Wednesday Nov 01, 2023
Gary Topp Part 2 (Episode 31)
“Over the past 25 years, THE GARYS have helped define the city of Toronto as a cosmopolitan mecca of artistic expression.”
-TORONTO ARTS AWARDS, 1995
There’s a new self-titled book by acclaimed graphic novelist, Dave Collier, and it’s all a matter of taste for TOPP… in the 1970s, Gary deftly juggled trashy flicks (John Waters’ Pink Flamingos, for instance) with art films (all six hours of the Russian War And Peace with cabbage rolls for 700 at intermission ) for crowds of zonked cineastes at the long-gone Original 99-Cent Roxy.
Next, as half of The Garys, at such venues as the New Yorker Theatre, the Horseshoe and the Edge, they went on to promote all kinds of equally hip and eclectic concerts—from Divine’s off-Broadway spectacle ’Neon Woman’ to Jim Rose’s Circus Sideshow, from kids concerts with Robert Munsch to Jane Birkin, Jerry Seinfeld, Waylon Jennings, Tom Waits and jazz legends Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman to the first Toronto gigs (and 36 in total) by New York punk-rockers the Ramones, from North Indian sarod virtuoso Ali Akbar Khan, Argentina’s tango rebel Astor Piazzolla, Kronos Quartet and James Brown, to an obscure, England-based trio of reggae enthusiasts called The Police who in 1978 drew a crowd of some sixty people to a now-legendary two-night stand at the Horseshoe. In the late 90s, Gary premiered the Dixie Chicks, a band not one Toronto promoter was remotely interested in. Topp has hosted several radio programs on Q107 and CKLN, served as a TV music producer, produced music videos, is a fundraiser and became the first promoter, The Garys, to win a Toronto Arts Award. He continues to book concerts and his taste remains anything but predictable or mainstream.
Filmmaker Ron Mann (Twist, Comic Book Confidential, Grass) refers to Gary as “a hand grenade of an impresario who created a counter-culture film and music scene where no one before him had dared”.
TOPP, PROMOTER GARY TOPP BROUGHT US THE WORLD, has just been released by Conundrum Press and is available everywhere.
2015: Music supervisor THE RAINBOW KID
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