According to CBC’s Chris Boyce, the goal of this weekend’s CBCMusic.ca Festival is twofold. First and foremost, the CBC wants to celebrate Canadian music. Second, it wants to celebrate CBC Music, the broadcaster’s online music service, which launched a little over a year ago.

In 1996, Theatre Columbus premiered playwright Michael O’Brien’s “freely adapted” take on the famous Beaumarchais play The Barber of Seville, which was written in 1775. O’Brien’s version mixed in music from the 1816 opera of the same name by Gioachino Rossini, as well as original tunes by composer John Millard. The adaptation also propelled the story forward a couple centuries, with pop culture references galore. With Theatre Columbus co-founder Leah Cherniak at the helm, the musical ended the season with six Dora Award nominations (it won three) and plenty of critical acclaim.

Seventeen years later, Soulpepper Theatre is remounting this zany reimagination of The Barber of Seville, updated once again by O’Brien, Millard, and Cherniak. But, for some reason—the change in decade, or company, or sense of humour—whatever had made the original so magical, has faded, save for a few key performances.

The venues, schools, record labels, stores, and other landmarks that created the sound of our city and shaped its music history.

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During the 1990s, Toronto continued to embrace a wide range of genres, from DJ-centric clubs to indie-rock showcases. Some venues were influential, but short-lived. Meanwhile, for other places that opened or hit their stride during the decade, the beat goes on.

1 The Music Hall (147 Danforth Avenue)
An on-again, off-again music venue that traces its lineage to Allen’s Danforth Theatre in 1919. During the ’90s, it alternated between live performances and rep cinema screenings.

2 Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor Street West)
Originally the Bloor Theatre (no relation to the cinema that currently bears the name), it opened as a music venue in 1985 with a performance by Handsome Ned. A year later, Al Runt created the first of several colourful exterior murals. The first one met its demise in 1992 when, according to the artist, the owner painted over it.

3 Phoenix Concert Theatre (410 Sherbourne Street)
Previously known as The Diamond, this mid-size venue hosted a variety of touring acts. It’s still around today.

4 Opera House (735 Queen Street East)
Like Lee’s Palace, the Opera House revamped a former movie theatre as a concert venue—in this case, one that had, at various times, been named things like “Acropolis” and “La Plaza.”

5 Matador (466 Dovercourt Road, north of College Street)
Once a bowling alley, the Matador endured for 40 years as an after-hours country music haunt before closing in 2007. It was used as the backdrop for Leonard Cohen’s video for “Closing Time” in 1992.

6 Ted’s Wrecking Yard (549 College Street)
The first home of the Wavelength music series, this venue operated from 1997 to 2001 and became a focal point for performers who lived in the area.

7 Lizard Lounge (66 Gerrard Street East)
A cavernous dance/music venue near Ryerson whose early promotional efforts caused controversy. Protestors picketed Now’s offices in June 1989 after the weekly ran ads for the Lizard Lounge depicting a naked pregnant woman caked in mud under the caption “Rock n’ Roll Breeder Bar.”

8 Top O’ The Senator (253 Victoria Street)
Located, as the name suggests, above the venerable Senator diner, this was one of the city’s top jazz venues for 15 years until it closed in 2005.

9 Reverb/Big Bop (651 Queen Street West)
Once advertised as “Toronto’s 4-floor funhouse,” the former Holiday Tavern developed a reputation for metal, punk, raves, and all-ages shows. The infamous purple fake-brick exterior was peeled away when the site reopened as a CB2 store earlier this year.

10 Velvet Underground (510 Queen Street West)
During the ’90s, this Queen West club offered alt-rock performances and a hangout for the street’s goth scene. According to its website (the place is still open for business), it hosted the release party for Alanis Morissette’s album Jagged Little Pill.

11 360 (326 Queen St West)
The name of this venue derived from its Royal Canadian Legion branch number. Originally a social club for Ukrainian war veterans, the branch faced bankruptcy in the early ’90s. When the provincial government allowed Legion halls to serve the public around that time, it became a rock venue. The Legion shut it down in 2005 in the midst of North by Northeast, both because the branch wasn’t fulfilling its requirements to the organization and because of the possible loss of its liquor licence.

12 Ultrasound Showbar (269 Queen Street West)
Operating from 1990 to 1996, its intimate stage provided a showcase for up-and-coming bands and singer/songwriters. Currently occupied by Civello, a salon.

13 The Rex (194 Queen Street West)
The motto of the Rex is “where jazz musicians come to hear jazz,” which has been true of this Queen Street staple since the late ’80s.

14 Nathan Phillips Square
The Barenaked Ladies received an unexpected publicity boost when they were scratched from the New Year’s 1992 festivities outside City Hall. A zealous City staffer felt the band’s name objectified women, which was a no-no under existing regulations for performances at Nathan Phillips Square. The resulting furor over political correctness made City officials look silly.

15 Industry (901 King Street West)
Club spotlighting DJs from around the world and underground dance acts from 1996 to 2000. The site now houses a Shoppers Drug Mart.

16 Harbourfront Centre (Harbourfront)
Showcasing musical genres from around the world, this ampitheatre (currently branded the WestJet Stage) has provided entertainment in a waterfront setting since the summer of 1992.

17 Molson Amphitheatre (Ontario Place)
Built as a larger replacement for the Ontario Place Forum, this outdoor venue opened in with a performance by Bryan Adams in 1995.

The venues, schools, record labels, stores, and other landmarks that created the sound of our city and shaped its music history.

Click for a zoomed-in view.

When the subject of 1980s music in Toronto arises, most of the spotlight falls on Queen West and its circuit of clubs, artistic communities, and hipster joints. The combination of affordable housing, influences from the nearby Ontario College of Art, and plenty of performance spaces made the stretch of Queen Street from University Avenue to just west of Spadina Avenue a musical hotbed. But Queen West shouldn’t hog all the credit: elsewhere in the city, campus radio stations (and at least one commercial spot on the dial) were expanding Toronto’s musical taste, while large dance clubs kept the music going deep into the night.

1 Copa (21 Scollard Street)
While summarizing several long-gone music venues in 2010, there was a slight sneer in the Star’s tone when it came to the Copa: “Flavour-of-the moment world music and pop acts in the midst of 15 minutes of fame, with sporadic detours into not-quite-ready-for-soft-seater veteran acts, sporting crowds of regular Joes, well-coiffed yuppies and the occasional Flock Of Seagulls hairstyle.” Yet for a decade it was one of Yorkville’s busiest clubs, mixing DJ nights with performances from the likes of Berlin, Burning Spear, Herbie Hancock, Fela Kuti, and Skinny Puppy.

2 Gasworks (585 Yonge Street)
For those who wanted to rawk, the Gasworks was headbanger heaven. Hard rock ruled until it closed its doors in 1993. The venue inspired the identically named hangout in the movie Wayne’s World. (“This is the Gasworks, an excellent heavy metal bar. Always a babe fest.”)

3 The Edge (70 Gerrard Street East)
The Star once described The Edge as “Living up to its name in terms of eclecticism: a dark, spacious abode facing Gerrard that housed tastemaker promoters Gary Topp and Gary Cormier, who booked punk/new wave acts like 999 and The Mods with the occasional jazzy Don Thompson/Ed Bickert or folkie Ralph McTell date.”

4 CKLN (Ryerson University)
Originally available only on closed circuit within Ryerson, CKLN moved to the FM dial in 1983. That year saw the launch of The Fantastic Voyage, which was the first Canadian radio show devoted to hip hop. As for CKLN’s open format, musician and station graphic designer Kurt Swinghammer noted that, “It didn’t have a political agenda that seems to dominate now. Maybe because it was new, people didn’t seem to realize that they could use it for their personal agenda, and they just played all this crazy music that nobody was touching.” Among CKLN’s station managers during the 1980s was future city councillor Adam Vaughan. The station fell silent amid controversy galore in 2011.

5 Church of the Holy Trinity (19 Trinity Square)
Opened in 1847, this landmark might have been demolished had early plans for the Eaton Centre gone ahead. The church has long been praised for its acoustics, which has led to its use for concerts, CBC Radio broadcasts, and a 14-hour recording session in November 1987 that produced the Cowboy Junkies’ album The Trinity Session.

6 Music Gallery (30 St. Patrick Street to 1984, then 1087 Queen Street West)
Founded in 1976, the Music Gallery has dedicated itself to experimental sounds. Its mission is “promoting and presenting innovation and experimentation in all forms of music, and for encouraging cross-pollination between genres, disciplines and audience.” It has moved several times over the course of its existence, and currently operates out of St. George the Martyr Church, on John Street.

7 Beverley Tavern (240 Queen Street West)
Described in its Now obituary as an “art-punk haven” during its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, the Beverley was the birthplace of the Elvis Monday indie music showcase in 1984, which helped launch more than a few careers.

8 Citytv and MuchMusic (299 Queen Street West from 1987 on)
From Toronto Rocks in the early 1980s to videos aired on MuchMusic by decade’s end, Moses Znaimer’s stable of channels helped promote local acts. When the stations moved from their previous home east of Yonge Street in 1987, it wasn’t surprising that they settled on the city’s hip strip.

9 Bam Boo (312 Queen Street West)
For a quarter of a century, tucked behind a gateway made from its namesake plant, the Bam Boo was a prime venue for reggae and dub poetry. It helped introduce a diverse range of world music to Torontonians. It is also reputed to have been the first spot in Toronto to serve Pad Thai.

10 Rivoli (332 Queen Street West)
Opened in 1982 in a former vaudeville/burlesque theatre, the Rivoli strived to be, in the words of music historian Nicholas Jennings, “ultra-hip.” Besides being a key venue for the 1980s Queen Street music scene, it also served as a showcase for rising comedy acts like the Kids in the Hall.

11 Cameron House (408 Queen Street West)
From 1981, the old hotel offered opportunities for up-and-coming musical and theatrical performers ranging from Blue Rodeo to Video Cabaret. It was also home to the Blue Monday classic jazz showcase hosted by Molly Johnson. Many of the artists who took the stage also lived in the building, making it one of the main creative centres during Queen West’s heyday.

12 Spadina Hotel/Cabana Room (northwest corner of King Street West and Spadina Avenue)
Built in the 19th century and once known as the Hotel Falconer, the Spadina Hotel’s second floor Cabana Room served as a stage for hundreds of unknown bands (and a few you might recognize). The site currently houses the Global Village Backpackers youth hostel.

13 RPM (132 Queen’s Quay East)
Opened around 1985, RPM was, according to promoter Gary Topp, a unique-at-the-time venue which “made dance music more popular than live music. No club owners have ever demonstrated so much artistry in operating a nightclub in this city. It was the place where interlocking subcultures were able to surface. It was a scene.” Among its resident DJs during the decade was Chris Sheppard, who occasionally brought on live acts like the Beastie Boys during Sunday all-ages nights. The site currently houses the Guvernment.

CFNY (Brampton, not shown on the map.)
Under the guidance of program director David Marsden for most of the decade, the “Spirit of Radio” won a loyal audience for its free-form format. As Marsden once noted, “We hesitate to play poorly produced records because it may do more harm than good. We do as much as we can to break unknown acts—through showcase programs like Streets of Ontario—but the goal is to expose them in the best light, not the worst.” The station also launched its own music awards, the U-Knows/CASBYs, which predated the MuchMusic Video Awards.

Additional material from: Have Not Been the Same by Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack, and Jason Schneider (Toronto: ECW, 2001), Rock and Roll Toronto by John Goddard and Richard Crouse (Toronto: Doubleday, 1997), and the January 3, 2010 edition of the Toronto Star.

The venues, schools, record labels, stores, and other landmarks that created the sound of our city and shaped its music history.

The sounds were changing in Toronto during the 1970s, as music took on a harder edge than the folk/rock and R&B sounds which marked the 1960s. Venue-wise, the decade was a transitional period: the Yorkville scene vanished and spots dropped along Yonge Street as Queen West slowly began to gain prominence. The rising punk/new-wave scene saw venerable venues like the Horseshoe transformed and other places rise before quickly living up to the name of one of its earliest halls, Crash ‘n’ Burn. And the Rolling Stones took a liking to our city, even if some of their visits were legally mandated.

1 Nimbus 9 (131 Hazelton Avenue, then 39 Hazelton Avenue)
Founded as a production company in the late 1960s, Nimbus 9 quickly earned success through the Guess Who’s string of North American hits. By the 1970s, it operated a recording studio which drew acts like Alice Cooper and Bob Seger. Key producers included Bob Ezrin and Jack Richardson.

2 New Yorker Theatre (651 Yonge Street)
“They are the stuff of which bad myths are made,” Globe and Mail music critic Paul McGrath concluded after the Ramones played two shows at the New Yorker (now the Panasonic Theatre) in September 1976. “The music they play would be appropriate for a film depicting the ravages of heroin withdrawal.” Yet McGrath’s observation that something in the band’s loud noise appealed to fans was an astute one, as the shows are pointed to as one of the key inspirations for the city’s punk bands that sprang up soon after.

3 David’s (16 Phipps Street, northwest of Yonge Street and Wellesley Street West)
Featuring amenities such as a winding staircase encircling an old fountain featuring Michelangelo’s David and staff with nicknames like Mr. Shit, David’s presented punk bands every night until midnight, when it turned into a gay disco. Manager Sandy Leblanc felt punk was a passing fad, believing the genre wouldn’t last because it wasn’t socially acceptable. “At the moment, he told the Ryerson Review in September 1977, “we are the only punk rock club in the city because no other managers will tolerate them.” David’s literally went out in a blaze of glory—following a New Year’s concert to ring in 1978, the venue burned under mysterious circumstances, destroying the equipment of bands like The Ugly. Later that year, Leblanc was murdered.

4 Larry’s Hideaway (121 Carlton Street)
A steady stream of college rock, punk, and new wave acts played here through the late 1970s and early 1980s. The site was later demolished and replaced by an expanded Allan Gardens.

5 El Mocambo (464 Spadina Avenue)
One of Toronto’s first cocktail lounges after gaining a liquor license in the mid-1940s, by the 1970s the El Mo was one of the city’s top music clubs. While acts including Blondie and Elvis Costello graced its stage, the biggest headlines the venue garnered came when the Rolling Stones played two nights to record a side of their Love You Live album in March 1977. Billed as “The Cockroaches” below opening act April Wine, the group’s shows were their first in a club setting in over a decade and gained notoriety due to Keith Richards’s drug bust at the Harbour Castle the week before (see #12 below) and the presence of Margaret Trudeau, who had just separated from the Prime Minister.

6 Grossman’s Tavern (379 Spadina Avenue)
When the Downchild Blues Band had a long run at Grossman’s in the 1970s, one of its biggest fans was Second City comedian Dan Aykroyd. Following the improv troupe’s performances, Aykroyd dropped by the bluesy bar and occasionally blew on the harmonica even though at the time, according to Downchild singer Richard “Hock” Walsh, “he couldn’t play harmonica to save his life.” Aykroyd later cited Downchild’s album Straight Up as an inspiration for the Blues Brothers.

7 Sam the Record Man/A&A (Yonge Street, north of Gould Street)
The undisputed record-selling titans of the Yonge strip, music lovers could spend hours browsing the deep selection in either store. Both retailers evolved into chains over the decade—when A&A was purchased by Columbia Records in 1971, there was speculation that sale sped up Sam Sniderman’s move into franchising. Despite being “ardently wooed” by other record labels fearing the clout Columbia would have, Sniderman remained independent.

8 Victory Burlesque (Northeast corner of Spadina and Dundas)
If you’re going to play a concert in a burlesque joint, it makes sense to include strippers as part of the performance. Such was the case when Mainline unveiled the “Bump ‘n’ Grind Revue” at the Victory in 1972—which would later be shown on TVOntario. Before the Victory shut down in 1975, it also played host, sans stripteases, to the likes of Peter Frampton, the New York Dolls, and Rush.

9 Colonial Underground (201–203 Yonge Street)
As its name implies, this venue was located below the Colonial Tavern. Acts including Rough Trade and the Viletones played early gigs here.

10 Horseshoe Tavern (370 Queen Street West)
Opened in 1947, the Horseshoe was primarily regarded as a country bar during the first half of the 1970s. Among the lead attractions during this period was Stompin’ Tom Connors, whose May 1973 series of shows formed the basis of the film Across This Land. During the late 1970s, promoters Gary Cormier and Gary Topp (aka The Two Garys) booked an eclectic range of acts leaning heavily toward punk and new wave. Some shows drew better than others: the Police drew only 20 spectators over two nights in November 1978, while overcrowding at “The Last Pogo” punk concert a few weeks later led to a riot when the event was shut down.

11 Crash ‘n’ Burn (15 Duncan Street)
Located under offices rented by the Liberal Party, Crash ‘n’ Burn was a weekend-only punk club that lasted for a few months in 1977 under the guidance of Diodes manager Ralph Alfonso. Its demise was spurred by complaints about beer, noise, overcrowding, violence, and vomit—how rock n’ roll is that?

12 Westin Harbour Castle (1 Harbour Square, Queen’s Quay West at Bay)
Forty-five minutes. That’s how long it took RCMP officers to wake Keith Richards when they busted him for drugs at the Harbour Castle on February 28, 1977. The Rolling Stones guitarist was disappointed that the police didn’t match his vision of what a Mountie should look like—“I’d have woken up a lot quicker if I’d seen the red tunic and Smokey Bear hat.” He was charged with intent to traffic heroin (due to the amount he had) and possession of cocaine. When Richards went to trial in October 1978, the charges were reduced to one count of heroin possession. He walked away with a one-year suspended sentence with requirements to continue a rehab program he had entered in New York, report periodically to a probation officer in Toronto, and play a benefit concert for the blind. Years later, Richards admitted the incident helped him straighten his act (somewhat).

13 Ontario Place Forum
This all-purpose outdoor concert facility was one of Ontario Place’s major successes when it opened in 1971. Acts ranged from rock to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and there was even the odd riot, as occurred during a Segarini/Teenage Head concert in 1980. It was replaced by the Molson Amphitheatre in the mid-1990s.

Additional material from Keith Richards: The Biography by Victor Bockris (Toronto: Poseidon, 1992), Rock and Roll Toronto by John Goddard and Richard Crouse (Toronto: Doubleday, 1997), Treat Me Like Dirt by Liz Worth (Toronto: ECW, 2011), Trouble in the Camera Club by Don Pyle (Toronto: ECW, 2011), and the August 21, 1971 and September 27, 1976 editions of the Globe and Mail.

The venues, schools, record labels, stores, and other landmarks that created the sound of our city and shaped its music history.

Detail. Click on the image above for a full size version of the map.

The 1960s was the decade in which Toronto’s music scene took shape. With twin focal points in Yorkville and along the Yonge Street strip, the city produced highly regarded folk, rock, and R&B-influenced sounds. Though many of the venues from the decade are long gone, acts that developed their reputations in them, such as the Band and Gordon Lightfoot, became known around the globe.

1 Village Corner (174 Avenue Road, north of Davenport)
An early folk venue, one where music duo Ian & Sylvia launched their career. As a member of the duo the Two Tones, Gordon Lightfoot recorded his first album here in January 1962.

2 Rockpile (northwest corner of Yonge and Davenport)
For a time in the late 1960s, the main space of the Masonic Temple (now home to MTV Canada) was a Fillmore-style concert hall. It is usually associated with Led Zeppelin, who played there twice in 1969. Before their August 18 gig, manager Peter Grant noticed the extensive lineup outside and threatened to cancel the show if the band didn’t get more money. The burly former bouncer got his way, but the amount handed over played a role in the venue’s closing soon after.

3 Penny Farthing (112 Yorkville Avenue)
Far more respectable than its next door neighbour, this spot specialized in blues and jazz. Veteran bluesman Lonnie Johnson played for several weeks in 1965, resulting in an album with one the venue’s regular acts, Stompin’ at the Penny with Jim McHarg’s Metro Stompers, featuring Lonnie Johnson. Johnson enjoyed playing in Toronto and spent the last five years of his life in the city.

4 Riverboat (134 Yorkville Avenue)
Opened in October 1964 and run by Bernie Fielder for 14 years, the Riverboat was usually considered the top venue in Yorkville thanks to a steady stream of high-level blues and folk acts. Sometimes timing worked in the Riverboat’s favour: in order to book bluesmen Sorry Terry and Brownie McGhee, Fielder was pressured by their agent to also slot in a rising folk duo named Simon & Garfunkel. By the time the pair was to perform in early 1966, their songs were rising up the charts. The duo wanted out of their commitment, but a compromise was reached, and Torontonians had what proved to be a rare opportunity to catch the pair in an intimate setting.

5 Mynah Bird (114 Yorkville Avenue, at Hazelton)
Named in honour of owner Colin Kerr’s pet, who could be found at this coffeehouse’s entrance, the Mynah Bird loved drawing attention to itself. For a period, it trotted out the latest innovations in topless entertainment, including Wyche, “the world’s first topless folksinger” (though her long hair covered her bosoms). Kerr also managed a rock group named after the venue, fronted by Rick James—after they separated from Kerr, Neil Young was among the musicians who passed through the group’s ranks.

6 Varsity Stadium (Bloor Street and Bedford Road)
Two major music festivals were held here in 1969. The bill for June’s Toronto Pop Festival ranged from southern soulsters (Carla Thomas) to Quebeçois chansonniers (Robert Charlebois). Local favourite Ronnie Hawkins managed to get a teenager named Jeanne Beker to jump onto the stage. September’s Toronto Rock and Roll Revival went down in history for being the live debut of the Plastic Ono Band featuring John Lennon and the Alice Cooper “chicken incident.”

7 Bohemian Embassy (7 St. Nicholas Street)
Situated at various places around the city over its history, and not to be confused with the condo bearing the same name, the venue founded by Don Cullen called the Yonge-Wellesley area home from 1960 to 1966. One of the city’s first major coffeehouses, it offered up a mix of folk, jazz, comedy, and literary readings—among those whose careers were boosted by appearances at the Bohemian Embassy were Margaret Atwood and Sylvia Tyson.

8 RCA Studios (225 Mutual Street)
Once home to CHUM radio, 225 Mutual Street became one of the city’s busiest recording studios. Operated by RCA during the 1960s and 1970s, then McClear Place, the studios saw acts ranging from Rosemary Clooney to Rush use its facilities over half a century of sound recording. The building was demolished in 2010.

9 Club Blue Note (372A Yonge Street)
A key venue for developing the mix of rock and R&B that came to be known as the “Toronto Sound.” As George Olliver, who sang with the house band The Five Rogues (later Mandala) told the National Post last year, “so many of the hit artists who used to work at the Maple Leaf Gardens came here after hours—people like Stevie Wonder, The Righteous Brothers.”

10 Hawk’s Nest (above Le Coq D’Or, 333 Yonge Street)
Having proven a popular attraction at Le Coq D’Or, Ronnie Hawkins made a deal with its owners: in exchange for free use of the building’s third floor (which ended up housing an office, gym, and after hours parties), he would run an all-ages club on the second floor. The Hawk’s Nest proved a blessing for music fans too young to go into the other venues along the Yonge Street strip.

11 Friar’s Tavern (283 Yonge Street)
Now the Hard Rock Café, the Friar’s Tavern was another stop for bands gigging along the Yonge Street strip. A plaque inside commemorates the morning of September 15, 1965, when Bob Dylan caught a performance by Levon and the Hawks, Ronnie Hawkins’ former backing band. For the next two nights, Dylan and the group that became the Band rehearsed at the Friar’s before going out on Dylan’s first electrified tour.

12 Colonial Tavern (203 Yonge Street)
Situated between two historic banks across from the present-day Eaton Centre, the Colonial Tavern attracted a steady stream of blues, jazz and rock acts during its existence. A parkette currently graces the site.

13 Electric Circus (99 Queen Street East)
Opened in December 1968, the Electric Circus was intended by its backers to bring a New York–style trendy nightclub to Toronto. Partner Jerry Brandt told the Globe and Mail that “we think a person should be free to do what he wants. He can dance, he can watch, he can disappear for a while into an environment room…We have set up the facilities for you to have an experience. It’s not what you do, but how you do it.” After its run as a club/music venue, the site was used as the original studio for Citytv, who later resurrected the name for its dance show.

14 King Edward Hotel (37 King Street East)
Between their afternoon and evening performances at Maple Leaf Gardens on August 17, 1966, the Beatles attended a press conference at the venerable King Eddy. John Lennon refused to apologize for his recent statements that the band was more popular than Jesus. They also admitted that the scariest fans they encountered so far on what proved to be their final tour were found in Cleveland.

15 O’Keefe Centre (Yonge and Front)
This all-purpose concert hall, now known as the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, was one of the most versatile venues of the decade in terms of performers. The pre-Broadway tryout of the musical Camelot, starring Julie Andrews and Richard Burton, opened the O’Keefe in October 1960. Acts that trod its stage during the 1960s ranged from grand opera to the Grateful Dead.

Additional material from Before the Gold Rush by Nicholas Jennings (Toronto: Penguin, 1997) and the December 21, 1968 edition of the Globe and Mail.

The venues, schools, record labels, stores, and other landmarks that created the sound of our city and shaped its music history.

Detail. Click on the image for a full-size version of the map.

In this instalment, we look at sites that provided music to our ears prior to the 1960s, ranging from 19th-century concert halls to suburban record companies.

1 Palace Pier (Humber Bay)
Originally envisioned during the late 1920s as a massive entertainment complex but not opened until 1941, Palace Pier was one of the city’s premier big-band venues during the 1940s. Among the bandleaders who appeared on its stage: Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Harry James, and Stan Kenton. Used for private functions, political rallies, and boxing matches in its later years, the venue was destroyed by a fire in 1963.

2 Columbia Graphophone Company (363–369 Sorauren Avenue)
The Canadian branch of one of the early giants of the recording industry, Columbia Graphophone operated out of at least two plants in Toronto. Faded signs for their Sorauren Avenue location, used during the 1910s and 1920s as a pressing plant, remain on the condo that currently graces the site.

3 Concord Tavern (925 Bloor Street West)
A west-end jazz haunt that was later frequented by rock acts during the 1960s. The site is currently occupied by a Long & McQuade music store.

4 Casa Loma
Unoccupied for several years following the departure of its builder, Sir Henry Pellatt, Casa Loma was opened to the public as a hotel in April 1927. Though financial troubles led to its closure just over a year later, the Casa Loma Hotel left a mark on the music world through its house band. Under the leadership of saxophonist Glen Gray, the Casa Loma Orchestra became one of the first successful swing groups, though its first big hit, “The Casa Loma Stomp,” came after they moved south of the border.

5 CHUM (1331 Yonge Street)
One of Toronto’s weaker radio stations since signing on in 1945, CHUM had little to lose when it introduced the top-40 radio format to Toronto on May 27, 1957. That day saw the debut of the CHUM Chart, which became the most influential hit listing in Canada. Thanks to its playlist and energetic DJs, CHUM quickly rose in the local ratings. The station ended the 1950s by moving into its landmark building on Yonge Street, where passing drivers were urged to “Dial 1050.”

6 Edison Hotel (335 Yonge Street at Gould)
Originally known as the Empress Hotel, by the early 1950s it was one of Yonge Street’s jazz venues—and, by the end of that decade, it brought in R&B performers like Bo Diddley. The building, which later housed Music World and Salad King, burned in January 2011.

7 Le Coq D’Or (333 Yonge Street)
Arkansas rock n’ roller Ronnie Hawkins first played this Yonge Street tavern circa 1958–59. Little did he know that during the following decade it would become his home base, and he would be dubbed the unofficial “Mayor of Yonge Street.”

8 Massey Hall
Opened on June 14, 1894, with a performance of Handel’s Messiah, Massey Hall became the city’s top concert venue and served as the original home of the Mendelssohn Choir (which first performed there in 1895) and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1923). Among the performers who appeared in its first decades were Enrico Caruso, Sir Edward Elgar, George Gershwin, Glenn Gould, and Oscar Peterson. One of its most legendary concerts took place on May 15, 1953, when jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and Max Roach played together for the only time in their careers. When a recording was made of the performance, Parker was credited as “Charlie Chan” due to contractual problems.

9 Town Tavern (16 Queen Street East)
Another key club of the 1950s local jazz scene, whose sound was preserved on Oscar Peterson’s 1958 album On The Town with the Oscar Peterson Trio.

10 St. Michael’s Choir School (69 Bond Street until 1950; 66 Bond Street thereafter)
Established in 1937, graduates of the program included members of two popular 1950s pop acts, the Crew Cuts (“Sh-Boom”) and the Four Lads (“Standing on the Corner”, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”). When “Sh-Boom” hit the charts, school founder Monsignor Edward Ronan dryly noted that “not all the boys can find their vocation in church music.”

11 George’s Spaghetti House (290 Dundas Street East, at Sherbourne)
Premier jazz venue from the 1950s through 1980s, with a house band led by flutist/saxophonist Moe Koffman (whose music graces every episode of CBC Radio’s As It Happens). Koffman hit the pop charts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in 1958 with his instrumental “The Swinging Shepherd Blues.”

12 Maple Leaf Gardens
Besides sporting events, the home of the Maple Leafs was a major venue for all musical genres. Elvis Presley performed his only live Toronto show here in 1957; Toronto was one of only three cities the King appeared in outside of the United States. Legend has it that Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who was born in the Netherlands, feared being exposed as an illegal immigrant while applying for his American passport.

13 Arc Sound (20 Cranfield Road, near Bermondsey Road and O’Connor Drive)
Launched in 1959, Arc Sound became known for producing Canadian artists and cheap cover albums. Anne Murray launched her career on Arc, which also recorded many of her fellow cast members from CBC’s Singalong Jubilee. Other acts which recorded for Arc and associated labels like Yorkville Records included Catherine McKinnon, Ronnie Hawkins, Harry Hibbs, Gordon Pinsent, the Travellers, the Ugly Ducklings, and the cast of CTV’s popular pub-singalong program The Pig and Whistle.

14 CNE Bandshell
Built in 1936 and inspired by outdoor venues like the Hollywood Bowl, the Art Deco–styled CNE Bandshell has played host to all genres and served as a focal point for the summer fair’s opening and closing ceremonies. A sampling of acts that appeared at nightly free concerts at the Bandshell during the 1955 CNE: the Leslie Bell Singers, the Diamonds, Priscilla Wright, the United States Navy Band, Cliff McKay and his Holiday Ranchers, and 12-year-old fiddler Graham Townsend.

CORRECTION: May 9, 6:01 PM We originally wrote that the George’s Spaghetti House was eventually converted to Montreal Bistro; as pointed out by a reader Montreal Bistro was never at that location, and we’ve removed the erroneous information.