No More were a hardcore band from Hampton, New Brunswick in the early 1990's. I first heard them on a compilation cassette from Saint John, NB called No In-City Venue. They stood out on the comp for sounding much more on the hardcore side of things, rather than punk, which was very unusual in Atlantic Canada at the time. Until recently, I had never heard any other songs by them, but then I tracked down their demo tape from 1993 and posted it on YouTube. Then I found out about a second demo also from 1993 titled "Within" that I'll be posting for the first time today. I found out they played in Halifax and somehow I missed the show! I tracked down their singer Mark in Jan 2025 for this brief interview. You can also find all their recorded material on their Bandcamp HERE!
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| Band pic from the early 90's |
When did NO MORE start and who was in it? Had any of you been in bands previous to this?
We started jamming as a group of friends in middle school in 1989/90 figuring out our instruments, piecing together a drum kit, finding a basement where we could jam, locating amps and microphones. We would have various friends coming and going as the singer, bass player, guitar player at these sessions until we could really find out who was serious and could play as well. The band NO MORE was formed from this after school jam sessions in 1990/91 when we were 15 years old. The initial line up consisted of myself: Mark Marshall, vocals, Trevor Richard, guitar, Keith Whalen, bass guitar and Craig Jardine on drums. Chris Moore, who was 3 years older, had a driver’s license, access to a station wagon for gear, and could really play, joined the group as a second guitarist in 1993. No member of the band had really played with any other bands before we started NO MORE.
You recorded 2 demo tapes. Could you talk more about recording them. How many copies did you make?
The first demo tape we recorded in 1992 when we finally had enough original material and a solid set to play live. We paid $50 to track the 8 songs on a 4-track recorder in the basement of engineer Rob Lavigne, who owned his own place at the time. It was cool to be able to sit around and drink a few beers and play some hardcore without worrying about one of the guy’s parents walking in on us. Sounds funny now, but it was liberating feeling as a 16-year-old at the time. We laid down all the instruments live and overdubbed the vocals afterwards.
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| The first demo, recorded in 1992, but released in 1993. |
We recorded the second demo in 1993 after we added Chris as a second guitarist and had a new block of original songs. These recordings sound much better as engineer now had an 8-track recorder and we were able to separate the mixes a bit, plus we were also a better live band at that point as well. I don’t recall too much of this session other than we laid the musical tracks first and I cut class in grade 11 to record the vocals, as the engineer was working shift work and school day was the only time he was available.
I think we made about 30 copies of the first demo and 50 copies of the second demo. I would make the demo from my Sony tape to tape component.
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| Within demo tape from 1993 |
Did you ever play shows outside of New Brunswick?
I also recall playing in Halifax at a venue on Barrington Street in Halifax called Café Ole. I do not recall the other bands on the bill but we have a few pictures of the gig. I remember setting up and then sitting in the grass on Citadel Hill drinking a few beer in the dark before the show started. We had 5 guys loaded in a station wagon with all our gear for the trip to Nova Scotia. It was a tight squeeze, but I do recall it being a ton of fun.
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| Flier from Sept 10, 1993 at Cafe Ole in Halifax! |
I do remember our moms having a meeting to discuss if they were going to allow us to drive down and play the gig. Five moms sitting around the kitchen table drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes debating if they should let their punk teens pile into a station wagon to play a hardcore show in a city 5 hours from their hometown. Of course they let us!
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| Live at Cafe Ole in Halifax. Diggin that Gorilla Biscuits shirt! |
Can you talk more about the scene in Hampton? What was it about Hampton that there were so many bands from there, and not from right in Saint John?
The scene in Hampton was fun. All the kids in the area attended the same middle school and high school, and there was a big crowd of kids who were skaters (me included), listened to thrash metal or early Metallica, punk and hardcore music. Any time there was an all-ages show most everyone attended. Bands like the Scapegoats, White Minority, NFA, Dead Corps, Lizard, anytime they would perform everyone would come out to support. Everyone wanted to be at the show and/or a part of the show, so bands started to pop up in Hampton, including No More, Unorthodox, Stay, and NYD. Hampton seemed to be a breeding ground for punk/rock bands – we were all just having a blast hanging out and playing music.
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| Flier from July 2, 1992 in Hampton, NB opening up for Random Killing |
Most bands from New Brunswick were very punk influenced, or even early hardcore (Minor Threat, Bad Brains etc) but No More seemed to have more of an influence by second wave hardcore (Revelation Records bands) as evidence by your Youth of Today and Inside Out Covers. Where did the influence come from? How were you hearing stuff like that at the time. Also I assume the band is named after a Youth of Today song!
NO MORE was heavily influenced by Revelation Record artists, like Youth of Today and the Gorilla Biscuits. I think it was the vibe and the messaging. We were not a straight edge band, like Youth of Today, but I know I personally liked the positive messages, stand up and unite around what you believe in no matter the cause. We were also influenced by bands like Agnostic Front and the Cro-Mags, the heavy edgy sound. Like most kids discovering music before the internet, we did it at your friend’s place listening to records or at the local independent record shop. My older cousin had a huge vinyl collection of everything from Black Flag, GBH, Agnostic Front, Exploited, early Iron Maiden, you name it he had a copy, and I would spend hours poring over his collection anytime I was at his place. Mail order was also huge. I would order many of the Revelation artists like Youth of Today, Inside Out, Judge directly through the Revelation Mail Order catalogue. Yes NO MORE band name was borrowed from a Youth of Today song.
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| The drummer rockin a BOLD shirt at Cafe Ole in Halifax |
When and why did the band break up? Did members go on to play in any other bands after?
The band broke up in 1994 when the core of the group was its final year of high school. Girls, life, jobs, secondary education plans all kinds of different reasons, got in the way of the band continuing after everyone started to go their own way after high school. We never played a show after 1994 but most of us have remained friends over the last 30+ years and still communicate regularly, visit with each other, have stood up in each other’s wedding and all that fun stuff along the way.
Thanks for allowing me to reflect on our short-lived hardcore career. It was fun to dive back into the memory bank after all these years.
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| Recent photo of the band! |
