Montreal Screening

If anyone's going to be in Montreal this Saturday, Dec. 11, the Blue Sunshine Theatre is show circa 1977: The Diodes along with a 16mm print of the Ross McLaren film Crash'n'Burn. Plus Diodes manager Ralph Alfonso will be displaying some of his photos from back in the day.

Blue Sunshine Theatre
3660 Boul. St. Laurent, 3rd Floor
438 380-5869

Montreal Mirror:
http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/Mirror/mir_091210_opt/2010120801/25.html#24

CIUT Radio Interview

Director Aldo Erdic was interviewed yesterday by Stephe Perry at CIUT 89.5 FM for his show Equalizing X Distort. Stephe has been instrumental in documenting and archiving the current and past Toronto punk scene. His radio program has been carrying interviews and live studio sessions for over 10 years, many of which are readily available for download on his blog site:

www.equalizingxdistort.blogspot.com

Alan Cross Interview With The Diodes

Here's an interview with Paul Robinson and John Catto by Alan Cross on his Explore Music podcast, recorded a few days before circa 1977's premiere. The Diodes segment starts at 9:00 minutes and the film is discussed at 29:00 minutes. There are a lot of details of what Paul and John did after the Diodes broke up in 1981, including working with comedian Ricky Gervais and Killing Joke's Youth (around 25:00 minutes).

http://castroller.com/podcasts/ExploremusicWithAlan/1733076-0439EMMegan%20Jerome%20and%20The%20Diodes

IndieCan Radio Interview

Circa 1977: The Diodes wrapped up in Toronto with a second screening at the Oz Gallery. It was good to see some of the younger generation being drawn to the film by some of the media attention the film has been getting.

NxNE was a great success. The film festival director, Ambrose Roche, said "the mix of circa 1977 and The Blank Generation was a highlight of the fest."

IndieCan.com also posted the interview that Joe Chisholm did with Paul Robinson, Aldo Erdic and Ian Mackay on June 16. Below are the links to the audio stream (episode 185):

IndieCan: http://www.indiecan.com/podcast.htm#episode185
Audio stream: http://www.indiecan.com/185IndieCanRadio.m3u
(The Diodes segment starts at 40:00 minutes in.)

Toronto Film Scene Review

Here's a review of the film by Jovana Jankovic from Toronto Film Scene:

http://thetfs.ca/2010/06/23/review-the-diodes/

"All sorts of metaphysical issues abound here: nostalgia, ‘reality’, duration, the passage of time, aging, mortality, and along with these, the notion of cultural eras, trends, fashions, revolutions in thought and art. Yes, I’m being quite lofty here, but to be honest, these are exactly the kinds of thoughts that went through my head as I watched Aldo Erdic’s short film Circa 1977: The Diodes (2009) at the North by Northeast (NXNE) festival last week."

"Moondog's Ballroom" Radio Interview

Daibhid James (right) interviewed Aldo Erdic (centre), director of circa 1977, and Vince Carlucci (left) on his "Moondog's Ballroom" radio show broadcast yesterday on CIUT 89.5 at the University of Toronto. Aldo discussed his film and Vince talked about his late 1970's band the Cardboard Brains and his photo exhibit of Toronto punk photos.

Here is Vince's blog:
http://strange-tales.tumblr.com/

Here's Daibhid's MySpace site where he has his radio playlists, concert listings and some great videos:
www.myspace.com/daibhidjames

2nd Toronto Screening

After a successful, sold out screening at the NxNE Film Festival, circa 1977: The Diodes will be shown a second time this Friday June 25 at Oz Studios, Toronto.

NOW Magazine gave the film a 4 out of 5 star rating and said that the film "creates a vivid picture of the Toronto punk scene 33 years past."

The screening at Oz Studios is in conjunction with the exhibit "Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell: Toronto Punk 1973-1982", a collection of rare photographs by Vince Carlucci of the Cardboard Brains. The night will also include a rare screening of the The Last Pogo, the original 1978 documentary on the Toronto punk scene directed by Colin Brunton (Roadkill, Highway 69, Hedwig And The Angry Inch).

Admission is free but seating is limited.

Oz Studios
134 Ossington Ave.
info@ozstudios.com

Date: Friday, June 25
Screening Times: 8:00 & 9:30 pm

NOW Magazine Review

NOW gives the film 4 out of 5 stars!

"In just under half an hour, circa 1977: The Diodes creates a vivid picture of the Toronto punk scene 33 years past."

Premiere Screening A Smashing Success!

After a stress-filled week leading up to it, the premiere screening of circa 1977: The Diodes was a resounding success! Despite the 3:00 pm screening time, the theatre was filled to capacity and, in fact, there was an overflow crowd that watched the film in an adjacent room.

It probably helped that Ivan Kral's film The Blank Generation was being shown at the same time slot. After the screening Aldo Erdic and the Diodes got to hang out with Ivan, who was extremely warm, affable and had a great sense of humour.

Pre-screening articles

The word is getting out. Here are a few more pre-screening write ups:

Indiecan.com says it's a "must see":
http://www.indiecan.com/events.htm#nxne2010

The Metro, which is nationwide:
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/entertainment/article/552606--at-the-movies-with-north-by-northeast

The Last Pogo Jumps Again film blog by Colin Brunton:
http://www.thelastpogo.net/2010/06/

"This historical punk piece is not to be missed," Crux Of Life by Stefane Campbell & Renee Savoy:
http://www.cruxco.tv/fr/articles/the-diodes-punk-or-die.html?image=2

The Velvet Fist blog by Brian Anderson:
http://thevelvetfist.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-shapes-of-things-to-come/

Fridae TV by Fridae Mattas, includes a video interview with Paul Robinson:
http://fridaetv.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/premiering-at-this-years-north-by-northeast-film-festival-circa-1977-the-diodes-documentary-directed-by-aldo-erdic/

The Toronto Star

Here's a brief write up in the Toronto Star today.

Although the NxNE Film Festival will be spotlighting Don Letts, he actually won't be in attendance. But Ivan Kral is definitely confirmed. Ivan's film The Blank Generation will be shown immediately after circa 1977: The Diodes.

NxNE Screening Date

The screening date and time for circa 1977: The Diodes have been finalized, as follows:

Thursday June 17, 3:00pm
National Film Board of Canada
150 John St. (416) 973-3012

The film will be shown along with The Blank Generation, a raw visual document of the 1977 New York punk scene directed by Ivan Kral, who will be in attendance. Ivan played bass for the Patti Smith Group in the late 1970's.

Although a Question & Answer session has not been confirmed, The Diodes, director Aldo Erdic and producers Ralph Alfonso and Nick Cushing will be in attendance.

Complete NxNE Film Program

Horseshoe Show

From Ralph Alfonso:

"Wow... it's 3am and finally getting home...oh my god...what a gig! jam packed horseshoe sweatfest...both the Diodes and the G-Rays givn'er... friday night crowd wanted to party so not sure how our opening set went... but it's amazing the emotional reactions to the Treat Me Like Dirt book... always fun to chat and hear Diodes stories... from fans at the merch table... and see old friends again (lots of emotions tonight)"

Photos by Candy Sass.

The Diodes Interviews

The Diode's were recently interviewed in advance of their live shows this weekend:

CIUT Radio, University of Toronto:
http://equalizingxdistort.blogspot.com/2010/05/sunday-may-30-2010.html

NOW Magazine, Toronto:
http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.cfm?content=175304

THE VIEW, Hamilton:

http://www.viewmag.com/13045-Hamilton+Music+Notes.htm

Waterloo show

From Ralph Alfonso:

"Wow. great gig last night. lots of nice people and old friends stopping by the merch table to reminisce. Some guy reminded me that I wouldn't let him in the Crash'n'Burn back in the day as he was too young! wow...

The band did not disappoint. Loud. Tight. Crystal clear sound and vocals. All the hits and more, including a rousing Catwalker encore. Thanks to technology, the band is probably even louder now than they were then :)

Special mention as always to the bereted Bo Cairo, master of audio.

And thus, now, all roads (well, the 401) lead to Call The Office in London, Ontario. The first time the original 1977 Diodes play there since a legendary appearance in...uh... 1977... when they rocked the mythic Applegarth Follies art gallery. Hopefully, the equally mythic Mike Niederman will be there tonight.. he co-ordinated that original appearance and later nurtured the nascent London punk scene via his encouragement of The Demics."

The Diodes 2010 Reunion

In conjunction with the release of circa 1977 and a new album Time/Damage: Live 1978, the Diodes will be playing a few shows in Canada and -- for the first time ever -- Italy!

May 21 Pop Corn Club, Venice, Italy
May 22 Road To Ruins Festival, Rome, Italy
June 2 Starlight, Waterloo, Ontario
June 3 Call The Office, London, Ontario
June 4 Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto
June 5 This Ain't Hollywood, Hamilton

As a warm up for that, Ian Mckay and John Hamilton played "Midnight Movie Star" during the debut performance of their new band Broadview Station this past Saturday, April 24.

Accepted to 2010 NxNE Festival

The North By Northeast Music Festival in Toronto has accepted circa 1977: The Diodes and will screen it sometime between June 14 and June 20. The NxNE Film Festival will carry some 40 features, documentaries and short films.

We'll let everybody know exact dates and times as soon as a schedule is finalized.

circa 1977: The Diodes synopsis

About the film:

Formed in October 1976, the Diodes were one of Canada's first punk bands who, in the span of one year, opened Toronto's first punk club, became the first Canadian punk band to sign with a major label and had their debut album released before the Sex Pistols and other first wave UK punk bands. The Crash'n'Burn club they opened helped inspire new bands to form and catalyzed an explosive local punk scene that proved to be of the same caliber as the early New York and U.K. scenes. However, by 1981, the band was worn down by an indifferent Canadian music industry, a worsening economy and a lack of touring venues.

Directed by Aldo Erdic.
A Bongo Beat Films/ToBeScene Production
Running Time: 28 minutes.


About the director:

Aldo Erdic started out in 1997 as an underground DIY videographer who created a punk videozine series called F*U*TV, putting out seven issues over a period of two years. Since then he has continued to document the local Toronto punk scene. Aldo is also one of the co-directors of The Last Pogo Jumps Again, a comprehensive feature length documentary on the 1970’s Toronto and area punk scene produced and directed by Colin Brunton (Roadkill, Highway 69, Hedwig And The Angry Inch), which is currently in post-production with a late 2010 scheduled release.

The Diodes Myspace
Bongo Beat Records
ToBeScene Productions