Battered Wives, aka The Wives was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

punk rock band from

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, 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 single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

s "Daredevil", "Suicide", "Lover's Balls", and "Uganda Stomp (Bomp Idi Bomp)", which poked fun at the

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n dictator

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. 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 Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

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 Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...

for Best Album Graphics at the

Juno Awards of 1980 The Juno Awards of 1980, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 2 April 1980 in Toronto at a ceremony hosted by Burton Cummings at the Harbour Castle Hilton.Krewen (2010), p. 38. CBC Television b ...

. 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 Blue Rodeo is a Canadian country rock band formed in 1984 in Toronto, Ontario. They have released 16 full-length studio albums, four live recordings, one greatest hits album, and two video/DVDs, along with multiple solo albums, side projects, a ...

. Swann went solo, releasing a

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

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

External Links

*
Entry ar canadianbands.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Battered Wives, The Musical groups established in 1977 Musical groups disestablished in 1980 Musical groups from Toronto Canadian punk rock groups 1977 establishments in Ontario 1980 disestablishments in Ontario