The Viletones

The Viletones perform at Larry's Hideaway, Toronto, 1980

The Viletones were a Canadian punk band from Toronto, led by Steven Leckie, a.k.a. "Nazi Dog" or "Dog" on vocals.^[1] Other members from the original line-up were Freddie Pompeii, (some sources list him as 'Frederick DePasquale') on guitar/vocals; Chis Hate (Chris Paputts), on bass guitar/vocals and Mike Anderson, a.k.a. "Motor X" on the drums/vocals.^[2] They were active during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Career

The Viletones were the first generation punk rock bands from Toronto. Leckie himself was infamous for cutting himself up on stage, footage of such can be found at the CBC Archives.^[3] They appeared in magazines all over the world.

From July 7–10, 1977 the group joined The Diodes and Teenage Head at famed New York punk club CBGB at a showcase featuring "three outrageous punk bands from Toronto, Canada". Eminent rock critic Lester Bangs described the show in an April 29, 1981 article for the Village Voice: "This guy Natzee Dog hung from the rafters, crawled all over the stage, and hurled himself on the first row until his body was one huge sore. Somebody asked me what I thought and I said, 'Fine with me - in 1972 every band in the world was Grand Funk, now every band in the world is the Stooges.' I didn't tell Natzee Dog that, though; I told him: 'You guys were cooler with hockey haircuts.'"

Also that year, The Viletones released their first single, "Screamin Fist" b/w "Possibilities" and "Rebel" on their own label Vile Records.^[4]

In 1978, they released Look Back In Anger,^[5] which featured the songs "Don't You Lie" and "Dirty Feeling", b/w "Back Door To Hell", "Swastika Girl" and "Danger Boy". The same year Pompeii, Hate and X abruptly left The Viletones. The now former Viletones joined up with ex-Diode John Hamilton in The Secrets.

At the Rock Against Radiation concert in Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, on July 19, 1980, The Viletones shared a bill with DOA, Stark Naked and The Fleshtones, Forgotten Rebels and Joe College and The Rulers.

In 1983, a reunited Viletones released their first full-length album, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, recorded live at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto. Later that decade, they released a U.S.-only release, Live At Max's. In 1994, a record label, Other Peoples Music, released a retrospective, A Taste Of Honey. In 1997, Leckie released the What It Feels Like To Kill album which included the controversial track "Nailed" which he fraudulently released claiming himself as composer, after visiting the actual songwriter Stuart Harrison in the early 90's in Manchester England. He ran art gallery in Toronto called Fleurs Du Mal and made a brief appearance in the film, American Psycho.

A reference to their song, "Screamin Fist", turned up in the pages of Neuromancer, a novel by William Gibson.

Other members of the Viletones include Screamin' Sam Ferrara/bass, Tony Vincent/drums, Steven Stergiu/guitar, Conrad Wiggins/guitar.

The Viletones 2007 line-up consisted of Steven Leckie (vocals), Steve Scarlet/The Sinisters/Drunkula (guitar)^[6] and Jeff Zurba (drums.)

Discography

• 1977 A Taste of Honey^[7]
• 1978 Look Back in Anger EP
• 1998 What It Feels Like to Kill

References

External links

• Viletones Official Website
• Steven Leckie's Facebook page