted, when I learned, you know,

that I missed the Raving Mojos, and then I heard from people I trust and people I've talked to, they're like, yeah, they were a damn great band. Mike, I'm sorry you missed, sorry you were wasting your time with Rafi, okay? The raving mojos were in your very city. But then of course, what do I do?

I go to YouTube and I'm like, I gotta hear some. There is a little here and there, but there's not a lot in what we have is like, it sounds like a sixth generation cassette dub or something. Like it sounds pretty potato. And I was like, oh, I wonder if Blair has any decent recordings, I could digitize and kind of save and share. But I, like, I don't know, you have master

to you. I'll try and get you something because we do have the CD, and you will find that on various. What's the thing I was listening to it on lately. Um, uh, one of those, one of those, uh, you know, music services, Spotify, Spotify. Yeah. Something like that. You will find the CD because the last rock and roll show ever. Um, right. Um, and I'm, you know what?

I'm going to get in touch. I just, you just remind me again, I've got to get in touch with Enzo and see if there's any copies of the physical CD still left because I'm doing a new website and I'd like to offer them for sale. So yeah, I like, yeah, you know what, I'll actually direct you to some stuff anyway. Yeah. Now you mentioned Comfort Sound. I've had Doug McClement here to talk about all his great

recordings and everything. And so he's an FOTM like you are, that means friend of Toronto Mike, but he worked with Blair Packham. And how do the jitters come into the fold here? It sounds like the raving mojos and jitters did lots of gigs together. Well, no, I mean, Blair Packham just a guy like it's it's local. We're we're low from the same neighborhood, you know, named the same the same gang. My OK, my OK, the first band that I was a singer in was called the Heartbeats. And that was with Danny Levy, who was in the jitters. And I remember OK, I was in the jitters. And I remember, okay, I was in the androids. I remember Blair, I

remember us, we had a, we used to run a rehearsal space on Yonge Street, just above Tuxedo Junction at the end of Maitland, Maitland, Yonge and Maitland. And I remember he was going on tour. He was doing a band called Black Slacks. And I remember he came up, we lent him some rehearsal space or rented him some rehearsal space. But he was his, he was, I don't know how you, an apprentice. He was like, he used to work at the Doug McClendon studio. He

produced the the single that the androids did a single which you can find on YouTube, Roller Derby Queen and over and over by the androids. He was he was the producer of that you know. We set up the financing with grant money from that old, the old organization that SoCan swallowed up, the old organization, K-Pak. We were all K-Pak members and K-Pak in those days used to give you a $300 grant right off the top. Anybody who registered, published songs with them, got this little grant which was for recording demos of your material. And so we recorded the single on money from those K-PAK grants and Blair Packham was the producer. Wow such a small world. Blair's a great friend of the program. So hello to Blair. So yeah you're another

Blair. Lots of Blairs going on here. And your brother played with the Jitters? Did I get that detail right? My brother's a drummer. Yeah he's yeah he was the drummer in the Jitters. The original drummer and yeah so I mean there's there there's a time I Blair started the jitters after the raving mojos I think he sort of he sort of realized hey you know if these guys are I think we were I think we were influential in that he saw hey you know these guys can do it I can certainly do it you know yeah I, I mean, there's some, there's some, there's certainly some, there's certainly some truth in that, yeah. So you mentioned Ken Fox, he's your original bassist, right? Yeah. Okay. And you mentioned Kurt, now one fact about Kurt, you mentioned a little bit of what

he's been up to since the band, but he was in Atlanta Miles' band, right? He was. Listen, is it too much if I take a little break here? Somebody's knocking at my door and it's my passport. You know what? Go to the door. I'm going to tell people about some partners of the program. Go to the door and join us back.

It's okay. That's what I love about the program. So amazing. I've got more questions for Blair, but I just want to let everybody know your fresh craft beer of choice Forget craft your best beer in Ontario is Great Lakes beer got it drink Great Lakes. Let them know Toronto Mike sent you your best Italian food is palma pasta eat it eat palma pasta. Okay, do yourself a favor Recycle my electronics dot CA. You know the drill

by now. If you got old electronics, you go there, put in your postal code, drop it off and have it properly recycled. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home and Toronto Maple Leafs baseball playoffs are starting now. Go Google the schedule and get to a playoff game at Christie Pitts. I can't wait to be there come by Hang out with me Love the the activity here. Okay, let's see if Blair is ready to join us receiving his so my goodness I'm watching so there is video of this by the way So if you're listening to the podcast I'm recording video and at some point I'll share it on the Toronto Mike YouTube channel You really never know what will show up there. You should probably subscribe there and then have these surprises

Speaking of Peter Gross. I just shared the Peter Gross conversation from When was that Monday? I'm gonna say Monday. This is Wednesday. Okay, let me tease something here While we wait for Blair Thursday night at eight. That's August 22nd, 8pm live dot Toronto Mike dot com. Something very special is happening. All right. Welcome back Blair. How to go there. Everything's okay. Oh, you know, it wasn't it wasn't what I'd expect. He's my landlord. He's we've got a he's got a fridge that's blocking up the hall that I'm I'm I've been living here for a while, but I'm waiting for

Subsidized housing stuff to come up and I'm hoping to move into the the artists co-op on Lakeshore with Lakeshore and what whereabouts would that be on Lakeshore Lakeshore and It's actually on on Berm is it Birmingham Road Birmingham. I So we're street Birmingham Street. I think it is. is yeah so we're only because I'm speaking and ninth okay yeah ninth street you ready for a mind blow without getting too specific that's called New Toronto that neighborhood and I'm speaking to you now from New Toronto oh so after the recording I'll let you know exactly where I am but uh I could if you said hey meet me if you were there you're where I am. But I could, if you said, hey, meet me, if you were there, you're not there now. But if you were there and you said,

Mike, I got a CD for you to rip to MP3, come get it. I think on a bike, I could be there in 90 seconds. Yeah. Great. So let me know when or if you ever end up in New Toronto and I'll let you know I'm on the waiting list and I'm you know, I'm really looking forward to moving there. Yeah. Okay, very cool. So I'm just I want to catch up. Okay, maybe now is a good time. Before I forget, can I get know, of course I had met Teenage Head earlier. They were the people that I knew in Hamilton were all contemporaries, actual actual like like classmates and guys who've known, you know, Gord and those guys forever. And I, Gord actually came to a Raving Mojo show at a place that used to be on at Bloor and

Ossington. Yeah, Bloor and Ossington. And so, you know, I'd met those guys fairly early on. And we opened up for them at the Rondon that used to be here, the Rontes Vale and Dundas. And so yeah, I'd known them for a while. And you remember there was, they're used to it. Gord is a huge sports fan. He'll watch, he watches balls. I mean, he's the kind of guy he goes, we went together to an Expose game when I was living in Montreal, like they came to stay with me and we went to an Expose game and Gord is one of those guys who actually sits there and fills out the scorecard on the way. You know, I mean, I couldn't believe he's really dedicated guy anyway.

Yeah. know the I mean I couldn't I couldn't believe he's really dedicated guy anyway yeah um we had uh in the before before the Toronto Raptors and all this stuff happened there was a CBA team here in Toronto called the Toronto Tornadoes and they used to play at the varsity the varsity arena varsity arena. And that was pretty good, a pretty good level of pro basketball. And basketball is quite a hip growing sport. This is the 1980s. And I was at a tornadoes game and I looked down from on the other side of the arena. I saw Gord sitting alone in a really good seat like right on the floor. And I went out to find him at the halftime. And we talked for a while and he said, you know, like we're looking for a drummer. And I said, well, you know, I don't know if you know, but I play drums. So sight unseen, Dave Rave and he came over to my house, gave me the pot, gave me all the Teenage Head albums.

And, you know, I guess they must have given me some nominal song list. And I said about learning the songs, we went out on a tour that weekend and yeah, I was with them for the better part of a year. Amazing. A shout out to Dave Rave, who was here a few months ago, telling stories and that was great too. All right. I have a question. I want to just check it and make sure you're doing

all right because I was told, I don't think it's a big secret, but you kick some nasty habits. How are you doing these days? Oh geez, you know what? I've given up everything. I don't smoke cigarettes anymore. I was a terrible... The worst thing I did was the thing that I most regret. The only thing I really regret is cigarette smoking. I think it was it. I mean, I'm I'm I'm going to live and die

with lung disease for the rest of my life. And that's really horrible. But, you know, I mean, all that stuff, that's now years, years ago. Right. You know, I, I, you know, I've stayed on a methadone program, but I mean, it's, I'm so far, I'm so far from everything that that's just out of the only reason I'm still on a methadone program at this point is just long habit and like, I feel secure being there.

Um, but I mean, other than that, I haven't. Yeah, I haven't. I haven't done hard drugs in 20 years. Good for you, man. More maybe. Yeah. Good for you. And obviously, so raving mojos end in 1985.

OK, I happen to know that was almost 40 years ago because I'm doing the math in my head. I'm really good at math. Give us a little, obviously, just give us a little vibe of like, what fill is your days, what you've been up to, what art you've been creating. Well, I'm really interested in painter. I do fine art painting for better or worse. And yeah, that's my focus. I do an awful lot of it.

I'm working to be good at it. It's more difficult than anything I've ever done before because it's, I mean, that's why there's so much bad painting in this world because it's so difficult to do and hardly anybody's ever any good at it anymore. And most of the modes of study have become lost over time. So, yeah, and then, well, that's what I do. But I mean, I've done a bunch of stuff.

I had another, you know, I don't know if you know, I had a whole other career as a, as a Cuban musician in the 1990s. Well, I did hear about the Cuban Sun Band. Yes, yeah, Son. Son, yes. Son. Son. Son, S-O-N, yes.

Okay, thank you. Okay, that's interesting. Klave Congo, I probably butchered that too. Klave, Klave Congo. I'll fix it in post, right, Blair? Mm hmm. Yeah, sure. I'll take another run at that. So you mentioned you're working on your website, but is there a place people can go if they want to check out your art?

But you know, I just look at my Facebook and my Instagram page. I'm posting. I'm posting current I pay I post current oil paintings that I do. I don't I don't post drawings and stuff. And or or I do. I don't post drawings and stuff on or I stopped. I used to post just everything I did when I first started, but I mean, it was a lot of experimentation. I was doing abstract, modern. I was really playing around with just the idea of putting paint onto canvas and like, what do you do first? You know, like

my first, you know, like when I, the first thing I tried to do for example was, you know, I just, you're just trying to put paint on canvas is difficult enough. How do you do that? And I thought, well, what would the Ramones do? So I got a big house painting brush, a two-inch house painting brush, and I started painting fairly distinct and even-sided rectangles with color. I mean, that was it. And I said, oh, what the simplest thing you can do, just like the Ramones would do with, you know, three chords. So, yeah, and I started off and those count as abstract.

That's abstract art. And, you know, I worked through and found the first thing that I found where I was sort of okay at was landscapes, cityscapes. My first good painting was a cityscape. And so I did work on that for a while. And then, of course, I used to go take the night classes up at Central Tech, which is Central Tech, the art building at Central Tech is the finest art facility in the country.

It is a beautiful building that was built for art and they're completely wasting it. They're not using it really anymore. And that kind of that kind of idea of art is, I guess, no longer popular. But they're wasting this beautiful, beautiful building that they should be using. I'm speechless at how badly they have wasted this great resource. Anyway, I took classes up there and did got into life studies and yeah, you know, that's cool. Yeah, that's what I that's what I do.

Very cool here. Any chance? What about music? Any chance for another raving Mojo? No, music is gone. Unfortunately, I am, you know, I won't give you the full sour thing, but music is very difficult, very hard on people. I got to an age where I think it's just a little bit, as I say, I do have lung disease from smoking cigarettes. I smoked cigarettes for 50 years.

50 from the time I was 11, well, not quite, 49 years 50 from the time I was 11 till the well not quite 49 years till the time I was 60 so I haven't smoked in five years now and you know it's music's a bit rough I'm not I'm not sure I still have a guitar and I still pick it up occasionally I'm I think maybe I'll get my fingers back into shape and learn some more about guitar playing. But no, I've sort of had like the, there's a lot of feelings of betrayal and stuff that are hard to get over.

Putting together a project is a difficult thing. I put together two really good projects in my life and that in itself, just getting that together and spending the time on getting a good band together is a hard, hard thing to do. In that it takes time. You know, like you can, you can do it. And I just don't know if I've got the, I don't know if I've got the, the feeling for the time.

Anyway, I don't know if I have enough feeling for it. I thought you were going to say you didn't know if you had the mojo to make it happen. I don't have to. There you go. There you go. First reference I know of to mojo was the doors, LA woman, because then you hear Jim Morrison, he goes mojo rising. Yeah. Well, actually, no, the, usually it's I got my mojo working, which is an old, it's old muddy waters. Right.

You know, and there's, you know muddy water old um chest blues um i don't know who that maybe it's a willy dixon song but um there's also a line in the film or sorry in the song mannish boy uh where you know he says i got a i got a mojo He says I got a I got a mojo Is it mojo tooth I know It's some it's it's some sort of art of some sort of magically and magical magically invested artifact I Think got a mojo hand. Is it a mojo hands? I know I'd have to go back and listen to it Yeah, gotta bring it back. Oh, it's an old blues word. Yeah. I know the on the Simpsons,

the the monkey that was supposed to do all the work for you is named Mojo, but pray for Mojo. I think he said, Oh, okay. Yeah. Do you think Blair, just before we say goodbye, do you think the raving Mojos get the respect they deserve for what they were for that period in the early eights where you have Steve Keynes would go on and be president of Warner Records telling everyone who will listen that the Raving Mojos are his favorite band of all time. In that kind of sense, yeah, when you tell me a story like that, yes, I do know or when I see a, when I see like, tomorrow is too late when somebody writes about me and somebody I don't know, you know,

this isn't a friend just being nice, right? Should have been huge. Right. You know, yeah, you know, or, you know, I went, I went and Steve, Steve from the, from the goofs introduced me to some people I hadn't met before and was just going on and saying, hey, this guy was the greatest frontman I ever saw. Yeah, from people who matter, yes, I do. And it's really gratifying what people say.

It could be a wider group of people, but the people who matter, yes, they more than... I'm really humbled by some of the things people say. Yeah. Well, I'm a big Blurton head, okay? Big fan of Ian Blurton here. Oh, yeah. Change of heart. And he's the kind of guy, I know on Twitter, for example, I tweeted you were coming on. He liked it right away. Like he's lists. I know he's listening now by way, Ian If you ever want to come back and chat, you know would love it. But I wonder how many Toronto based bands were inspired by raving mojos like I would love to obviously I don't know how you could ever know but How many bands? Went and saw just like you talked about going the Ramones and then like I got to do that

Like how many people saw raving mojos in? Downtown Toronto and said I want to do that You know enough and and again, it's probably the same as what I just said Significant significantly and with with some people who had if you don't mind me saying exquisite taste You know, so I don't mind. Hey, I'm sorry that I'm late to the party. Like again, that's why I would love to hear whatever music was recorded in whatever studio, like whatever survived. I would love to hear more of it because I kind of catching up now. I missed the scene and now I'm catching up so I can get off black cars and I can get on raving mojos

So, okay. Well, listen give it give me over the next week. I'll send you some links Amazing. So final question you were amazing by the way You kind of painted a nice picture of the scene who were the raving mojos what you're up to now But I'm wondering what did you think when this guy like started? what you're up to now. But I'm wondering, what did you think when this guy like started sliding into your Facebook and LinkedIn DMs, like saying I want to talk to you? Like, what did you think? Do you think who's this weirdo? And why does he want to talk about the raving mojos? Or I'm wondering what how things looked from your, your side? Oh, no, no, I just, you know, just another, another thing somebody, well, you mentioned Blair Packham. So, right, okay

It no it made sense right away. I thought okay. No, this is you know this is obviously someone who's seriously in serious doing so you wouldn't be talking to Blair Packham unless you were serious and right really doing something and You know and and I was no I'm just I've again I'm just flattered that Anybody wants to let me tell the story because I like, I like telling the story, you know, I like, I like talking and I like, and I like, I like telling the story of what Toronto was. I'm really, I was really lucky to have grown up in Toronto at that time. It's as it's, it has its faults, but I mean, you know, Steve Leckie once said, and I think it's somewhere

on the Colin Brunton movie, I think somewhere in there, he's saying to a crowd at the turning point one night, he says, you people are idiots. If talking heads had come from Toronto, they would have been remembered as the worst band in town and you would have never heard from them again after the first three gigs opening for the Vialtones. And you know what? That is the fault of Toronto. We're not very supportive, but we know our shit and we're very hard on people. And we're, it's a, it's a, so it's an interesting place to come from because if you, if you got anywhere at all, you can bet you were good.

You know? Yeah, a very culturally hip town Toronto. So I like, I like telling that story. Well, thank you for this so much. Really appreciate it. You've got a friend now here in New Toronto. So when you do finally end up in New Toronto, let me know. I'll buy you a coffee and you know what else? I'll get you some lasagna from Palma Pasta because you deserve a lasagna from proud sponsors

of the program. So I'll take care of you. All right. But Blair, thank you so much for this. I really, really appreciate it. Oh, you're more than welcome, more than welcome. And that brings us to the end of our 1,538th show. You can follow me on Twitter, BlueSky, all over the place, I'm at Toronto Mike. Just go to torontomic.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Mike at torontomike.com if you need to send me an email. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, the Toronto Maple baseball team and Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow, Thursday, August 22nd, 2024.

Very special secret episode recording at 8 p.m. You can watch us live at live.torontomike.com. See you all then. I wanna take a streetcar downtown Read Andrew Miller and wander around And drink some Guinness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in, ah where you been? Because everything is coming out rosy and gray Yeah the wind is cold but the snow is cold, it warms me today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green