Lifespan

the band formed February 1982 with Scotty and Marty

Members

Mary Timusk: Target 21 only ever had Marty Timusk - Guitar, vox; Scotty Howarth - bass, vox; Drew Headrick - drums

Drew Headrick: I think that we were introduced through Vig or someone at No Pigs. I had never met Marty or Scotty before but soon found out they were well known in the downtown crowd (Marty lived downtown near Somerset Street). I was not in a band at the time and after jamming with them once, I liked how they played - fast and melodic. They also played songs from bands I did not know (at the time I thought there were only about 10 punk bands in the world).

Type of music played

Marty Timusk: Hardcore Punk Rock or just plain old PUNK ROCK!

"HARDCORE" [NCFC #3]

First gig

MT: Hard to Remember, most likely summer of 1982 at the Roxy.

Drew Headrick: March 13, 1982 at No Pigs. 456 Laurier Avenue West (Side Door) – This was actually videotaped for a documentary mentioning the punk scene in Ottawa. We never got a copy of the footage or to see the documentary as all mention of punk in Ottawa was edited. This documentary was to be shown to youth visiting Ottawa from around the country. I remember that we played a great set and I wore a bright pink shirt with cuffs – dressed kind of odd back then on occasion.

Other gigs worth mentioning

Played Spring Beaver, couple of other Beaver gigs, Played numerous gigs at the Roxy (downstairs on Elgin), the Riverside Club, and Barrymores.

Spring Beaver show, March 27, 1982, with Randy Peters, Subverts and Young Lions (they borrowed my drums which would become standard for many concerts we played at – everyone liked the Pearls!).

Easter Beaver show, April 10, 1982. [review] With Bugs Harvey Oswald. Cannot really remember that one. We were starting to gain notoriety in Ottawa for our fast music and Marty’s Hair and Scott’s good looks (haahaa).

July 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 1982, at the Roxy with the Howling C’s. Okay that was fun! Probably at the height of popularity at that time in July then the “Rock Weenies” thing started. Marty suggested for fun that we wanted to be the rock weenies of Ottawa or some such thing. Boy did that piss people off.

July 17th at the Roxy, with the Tuinols. Good gig and I think we really rocked that night!

July 21st at the Roxy ,

July 21st, '82, opening for ChronGen, July '83 [review] Good gig. I remember being impressed that a lot of people said things like “you’re playing with Chron GEN!”. I didn’t know who they were but as long as someone else did I believed it would be a good turn out. We still had a lot of the original songs at this time and we needed new ones.

August 1982 – No One Came TV Show on Local cable. Our sound guy worked there and they had a show for local bands like a documentary type thingy. Normally they had 10 minutes of talking and we said NO! ALL MUSIC. We were the only band to do so and it was a hit that summer. My 50 year old polish laundry worker saw me – I was famous for weeks!

August 20th at Mic’s – Heather’s Farewell Party. Cannot remember it much other than her good friend trying to pick me up for an hour till I had to tell him I was not gay or interested. A good show though.

August 30th at the Roxy

Last gig

MT: At the Roxy July, 1982, with the Howling C's. Featuring guest vocals for "I hate you" our tribute to Pierre Trudeau.

DH: August 30th at the Roxy

Recordings

MT: Numerous UnReleased tracks. Working on getting MP3s to post.

DH: CKCU Demo July 1982, (I think it was July) Great demo Marty has a copy. I cannot find mine but will have to track him down to burn it to CD. Played on CKCU a few times. "I Hate You" August 1982 - none released.

Claim to fame

MT: Playing very very fast.

Band high point

MT: Most of the time. But seriously being mentioned in Trans FM by Andreas (the dick) as "bad boys Target 21". Loved that. Also recording cuts at CKCU Studios with Mark and Kevin. Great fun.

DH: Being quite popular early summer

Band low point

MT: Breaking up is always hard to do.

DH: Being quite hated late summer

Anything else?

DH: Last Concert August 30th 1982 - we had an effigy of Pierre Trudeau for our song “I hate You!” and we filled the mouth with fake blood. Bob took out a police baton and beat the shit out of it during the guitar solo – covered me and the drums in blood! When we finished half the people were standing and cheering and the others were sitting shocked. That was a hoot. Best show yet. Too bad I invited my parents to that one.

NDFC: Why Trudeau?

DH: We used Pierre Trudeau as he was the driving force for the song "I Hate You". The song lyrics start "Hey Pierre Trudeau you're our man, you can run this country like no one else can. No jobs, lots of taxes. rob the poor, big business prostitue a well paid whore.....etc." Who got the PT mask I am not sure, but it was a hoot! I spent half an hour outside with my parents explaining that I was not in with Bad People. For years I had told my parents they were welcome to come and see me play and they finally came to that one show. Funny thing about is that my step-father's idol was Pierre Trudeau.

This was the wildest summer of my life to that time. Target 21 was the most popular and the most hated group all in one summer. Marty lived downtown and had been in the scene for a long time so he knew a lot of people. He told me the secret to the Mohawk haircut: do this in the summer because people aren’t as pissed off at life because the weather is good they tend to pick on your less in the summer. Scotty was a great bassist and we had people coming to see us because we had energy to spare and gave it all to the audience.

We practiced at Bug Harvey Oswald’s place and another place near St.Laurent Shopping Centre. I remember buying them all a 24 for letting us play there. BHO were great hosts and would let you drop in and hang out before work or rehearsal. I wonder what happened to them?

By the time that Bob came in we had one really great song – I Hate YOU! – and I felt we could be headed in the right direction. People had seen a lot of us over the summer and like a song that is played too much, I think people wanted new material which we could not provide. The energy was there but people were had already seen what we had and even our die hard fans were ready for us to move on to new things.

By the end of the summer life took a funny twist for us all. Scotty announced that he was going to Germany and was not sure when he would return – sometime around Christmas was mentioned. Without a band to jam with, how would I survive? With the chance that we would get back together when Scotty got back I started jamming with Brian Bunt and Mark Struzina of Raw Sewage. Of all the bands, this one would have the most influence on me and what could be achieved musically if you wanted it to.

Derivatives

MT: Before Scotty and Marty were both with Insurrection (second version with Snoopy on Vox). Drew played with all kinds of bands before and after [Drew went on to drum with Raw Sewage]. Scotty and Marty went on to Section 8.

Links

myspace.com/originaltarget21 | [NCFC issue #3]

Contact information

Where are they now

Drew Headrick: Kemptville, Ontario, Marty: Toronto?

Update: Target 21 performed a reunion set at the Elmdale Tavern on Decemer 19th, 2009. All 3 orignal members in attendance for a half-hour set of their old stuff. Well done.

Info source

Marty Timusk, Drew Headrick, [N.C.F.C.]

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