January 2010

The punk scene in Vancouver had a convoluted, love/hate relationship with the mainstream press. In the earliest days, there were few allies in the two daily newspapers, or the Georgia Straight. The Province’s Jeani Read showed some interest, but The Sun’s Vaughn Palmer was less than enthusiastic. That left the weekly Georgia Straight paper, which started life as a hippie counterculture publication in the late sixties, but by the mid-seventies it had started its transformation into the entertainment guide it is today.

From its beginnings at Pumps Gallery, punk in Vancouver has been closely tied to the art school/gallery scene. Here are some of the bands most closely identified with the “art punk” scene.

The Generators grew out of an earlier combo, The Rest, who played at the Japanese Hall in 1977. Led by Randy Pandora and Gary Bourgeois (aka Gary Middleclass), the Generators played a handful of shows in the first half of 1978 and recorded a proposed single, but it was never released (until I Wanna Be A Girl surfaced on Zulu Records’ Last Call compilation in 1991).