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The Haunted
1-2-5 / Eight O'Clock in the Morning - 7"
Quality - 1966
Michael Panontin
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As Haunted guitarist Jurgen Peter tells it, the Beatles-era Montreal music scene was not much different from the rest of Canada at the time, rife with garage bands of varying talent, yet constricted by a sycophantic, almost colonial music biz.
"In Canada, in the early '60s, there was no such thing as a commercial music industry. The deejays played only American records and it was common knowledge that they lived off 'payola' from the record companies. When we, the Haunted, started to play as a band in the Montreal area, there was no way to get a recording contract, no one to play your records, no booking agency to book us, no large shows and paying gigs to play at, no music magazine or anything like it to promote a local band."
Alas, in the midst of so many barriers to success, the crafty Peter took things into his own hands, forming a bi-weekly music paper called Music Trend and a booking agency called Groups And Sound Service, aka GASS. He would ply his fledgling business acumen at various halls and skating rinks, at the same time paying local deejays a percentage of the gate to MC the shows, with the expectation that they would be plugged on air to mutual benefit.
The Haunted were a big part of this scene and in early 1966, on the night of Jan. 3rd to be precise, they got their first big shot at success. At the time they were basically a cover band with a setlist not much different from that of thousands of other bands across the continent. "We liked American blues and Chuck Berry stuff - basically the same sort of stuff the British rock groups were listening to on the other side of the ocean," Peter would tell the Montreal Gazette in 2009.
On that winter night, cheered on by the sizeable following they had developed from gigging at places like the Bonaventure Curling Club and the numerous high schools dotting the west island, the Haunted took the stage at the Hopsville Battle of the Bands at the venerable Montreal Forum. The competition was fierce and included the likes of David Clayton-Thomas, J.B. and the Playboys, the Staccatos and Andy Kim. But somehow the group, who were Peter and fellow guitarist Al Birmingham, along with singer Bob Burgess, bassist Mason Shea and drummer Dave Wynne, blew them all away.
"We showed up and that was it," Bob Burgess remembered. "The place went nuts."
With first prize a one-off recording deal, the guys headed off to the RCA Victor Studio on rue Guy to make the record that would make them famous. The raw and infectious '1-2-5' is easily Canada's most well-known garage record, and the guys nailed it in one take. Which suited Birmingham just fine. "If you're into the garage thing, that's what it was all about," he said. "It was raw. It was live. Showtime - that's it."
'1-2-5' shifted an unfathomable 8,000 units in a few weeks and ultimately climbed to the #2 position at radio station CFCF. The guys toured heavily throughout the Ontario/Quebec corridor, but eventually Burgess left and was replaced by Johnny Monk. A re-recorded '1-2-5', with Burgess' rough-hewn amateurism replaced by Monk's more textured pipes, would find its way onto the band's lone hyper-rare LP the following year. It's the latter version that has wormed its way onto playlists around the world, starting with the very first Pebbles compilation in 1978, but for many purists the original single is the garageland classic hands down.
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The Haunted
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