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PUNK EMPIRE VIDEOZINE

The Official Punk Empire Videozine Page

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

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

We hope our videos inspired you to start your own video project. We did ours, now it’s your turn. Do it yourself.VIDEO COUNTER: 1,520,809

We have over 400 videos on YOUTUBE. Go watch them !

Search word: PUNK / EMPIRE / HAYEUR

Videos are not for sale but a sampler is available upon request

Movies:

INTRODUCTION PENNYWISE interview AFI interview DIESEL BOY interview LUNACHICKS interview GREEN DAY interview MXPX interview BLINK 182 interview ICE-T interview THE QUEERS interview DOWN BY LAW interview ANTI FLAG interview SICK OF IT ALL interview

Books:

My videos appeared in ''Peepshow''

Heroes:

The Greenland Empire

Oh, sure. It started out real simple. In '93 Panick Productions (Paget Williams and Nick Farkas) evolved, with the help of Dan Webster, into Greenland, bringing cool shows to small-, mid- and occasionally larger-sized venues. But then the beast grew more heads. They tackled multi-city tours for out-of-town acts, linked up with DKD, established the Sno-Jam and Ramp Rage sports/rock crossover events, kicked off the 2112 record label and joined forces with Victor Schiffman and Grim Skunk's Indica label. These days Farkas answers the phone with a "Nick at House of Blues," HoB having bought out Universal Concerts, where Farkas has been stationed the last couple of years. Williams, meanwhile, still answers with "Hey, dude."So props to all the different people involved at Greenland, whose offices are now far more densely populated than their namesake island. In particular, there's Pat Hamou, who gave up a promising career in the extreme fighting ring to design amazing posters and kick moochy scenesters out of the dressing room when the shows end. And then there's the lovely Nancy Ross, who not only handles a ridiculous workload at Greenland, but also reps for BMG, checks up on the shows in the evening and tends bar at Bifteck. Plus, she plays drums. What a woman. (RB)