by Chris Walter
Patrol cars continued to arrive on the scene, and soon the entire block was in lockdown. Guests no longer able to leave peacefully via the front door began to panic. Chi Pig and others ran down the stairs and pried open a basement window. Finally, the trapped punks wriggled out through the small opening and dashed for safety. Evan C. Jones describes the mayhem on the front lawn: “A cop smashed a can of beer out of a girl’s hand, and then he fuckin’ picked up a big wine bottle and smashed it over her head. She was out fuckin’ cold, man!” Evan wasn’t able to save anyone, and he and many other terrified partygoers ran for the hills, ducking through yards and hiding behind fences. Although a number of guests ended up in jail that night, a larger number escaped, including Mark Stretch Mark, who knocked a cop down with a solid right hook. The police action was so over the top that those who attended the party remember the unprovoked violence to this day. “Those fucking pigs just went wild on us punks, man,” Evan remembers, still amazed. Back then, punk rock was seen as a serious threat to law and order. “That was a wild weekend!” agrees Ken Chinn.
SNFU returned home the next day in Slavek’s hemi Plymouth, feeling just a tad wasted from all the partying. The money they spent came from their own pockets, but the food they had eaten came from people within the scene who wanted to help. Although the hardcore community in Winnipeg was beginning to show signs of wear even by the summer of ’83, there was still a solid network of punks on which touring bands could rely. Winnipeg would remain a favoured tour stop for many years.
Back in Edmonton, the hardcore scene was still heating up. In August, The Unwanted and Last Gasp made the trip from Winnipeg for a show at the Spartan Men’s Club with SNFU and newcomers SMJ. Gigs in Edmonton were now as hairy as shows in Winnipeg were a year or two earlier. Unlike Winnipeg punks, who had lousy jobs or were on welfare, the Edmonton punks worked in the oil industry, construction, or the trades. With that extra cash came increased consumption, and the level of debauchery was higher. Violence in the pit, while bloody and brutal, seemed almost good-natured, and those involved didn’t seem to bear any ill will towards each other after a fight. Last Gasp singer Duncan Pimlott recalls the show fondly. “The Edmonton crowd was awesome beyond words, and I still remember seeing a guy doing a gal doggy style in a field next to the hall after the show.” Again, the isolated location of Spartan’s gave guests freedom to do as they pleased.
A brawl between Evan and Jimmy outside a party one night threatened to destroy unity within the band. When Jimmy’s girlfriend Cheryl got in Evan’s face after he told her to fuck off, Evan made the situation worse by pushing her down. Furious, Cheryl ran into the party and told Jimmy that Evan had punched her. Jimmy, of course, had no choice but to defend his girlfriend. “All I remember is the door flying open and Jimmy coming straight for me,” recalls Evan. “Then he was on top of me punching my face in. Jimmy got me up and slammed my face onto a car trunk.” The band had practice later that week, and Evan showed up with a puffy black eye and numerous contusions. “He got me pretty good,” recalls the drummer. Cheryl later told Jimmy that Evan didn’t actually punch her, but Evan admits that it probably wasn’t a good idea to lay hands on the girl.
Encouraged by the level of support they were getting from the punk community, SNFU practiced with enthusiasm and vigour. The focus centred on original material, and cover songs had all but disappeared from the set list. Unlike pub bands that had no choice but to play current hits of the day, SNFU were under no such obligation. They weren’t eking out a meager existence on the bar circuit playing music written by other people, and at least they had autonomy. If the band did achieve any sort of commercial success, they would do it on their own terms. Not that they stayed up late wondering when Rolling Stone would put them on the cover, but SNFU were quickly becoming local celebrities.
All too soon, summer was over and fall arrived. The guys could hardly wait until November when it would be time to record the song for Something To Believe In. Even the prospect of the drive across the frozen and ice-bound prairies was not enough to quell their excitement. What were a few snowdrifts when they stood between the band and the recording studio? On September 30th, as leaves fell from the trees and dogs shivered, SNFU did yet another show at the Spartan Men’s Club, this one with Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra and Huron Death Patrol. Some of the new bands lasted only a gig or two, but some, such as Jerry Jerry, would go on to record albums and tour nationally. Since Gubby Szvoboda had a standing damage deposit on Spartan’s, SNFU did another show there with Down Syndrome a month later on October 29th. While nothing particularly noteworthy occurred, the gig was pleasingly crowded and the bands well received. In fact, there seemed to be more kids at every show. From the suburbs they came, pockets full of money for shirts, beer, and stickers. SNFU was earning a little money even without albums to sell.
In early November, the bandmembers, with the exception of Bunt, piled into a car belonging to Daryl Stenson for the trip to Winnipeg. By now, the journey almost seemed familiar, and they felt like tour-hardened rock stars on their way to record their next platinum album. Even without an advance to match the huge sums of money so famously received by the Sex Pistols, SNFU was happy to be part of a record that would be available worldwide. Anything could happen now.
Success these days smelled like Kraft Dinner, and SNFU was living large when they rolled into Winnipeg. Friends and fans in the city of mosquitoes and ice made sure that the boys did not suffer unduly, but there was not a lot of money to throw around. Brent was in college and couldn’t make the trip with the rest of SNFU, so he flew in that night. Unlike his bandmates, Brent had saved a little money from part-time jobs. The next day, the slightly hungover musicians found their way to Mid Ocean Studios on Erin Street and got to work. There was plenty of joking and horsing around, but SNFU eventually recorded “Victims of The Womanizer,” their strongest song so far. Because the singer was not interested in women sexually and did not see them as objects, he was in a better position to observe the predatory nature of his heterosexual counterparts. Biased or not, he cast a harsh light on a subject that few dared to touch.
Now she’s just another victim of The Womanizer
He’s gonna take her home, get her drunk, then fuck her.
But he don’t care ‘cause he got laid
and proved to the world that he isn’t gay.
These lyrics had extra meaning for Chi Pig, who wasn’t exactly leading the Pride Parade. While he wasn’t in the closet, few people actually knew the singer was gay. Aside from the strong political message, the song, with its mid-tempo beat and sing-along gang-style backup vocals, was instantly memorable. The Unwanted, who were also recording for the compilation, were available to drink beer and tell jokes. Upon hearing Brent Belke record his lead guitar tracks, Ken “Goony” Fleming of The Unwanted commented that Brent sounded like Ace Frehley. “I still remember that because it struck me as rather odd,” laughs Brent. Goony and Unwanted frontman Norm Simm also provided backup vocals on “Victims.” Because the budget was small and they weren’t perfectionists, the two bands wrapped the session up quickly and headed to Wellington’s for a chaotic and sweaty show. As always, Winnipeg loved SNFU.
Back in E-Town, life went on. The Unwanted and Last Gasp were so pleased with their last show in Edmonton that they booked another engagement at Spartan’s for December 17th with SNFU and Entirely Distorted. Of course, the prairies were frozen solid and driving conditions were poor. Last Gasp and The Unwanted eventually arrived from Winnipeg in a bronze-coloured ’78 Dodge Tradesman 200 van belonging to Yoda, who played bass for Last Gasp. The bands loaded in for soundcheck, happy just to be in out of the freezing cold. Hardy Canadians were familiar with frigid temperatures, and even full-on blizzards scarcely affected attendance at gigs.
At the time, Muc was dating a lovely teenager named Liz Rees, who was widely considered the hottest punk girl on the scene. Liz’s little brother Dave drummed for Entirely Distorted, and she may have mentio
ned to Marc that they would love to open for SNFU. Marc not only added Entirely Distorted to the bill with Last Gasp, but the youngsters also began to open for SNFU on a regular basis. He didn’t mind that Entirely Distorted were too young to enter licensed premises because Spartan’s had no liquor licence to begin with. Dave Rees and bandmates Tom “Mot” Pfalz and bassist Darren Vanstone, played as hard as they could that night, eager to make a name for themselves in the Edmonton punk scene. Dave Rees didn’t know it yet, but he would eventually become more closely involved with SNFU than he could have imagined.
Although the show on December 17th was a big success, the trip home for Last Gasp and The Unwanted was another matter. Somehow, the van now contained thirteen people, plus all the musical gear. With temperatures plunging to -30° Celsius, not including wind chill, Yoda drove carefully across the frozen tundra in a raging blizzard, the van handling like an overloaded shopping cart with two dodgy wheels. “Scared shitless we was,” Unwanted frontman Norm Simm admits. Incredibly, all thirteen of the lucky punks made it home alive.
Brent remembers that his mom and dad came to see SNFU open for British punk legends GBH at Scandals just three days later on December 19th, 1983. “They were sitting at a table in the corner, buying drinks for all our friends. By now, they saw punk rock as nothing more than a prairie dance, with everyone drinking beer and having a good time. My dad said we were just as good as the other band (GBH), and that they were just older.” Later, Mrs. Belke asked another mother at the show if she was worried about her son’s involvement in the scene. She was shocked when the woman said her biggest fear was that her son would forget to brush his teeth on tour. While Mrs. Belke was worried that her sons would become drug addicts, the other woman was only afraid that her boy might fall victim to poor dental hygiene. “That was the least of my mother’s concerns,” laughs Bunt. The boys would tour the world many times over the next two decades, returning inevitably with their teeth in good shape.
Although it would take many years, the Belkes eventually told Brent and Marc that they were proud of them. “We didn’t OD, and we didn’t fall by the wayside. Instead, we got a big colour picture on the music section of the local newspaper,” Brent relates, although “success” didn’t happen overnight. Even after the boys began to make money, the Belkes would have preferred their sons to be gainfully employed elsewhere. The music business was too flighty.
The Christmas holidays came and went, as did New Year’s Eve. The boys laid low for a while, but on April 27th and 28th, 1984, SNFU took a trip to Calgary for two shows at HC’s. The group was less than two years old, but they were already headlining shows out-of-town. Although it seemed to the guys that they had been grinding it out in the trenches forever, things were actually moving quickly for the young punk rockers. On this occasion, Calgary received SNFU as returning heroes and the club was packed to the rafters with excited fans. But for the young musicians, success couldn’t happen fast enough. Why was it taking so long to be recognized? They wanted it all and they wanted it now.
On May 19th, the boys did a show at Spartan’s with the Stretch Marks and Euthanasia. While all three bands had played together before and would share other bills in the future, attendance was again remarkable, and the groups were enthusiastically received. The Edmonton punks were excited partly because spring was finally here, but also because they finally had a band to call their own. While Winnipeg and Calgary had to fight for ownership of Personality Crisis, Edmontonians had SNFU all to themselves.
SNFU completely took over the Spartan Men’s Club that halcyon summer of 1984, headlining shows almost every weekend. All they had to do was book the hall for the night in question and bring in whatever PA they could scrape together. The scene at Spartan’s peaked that summer, probably with a riotous Personality Crisis, SNFU, and White Noise show on July 20th. By now, SNFU had become old masters at dominating the crowd, and were even catching up to the mighty Personality Crisis in terms of putting on an energetic and spellbinding show. While those punks have all grown up and moved on, those sweltering nights at Spartan’s in July and August of ‘84 will live forever in their hearts and minds. For SNFU, however, the best was still to come.
When Something To Believe In was released in September, BYO received so much favourable feedback for “Victims of The Womanizer” that they offered SNFU a recording contract. Small indie labels such as BYO could not afford to offer big advances, but they shared the profits 50/50 after production costs were recouped. For SNFU, the future was looking bright, and they could hardy wait until December, when they would travel to LA to record their debut LP.
Marty Chatrin, who replaced Jamie Sword (RIP) as Euthanasia’s drummer in early 1984, remembers his first show supporting SNFU at Spartan’s later that fall. “All set to record in LA, SNFU were already ‘superstars’ in our small scene,” recalls Marty. “The thing I recall most about that show was that Evan ‘Tadpole’ Jones had the flu. Being a true diehard, he did the set even though he was very sick.” SNFU put on a great show as always, but Evan leaned forward at least twice to puke into a bucket he kept on the floor near his drums. Halfway through, the sick drummer accidentally knocked the bucket over and a chunky pool of vomit quickly spread out around his kit. With hundreds of sweaty punks slamming in the pit, the heat levels in the small club were atrocious, and the reek of puke soon wafted into the crowd. “I had to run out to the parking lot and choke back my own vomit before I could go back and watch them finish!” exclaims Marty, still gagging at the memory.
Marc Belke continued to bristle under the authority of his parents, and finally rented the Nose Dive at 116th Street and Jasper with Andy Rodgers and Chuck Andrewski. “I think Chuck committed suicide about ten years ago,” Marc says regretfully. Although Chi Pig didn’t live there initially, he named the house after the noses of Marc, Andy, and Chuck, who had larger beaks than he did. While the Nose Dive was beat up and rundown, the rent was cheap and neighbours could just knock on the door if they had a problem. Marc and Brent’s pretty girlfriends were often around, and noisy parties at the Nose Dive were common. Girl Scouts and religious organizations gave the house a wide berth.
Ready to leave for the Something To Believe In extravaganza at the Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg on August 17th, 1984, SNFU decided to bring a technically inclined musician named Dave Bacon along as roadie. The guys stopped at the Schnitzel House in Regina for a show with Personality Crisis and Youth Brigade. “That place kept changing names,” recalls Dave Bacon. “The kids were so starved for entertainment that they sort of went crazy whenever bands stopped there.” The infamous Billy Schuler accompanied the band to Winnipeg in his own vehicle. Billy was taking a fridge to Winnipeg, and the heavy appliance weighed down the rear end of his pickup truck considerably. This didn’t stop Bill from speeding up beside Otto’s van to hand him a joint. “We drove down the highway at a hundred miles an hour passing that joint back and forth,” Bacon recalls dryly. Just another crazy blip in the life of Billy “Shoe.”
The Winnipeg event, while vastly exciting, was also a little depressing. While almost every punk in Winnipeg was there, the grand old theatre still seemed half-empty. There was a sense of finality in the air and, for many, this would be the last time they would be in the same room together. Even though the show was one of the largest punk events ever held in Winnipeg, the hardcore scene was dying. Few in attendance knew it, but this was also the last show for local legends Personality Crisis, who were tired of suffering for their rock n’ roll.
SNFU gave the show everything they had, but the sense of desperation was hard to shake. “I remember that the sound was really bad,” says Marc Belke. “I didn’t even know how to ask for more monitors, and we just had to get through it as best we could.” Bunt Belke agrees that the show was a turning point in time. “It was the end of the underground scene, like the graduation ceremony or something.” Despite the death of first wave hardcore, SNFU would outlast most of the current bands, and only partly because they sta
rted later. With lyrics that defied the typical hardcore rhetoric, and music that went beyond the usual three-chord thrash, SNFU was able to avoid the fate that befell most of their peers.
Back in E-Town, the band did a few more shows as summer dwindled away. SNFU practiced hard and hung out with friends when they had time, just like always. The boys were excited when Jello Biafra asked them to open for the Dead Kennedys on an upcoming Canadian tour. As it turned out, promoter Cathy Cleghorn, who worked for Perry-scope Productions and also booked shows at the Smilin’ Buddha in Vancouver, felt that SNFU would be perfect to open for the Dead Kennedys. DOA manager Ken Lester, who was working with the Dead Kennedys at the time, put Cathy in touch with Jello Biafra. After listening to “Victims of The Womanizer” from the BYO compilation, the Dead Kennedys’ singer quickly agreed that SNFU was right for the tour.
Although the other members were a bit nervous about the tour, Brent Belke remembers feeling less than awed at the prospect of opening for the seminal punks from San Francisco. “I figured the Dead Kennedys were just some old guys. I saw Personality Crisis open for the Ramones in Calgary, and Personality Crisis blew them away. I was just into the youth movement, I guess.”
The DKs had already done two shows in Canada—one in Vancouver, and one in Calgary—and SNFU was to join them for the last four dates. Despite any negative thoughts Brent may have had about the American punk legends, he was excited to do the show simply for the new fans SNFU might attract. This would be a big deal, no question. Sure enough, the Edmonton show, held at the Sports World Roller Skating Centre on October 25th, 1984 was jammed to the rafters with punk fans who might not have been familiar with SNFU yet. Though most of SNFU’s current supporters had been with the band from the start, there were still many more potential fans waiting in the wings.