.....Back in the 1980's and to a lesser extent the early 90's their was a venue in Toronto that played host to some of the greatest bands that I have ever seen. It was called
The Concert Hall and it was located on Young Street in the heart of Toronto. Although most would be hard pressed to remember it today back in the mid 80's everyone who was anyone played there. It wasn't a big place, it only housed about 1500 if memory serves me, yet most bands seemed to end up performing their at one time or another. To name just a few U2, Simple Minds, The Sex Pistols, The Spoons, Love & Rockets, Billy Bragg, Public Image Ltd, etc...you get the picture. Anyway A Flock Of Seagulls were in town playing the Concert Hall and it so happens I was in attendance, normally I don't pay too much attendance on the opening act, but on this night it was different. The opening band on this night was the Comateens, an upbeat New Wave group from New York City with an infectious energetic sound
....A pretty loyal following in the Northern States and especially New York were they' play clubs like Max's Trax, Heat, The Blitz, and of course CBGBs, they also
has success across the pond in Europe touring France and Belgium on more than one occasion. The did one Canadian tour as well in 1984. The Comateens originally formed in 1978 as duo, Nick North and Romona Lee Jan met in a New York recording studio and began to write songs together. In December of the same year Lyn Byrd joins to do vocals and they become a three peice. The first songs ever pressed to vinyle by the Commateens was on a New Your Based compilation album called 2x5, as the name suggests it was a compilation of 5 bands each contributing two song. The Comateen contributed "
Late Night City" and "
Overseas". With regards to their catalog it can get a bit confusing, there were two studio albums, "
Comateen" (self titled) and "
Pictures on a String", there were also various 45's and videos releases more info can be obtained at their web site below.
The Comateens are as follows...
Band members changed over the years and there was also the tragic death of Oliver North and Nic North, so the musician below were involved with the band at various stages between 1978 and the present.
LYN BYRD - Vocal, Keyboard
RAMONA JAN: Vocals, guitar
NIC NORTH: Vocals, bass, keyboards, percussion
OLIVER NORTH: Vocals, guitars
ROLLY: Percussion
JEFF ZILM: Drums
NIC O. TEEN: Vocals, bass
HARRY VIDERCI: Drums
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Comateens website, were alot of info can be found, plus some Downloads...
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