Welcome to the official YYY myspace archive. Over the last year i have had the privilege of going through hundreds of classic original Toronto Hardcore tapes from late 70's through to the mid 80's. The original intent being to compile a CD Anthology of all the best surviving documents of one of the greatest bands in that scene, Youth Youth Youth. They were only together for about 4 years but had a big part to do with the local Hardcore movement. Not only with their powerful shows and lyrics but by recording and releasing other music as well. The most well known being the mass produced T.O.H.C. 83 cassette compilation featuring YOUNG LIONS, A.P.B., DEAD END, CHRONIC SUBMISSION, ZERO OPTION, DIRECT ACTION, and YYY. This cassette should have been released on vinyl in 83 because it stands up as being one of the best Hardcore comps of that era. That being said, there are some plans of doing a small run of T.O.H.C. VINYL. (I'll keep you posted).
The boxes of tapes have been amazing to go through, theres full length unreleased albums by bands you've forgotten all about. Great live concerts and alternate mixes of all the bands listed above and more. Alot of it is quite "lo-fi" by todays standards, and not for the weak of spirit, but we've been remastering everything as good as possible and been shown that there are alot of lost gems in here. Hopefully if enough interest is given, maybe more of this stuff could see the light of day again. There is ALOT. For example, ten CDRs were filled with various YYY stuff alone. We've been weeding through it all, looking for the best survivors. Luckily more than one cassette was made of some of the sessions, and alot of times, one of them sounds better than the other so theres lots of listening and comparing to do before compiling the final sequence. We have finally come closer to the end now but we are left with alot of great live recordings that just won't fit on the same CD with the studio stuff. One idea was to release the live recordings as a downloadable album. Like a free companion to the Studio anthology which is already a full 77 minutes. That's probably what we'll do. Once we can get that up i'll put a link here for it and 'till then put some tracks from it in the song section above for you to check out. As far as the main CD goes, It will consist of the SIN e.p., the BYO comp. track, T.O.H.C. (full 6 song session orig. mix), YYY '82 tape (full session orig. mix), 82 garage demos, 1st studio session 81, and the 1st demo recording with original short lived singer. Rumour has it, a DVD may come with the CD anthology also. It will feature some out-take footage filmed during the making of the NOT DEAD YET documentary in 1983 as well as a complete, (but only 7 songs) show from Larrys in Dec. 82. Everything is nearing completion and should be available soon but until then, i've created this page to keep any of you fellow classic hardcore fans informed about this upcoming release of such great historical importance. I've also posted lots of pictures and original concert posters that i'll add to, and change up now and then as well as the songs. I hope you enjoy the effort, it's been a real pleasure digging so deep into such a great and under-exposed band.....Rick, YYYarchive.SHORT BIO: An early version of YYY formed in late 1980 by Rob Mallion. With Rob Demers, Gerry Sewell and Pil Product, they recorded a few songs and played a couple of rough shows in the spring of 81. The last show they played together was with a band called "seventeen" whose drummer Brian McCullough and guitarist Paul Bishop would soon join Rob on Drums and Bass. Rob met Brian Taylor at a bus stop, having similar interests, they became friends and soon Brian found himself singing Rob's songs. Their first show was at the Turning Point in November 81 and more shows followed through 82. In june they went into Accusonic studio to record 12 songs that would soon be released as the 9 song YOUTH YOUTH YOUTH cassette. They continued playing shows when they could including some out of town shows like Ottawa, Montreal, London, and Windsor. Mostly lots of local spots like The Turning point, Edgewater, Horseshoe Tavern, Club without name, The Upper Lip, Larry's Hideaway, Beverly Tavern, Drake Hotel, 100 Bond street and some all ages shows. By 1983 they were tight and fast and opening for most all the best touring bands that came through as well as headlining their own shows and releasing the Toronto hardcore compilation. T.O.H.C. 83. In August they entered Comfort Sound recording studio with engineer Blair Packham and recorded the once again self financed SIN e.p. The album was released on Fringe records which up until then had only done the canadian releases of Alternative tentacles records like Dead Kennedys and DOA. After more shows, some footage in the Not Dead Yet movie, and a new version of "domination" for the BYO compilation "Something to believe in", the band just sort of fell apart as naturally as it started. The members continued on in the scene in other ways including Brian Taylor's popular Aggressive Rock radio show on CKLN as well as producing albums for many local heavy bands like Sacrifice and Sudden Impact. In 1989 Fringe re-released the SIN e.p. along with some remixes of tracks from the TOHC and 82 sessions. It was called REPACKAGED...............................
P.S. If anyone out there has any more photos or posters of YOUTH YOUTH YOUTH shows, please post them in the comments section below. But if we don't have copies already, I may be bugging you for one to include in the Anthology. Thanks.
Here's a prime piece of "not dead yet" outtake footage. MADE IN ENGLAND at the Beverly Tavern, January 1984.
Here's a copy of the YYY part in the "Not dead yet" movie from 83-84....
The song is "THE ONE IN THE MIDDLE / BLUESTAIN".
