London Underground

London Underground documents one of the most complete surviving regional music records in Canada, tracing how a mid-sized Ontario city developed its own recording ecosystem outside national industry centres. Spanning experimental music, private-press rock, proto-punk, punk, post-punk, student recordings, and local independent singles, the playlist shows how London functioned as a self-contained network of musicians, studios, venues, campus infrastructure, and small labels from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s. Rather than isolating a single genre or moment, it presents continuity, showing how different approaches coexisted, overlapped, and informed one another over time.

The strength of the London scene was not scale or commercial reach, but documentation. From the Nihilist Spasm Band’s early outsider recordings to releases by Demics, 63 Monroe, Crash 80’s, Sheep Look Up, Mettle, Second Thoughts, and related projects, the city left behind an unusually clear paper and vinyl record. Fanshawe College’s Music Industry Arts compilations, CHRW radio projects, and locally produced anthologies such as Animals Fight Back preserved work that might otherwise have disappeared, while small-run singles and private pressings reflect a culture that operated independently of Toronto’s industry infrastructure.

Taken as a whole, London Underground is not a “scene playlist” in the celebratory sense. It is a regional archive, documenting how music was written, recorded, circulated, and preserved locally, often with limited resources but consistent institutional and community support. Few Canadian cities outside the major centres can be documented with this level of specificity.

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