Skip to Content
Home » Articles » Victorian Pork

Victorian Pork

Scott Beadle and Les Wiseman | January 22, 2010 in Victorian Pork

VP Ian Lynn

In Vancouver at the end of 1977 and beginning of 1978, Victorian Pork was one of the few signs of life in an otherwise stillborn local punk scene. The Furies had split up, the Skulls moved to Toronto before splitting up, and the Dishrags were back in Victoria finishing high school. Victorian Pork was created in autumn 1977 by guitarist Brad Kent, around the same time that Stone Crazy were going through their transformation into the Skulls. The two bands often played shows together. When the Skulls moved to Toronto in November 1977, guitarist Brad decided to keep Victorian Pork going, drafting a new lineup and staging punk shows in rented halls. In February 1978, after the remnants of the Skulls returned to Vancouver, members of Victorian Pork seeded various bands including DOA, the Subhumans and Pointed Sticks.

Les sez: Certainly Brad’s band, Victorian Pork gave their all in performance. I remember watching them, pouring sweat, all pallid skin and bones, looking like wraiths hammering out a devastating noise. They looked so deathlike, I called them ‘tuberculan chic’ in my review.

VP Denton

VP tree

Comments

Victorian Pork

Somewhere there exists a video of the Victorian Pork playing a gig at the Woodlands Institute for the Mentally Retarded. It was a birthday party for several dozen young adults with Downs Syndrome. The concert was to satisfy the community service requirement of Bardach's sentence for a traffic violation. The judge suggested that as Bardach was a musician he could play for a local organization. He assumed Bardach was a "guitarist".
The video shows that very far from exploitative, the event was transcendent.

Dave Larson

Pork at Woodlands

I was there and saw the tape later, the artist Roy Arden shot it in b&w old school 3/4 in. video. They were not supposed to film the audience so the camera stays on the band who rock out. Occasionally, excited pogo-ing audience members enter the frame and interact with the band. would love to see that tape again.

John Mitchell

Woodlands

Holy smokes, that's awesome! Another item for archivists to pine for!

KOOL WORK

IT'S GREAT TO HEAR THE OLD SONGS...FEELING NOSTALGIC EVEN DOWN HERE IN MEXICO. KUDOS TO THIS FILM. MIMI NELSON (THE SKELETON IN THE PAYOLA$ CLOSET...HA HA HA)