About Me
Hello, my name is Jean-Francois Hayeur, from Montreal, Canada.
I was a record dealer for the past 12 years in Montreal, Canada, selling the best music at Rockweiler, C'DEMENT , SAM THE RECORD MAN , MUSIGO and BEATNICK . I also had the privilege to open up record stores in PARIS & LYON . I am a vinyl aficionado and a jazz record collector.
I recently graduated from HECbusiness school and i just started a new career: i am now a music programmer for the world's largest DIGITAL JUKEBOXE company.
For fun, i produce the PUNK EMPIRE VIDEOZINE
Back in 1991, i was 15 years old.
What was happening musicaly back then, at least commercialy, was GUNS N ROSES and METALLICA ! The GRUNGE scene was about to take over the world but those Seattle bands weren't appealing to my buddies and i. The sound we liked came from the music we heard in skateboard videos from California. Like H-STREET's HOCUS POCUS (1989) and PLAN B's UNQUESTIONABLE VIDEO (1992).
We could not find those ''skateboard video songs'' anywhere. And this was before ''Green Day's DOOKIE'' or ''Offspring's SMASH'', both released in 1994. The skate-punk scene was underground in Montreal and it felt really special. One band we liked from around here were ''The Doughboys''.
We soon discovered two excellent Montreal record shops that became important to us: L'OBLIQUE and DUTCHIES (r.i.p.).
In june of 1994, my High School buddies FOREGROUND and ENOUGH were the opening acts for the 1st original FAT WRECK CHORDS band to play Montreal: NO USE FOR A NAME (the DAILY GRIND TOUR).
We could barely find any SO-CAL punk music back then and the next thing we know, our friends from High School were opening for the 1st FAT WRECK show in Montreal on june 14th 1994. We couldn't believe it ! The fact that we could walk up to bands like NO USE FOR A NAME and talk to them was mind-blowing. Those early EPITAPH & FAT WRECK CHORDS bands felt like they belonged to us. The scene was fresh and new. Even the clothing was new and different. Something was happening.
I immediately started writting letters the old fashioned way (ink, paper, stamp, envelope) to my favorite punk bands and asked them if i could videotape their first shows in Montreal.
Most of them, unheard of at the time, wrote back personnaly and said "Sure Dude !''. This was before e-Mails !
I eventually met more local friends in bands: MEN O STEEL, SUBB, SPRAINED ANKLE & ROACH who renamed themselves RESET and who would later become SIMPLE PLAN.
Between 1994-1998, the bands playing shows in Montreal received free tapes of my best footage and a copy of their own shows. This positive exchange landed me on countless guest-lists, with easy backstage access as the scene grew bigger and bands played bigger venues. Needless to say, it was alot of fun.
I met the promoters and the people involved directly in the scene which i became neighbor and roomate with:
The 2112 crew: Page (Greenland), Orion (Shades of Culture), PatWreck (Slaves on Dope), Curtis (SNFU, Trigger Happy), Clo, The MenOsteel guys (Matt, JF), Adrian (Reset), Rachel (August Elliot).
Since Page
and his agency, GREENLAND
booked the punk shows in Montreal, touring bands would stop by our bloc, bbq, skate Page & Orion's backyard ramp and have a few beers. This is also the house where the BAD BRAINS broke up in 1995 while on tour with the BEASTIE BOYS. Because of the great people at
GREENLAND , lets not forget NANCY's hard work and PAT HAMOU's great concert posters, Montreal became one of the favorite cities in Canada for skate-punk bands in the 90's.
PAGE also founded 2112 RECORDS , a punk label that promoted Montreal bands such as RESET
(known today as SIMPLE PLAN),
MEN O STEEL, Montreal Hip Hop godfathers: SHADES OF CULTURE, Montreal's dancehall king: Jah Cutta as well as STEALTH featuring Darryl Jennifer of BAD BRAINS and B.C.'s TEN DAYS LATE.
By 1997, i had accumulated alot of good footage but never bootlegged it. This was my agreement with the bands. Trust was a key factor. What can be better than getting recognition from the bands you love and grew up listening to ?
That same year, my footage was used for the FAT WRECK CHORDS "Peepshow" video.
So after seeing my footage in a FAT WRECK video, it made me want to expose the rest of my work. But i only had live concert footage at the time. I thought that if i could mix my live footage with interviews, i could come up with an interesting concept.
Punk Empire was born with the help of my new buddies Matt and Andy as an "unofficial / home made / Do It Yourself" video.
PUNK EMPIRE would not have been possible without the amazing contribution from MATT
and ANDY . You guys are the stars of PUNK EMPIRE.
Matt, Andy and myself hope you enjoy the show.
LIVE VIDEOS FILMEDBY JF HAYEUR
THE MONTREAL 90'S PUNK SCENE
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER:
This is a non-Commercial / non-profitable activity. The PUNK EMPIRE videos are not for sale. The purpose of this MySpace page is historical documentation only. Interviews are made in good faith with DIY punk ethics. Permissions obtained by the bands, the record labels and the promoters. Videos have been compressed and are not 100% quality.
This is Fair Use. The producer, myself, is commited to respect these terms.
Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords permissions obtained from Jeff Abarta and Brian Archer