THE TRUTH BEHIND THE HAPPENING:

" It was the summer of 1981. NOW magazine became Toronto's 'other' voice, and a concert at Ontario Place became Toronto's Rock n' Roll statement to the world. It really started early in the day, three boys and a girl, sitting in the Downsview Dells Park up near the Keele Street and Sheppard Avenue intersection. For all intensive purposes my name is 'Jupiter', and the others, well, lets call them John Doe, Harry Doe and Sue Doe. You have to understand, we're talking about the incitation of a full scale riot, nothing less. A Rock n' Roll riot. One that made front page news in over ninety North American newspapers. The afternoon started out simple enough for four Toronto teenagers with nothing to do. We headed into the park carrying a twenty-four box of beer, a bottle of whiskey and so on, not unusual in that part of the city throughout the seventies and early eighties. It was a good enough day, and when your young, with nothing to do, and you've consumed a bit of this and that, it's always a beautiful day. Now the afternoon was lingering on, and youthful exuberance being what it is, we were getting bored. I can't honestly recall who made the suggestion, perhaps we heard something on a radio, but we decided we would head down to Ontario Place for one of the free concerts going on that day. Walking up to the Keele & Sheppard plaza, we dropped by the now defunct 'Classic Billiards', the local hangout for the party crowd of the area. Asking around if anyone was interested in joining us, we found we'd be heading down alone. We chipped in our resources and bought ourselves a little more liquor. We hopped on the old faithful 'Red Rocket' and made our way to the Subway. Heading down to the concert we were a little agitated as we realized we should have left earlier. No matter, we'd get there regardless. We were getting antsy on the ride down. There's nothing worse than being half out of your head and trapped in the confines of fluorescent lights and sober crowds. We departed the train still maintaining our sanity, but barely, and headed to the 'Place'. Arriving at the West entrance to the park, we found the gates locked shut, and the Police telling us to go home, the concert was full. We didn't take the news well. John and Sue just seemed to accept the news, a little depressively. Harry and I were the crazy pair, and we couldn't accept a 'No' yet. We convinced John and Sue to come over to the Eastern gate. We walked along the parking area to the other gate, and when we arrived there we were shocked to find several hundred other young people, camped out on the grass outside the gates, which were closed with a chain and lock. Now, you have to understand, Harry and I were not in the right mind, so to speak. Looking around the situation, we deduced there were only six or seven police officers inside, and several hundred young and eager music fans outside. It just didn't seem right. There were four or five ticket booths, I don't recall exactly, and around the corner of the structure, the larger vehicle gate, the one with the chain and lock. We started to address the crowd. I can still remember to this day, as I started yelling to the crowd, who at this time were seated on the grass, the shocked looks on the faces of the police. Looks quickly replaced by angry stares. I chastised the masses, telling them how they were all 'sheep' and how we greatly outnumbered those who were denying us our Rock and Roll rights. Things just weren't happening, but I wasn't going to take no for an answer. John and Sue seemed a little distant, but Harry, bless him, was right in there, laughing and carrying on. The crowd itself started to show some signs of life, but were still visibly apprehensive. More people were arriving, they were not yet seated, and I think that played a key roll. The situation by now had graduated to a few of the braver souls joining us now, taunting the crowd, and the opposing forces within their sealed domain. I viewed the situation, and instructed some of my fellow revolutionaries to hoist me on top of one of the ticket booths. The police inside barked orders at me to get down. I barked orders at the crowd to get up. Get up on all the ticket booths, and jump down inside together, and the rest of the crowd, rush through the ticket turnstiles after us. Things were starting to get hairy. Things were starting to happen. New arrivals showed no hesitation, as to them, it was already happening, this just bolstered the courage of the apprehensive ones still seated. It took some time but I managed to convince several brave souls to join me on top of the ticket turnstiles. The crowd was now unified, but confused and perhaps still a little frightened of the police inside. Barking out instructions to the crowd to follow quickly, strongly and unified, we jumped inside the contained area, the route to our concert. The police attacked, but the fear was starting to show on their faces. They moved forward to us, trying to make us retreat through the turnstiles. Some of my comrades stalled, hesitant with fear. A critical loss that magnified into the crowd. Batons started to swing, and blows were received. We retreated, but now the outside crowd was getting angry. Angry that young concert goers were being bashed by the police. A portion of the crowd had moved to the gate, to watch our jump in. They started pushing against the gate, shouting. The gate was pushing in and straining the chain and lock. I quickly saw what was happening, and knew we were in a losing situation where we were. I called a retreat to my fellow 'Rock and Roll elite commando force' that had jumped into the fire with me, we pushed our way through the turnstiles to the safety of the crowd on the other side, as the police beat against us in our retreat. They had thought they were victorious but couldn't have been more wrong. Coming out into the main crowd, I screamed at them, as I was frenzied by this point, "Around to the gate, get around to the gate, push in, we can do it". The crowd moved in unison and it was such an awesome, powerful experience. Pushing against the gate, and the random blows of the police batons against it, we felt the chain straining and knew before it bust that we were victorious. The fear on the face of our aggressors was instant and obvious as they jumped back out of our way. The gates crashed open freely and the crowd surged forward together. Powerful and determined. Reinforcements were headed over the bridge now from the concert, but they were too late. Only by a matter of minutes. If they had acted only five minutes quicker, they could have quelled the situation and prevented a Toronto Rock and Roll legend from occurring. The police on the bridge fled to the sides as the crowd surged forward. Harry and I kept in the middle of the crowd, as we knew all too well we would be prime targets for the vented anger of the police that was raining down upon the outside of the crowd, in blows from their batons. We sighted John and Sue. They were blown away by what had just transpired. We grabbed and hugged them, excitidley telling them we had to move, and to stay inside the crowd. It was a sad sight, bu the police were belting people on the outside of the crowd with their batons, quite indescriminatley. We ran with the pack to the concert venue. People inside already were quite aware that something was happening, they just didn't know what. The rest of Toronto was quickly made aware too. News breaking out upon the city. We joined the crowd inside and the air was filled with electricity. People had no clue of what was going on really, except for the portion of the crowd that had broken in. The band, also, had no clue what was happening, but it was quite apparent that everybody knew 'something' was happening. We were just glad to be inside, the simple and innocent objective of our whole trip down there. I couldn't honestly tell you the proper title of the song, I was never a huge Teenage Head fan, but when they started into that tune " Nice night for a party… isn't it", it was pure magic. The crowd went absolutely insane. We all knew we were very fortunate to be there that night, we knew right then it would be a night to remember. We hadn't a clue just what was happening outside. We wouldn't know until the next day, when we read the papers. We'd also hear first hand accounts from our 'Down East' friends, Kevin, who was pictured on the front of the Toronto Star sprawled up against a police car, and his buddy Jerome. They had come down to meet us and were caught up in the ensuing melee. Talk about Karma, of all people, Kevin ends up in the photo. Apparently, after we had made it in, the police relocked the gate, raised the bridge, and parked a cruiser up against the gate as a reinforcement to the chain and lock. Those arriving too late for the party didn't take kindly to this and began scaling the fences of the park, and trying to swim the moat that surrounded the place. Metro Toronto and OPP boats were summoned from Toronto Island and were patrolling the waters, pulling out the desperate fans. Police on horseback and extra cruisers were called in, some from as far away as Burlington and Whitby. The boats and cruisers were getting pelted with rocks and garbage. This thing had now gone full tilt. Lake Shore Boulevard was closed down. The crowd became more and more agitated as the police presence grew, and rocks and bottles were soon flying everywhere. The OPP police cruiser parked against the gate was completely destroyed, and several others badly damaged by heavy rocks. Big heavy rocks that were ripped right out, from the Lake's breakwater. Things got completely out of hand, police on horseback pushed against the crowd, swinging riot sticks indiscriminately. Police officers in full riot gear moved in behind them. The crowd was unified in its resolve, and wanted a fight. They weren't going to back off. The incident had lasted for more than three hours, many fans were badly beaten and ten police officers hurt. Two dozen people arrested. The scene inside was just as surreal, there was an atmosphere that couldn't easily be explained. I suppose most of the fans being right out of their heads certainly contributed to that. The band played on, not having a clue that they were about to become national headlines in an incident that would catapult them to instantaneous fame and fortune. The concert was ending, but the fans hadn't had enough. It was a nice night for a party and no one wanted the party to end. An extended encore was demanded. To quote the bands guitarist, Gord Lewis: "The stage at the Forum spun around, and I remember looking around, and not seeing any gaps in the crowd at all, It was really claustrophobic. We didn't finish something. I just remember running, running with my guitar" The crowd had rushed the stage by this time, But Harry, John, Sue and I were burnt by this time, we just wanted to lay low and get out ok. We were worried that when we departed the concert, the police might be on the lookout for us. We had no idea at that point what we had started. The band had no idea what had happened. The big American record companies that went after the band had no idea what the attraction was. Frankie Venom and the boys, well, until now I suppose, they never knew what happened. Rock concerts were permanently banned from Ontario Place. Looking back in time, it almost seems like another world. John married Sue and became religious hermits of sorts. Harry, he's still a party animal, and still goes down to the Downsview Dells with a case of beer on those hot summer days. Kevin is back down East, and Jerome is now frontman for the Toronto Blues band 'One Monkey'."

Did I learn anything from the experience? Yes, the awesome power of people, when they work towards something in unison!