Breeding Ground

Bio:

Toronto's primary cold wave band in the mould of the Joy Division school of rhythm was formed ready for the Queen Street circuit in 1981. Their first release in 1982, was an untitled 4 track, 12 inch EP on Mannequin Records and featured original drummer Ken Jones. They would receive notoriety in 1983 with the independent 12 inch EP "Reunion/Slaughter" on Fringe Product. It was largely successful on Canadian college radio stations and ended up selling out three pressings. Toronto radio station CFNY exposed the band to the commercial airwaves by playlisting and giving copious rotation to the song "Reunion". The follow-up LP, 1985's 'Tales Of Adventure', was produced by ex-Blue Peter guitarist Chris Wardman (later joined the band) who enlisted Jason Sniderman on keyboards. Alta Moda's Molly Johnson assisted vocally on a few tracks and the record made it to No.1 on the campus charts and No.60 on CFNY's "Best 86 of '86" based on the success of the upbeat single and video "Happy Now I Know". A year later, bassist Jonathan Strayer quit and the band effectively disbanded. However, Wardman continued writing material with Shirreff and bassist Gary Quinn and before long, the remainder of Breeding Ground was recruited back to re-band for the 1987 line-up of Shirreff, Gladish, Quinn, Hunter and Wardman. Two years passed before Breeding Ground's next LP was released, 'Obscurity And Flair' which once again featured Molly Johnson, and Chalk Circle's Tad Winklarz adding saxophone tracks. The end came in March 1990 . . .

Member Since:

August 14, 2007

Members:

ORIGINAL LINE UP: John Shirreff - vocals, Jonathan Strayer - bass, Hugh Gladish - guitars, Ken Jones - drums ======================= Jonathan Davies replaced Ken Jones, Kevin Hunter replaced Jonathan Davies, Gary Quinn replaced Jonathan Strayer, Chris Wardman played additional guitars and produced

Record Label:

Fringe Product