Battered Wives

Quality 0.50 · 0 views · Updated 2 months ago

Canadian punk rock band

title: "Battered Wives" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["musical-groups-established-in-1977", "musical-groups-disestablished-in-1980", "rock-music-groups-from-toronto", "canadian-punk-rock-groups", "1977-establishments-in-ontario", "1980-disestablishments-in-ontario"] description: "Canadian punk rock band" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battered_Wives" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Canadian punk rock band ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameBattered Wives
aliasThe Wives
originToronto, Ontario, Canada
genrePunk rock
years_active1976–1980
labelBomb Records, Epic Records, Ready Records
past_membersToby Swann
Colin Fox
Robert Stewart
Larry Klassen
John Gibb
Cleave Anderson
Patrick Mooney
::

| name = Battered Wives | image = | caption = | alias = The Wives | origin = Toronto, Ontario, Canada | genre = Punk rock | years_active = 1976–1980 | label = Bomb Records, Epic Records, Ready Records | website = | past_members = Toby Swann Colin Fox Robert Stewart Larry Klassen John Gibb Cleave Anderson Patrick Mooney Battered Wives, aka The Wives was a Canadian punk rock band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada active during the late 1970s.

History

The group got together on Toronto's Queen Street West. It originally consisted of Toby Swann (guitar, vocals), Colin Fox (drums), and Robert Stewart (bass, vocals). The group made a point of playing as loudly as possible. Fox was American; when he was arrested on drug charges, he was deported. The band fell apart, but Swann reformed it with a new line-up.

The reformed Battered Wives, consisting of Toby Swann (guitar and vocals), Larry "Jasper" Klassen (bass and vocals), John Gibb (guitar) and Cleave Anderson (drums), released their first album, Battered Wives in 1978. This spawned the hit singles "Daredevil", "Suicide", "Lover's Balls", and "Uganda Stomp (Bomp Idi Bomp)", which poked fun at the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Despite their name, and the fact that women's groups were picketing their concerts, the album sold 50,000 copies in Canada and was certified gold.

Anderson was averse to the negative attention and left the band; he was replaced by drummer Patrick Mooney. In 1979, the band released their second album, Cigarettes, as 'The Wives'. By now, there was considerable heat surrounding their name—and their logo, which was a clenched fist with the lipstick impression of a bleeding mouth. The group Women Against Violence Against Women had already picketed a record store that was selling their albums; when the band's 13-city tour with Elvis Costello and The Attractions was announced, the group booked a demonstration at Toronto's O'Keefe Centre and the band's manager claimed that they had received death threats. Under the adjusted name, the tour went ahead without incident. The most notable song from Cigarettes was "New Wave Robot". For his work on Cigarettes, the designer Rodney Bowes won a Juno for Best Album Graphics at the Juno Awards of 1980.

In 1978, a benefit concert named "Rock Against Repression" was organised by the Battered Wives with proceeds split between the CCLA and Ontario Libertarian Party.

The band released Live On Mother's Day in 1980, with the word 'Battered' inserted back into their name. This album was marred with lawsuits from various parties and did not really see the light of day. Then the group broke up.

Anderson became the drummer for Blue Rodeo. Swann went solo, releasing a cover of "Over the Rainbow" on his 1981 album Lullabies in Razorland. Klassen was working as recording artist in Toronto; he died on Thursday, December 8, 2016, at the age of 63.

Discography

  • Battered Wives (1978), Bomb Records
  • Cigarettes (1980), Bomb Records, Epic Records
  • Live On Mother's Day (1980), Ready Records

References

References

  1. (1 October 2011). "Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, 1977-1981". ECW Press.
  2. Cary Darling. (22 January 1983). "Rough Trade Rises from Canadian Underground". Nielsen Business Media, Inc..
  3. David Farrell. (14 January 1978). "Canada learns to Pogo". Nielsen Business Media, Inc..
  4. "Queen West". Destination Toronto.
  5. "Battered Wives". Canadian Bands.
  6. Sam Sutherland. (2012). "Perfect Youth: The Birth of Canadian Punk". ECW Press.
  7. (1991). "Saturday Night". Consolidated Press Limited.
  8. [http://www.fyimusicnews.ca/articles/2015/09/18/bands-very-bad-names "Bands With Very Bad Names"].''FYI Music News'', David Farrell 09/18/2015
  9. "Battered Wives – Battered Wives". Discogs.
  10. "Battered Wives". Canadian Bands.
  11. "The Wives* – Cigarettes". Discogs.
  12. (2 June 1979). "Bomb issues punk finale". Nielsen Business Media, Inc..
  13. (1980). "Ontario Library Review". Provincial Library Service..
  14. "Wives band battered by women's lib, Nov 3, 1978". Elvis Costello Wiki, Montreal Gazette.
  15. The Gazette Nov 25 1978 • Montreal,, https://www.oldnews.com/en/record?lang=en&record_id=record-10835-43307636
  16. "Battered Wives – Live On Mother's Day". Discogs.
  17. "Toby Swann". Discogs.
  18. "Larry "Jasper" KLASSEN Obituary". Legacy, Toronto Star.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

musical-groups-established-in-1977musical-groups-disestablished-in-1980rock-music-groups-from-torontocanadian-punk-rock-groups1977-establishments-in-ontario1980-disestablishments-in-ontario