75% of my readers are from the US and Europe so I think it’s safe to assume that you probably haven’t heard of Art Bergmann.
I’ve seen Art Bergmann perform a zillion times over the years and he has taken a place among Lou Reed, Paul Westerberg, Dean Wareham, and Elvis Costello as one of my favorite male songwriters, musicians, and performers of all time (there are others, but I’ve restricted my list to artists I’ve seen perform live).
Toro magazine describes Bergmann as “a truly kick-ass underachiever – one of the least successful, most unrecognized Canadian icons ever” (click here to read full article).
“A Never Was Trying To Be A Has Been”
(song - Bound For Vegas, album - Sexual Roulette, 1990)
The first time I saw Art Bergmann play it was the early 90’s and I had won tickets to a show he shared with a bunch of Canadian bands: Bootsauce, Sons of Freedom, and Pure. I think it was the last show in the tour, and Bergmann appeared on stage alone with his guitar for his set.
In between songs, he complained that the bands would not let him on their tour buses and that he had to chase them across the country by Greyhound bus. He even had to hitchhike to one of the shows when he missed a connection. Just like every story there were two sides to it of course; and, just like any authentic punk rocker of his time, Art Bergmann had a reputation for being difficult and a drug addict…
Still, I’m guessing most of the audience thought he was just joking, like I did at the time. I mean he was Art Bergmann - I’d seen his music videos on TV, I’d heard his songs on the radio, and he was part of punk rock history - in fact, he is one of the founding fathers of Canadian punk rock.
Photo credit: Lincoln Clarke
“Look at that Singer He’s Been Doing That for Years”
(song - Junkie Don’t Care, album - Crawl With Me, 1988)
Yet, his story was true - and I’m sure he’s not the only famous (or infamous) person who experiences this kind of problem. Confronted by people on the bus, “Hey, aren’t you Art Bergman? What the hell are you doing on the bus, man?”
What is a rock star supposed to do when he has no cash, and welfare turns him down? He could play a show, but when he comes off stage the vultures are always waiting around to collect the money he owes to a record label that has dropped him or management that isn’t representing him anymore…
“We Got a Contract, Contract - Who’s Screwing Who?”
(song - Contract, album - What Fresh Hell is This?, 1995)
Bergmann’s musical career has now spanned over four decades. He has been signed to Polygram and Sony records, he has had gold records, he has appeared in some classic Canadian movies (Please go watch Highway 61 immediately if you’ve never seen it before -it’s one of my favorite movies of all time.)
Some punk rockers from the 70’s went in to politics -appearing in speaking tours at universities across the country, or retired their personas altogether and got jobs and families. Art Bergmann continued to write music, tour, and piss off record labels well in to the 90’s. In fact, he won a Juno award (Canadian version of the Grammy Awards) in 1995 for best alternative album (I hear he declined to take the statue home, though, once he found out the Juno people expected him to pay for the privilege!).
I wish there were more places I could point you to where Bergmann would actually profit financially from your visit, or the sale of his shirts or music, but unfortunately that is not the case. Someone else owns most of his songs and even his domain name. This is not confirmed but I’m pretty sure he must be getting a portion of the sales of his newest release:
You can buy Lost Art Bergmann, the newest release of his music at CCNow.com (click here).
Visit Art Bergmann.com, a fansite, for a helpful time line detailing history of his bands, albums, and record labels.
The website Canadian Pop Encyclopedia description of Art Bergmann:
A pioneer of Vancouver’s punk scene, songwriter/guitarist Bergmann has always walked on the edge and a volatile personality and drug addiction has kept him from reaping the benefits of his on-again off-again solo career. (click to read more)
Art Bergmann’s myspace fansite is myspace.com/artbergmann
Art History - Storytelling…
Here are some links to some great Art stories:
Photographer Alex Waterhouse Hayward describes ‘fuck bands’ and a Los Popularos photoshoot.
Thursday, March 26 at Richards on Richards (That’s tonight!)
Art Bergmann performs a sold out show in Vancouver tonight with members of one of his old bands, Poisoned. You can read about this rare event and his new release at the Georgia Straight.com (click here).
Art History - The Early Years
Young Canadians fansite on myspace (click here).
Art History - Later Years
Weekly Feature
myspace
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