Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Artist: Blue Peter, Album: Test Patterns For Living, Song: Same Old Place

Blue Peter were a power pop band from Toronto, Ontario.  They formed in 1978 and joined indie label, Ready Records, for their debut release in 1979, entitled, Test Patterns For Living.  Blue Peter was one of the first bands to emerge in Canada as part of the New Wave movement.  Ready was a perfect label for the band as they also represented a number of similar artists such as The Spoons, The Demics, Steve Blimkie (see blog 2/10/11) and The Extras (see blog 9/18/10).  Blue Peter received some strong radio support and won a number of regional music awards during their tenure.  They toured Canada and opened for international artists like The Boomtown Rats, The Jam, Simple Minds and The Fixx.  They released 5 albums before breaking up in 1985.  The members were Paul Humphrey, Chris Wardman, Owen Tennyson, Jason Sniderman and Rick Joudrey.  Paul would go on to release music as a solo artist as well as with the band, Broken Arrow.  Chris Wardman has become one of our country's most recognized  music producers.  He has worked with artists as musically diverse as Randy Bachman (see blog 11/13/10) and the Rascalz.  Blue Peter has reformed in recent years to play a number of shows with fellow Canadian rockers, Chalk Circle.  You can read about their story at http://bluepeterband.com/.  The song, Same Old Place, was their punk infused lead off track from their debut release and you can hear it on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSUZJ3xtWc&feature=channel_video_title).  The song was also included on a remastered version of their second release, Radio Silence, which is available from Itunes.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!