Artist / Band

Government

Origin Toronto, Ontario, 🇨🇦

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Biography

Slightly quirky new wave outfit leaning on the art punk side became legendary on the Toronto Queen Street club circuit playing such venues as The Crash And Burn, The Edge, Larry's Hideaway and The Beverley Tavern and art venues such as the Music Gallery. The "Electric Eye" album was one such performance recorded at the Music Gallery as the soundtrack to a full-length video production. The album is a testament to the live incorporated performance of the video's audio track.

The band was part of the early punk scene which, in Toronto, crossed paths with the art world with regularity. The Government was featured in File magazine, published by General Idea. Singer, guitarist and composer of most of their material was Andrew J. Paterson who is also a writer as well as a performance and video artist. The band was an element of his work in this medium, often incorporating music videos and performances by the group for such work as Electric Eye. Other videos by Paterson include Controlled Environments from 1994 and, more recently, the inter-discipline work Mono Logical from 2005.

Other members of The Government include bass player Robert Stewart, who is deceased: Ed Boyd; and his replacement, drummer Billy Bryans, who recorded How Many Fingers? before going on to play with Parachute Club in the early 1980s.

Andrew James Paterson: guitar, vocals
Robert Stewart: bass, steel drums, vocals
Edward Boyd: drums
Jeremiah Chechik: scratch guitar, percussion
Billy Bryans (drums; replaced Boyd 1981)

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