Ned Hoskin, Peggi Fournier, Paul Dodd and Martin Edic pictured on Hi-Techs postcard that came with Archive Records single, Boogaloo Rendezvous” b/w “Subscriptions”. Thanks to Stan for postcard image.
The Hi-Techs were different. Our lead instrument was a soprano sax. We loved the Contortions and James White, Bush Tetras, Kid Creole and James Brown. The Hi-Techs recorded “Pompeii” in 1979 in the basement of Robert Slide’s (Robert played bass with me in New Math’s first line up) house. Duane Sherwood played synth swishes. Tom Kohn and Marty Duda released the song on their “From The City That Brought You Absolutely Nothing” compilation. Ned joined the band in 1980 and we played about twenty gigs at Scorgies before forming Personal Effects. Our first gig was opening for New Math. This was fitting as I had left New Math a few months before and we were all friends. Kevin Patrick called us at the last minute, as in the night of the show. Peggi and I were already in our pjs when he called. We used to practice a lot so we were ready. We wrote all of our material and our songs were fast. We could barely keep up with them. We had lots of songs and never did the same set twice.
Dick Storms asked us to record a single for his new Archive Records label. Dick had already put out Bahama Mama’s “Lonesome Cowboy” single. I played with New Math on “Die Trying” which Dwight Glodell recorded so we lined him up to produce the single. We did this at Craig Fennesy’s studio in the basement of his house in Hilton. We met Kevin Vicalvi there and he became our sound man and friend for life. “Boogaloo Rendezvous” b/w “Subscriptions (Are My Prescription)” became the second release on Archive Records. Bill Jones printed the cover at Asymmetrical Press on Smith Street. We started playing gigs in Buffalo with bands like the Stains, Paper Faces, The Vores, The Jumpers, and 10,000 Maniacs.
Peggi sang most songs and Ned Hoskin sang a few. Ned liked the Clash and the Boss so his songs had a sincere, working class hero vibe to them. Ned wrote the anthem, “Warren”, for Brian Horton and Blue Hand played it every time we saw them. Ned was a great rhythm guitar player and a big part of the Hi-Techs sound.
We recorded a second single for Archive called “Screamin’ You Head”. It was backed with “A Woman’s Revenge,” a funky number that was based on the Kiss and Darling photo novellas that we used to devour. You could buy them at Bertha’s on East Main near where we practiced. Bertha was too big to get up from behind the counter so she barked orders at another woman who just couldn’t move fast enough for Bertha. “Screamin’ You Head” got quite a bit of play in clubs in NYC. A Danceteria DJ named Iolo was instrumental in getting us club dates in New York and eventually our deal with Cachalot Records but by then we had morphed into Personal Effects.
One of the most interesting gigs Hi-Techs did was a live performance at Channel 31 in 1980 (before it went Fox) with Ozzy Osbourne. There was some other band on the bill too but I can’t remember who that might have been. It seems like Marty Duda had something to do with this date. They tried to record all three of us in one night and Ozzy went first. When we got there Ozzy’s roadies were all drunk. They had spent most of the night in the bar downstairs on the corner of Alexander and East. And they took forever to get their stuff taken down. We set up around three in the morning and played three songs – “Pompeii”, “Boogaloo Rendezvous” and “A Woman’s Revenge”. Here is a video of that performance. Channel 31 used the live audio in the first song and then they synced the footage of our second and third songs to the vinyl versions of those songs because they fucked up the sound. And they got Kathy Buckley to prance around as if she had anything to do with the band. That kind of bummed us out at the time.
Hi-Techs – “Pompeii,” “Screamin You Head” and “A Woman’s Revenge”
(From the Channel 31 show “After Hours,” recorded sometime in 1980-81)
To view this video in high quality, go to YouTube and select the “watch in high quality” link.
Tags: Dwight Glodell, Hi-Techs, Kevin Vicalvi, Paper Faces, Personal Effects.
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Thanks for posting that, Paul – that video really brings things back. “After Hours” was Marty Duda’s show, yeah. The way he told it the video of Ozzy from that show was the only live-in-the-studio footage in existence of Ozzy with Randy Rhoads, and Marty did pretty well on the sale of the rights. It probably financed his move to New Zealand.
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I also like Martin’s “Mack’s Army Navy Store” t-shirt in that yellow postcard pic. That place was a Main St. mecca for me – we used to skip school in junior high and take the bus downtown to hang around Mack’s, Rochester Art Supply and Archie’s Gob Shop. Midtown we’d hit up, of course, but it was not to be loitered about at leisure due to the truant officers.
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Say, isn’t that the Inner Loop background? I always liked that shot.
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I wore that Mack’s t-shirt till it fell apart. That bass, AKA ‘The Plank’, really sounds like crap to me now. We did play really fast and a lot of notes- I had yet to learn the ‘less is more’ mantra.
Hi-Techs were a song machine. At one point we had something like 120 originals which came in handy when we’d play the Continental in Buffalo and play 4 sets because they stayed open till 4am. We usually repeated the first set. I remember breaking two bass strings in one night (unheard of) because we were playing at such a hyped-up pace. And taking little white pills to stay up.
I forgot about Kathy Buckley- she was a piece of work.
The interesting thing about this video is it was near the end of the band and shows where we evolved into Personal Effects. Ironically, Pompeii, the first song we did, sounds the most modern- almost jazzy in this version.
The entire Hi-Techs experience was amazing for me- I’d always wanted to be a musician but until that band I couldn’t pull it together. It was a very driven and disciplined group. We practiced constantly and obsessively listened to records with great production to figure out how they got their big sound. Paul and Peggi had (and have) the greatest record collection imaginable. We listened to everything from outside jazz like Ornette to pop stuff. At one point we were collectively obsessed with ABBA’s Greatest Hits and Back in Black (ACDC)! Talk about a strange range of influences… -
Simon, We were sitting on the side of 490 East close to downtown when Lanae took that postcard shot. The geometric concrete was a great background.
Martin, do you remember when we were playing Scorgies and Kathy Buckley took off her bra and threw it to you from the dance floor? I can’t remember what you did with it… -
Practice? PRACTICE???
Yeah, we may have practiced a couple of times.
Mostly, we just learned our songs during sound check.
No one noticed. Or, cared.
Kathy Buckley deserves her OWN post on this site. I’m gonna leave it at that.
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That 490 embankment backdrop looks so clean and full of promise in that shot . . . every time I’ve looked at it over the years it’s been choked with weeds and strewn with rocks and garbage.
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It was more than just a bra but this is public place and I don’t what she’s up to these days…she was pretty hot though!
And I do not believe the Cliches didn’t practice. Jeff was obsessed back then…maybe still is!
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