Hamilton artist David Collier chronicles the life of iconic promoter Gary Topp
'TOPP' tells the stories behind the 99-cent Roxy, The Horseshoe, The New Yorker and The Edge in comic-book form
By Graham RockinghamContributing Columnist
Wed., June 10, 2020timer3 min. read
updateArticle was updated Jul. 09, 2020
Hamilton artist David Collier was just 17 when he got a job as a busboy at Toronto's pioneering punk rock club, The Edge. It wasn't his first attempt at gainful employment since dropping out of high school in Grade 10.
He had gotten fired from his previous job at an auto parts warehouse for showing up to work in a Sid Vicious T-shirt. Collier and The Edge were in perfect harmony.
It was 1979. Collier washed dishes, loaded and unloaded vans, unplugged the upstairs toilets, which sometimes dripped onto the stage, worked security and saw some of the most cutting-edge acts in the world. He also got to hang out with the bizarre assortment of artists, musicians and scenesters who habituated the place, including the club's co-operator, Gary Topp.
"It was such a positive atmosphere," Collier, 57, says in an interview in the backyard of his North End home. "It was incredible to see every band that you ever loved and ones you didn't know about, playing on stage every night."
Along with his partner, Gary Cormier (known collectively as "The Garys"), Topp had been at the vanguard of the punk cultural explosion that rocked Toronto in the late '70s, first at the 99-cent Roxy Theatre, then The Horseshoe Tavern, the New Yorker Theatre and The Edge (at Gerard and Church).
Topp was the first to bring artists like The Ramones, The Stranglers and The Police to Canada, as well as nurturing local talent like Rough Trade, Nash the Slash, The Viletones, and Hamilton punk pioneers, Teenage Head and The Forgotten Rebels. The complete list (as can be seen on Topp's website garytopp.com) is staggering.
In the mid-'80s, Collier left Toronto, travelling west, joining the army (he's still a reservist), and nurturing his creative talent as a comic book artist with the encouragement of famed American underground artist, Robert Crumb. Eventually Collier and his artist wife, Jennifer Hambleton, settled in Hamilton where they have lived for more than 20 years.
A few years ago, Collier got a call from Topp, whom he hadn't seen in decades. Topp asked Collier if he'd be interested in writing about his life in comic book form. Friends had been telling Topp he should write a memoir, something easier said than done. Why not enlist somebody else to do it?
A visit to a Montreal book store had made Topp realize how much comic books had changed since Topp was a kid. They had become vehicles for far more than just Archie and Batman. He decided that was how he wanted his story told. Topp was aware of how Collier had blossomed over the years as an internationally known indie comic artist. He was the right person for the job.
The finished product is a 140-page graphic biography that begins with Topp's childhood discovery of folk music, then rock and roll, and ends with the closing of The Edge in 1981.
It's called "TOPP: Promoter Gary Topp Brought Us the World" (Conundrum Press).
Topp admits he's a bit embarrassed by the title. It was Collier's idea, not Topp's, and, yes maybe it's a bit over the top (excuse the pun). It does, however, reflect what many people, including Collier, think of Topp's achievements during those halcyon years that helped establish Toronto as a world-class creative hub.
"We booked what we liked," Topp, 74, said in an interview from his Toronto home. "It didn't matter if anybody else liked it or not.
"The (music) industry didn't believe in anything we were doing or the new music that was happening at the time, wouldn't give us the time of day. One person (at a major label) said we wouldn't get any of their acts because our venues didn't have carpeting like the El Mocambo."
Graham Rockingham is a Hamilton-based freelance contributing columnist for The Spectator. Reach him via email: grahamrockingham@gmail.com