Review

Forgotten Rebels - Tomorrow Belongs To Us (CD)

Other Peoples Music, P.O. Box 227, Postal Station P, Toronto Ontario, M5S 2S7, CANADA.

Get ready, this is gonna be a lengthy review! This CD is possibly one of the longest awaited reissues in punk rock history. The Forgotten Rebels, from Hamilton, Ontario Canada, recorded their first EP Tomorrow Belongs to Us at the end of 1978 and released it on their own S&M Records label. These four songs (National Unity, 3rd Homosexual Murder, Nazis (aka Reich 'N Roll), and Angry) are classic yet partially forgotten Canadian punk gems. This record went out of print rather quickly as the band concentrated on their many subsequent albums. Good copies of this vinyl EP still go for $50-100 bucks! The Forgotten Rebels gained instant notoriety with their first record because of the harsh sarcasm and blunt attempts to get a reaction out of people. Third Homosexual Murder and Angry are still played live by the Rebels, who now only contain one original member, the frontman Mickey DeSadist. The awesome thing about this CD reissue is that it includes some other early rarities, such as the early 1978 demo tape "Burning the Flag", some other demos from 1980, and five live tracks recorded in London Ontario, 1980. This includes two previously unreleased songs "Poppies" and "White Trash of America". Another excellent feature of this CD is all of the pictures and added historical info stuffed into the booklet. At the front of the book, Mickey DeSadist explains the story behind Tomorrow Belongs to Us and describes the meaning/origins of the songs. Next, there's a short story about the early days of the Rebels by Steve Berman, who was their original manager (he also recorded their first demo and EP). There's also an excerpt from the Chris Houston Chronicles about the time the Rebels disrupted a Canadian Liberal Party convention attented by Prime Minister (to be) Pierre Trudeau (Chris Houston, aka Pogo Au Gogo, was one of the Rebels' many bassists from the early days).

If you're a fan of the Forgotten Rebels, you absolutely MUST pick this CD up. If you have no idea who the Forgotten Rebels are, get this CD anyway because it is simply amazing. Simple, snotty, raw 70's punk at its finest. It was put out as a art of the "Punk Hole of Fame" series on Toronto's Other Peoples Music label. For more info, go to the Forgotten Rebels Homepage.

Reviewed: December 31, 1997