Breeding Ground were 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 ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band in the 1980s, based out of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. Lead singer John Shirreff and guitarist Hugh Gladish were the only consistent members of the band, and they founded the group in 1981 with original bassist Jonathan Strayer.

History

Formation

Breeding Ground were created in 1981 by vocalist Shirreff, guitarist Gladish, and bassist Strayer. Breeding Ground played over 40 shows on the Queen Street West circuit before they released their first eponymous debut EP, ''Breeding Ground'', on Mannequin Records, recorded at Montclair Sound in November 1982, with original drummer Ken Jones. This was produced by Paul Tozer, their live audio technician, who worked with them on their first two EPs. Within a month of its release they were asked to open up for

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

on December 4, 1982 at

Larry's Hideaway Larry's Hideaway was a bar in the Prince Carlton Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The venue was notable for being one of the first venues in Toronto to open itself to punk and new wave music acts, as well as hard rock. The venue was well know ...

in Toronto. Comparisons to

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after attend ...

and the British cold-wave invasion were quick to surface after this release. They were managed by longtime friend David Hart (who also masterminded and operated the stage lighting) during this era. Breeding Ground also played at

Lee's Palace Lee's Palace is a rock concert hall located on the south side of Bloor Street West east of Lippincott Street in Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The two-floor facility in The Annex neighbourhood has a long history prior to being adapted in Sept ...

in Toronto in 1986. Within a little over a year, they had returned to the studio with this line-up to record "Reunion/Slaughter", their second 12" single. Jonathan Davies, the drummer for local band

Kinetic Ideals {{Infobox musical artist , name = Kinetic Ideals , image = , caption = , image_size = , background = group_or_band , alias = , origin = Toronto, On ...

, expressed an interest in assisting with production, and 3 months before the release replaced Jones in the live line-up. This EP was recorded at Quest Studio, Oshawa, and released in October 1983. "Reunion/Slaughter" was playlisted on Toronto radio station

CFNY CFNY-FM (''102.1 the Edge'') is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 102.1 Hertz, MHz in the Greater Toronto Area, licensed to the suburb of Brampton, Ontario, Brampton. CFNY plays an alternative rock format. Owned by Corus Entertainment, it ...

and again on college stations across Canada. Davies was later replaced by Kevin Hunter, who would stay with the band until their break-up in 1990.

Studio albums

Three years after releasing "Reunion/Slaughter", the band returned to the studio in the late winter of 1985 to record their third release, with label Fringe Product. This album, ''Tales of Adventure'', was released April 25, 1986, and spawned the hits "This Time Tomorrow" and "Happy Now I Know" featuring

Molly Johnson Margaret Leslie "Molly" Johnson, OC is a Canadian Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter of pop and jazz. Biography Johnson began as a child performer, receiving formal training from the National Ballet School and the Banff School of Fine Arts. ...

. Videos were produced for these songs, both directed and produced by Jonathan Strayer's younger brother Colin Strayer; the video for "This Time Tomorrow" was shot on January 28, 1986. However, a year later, bassist Strayer had left, leading to a brief hiatus in which they disbanded, until reforming with Gary Quinn on bass leading to the follow-up recording, ''Obscurity & Flair''.

Chris Wardman Chris Wardman is a Canadian music producer, musician and songwriter. Wardman was a founding member of Blue Peter, and was their lead guitarist and main contributing songwriter. Wardman was also a member of Breeding Ground in the late 1980s. Wardma ...

joined soon after the release of ''Obscurity & Flair'' as an additional guitarist. Gary Quinn wrote the lyrics for, and played slide guitar on the track "Live Like Fear".

Local and national success

They were invited to open for touring acts such as

The Stranglers The Stranglers are an English rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 19 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have origina ...

at The Concert Hall in April 1983 and Echo and the Bunnymen as well as

Let's Active Let's Active is an American rock group formed in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1981, and often identified with the jangle pop guitar work of the group's frontman and songwriter Mitch Easter. After disbanding in 1990, the group reformed in Augus ...

on the Ontario portion of their tour in March 1984. With the release of ''Tales of Adventure'' the band started to receive even more national radio airplay, and the two music videos were getting regular rotation on Canadian television music channel

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

. Breeding Ground made it to the number one spot on the college and university music charts, a first for an independent Canadian act. In 1989, four years after releasing ''Tales of Adventure'', the band went to the studio for the last time, with the line-up of Shirreff, Gladish, Quinn and Hunter, with a mixture of song-writing including Chris Wardman, before he officially joined the live line-up. ''Obscurity & Flair'' produced the hit "Ceremony of Love", once again featuring Johnson. A third video was shot for this song, produced by Mark Mowad, but received minimal exposure on

because it was so dark, literally. Keyboardist Tad Winklarz from Chalk Circle added saxophone on the track "Bells Descend". Gladish and Shirreff made a decision to end the second phase of the band in March 1990.

Discography

In nine years of existence, Breeding Ground released 2 LPs, 2 EPs, one greatest-hits CD and 3 music videos.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breeding Ground (Band) Canadian alternative rock groups Musical groups established in 1981 Musical groups disestablished in 1990 Musical groups from Toronto 1981 establishments in Ontario 1990 disestablishments in Ontario