When Something Stands For Nothing!
The Headstones are one of my all time favourite bands,
Canadian as well. I discovered them from
a compilation cassette that was circulated around my friend’s campus at York University
in Toronto back
in the early 90’s. The cassette
contained the song Heart of Darkness and we played it over and over
again, loving the dark energy of the track.
It had even come with a window sticker of the Headstones logo that over
the next several years spent time in many an automobile window of mine and
might even still be around here somewhere.
The band consisted of Hugh Dillon on vocals, guitarist Trent Carr,
bassist Tim White and drummer Mark Gibson and was one of the most commercially
successful Canadian bands of the 90’s.
Finally the Picture of Health album was released and we all
purchased it. What an amazing, solid
rock record. With a high energy, the
whole thing kicks ass and leaves you wondering just what happened, but then you
play it again and all is well. When
Something Stands for Nothing hit the radio airwaves and was often heard on
local stations Q107 and 97.7HTZ FM. Tweeter
and the Monkey Man took the Travelling Wilbury’s song and made it a balls
out rocker that became huge in concert.
This 1993 disc still sounds just as fresh today as it did almost twenty
years ago.
We became groupies, seeing a Headstones show whenever we
could. I can’t tell you how many times
we saw them or even where and the ticket stubs are almost all gone, lost in the
drunken stupor and excitement of the evening I imagine. I know that we saw them open for the awesome band The Four Horsemen on Sept 17, 1994, that stub seems to have survived the
great ticket stub massacre. I also remember
that we saw them at The World Nightclub in Mississauga one night around this time,
probably before The Four Horsemen show.
We’d been given free tickets to the show and five or six of us
attended. There were only about fifteen
people in the club, extremely disappointing to see the lack of support for this
great new home-grown band. I can only
assume that it was due to poor promotion as it was presented by 102.1CFNY, the
new rock/alternative station in Toronto . Hugh Dillon even commented on this by saying
something to the effect of “it’s nice to be presented by a radio station that
won’t even play our f**king music”. We
did not let this poor attendance stop our enjoyment of their show. We loaded up on beers and when they came on
stage we presented ourselves front and centre, singing, cheering and creating
our own little mosh pit, we had all the space in the world down there that
night. During Tweeter and the Monkey
Man, Hugh held down the microphone to our little group as we
sang/shouted/screamed out the chorus to the whole song and he even passed my
buddy his harmonica! Hugh pointed to us
and personally thanked us for coming out and that we were real Headstones fans
and to stick around after the show. He
came out after with shirts for us all that had the big “H” logo on the front and
the question “Where’s the fuckin’ money you owe me?” on the back. We had some beers with Hugh and were all on
an incredible high that night.
Two years later, the follow-up album was out and our excitement
was immeasurable! For Teeth &
Tissue drummer Mark Gibson had departed and Dale Harrison had stepped in
behind the kit. While Teeth & Tissue
has its rocking moments and tracks that easily surpass some of those on Picture of
Health, the song writing shows a bit more maturity and diversity than its
predecessor. Tracks such as the two
openers Hindsight and Unsound are pure scorchers, but the album
seems to lose momentum for me after that, although still a fine recording and
treasured in my extensive collection. 
By this time we had also caught wind of the movie Dance
Me Outside, directed by Canadian Icon Bruce Macdonald and featuring none
other than Hugh Dillon in his first acting role. Also we continued our groupie habits, taking
in as many Headstones shows as humanly possible, sometimes getting in for the
admission of food bank donations, a very cool way to help those in need. For sure one of those shows was at RPM
Nightclub on August 2nd, 1995 and while I don’t remember
specifically, I’m sure that the Headstones stage behaviour and high energy that
we had all come to expect was out in full force as usual. Hugh was known for his stage antics by this
time, something that we had witnessed in its development and loved every minute
of it. He always wore a black knit
sweater on stage that became more and more spotted with holes from age or
perhaps cigarette burns. In these days
smoking was still allowed at venues and Hugh always had a smoke going, often
bumming from the audience during shows and then throwing the lit stub into the
crowd. He also regularly bummed
Budweiser beers from the crowd during performances and it was not unusual to
find everyone in the first few rows of the general admission venues drinking
Budweiser, ready to pass it up to Hugh when he was ready for a new beer. In later performances, this practice seemed
to have disappeared and I can only assume that he had grown understandably
weary of consuming half drank beers from audience members. Hugh was also known to spit on the crowd
during the set.
Having to wait three years for new material from the 
Vocalist Hugh Dillon also appeared in his second Bruce
Macdonald feature film in 1996. This
time starring as Joe Dick, lead singer for punk band Hard Core Logo in
the movie of the same title. The film
won several awards and is regarded as one of the best Canadian made films of
all time, drawing the attention of Quentin Tarantino, who purchased the 
Nickels For Your Nightmares was released in 2000,
spawning two radio hits in Settle and Blonde & Blue, both
cracking the top ten on Canada’s Rock Charts.
I remember before the CD was released, I think, 97.7HTZ FM was playing
it in a radio preview track by track and they had to time it perfectly to slot
track #10 to be aired after midnight.
The song is a total in your face rocker and I’ve had the desire on a few
occasions to play it for someone as a good description of my feeling towards
them. #$%! You is full of piss
and vinegar and sounds great in a live setting.
2001 saw the release of The Greatest Fits a
collection of popular tracks as well as two new scorchers leading off the
parade in Blowtorch and Come On.
The latter was featured in the video game Triple Play 2002 and also as
the theme song to the Canadian version of the sketch comedy show Comedy Inc.
Unfortunately I started to lose touch with my Headstones
groupies, the band and with music in general around this time as “life got in
the way” so to speak. I mean, I still
saw the guys and we talked regularly, but the availability to hit all or even
any of the shows had begun to wane a few years earlier. As a result, the 2002 output of The Oracle
of Hi-Fi went largely unnoticed amongst our group, so much so that when I
found it in a bargain bin a few years later I was shocked of its
existence. Only upon spinning the disc
did I realise that the second track Reframed (Every Single Failure) was
something I had heard on the radio.
The Headstones went their separate ways in 2003. Hugh Dillon formed the Hugh Dillon Redemption
Choir drawing on influences of country, pop, punk and new wave music. The first CD The High Co$t of Low Living
was released in 2005 and was a radical step away from The Headstones. Hugh also released a solo effort, Works
Well with Others, in 2009 that I’ve not been able to find easily. Dillon concentrated on acting and appeared in
the critically acclaimed series Durham
County Canada and
the US .
The band reformed in 2011 and I had the pleasure of catching
the show on December 23rd, 2011 accompanied by my friend that I had
introduced to The Headstones back in 2000 at that little bar in 
Recently posted on their website, www.headstonesband.com, “You have
waited a long time for this. We are done
making you wait. Headstones are making a
new record. No bullshit. We’re cutting out the middleman, and giving
you back the band.” That’s awesome news
for a diehard Headstones fan such as myself.
They have teamed up with a site called Pledgemusic, where you can pledge
to the band to help them with recording costs and receive merchandise for your
contribution, digital downloads and behind the scenes videos of the band in the
studio plus more. Check it out at http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/headstones. It took a mere 48 hours for the band to reach
their goal, but the exclusive merchandise for pledgers is still available while
quantities last. You can also listen to
the full track Binthiswayforyears at their website. I, for one, am anxiously awaiting the new album, check out some of their music and I know you will be too!
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