The Diodes

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The Diodes were a Canadian punk band in the heyday of punk from 1977 through 1980.

One of the first Toronto punk/New Wave groups, the Diodes were responsible for fostering the scene in this city. They opened the first Canadian punk club in 1977, called Crash 'n' Burn, where many of the city's punk bands at that time played. The club was the subject of a movie by experimental filmmaker Ross McLaren called, appropriately, Crash 'n' Burn, one of the few documents on film of this period in time, and an important punk document. Footage of the club in its heyday also exists in the CBC Television archives as it was the subject of a TV special in 1977.

The band put out their first record at this time, a split single with all-girl punk band The Curse, self-released on the Crash and Burn label. One side was called "War", the other "Raw", one of the first punk records to come out of Toronto. It was actually an issue of the CEAC Newsletter (published by the Centre For Experimental Art and Communication, the owners of the building that housed the Crash 'n' Burn club).

The club was closed in controversy due to complaints by the Liberal Party of Ontario (the principal tenants of the building). The club was open during the summer of 1977. The band brought up punk acts from the east coast of the U.S. to share the bill with, such as The Dead Boys, and joined Toronto punk bands The Viletones, Teenage Head and The Curse to perform in the States at CBGBs for a legendary bill. They released three albums - Diodes (1977), Released (1978) and Action-Reaction (1979) - and these three albums, their touring and the attention from the press put Toronto on the map along with London and New York City as the three hubs of alternative, punk, and new wave music as we know it today. The first band to play the club was The Nerves (Peter Case, Jack Lee, Paul Collins) on a double bill with The Diodes.

The Diodes toured the US east coast during the blizzard of 78 - hitting NYC, Boston and other cities. They opened for the Ramones and Runaways at the Agora Ballroom in Chicago to an encore! In the early 80s, the band hit the west coast for memorable gigs in LA and San Francisco (The Mabuhay). The Diodes also toured across Canada with U2 and Split Enz.

They later released an album of their greatest hits from those late-70's years, and these include "Tired of Waking Up Tired", "Noise", "Jenny's in a Sleep World", "Headache" and "Child Star". Though this album only contains songs from Diodes and Released, there are also several great energetic songs on the Action-Reaction album as well, including the title track, "That Was the Way it Was" and "Catwalker". Tired of Waking Up (The Best Of The Diodes) is on Sony Canada and contains in-depth liner notes on the band's history. "Action-Reaction" will be re-released in 2006 (including bonus tracks from the "Survivors" album).

Their final album, Survivors, came out in 1982, a compilation of un-released out-takes, demos, and live recordings. After that, the group gradually disbanded with each member going his own way. Singer Paul Robinson and guitarist John Catto currently live in London, UK. See http://www.bongobeat.com for more information on The Diodes.

The band re-united in 1999 for a one song/one performance only appearance on The Mike Bullard Show to promote the release of their Best Of CD.

1 Members
2 Trivia
3 External links
4 See also

[edit] Members

Paul Robinson - vocalist
John Catto - guitarist
Ian Mackay - bassist
John Corbett - bassist
John Hamilton - drummer
Mike Lengyell - drummer

[edit] Trivia

One story has it that The Diodes recorded their version of "Red Rubber Ball," a Cyrkle song co-written by Paul Simon, because Simon had said that he hated punk rock music. The story was mentioned by a reader who wrote to newspaper columnist Cecil Adams: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_324b.html