The Curse (Punk Band)
The Curse were an all female punk band based in Toronto, Canada during the first wave of punk rock in the late 1970s. They are often credited with being the first all-girl punk band in Canada or even in North America, if the Runaways are discounted as a proper punk band.
Formed in 1977, the line-up consisted of vocalist Mickey Skin, Trixie Danger (real name Julia Bourque) on guitar, Anna Bourque on bass and Patsy Poison (Linda Lee) on drums. None had ever played in a band before. Their first gig came weeks later and they made a trip to CBGB's a month later on a bill with The Cramps and Toronto bands The Diodes, Teenage Head, and The Viletones. The following year they returned to play Max's Kansas City with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks (with Lydia Lunch). Other than the New York gigs and a few shows at art galleries in Detroit and London, Ontario art galleries, the rest of their shows took place in Toronto, opening for notable local punk bands such as the aforementioned bands from the New York trip, the Battered Wives, Androids and The Dents, along with a gig opening for Tom Robinson. Their shows were known as wild affairs with Skin throwing food and glasses, climbing onto tables and employing various props such as whipped cream and power tools.
The band recorded a single, "Shoeshine Boy"/"Killer Bees", in April 1978. The single referenced the recent murder of Emanuel Jacques, a teen-aged shoeshine boy in Toronto, and caused much press outrage. A previous single was "Raw", an obscene spoken word recitation recorded as a performance art piece released as a split single with the Diodes. A student film was also made of the band but it has apparently been lost.
After the second New York show Mickey Skin abruptly quit the band while on the way to a gig in Boston due to personality differences brought about by heavy drug use and drinking. She was briefly replaced by Ruby T's (aka Ruby Tease), a local scenester who had sung backups in the Androids and was best known for being on the cover of the 1978 The Last Pogo live album and in the audience in the film documentary of the concert. This version of the band did not record. The Ruby Tease version changed its name to True Confessions and adopted a more poppy New Wave sound. This line-up recorded another single before breaking up. Julia Bourque continued on with True Confessions on her own into 1981, recording another single and an album before the group broke up for good.
The collected recordings of the original Curse line-up have been released on a CD entitled Teenage Meat on OPM Records in 1997. The original line-up are featured in the documentary The Last Pogo Jumps Again.
References
- Worth, Liz. Treat Me Like Dirt, Bongo Beat, 2010
- Sutherland, Sam. Perfect Youth, The Birth Of Canadian Punk, ECW Press, 2012
- B.George & Martha DeFoe. International Discography Of The New Wave 1982-1983 edition, Omnibus Press, 1983