Nash the Slash

-- Fritz Wollner (fritzwollner5...), Today 3:59 PM. (Fritz) (later)

that's what i thought! also: not sundar

do you guys know max webster? the headpins? the killer dwarfs (sic)? the kings?

sorry, slocki!

How serious that rumour was, I dunno.

Whatever Happened to Nash the Slash

Living under the city
Living down with the subway trains
Mummy's rags like a second skin
Silk top-hat and electric violin

Down below where he couldn't be seen
Down below alone with his machines
There's a phantom living underneath the street
Down the stairs you can hear him under your feet

And whatever happened to the underground
It's a midnight movie for the folks out of town
Here and gone in a second's flash
Whatever happened to Nash the Slash

The invisible man with his reel to reel
Electric drone and feedback squeal
Dressed to the nines as the night comes on
See him in a taxi-cab in the light of dawn

Playing to strike a nerve
Glass Eye and Dead Man's Curve
See his name scrawled on the subway walls
With Armand Schaubroeck Steals and the New York Dolls

And whatever happened to the underground
It's a midnight movie for the folks out of town
Here and gone in a second's flash
Whatever happened to Nash the Slash

Working On The Radio", by The 102.1 Band, 1979

Written and recorded by members of Toronto's CFNY, this song was most likely an inspiration for Rush's "The Spirit of Radio", both musically and thematically. Released in January the following year, the driving riff of "The Spirit of Radio" is obviously similar to the one used in this song, and Alex's guitar solo is similar to this song's solo performed by "special guest" Nash the Slash on electric violin (a member of the band FM, he later left for a solo career and was replaced by Ben Mink). Like "The Spirit of Radio", the song itself is a similar tribute to CFNY, the same 'Spirit of Radio' credited in the Permanent Waves linernotes. In addition, original Canadian pressings of Permanent Waves (with the Dewey Defeats Truman cover), have Anthem catalog number "ANR-1-1021" and 1021 pressed into the center grooves.
"There is a radio station in Toronto called CFNY-FM, who were in the late 'seventies just about the last of the truly 'free' radio stations in North America, playing all kinds of weird stuff. Their slogan was (and is) 'The Spirit of Radio', hence the dedication. The song was inspired by the idea of how special radio can be when it’s presented by 'real people', and not by chart numbers and 'demographics'. In spite of becoming a little more formatted over the years (hence the 'so far'), they remain the 'alternative' radio in the area." - Neil Peart, "Backstage Club Newsletter", Janurary 1988

Now this is an amazing name.

Which is basically the same as (c), except for the "moderately" bit.

(Iirc one of the more specific rumours was that he was something to do with Van Der Graaf Generator)

cfny (now "The Edge!") totally sucks now, but geddy was right about it in the eighties

Dead Man's Curve
Smoke on the Water (as Dopes on the Water - ugh)
19th Nervous Breakdown
plus all of the American Bandages album

Yes, Max Webster is about the only one of those acts which hasn't had reissue of catalog on CD in the US. Oddly, they were the most successful, being flogged around on the strength of Rush's management.

The Headpins' Play It Loud was just reissued on Wounded Bird. Sounds a bit like Van Halen (with some Y&T, too) fronted by a screaming over-the-top girl singer, Darby Mills. She had Farrah Fawcett hair! For fans of barrel-scrapers, like me. If you liked 1994, you'd also like some Headpins.

The Killer Dwarfs were regularly on undercards -- like Helix -- in the Lehigh Valley. Didn't leave much of an impression. Didn't the frontman ride a tricycle around onstage?

Covers = eh. ("Smoke on the Water" aside)

Originals = pretty cool, if ultimately all mostly similar to each other. But still pretty cool. Don't think I need to get anything else by him, though.

-- Fritz Wollner (fritzwollner5...), October 24th, 2006.

double-OTM. i was first introduced to Nash via my high school art teacher, who kept his records beside tom tom club, richie hawtin, and the horslips in our art room in lasalle, ontario. classic since grade 9 for me.

http://www.gigwise.com/artists/00002192_Red%20Organmain.jpg

yes, yes, yes, and yes. and i like the FM stuff that Nash did.

Saw him perform in a bar in Toronto summer of 1993. It was an instrumental show IIRC, very low key. Purchased his Highway 61 soundtrack CD after the show, can't say I've listened to it since then.

Afterwards I ran across some FM lps in a bargain bin and picked them up. Black Noise has some good cuts, I was obsessed with "Aldebarran" for awhile. Very similar to where current bands Zombi or Crime in Choir are going, there are cheesy elements but it's not without charm or power. The other one I picked up Surveillance was pretty wretched though.

http://www.thebandfm.com

sw

Nash minus bandages - in top hat, ruffles, and shades. apparently is vampire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY9NVFhZlkg&feature=related

Everyone really does go goth in the end.

tbf, this is more like in the beginning. but this clip is rather spectacularly nerdy isn't it? why do i like it?

this clip is rather spectacularly nerdy isn't it? why do i like it?

The question answers itself!

ILX: should I walk the three minutes from my work to the record stall in the market one lunchtime this week and spend £5 on 'Children of The Night'?

yes. you should.

Ned - I missed this the first time around but I met Nash briefly when he passed through my old stomping grounds. Sold him vinyl copies of Seventeen Seconds and A Broken Frame!

So I just found that the producer of the Swing Shift video has put a cleaned, remastered version up on youtube, and it is making me sad that it has 100x fewer viewers than the grainy VHS rip that was already up, so, here, it is shiny and clean and stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R3OyMu7a8A

Also digging the dude's other vids, a bunch of early 80s Vancouver live videos which are a neat document of a scene I couldn't have told you existed until 5 minutes ago: http://www.youtube.com/user/stokelyvids

(Nash = classic, in case I didn't make that clear. Thanks for the FM vid, Kim)

Turns out he's retired as of a couple of months ago. One thing in the message stopped me short:

I was the first Canadian musician to use a drum machine on an album (1978), at a time when drum machines were outlawed according to the bylaws of the Toronto Musicians' Association.

What the! What's the story here?

RIP

Yeah, just saw the news

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2014/05/12/nash_the_slash_toronto_rock_violinist_dead_at_66.html

Whoa. RIP.

Everyone in Toronto posting about this. Never did see him, sort of remember "Dead Man's Curve."

Aw! RIP.

Johnny we hardly knew you..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ncUN_NREw

Didn't realize there was a documentary till 10 minutes ago, and when I started looking into it, it's actually playing in Toronto tomorrow night!

https://boxoffice.hotdocs.ca/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=592342~cf285ddd-dacb-4f18-89b8-1252c6dcffa6

I'm just not up to the five hours in the car, so I'll reluctantly pass and hope it shows up closer to home in the coming months.