In Search of Lost Venues

Adrian Teacher plays in the band Apollo Ghosts. He has also been in the projects Cool TV, Adrian Teacher and the Subs and the solo venture, Arbutus. This conversation was recorded on August 26th, 2024. Venues visited: The Toast Collective was a "grassroots nerve centre for new bands, art movements, community projects, and activism," which started around 2010. It was located at 648 Kingsway and whe...

. Julie Colero played the flute at one show in the band The Countless Jibes. She was the music director of CiTR for three years 1998-2001 as well as hosting a show for many years. She was also an organizer of the Vancouver music festival, Music Waste, for many years in the 2010s Venues visited: Guys and Dolls was a pool hall at 2434 Main Street which sometimes had shows. Vert was a skate shop on M...

Jade Blade was the lead vocalist and guitar player for legendary Vancouver   punk band The Dishrags. The band played the first punk show in Vancouver on July 30, 1977. This conversation took place on August 25, 2024. Venues visited: The Japanese Hall on the 400 block of Alexander Street is still the Vancouver Japanese Language School, a cultural centre. The building is from 1928.   It hosted the f...

Welcome to Season 2, starting next week with a very exciting guest. 

Celina Kurz has been playing in bands since she was in high school. Her current projects is Future Star. Former bands are True Crush and Kidnap Kids (originally Bears and Chairs) and has played in others, including The Trolls and Only A Visitor. Venues visited: The Mansion was a venue for house shows on Victoria and Adanac.   Astorino's was the venue for the Safe Amplification Site Society (Safe A...

Veda Hille is a beloved Vancouver musician, composer, theatre maker, and performer. She first played in a band called Mudlarks and started making records under her own name in 1991. She also had a children's band called Duplex. She has been involved in music, art, and theatre for several decades, creating and collaborating in many genres. This conversation took place on May 14th 2024. Venues visit...

Stephen Hamm played in Vancouver bands starting in the early 1980s, including Slow, Canned Hamm, Jungle, Tankhog and Nardwuar And The Evaporators. The Georgia Straight once called him 'semi legendary.' His current solo show is based around Theremin and Synthesizer. This conversation was recorded on April 16th 2024. John Barley's, at  23 W. Cordova St reet, has been a music venue under many names (...

Gary Smith was a founding founder of the synthesizer-based Vancouver band Images in Vogue in 1981, after playing in various bands as a teenager. He went on to a later career as a music video producer and assistant director in film and TV. The conversation was recorded on March 14th, 2024. Luv-a-fair ( 1275 Seymour Street) started life as a gay dance club in 1975, but soon attracted a wide audience...

Bruce Dyck was the drummer in Fun 100, the B-Lines, You Say Party, They Shoot Horses and LeMaster. he is also the author of "Three reincarnations of the Smilin' Buddha Cabaret: Entertainment, gentrification, and respectability in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside 1952-84" a Master's thesis at SFU. Ryan Dyck was the vocalist in Fun 100 and B-Lines. He was the label manager at Mint Records and ran Hocke...

Ida Nilsen has played in Beans, Cunt, Great Aunt Ida, the Buttless Chaps, Radiogram, The Gay and others. Ida was involved with The Sugar Refinery venue as a musician, employee and owner. The Sugar Refinery was a vegetarian restaurant and music venue from the mid '90s to 2003 at 1115 Granville Street. It was known for fostering local music projects which were experimental, collaborative, and whimsi...

Scott Morgan is best known as the electronic music project loscil . He previously played in Meet Daisy, Thee Crusaders, Destroyer, The Multiplex and others. The Blinding Light! was an underground cinema which ran from 1998-2003 at 36 Powell Street. Founded by Alex MacKenzie as a follow-up to his Edison Electric Gallery of Moving Images (1995-1997), the space housed a cafe, a gallery and a 110-seat...

Lindiwe Coyne performed as Wandering Lucy in the 1990s and her music came out on K Records. Her Discorder cover story is here . Her live set on CiTr's Live from Thunderbird Radio Hell is here . The Malcolm Lowry Room was at 4125 Hastings Street in Burnaby, operated by the writer Michael Turner  as a music venue in the mid-1990s. It was previously the North Burnaby Inn, a stripclub. Other venues di...

Nicholas Krgovich has played in the bands p:ano, Burquitalam Plaza, Slavs, No Kids and also under his full name. This conversation was recorded on November 14th 2023. The Sugar Refinery was a vegetarian restaurant and music venue from the mid '90s to 2003 at 1115 Granville Street. It was known for fostering local music projects which were experimental, collaborative, and whimsical. It was the site...

Larissa Loyva has played in p:ano, Kellarissa, Fake Tears, the Choir Practice, How to Dress Well, Destroyer, Dream/loss. Jonelle Aspa has been in the bands Sontag, Hen Party, Anybodys and Dream/loss. Both are involved in organizing Girls Rock Camp Vancouver. This conversation was recorded on December 29 2023. The Secret Location was a venue, rehearsal space and artists' studios collective located...

Harley Rothstein's first band was the folk duo Russ and Harley. He then played in the psychedelic rock bands The French Hand Laundry, Pacific Nation and My Indole Ring.    The conversation was recorded on August 30 2023. Russ and Harley played at The Bunkhouse, a folk music coffee house at 612 Davie Street in the 1960s. The rock bands played at The Retinal Circus at 1024 Davie Street in 1967 and 1...

Adrienne LaBelle has played in The Barcelona Chair, Aunts and Uncles, Movieland, Garbage Dreams, Supermoon, Lazy Bear. Venues visited: Red Gate (855 East Hastings), 121 Heatley, Hoko's (362 Powell), The Astoria (769 E Hastings), Spirit Vegetable studio (876 Cordova Diversion), Ironworks Studio, the Zoo Zhop (223 Main Street), Chapel Arts (305 Dunlevy Other venues mentioned: La Casa del Artista, To...

Chris Alscher AKA Chris-A-Riffic played with the band They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and has performed as a solo artist for several decades. He is a radio host on CiTR, the University of British Columbia radio station, with his show Parts Unknown which has been on the air for over two decades. We walk down Main Street from 29th avenue to 22nd avenue, discussing Little Mountain Gallery, Chroma Book...

Welcome to In Search of Lost Venues , where I walk through a neighbourhood with one or more Vancouver musicians, talking about the sites and locations of their favourite venues, places where significant events occurred, both personal and artistic.   In this season you will hear conversations with: Chris-a-Riffic about Little Mountain Studios and other venues on Main Street Adrienne LaBelle about t...