Gods of the Hammer

The Teenage Head Story

'Teenage Head changed the face of music in this country. I would not be who I am today without their first record ... In 1979 they were the only band that mattered.’
– Hugh Dillon

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, no Canadian band rocked harder, louder or to more hardcore fans than Hamilton, Ontario's own Teenage Head. Although usually lumped in the dubiously inevitable 'punk rock' category of the day, this high-–energy quartet ––consisting of four guys who'd known each other since high school ––were really only punk by association. In essence they were a full-–on, balls–-to–-the-–wall, three-–chord, kick-–out-–the-–jams band that obliterated categories and labels with the sheer force of their sonic assault, and everywhere they played they converted the merely curious to the insanely devoted.

And they almost became world famous. Almost. This is their story, told in full and for the first time, and by those who lived to tell the tale.

Praise for Gods of the Hammer:

‘A riot of a good read on Teenage Head ... the writing is fast-paced and lively, told from the laudatory perspective of a frustrated fan trying to explain why such a great band never got its due.’
– The Hamilton Spectator

‘I loved it! Wanted it to last forever! Geoff Pevere has done an ace portrait of all that is great and dirty in rock and roll.’
– Bruce McDonald

'Pevere's is an on-the-ground fan's account of how the band enamoured a country and how if just that one last, special piece fell into place — if they were managed better, if an American record deal came sooner, if guitarist Gord Lewis hadn't been laid up for half a year at their very peak by a back-breaking car accident — songs like "Picture My Face" and "Let's Shake" would be played before face-offs and stocked in jukeboxes from St. John's to San Francisco. The Head were always just a centimetre away from super-stardom. To a generation of hip music fans, they're as classic as The Cars, but instead of ubiquity, their story is a distinctly Canadian Almost Famous.'
- Chart Attack

Praise for Geoff Pevere:

‘After almost 30 years of writing about the movies, Geoff Pevere’s anti-establishment views are just as strong as ever, but now he wears them as comfortably as an old leather jacket. He has always been more interested in broadening people’s interests than in trying to narrow them. In an age with almost unlimited access to film, just one stream in an onrushing tide of media, this is daring. For the boy who once had to wait months to see Citizen Kane, however, it’s simply a gesture of generosity.’
— Toronto Screen Shot