Out of
the crutches of castles, the rags of civilization, came A Neon Rome.
Formed in early 1984 they were born into a post punk, cold war world
that was artistically void and ripe for the taking.
By the time the Magical Summer of ‘85' rolled around they
were the resident band for the popular Elvis Monday's at The Beverly
Tavern in Toronto, recording their first album and about to pack the
premier Larry's Hideaway for their first truly headlining show. They
soon had a solid following in Toronto and other towns along the 401.
Their
live shows were wild, provocative and unpredictable. Singer Neal Arbick
was the perfect blend of Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and Jim Morrison filtered
through his own unique persona. Neal would stay up for days cutting hundreds of
gig posters into the shape of a cross and hand painting each one. He would
spray paint the band name in strategic locations around town and cover the city
with posters advertising nothing but the band itself through a series of poems
with headlines like “Attention Heroin Addicts”. Whether you were a music
fan or not, if you lived in Toronto you knew the name, A Neon Rome. Other band
members at this time were, John Borra (Bass), Kevin Niziol
(Guitar), Ian Blurton (Drums) and Bernard Maiezza (Keys).
In March
of 1987 their debut record “New Heroin” was released in Europe on
France’s New Rose Records and later in Canada on Elliot Lefko’s Right
Side Records. The English press gushed over the album declaring it the best
thing to come out of Canada since…etc. By this time the band had a whole batch
of new songs and were eager to start recording their second record to be titled
“All The Children Are In”.
Sometime
in 1987, the up and coming
director Bruce Macdonald, a long time fan of the band decided to make a
documentary style film about the band on tour through Northern Ontario. Much
like the Sex Pistols tour of Texas it would document this downtown freak show
in small town Ontario. The band’s current drummer Dogface lived in a
giant warehouse, would only wear shoes in the dead of winter and didn’t bathe
for months on end. He had brought in a former mental patient named Tootsie,
a giant man who played homemade percussion instruments and carried everything
he owned around in a number large bags he’d made out of old denim and leather.
Neal also started fasting and, with the exception of singing, began taking long
vows of silence. A loose script was written by the then unknown Don Mckellar
around a female lead to provide a modicum of stability to this volatile
situation. By the time the movie was ready to go into production the band was
in tatters and was in no shape to go on. Don wrote a fictional script with some
characters and events based on the band and the movie was made into the award
winning cult classic “Roadkill”. The band had finished their second
record but it was never released.
Now 20 years after their break up in 1989 they are
releasing “A Neon Rome” on Cd and iTunes. The new record
contains almost every song from “New Heroin” and a track from the now
infamous unreleased second record “All The Children Are In”. The album
is being released on John Borra’s Cousin Jeb Records. With the exception
of a track on the “Elvis Monday Compilation” that came out in 1993 this
is the first time A Neon Rome’s music has been available in a digital format.
“New Heroin” feels magnificent, like being ravaged by white
sleet and crimson noise…Listening to this is a) something to do a lot of, and
b) Like being knighted for inventing weightlessness inside a brittle seashell,
kneeling between Lady Jane Gray and Salome…They merit your most severe
attention.” – Melody Maker – 1987
“New Heroin builds and maintains an atmosphere as
successfully as ‘Marquee Moon’, and on the evidence of this debut by the men of
Toronto, it could well be time to wheel out the old
best-thing-to-come-out-of-Canada-since vehicle and present the keys to A
Neon Rome in perpetuity… Not so much awesome as awe-all. Groan, but it’s
true.” – Sounds – 1987