NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

Neighbourhood Watch were from Fredericton, New Brunswick and existed between 1985 and 1988. They released a 7″ EP called Death At The Hands Of Time on Real World Records based in Durham, UK. There were a few other bands with the same name, though these guys used the Canadian spelling of neighbour with the “U” in there. It was no small feat for a band from eastern Canada to have a record out during this time period. In fact I would say this is the first punk 7″ from this entire area. The following is an interview I did in Febuary 2011 with their vocalist Grant Forsythe. Enjoy! MP3′s at the end as usual!

Tell me about the start of the band. When was it and who was in the band? Why did you start it?
Ciaron Lewis and I had talked on and off about starting a band because really, there was fuckall else to do. Although there was a very early version involving Pat Oanicia (who went on to sing for S.C.U.M.) and Rich Ivey, we didn’t really come into our own until late ’85 when Ciaron brought Nick Oliver into the fold. For quite a while we had no bassist. In fact our first show, we had to bring in my room mate to fill in. Finally we settled on Rob Melvin for bass. That was pretty much the first solid line-up we had. It’s the line-up you hear on the 7″ EP and on the No Frontiers compilation EP. It was also the line-up that was on the first tour.
By the time we got back we were plagued with a line up that slowly kept changing. Other former members included:
Bill Brown, Tim Gorman, James Hamilton, Daren Greene, Steve Vienot, Johnny Whalen, Al Muir, Steve Duggan, and a few others who’s names I can’t remember at this time.

Neighbourhood Watch live in Fredericton, Dec 30th, 1986. Photo by Chris Vautour.

What was the scene in NB like at the time? Was there any sort of rivalry between Fredericton and other cities in NB or with Halifax?

I know there was a difference of opinion with the SJ (Saint John, NB) crew, but a rivalry? Fuck no. The scenes were just too small to warrant that kind of foolishness. I don’t recall any rivalry with HFX either. The HFX kids were always awesome when we hit there. I think we were somewhat tight with System Overload and Shane from Early Warning Syndrome is still a pal of mine to this day.

Did you do much touring? Any cool show/tour stories?
We only did two tours which went up to Ontario and back and that was in the summers of ’86 and ’87. I think even some of the shittier gigs were cool. We, along with The Jellyfish Babies and Florida’s No Fraud totally got screwed by a promoter in Ottawa and he pretty much had to be threatened with a baseball bat to get any money from him, but it was a wicked fun show. Ironically it wasn’t until two years ago when I was drinking with Colleen that we realised that we were both on that same bill and didn’t know it! We made friends with some bands like Problem Children, SCUM, etc…Cool tour stories? Not sure how cool, but some definitely memorable ones. We were staying at a punk house in MTL and I forgot exactly what was so funny but I fell backwards into a door and it flew open and there was this guy with his lady friend and his bare ass up in the air for all of us and SUDDEN IMPACT to see. There was much hilarity. Some loon in HFX tried to convince us that the street we parked on outside the YWCA was his property.

Montreal 1987 w/ SCUM

How did you get hooked up Real World Records in the UK?
I ordered a copy of a zine called 10 Years On and mentioned in my letter I was in a band. He asked for a copy of our Coming Of Age demo for review. He liked it and interviewed us. Then told us he was starting a lable and would we be interested in releasing the demo on vinyl. Naturally we jumped at the chance.




What about Guilt Parade – were they an influence or were you around about the same time?

Guilt Parade and NW were both around at the same time and would share bills from time to time. I don’t think either band had an influence on the other to be honest. If you can find it, get their “Animals That Talk Like Men” demo. It’s hands down the best thing they ever did and a total barn burner! (Ian – Oh you can find it on this blog!! – http://howcantheyintendtoheal.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/guilt-parade/ )

Dec 30th, 1986

When and why did the band break up?
I think our last show was in the summer of ’88. The band had gone through so many member changes that we spent more time teaching people the old songs than doing anything new. Nick was tired of doing it I think. Our last show resulted in a flooded building and some very pissed off people (I was channeling my inner Lee Ving that night.)
Other than Rob Melvin I still stay in contact with most of the former members.

Check out their Death At The Hands Of Time 7″ plus 2 live sets (Hamilton, ON 1986, Fredericton, NB 1988) and the song Time To Care off the No Frontiers comp 7″. The Coming Of Age demo is nowhere to be found just yet, but I have just found the Rage demo from 1986 and is now included!

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH MP3′s

Listen to the 7:


Or listen to the Rage demo here:

More photos:

The band also did some reunion shows in 2015 and have actually gotten back to together to record some new songs. Keep an eye out for that on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NeighbourhoodWatchBand/

Here is some footage from that tour:

SLOW DEATH

Slow Death were a punk/hardcore band from Summerside, Prince Edward Island circa 1984. Arguably, they were the first straight edge band in Canada and certainly the first punk or hardcore band from PEI. They released one demo tape in 1985 and did a small amount of local touring, gaining some moderate attention at the time. I tracked down drummer Dale Hussey for a look back almost 30 years in the past.

UPDATE July 2016 - The Slow Death demo tape as now been released on 7" vinyl by Unknown Coast Records. Pick up a copy here: Unknown Coast Records

Basic starter question – who was in the band and how did it all start? What year would this have been?

The band was my brother Dan on vocals, Jeff Tarka on guitar, Steve Ellis on bass and myself on drums. Jeff was a longtime military base-rat buddy of ours and he was pretty good on guitar and Dan was playing some guitar too and writing songs. One day Dan decided to buy some drums and put me to work and that was the beginning I guess…we met Steve at high school and hit it off. This would be say 1984 or 83…fuzzy.

Tell me about what was going on musically in PEI at the time…were there any other punk bands around?

We were in our own world musically for sure…I guess there were shit cover bands and stuff around as well as school bands but we were the only punk band around…hell if it wasn’t for our military base friends we were the only punks around.

In Kill The Posers #1 zine (included in the demo download!) you say you were a straight edge band. How did you even find out about straight edge in PEI? Were there any other straight edge bands in Canada that you knew of? Were you the first??

We were born of boredom and frustration with what was going on around us…the booze guzzling townfolk and jocks were just doing their thing and so were we, but they really didn’t dig what we were doing so we tried to separate ourselves from them as much as possible. We were aware of bands like Minor Threat etc. but it was more a personal choice thing than anything…clear your mind. I had my fair share of alcohol and experimental drugs at a very young age.

You also mentioned in that zine you hadn’t made up your mind about anarchy…how do you feel about it now? Haha

Anarchy…hmmm well i’m not one to preach politics but i know when something is fucked. At the time, for myself, anarchy was more about being responsible for your actions and trusting people to make good decisions…didn’t always work out but i still try to live that way.

How important was the link between skateboarding and punk rock at this time?

Skateboarding was my link to punk rock and vise versa…no rules and no limits…just yourself. When I started skating I didn’t know what I was doing but it felt right…same with music.

You released a demo tape. Do you remember anything about recording it. Once it was done, how did you get it out to the masses? Any idea how many copies of it you made?

A guy named Jim Streight recorded the demo with us. He worked at the post office and had some gear…he had recorded bands before and seemed interested in doing something different…Steve and Dan made the connection and so we recorded it out at the military base in place called the teen club which was just a hang out for the underage crew on the base…I’m pretty sure it all went down in a day and live off the floor…I dont remember overdubs of any sort…we were just stoked to hear ourselves because we really had no idea what we sounded like. I think i had been playing drums for like a few weeks at this point…haha
Dan was our distributor…any band we knew of and all the mags at the time were sent a copy as well as any radio show we thought might pay a listen. We use to stay up late listening to Brave New Waves on CBC and catch some cool bands being played and one night there we were going out across the airwaves…it was a trip. I do remember one review from MRR comparing us to the Minutemen and that was crazy to me…I loved the Minutemen! I forget how many copies we made – I think 500 rings a bell but Dan would know for sure. My only copy was stolen at a party at my place one night…still trying to get my hands on an OG version.

Did you get to tour around much?

Shows were mainly our basement parties or at friends’ houses…we did play a show at University Of New Brunswick with a band from the Boston area called Cancerous Growth and some local bands that we came to be good friends with. Steve our bass player had to bail very last minute and one of the bass players from an opening band that had heard our tape filled in on the spot…that’s punk! We also played a show at Veith House in Halifax as a 3 piece with Dan playing guitar and singing…everything else was random…we did get a call to play a show in Montreal opening for the Circle Jerks but our guitar player at the time was bound for the military and he bailed…ah well.

I know you went on to many other bands like Rebecca West…what else have you and the other guys been up to?

Dan and I also had a band here in Halifax later called Merge along with Kevin Lewis and longtime base buddy Paul “The Wookie” Murray which led me to Rebecca West and now I still jam with The Art Department(AndyMiller/Peter Boileau).Dan had a 2pc. band called Sanisoft for sometime here in halfax after Merge parted ways. I believe Jeff went on to his military career and I kinda lost touch with Steve…perhaps he is on facecrack somewhere…he was super smart and way more political than the rest of us…who knows!

That about sums up my life in high school and the first year I lived in Halifax with Slow Death. Maybe a 30 year reunion gig at the bowl should go down…I will keep you posted!!!

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And of course you can download the demo (plus a show flyer and old zine interview) here:

SLOW DEATH

or listen here: