The 222s
| The 222s | ||
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The 222's playing in Montreal in 2010: Cerrato, Barry, Rondeau
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| Background information | ||
| Origin | Canada | |
| Genres | Punk Rock | |
| Years active | 1978–1982, 2010–present | |
| Labels | Rebel Sonik's Chicken Shrimp |
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| Associated acts | Acrylic Nudimension Bram The 39 Steps Pillbox (NYC) Southern Death Cult The Throbbing Purple |
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| Website | www.the222s.com | |
| Members | Chris Barry Pierre Major Joe Cerratto Louie "Louie" Rondeau |
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| Past members | ||
| Music sample | ||
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The 222s are a Canadian punk band that was active from 1977 to 1981. They are among the first original Canadian punk bands and most likely the first glam/punk band to emerge from Montreal. They are most famous for their 1978 single "I Love Suzan". They temporarily re-formed in 2010 and still occasionally play [primarily] festivals in their native Canada.
The 222s, who took their name from a Canadian pain killer of the same name, were formed by guitarist Pierre "Al Cleann" Major and singer Jean "Frisson" Brisson in the summer of 1977. A few months later, bass player/drummer Angel Calvo and drummer, keyboardist and singer Louie "Louie" Rondeau, joined the group. This early line-up played a small handful of gigs around Montreal, mostly in high schools and regularly in support of Danger, a popular francophone rock and roll band often mislabeled 'punk' by a predominately clueless local media.
Within a few months Calvo was replaced by bassist Christian "Chris O'Bell" Belleau while original singer Jean Frisson relocated to NYC to be closer to that city's comparatively thriving punk scene. Less than a year later, an impoverished Frisson [who noted Quebecois singer/songwriter/poet Lucien Francoeur once wrote a popular album about, Le Retour de Johnny Frisson] temporarily put music aside and started 'hustling' as a gogo boy in Manhattan's meatpacking district. Frisson's abrupt departure from the band coincided with the recording of the 222s first single, I Love Susan b/w The First Studio Bomb, so drummer Rondeau [aka Louie Louie] took on the lead vocals.
Released in the fall of 1978 on their manager François Doyon's Rebel Records, I Love Susan b/w The First Studio Bomb was the first DIY punk single ever released in Montreal or the province of Quebec.
Just as their single was coming out, Chris Barry, a charismatic 16-year-old high school student, joined the band after being introduced to the other guys by Rational Youth/The Normal's drummer Tracey Howe after the release of the 7". Not long afterward, Barry brought his friend, Joe Cerrato, a juvenile delinquent, into the group to replace Christian Belleau on bass, to complete the classic 222s lineup. Doyon then came into contact with some gangsters from Laval who wanted to try their hands in the music business. The band had been doing a cover of Michel Polnareff's La Poupée qui fait non at their shows for more than a year and the gangsters wanted to turn that song into a provincial hit. This was similar to what garage band Les Sultans had done in 1966 to market the 222s to the teenybopper public, so they offered to finance the band's second 7".
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