The Flyer Vault Book is Here! [150 Years of Toronto Concert History]
The Flyer Vault. You may already be following the Instagram account, @theflyervault, they have a follower count of 11K. The goal of the Instagram account was to share the 3000+ flyers Daniel Tate had collected over the years. Daniel Tate worked in the concert industry and started out as a flyer guy. It’s said that he kept a copy of every flyer he put up and any others he could get his hands on. There was a lot of hip hop and electronica in Daniel’s collection. After he started the Instagram account, he wanted to dig back even further. That’s what led Daniel to Rob.
Rob Bowman is a Canadian Grammy-award-winning professor of ethnomusicology and a long-time music writer. He’s was writing for some of the top music magazines at 15.
The two decided they should put combine their knowledge and flyers into a book. Thus, the idea for The Flyer Vault book was conceived.
The significance of this project is almost unfathomable. The result is a thing of beauty. It’s a beefy, colourful, chunk of Toronto music history spanning 150 years, wrapped up in 17 chapters.
I had the pleasure of speaking with co-author Rob Bowman this week, and the first thing I had to do was tell him how beautiful his book was. Most of the book’s beauty comes from the flyers themselves. Still, one of my favourite visual treats is the spectacular venue word map. Daniel did a lot of research, and he decided on Dave Murray for this project. We’ve all seen word maps, but there’s something about seeing venues I’ve attended laid out like this. From the Zoo Bar in the East to the Hook and Ladder Club in the West, Molson Park to the North, and Sound Academy/The Docks/Rebel to the South it’s beautiful. This image doesn’t do it just, you need to buy the book to see it truly. I told Rob that I really hope Dave Murray puts out a poster-sized version of this map. I’d buy one.
Source: The Flyer Vault Artist: Dave Murray
Things you need to know…
The introduction was written by a fan of the Instagram account, none other than Rush’s Geddy Lee. He stumbled upon the account, and it turns out, no surprise here, he’s a giant music nerd too. There’s a splay of Rush posters displayed in the intro that are super cool.
How did they pick a time frame? The earliest image Daniel had was of Swedish soprano, Jenny Lind playing St, Lawrence Hall on Wednesday, October 22, 1851 (there are references as far back as 1848). The plan was to get the book published in 2019, so did they stop at 2019? That seemed like an awkward break, so instead, they picked a nice even year, 2000. We’re calling it 150 years of Toronto concert history. There is the possibility of a follow-up book around 2025.
With an undertaking of this size, I had to ask? How did they decide how to present it? The decision was made to break the book into chapters by genre. Chapter one is about Minstrel Troupes and Vaudeville Stars. There was a lot of back and forth between the two of us, marvelling at how acts from the US, could get booked and promoted, and they sold out shows here in Toronto. In 1850, there were no phones in Toronto. There wasn’t even a railway yet? It’s hard to imagine in a world where we’re a text message away from a promoter that shows were booked by mail or telegram. Music is a powerful motivator.
Chapters
Now clearly, it wasn’t physically possible to include everything. In addition to Minstrel Troupes and Vaudeville Stars, there’s a great selection of Jubilee, Spirituals, and Gospel, Jazz, The Blues, Country, Folk, ’50s Rock ’n’ Roll, Classic Rock, Soul and R&B, Calypso, Reggae, and Dancehall, Punk, Hardcore, and Grunge, Hard Rock and Metal, Hip Hop, Contemporary R&B, Electronic and Dance Music flyers and chapters for Music Festivals and The Queen Street Scene flyers.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Highlights for me include:
Bob Marley at Massey Hall on Sunday, June 8, 1975 flyer
The Beatles at Maple Leaf Gardens on June 7, 1964 flyer (tickets were $4.00, $5.00 and $5.50)
The Rolling Stones also at Maple Leaf Gardens on Sunday, October 31, 1965 flyer
Jimi Hendrix May 3, 1969 concert story (think heroin possession charges and being found innocent).
I’m sure you’ll find your own favourites.
My 30 minutes with Rob went way too fast, and our call ended with talk about getting together to keep talking about this fascinating subject. I need to get my hands in that database!
The book is out on October 26th. You can pre-order your copy wherever you buy books. I pre-ordered my copy, and then was given a copy for this review, so I’ll be giving one away.
Share this post to enter. I’ll pick a winner on November 1st.
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Writer/Photographer/Editor
Toronto Music Blogger
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The Flyer Vault Book is Here! [150 Years of Toronto Concert History]
By Trish Cassling
The Flyer Vault. You may already be following the Instagram account, @theflyervault, they have a follower count of 11K. The goal of the Instagram account was to share the 3000+ flyers Daniel Tate had collected over the years. Daniel Tate worked in the concert industry and started out as a flyer guy. It’s said that he kept a copy of every flyer he put up and any others he could get his hands on. There was a lot of hip hop and electronica in Daniel’s collection. After he started the Instagram account, he wanted to dig back even further. That’s what led Daniel to Rob.
Rob Bowman is a Canadian Grammy-award-winning professor of ethnomusicology and a long-time music writer. He’s was writing for some of the top music magazines at 15.
The two decided they should put combine their knowledge and flyers into a book. Thus, the idea for The Flyer Vault book was conceived.
The significance of this project is almost unfathomable. The result is a thing of beauty. It’s a beefy, colourful, chunk of Toronto music history spanning 150 years, wrapped up in 17 chapters.
I had the pleasure of speaking with co-author Rob Bowman this week, and the first thing I had to do was tell him how beautiful his book was. Most of the book’s beauty comes from the flyers themselves. Still, one of my favourite visual treats is the spectacular venue word map. Daniel did a lot of research, and he decided on Dave Murray for this project. We’ve all seen word maps, but there’s something about seeing venues I’ve attended laid out like this. From the Zoo Bar in the East to the Hook and Ladder Club in the West, Molson Park to the North, and Sound Academy/The Docks/Rebel to the South it’s beautiful. This image doesn’t do it just, you need to buy the book to see it truly. I told Rob that I really hope Dave Murray puts out a poster-sized version of this map. I’d buy one.
Source: The Flyer Vault Artist: Dave Murray
Things you need to know…
The introduction was written by a fan of the Instagram account, none other than Rush’s Geddy Lee. He stumbled upon the account, and it turns out, no surprise here, he’s a giant music nerd too. There’s a splay of Rush posters displayed in the intro that are super cool.
How did they pick a time frame? The earliest image Daniel had was of Swedish soprano, Jenny Lind playing St, Lawrence Hall on Wednesday, October 22, 1851 (there are references as far back as 1848). The plan was to get the book published in 2019, so did they stop at 2019? That seemed like an awkward break, so instead, they picked a nice even year, 2000. We’re calling it 150 years of Toronto concert history. There is the possibility of a follow-up book around 2025.
With an undertaking of this size, I had to ask? How did they decide how to present it? The decision was made to break the book into chapters by genre. Chapter one is about Minstrel Troupes and Vaudeville Stars. There was a lot of back and forth between the two of us, marvelling at how acts from the US, could get booked and promoted, and they sold out shows here in Toronto. In 1850, there were no phones in Toronto. There wasn’t even a railway yet? It’s hard to imagine in a world where we’re a text message away from a promoter that shows were booked by mail or telegram. Music is a powerful motivator.
Chapters
Now clearly, it wasn’t physically possible to include everything. In addition to Minstrel Troupes and Vaudeville Stars, there’s a great selection of Jubilee, Spirituals, and Gospel, Jazz, The Blues, Country, Folk, ’50s Rock ’n’ Roll, Classic Rock, Soul and R&B, Calypso, Reggae, and Dancehall, Punk, Hardcore, and Grunge, Hard Rock and Metal, Hip Hop, Contemporary R&B, Electronic and Dance Music flyers and chapters for Music Festivals and The Queen Street Scene flyers.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Highlights for me include:
Bob Marley at Massey Hall on Sunday, June 8, 1975 flyer
The Beatles at Maple Leaf Gardens on June 7, 1964 flyer (tickets were $4.00, $5.00 and $5.50)
The Rolling Stones also at Maple Leaf Gardens on Sunday, October 31, 1965 flyer
Jimi Hendrix May 3, 1969 concert story (think heroin possession charges and being found innocent).
I’m sure you’ll find your own favourites.
My 30 minutes with Rob went way too fast, and our call ended with talk about getting together to keep talking about this fascinating subject. I need to get my hands in that database!
The book is out on October 26th. You can pre-order your copy wherever you buy books. I pre-ordered my copy, and then was given a copy for this review, so I’ll be giving one away.
Share this post to enter. I’ll pick a winner on November 1st.
Author profile
Writer/Photographer/Editor
Toronto Music Blogger
Home town Toronto! Loved the music scene on Yonge Street in the fifties and sixties. The Toronto music scene has always been fabulous. The Bluenote, Towne Taverne, the Colonial, etc. etc. Joe Birds, the Sapphire, the Avenue Rd. Club, I look forward to seeing the book. Now live in a small town on Vancouver Island. I’m sure this book holds a lot of memories for me, my sister and old friends. Thanks for the review!
Looking forward to reading it to see how many I saw myself in the 60-s-90’s.