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Teenage Head's Steve Mahon Remembers When Fun Was Fast

Back in the seventies, when Nick, Gord, Frank and myself decided to try and form a rock group, we had no idea what lay ahead. All we knew was what we loved, and that was loud, in your face bands like Alice Cooper, The Stooges, MC5, and The New York Dolls. That was the blueprint.

Teenage Head's Steve Mahon Remembers When Fun Was Fast

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Back in the seventies, when Nick, Gord, Frank and myself decided to try and form a rock group, we had no idea what lay ahead. All we knew was what we loved, and that was loud, in your face bands like Alice Cooper, The Stooges, MC5, and The New York Dolls. That was the blueprint.


It was this mutual love that determined what Teenage Head would become. If you didn't absolutely love the "Funhouse" album by the Stooges, then you were out. You were not going to be in this band.

How lucky we all were to have been influenced by such amazing bands. Without them, there never would have been a band that sounds like Teenage Head. 

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Now, all we had to do is learn how to play our instruments, how hard could that be? We practiced relentlessly, wherever we could, and whenever we could. I can honestly tell you that even though there's only 4 strings on a bass, I struggled the most. 

In Bruce Springsteen's latest book, he mentions how the members of bands like The Sex Pistols, The Dolls, and even U2, may not have had the "best" players, but they were the "right" players. I knew we had the right players, right from the beginning, including myself. I may not have been the best bass player in the world, but nobody wanted it more than I did. To this day, I still feel very fortunate to say I'm a member of Teenage Head.

Nick started out early on, playing drums in his older brother's cover bands, and is a natural born drummer. Just listen to our first album. It may sound deceptively simple, but Nick thought out every single cymbal hit, every snare hit. Finding the right drummer has always been the most difficult position to fill in any rock band. Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin, you name it. 

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We had our Ringo.

What can you say about Frankie? He was originally our drummer. Watching him gradually move off the drums, and out to centre stage, is when I first knew we had something. Much has been said of his on-stage antics, and ability to entertain the troops, but not enough about his voice. He had the perfect voice for Rock, Pop, even ballads; he never let us down.

We had our Iggy.

Gord started out as a bass player, and fortunately, not only for me, he decided to switch to guitar. Self-taught, and determined, this was his calling. This is where the heart of the Teenage Head sound comes from.  The crunch, the tone, the riffs, it's all coming from Gord, and his Les Paul Special. Not only did we find our Johnny Ramone, but we also found our Johnny Thunders.

Now, after 40 plus years, we've finally dug through the vaults, and with the help of Warner Music Canada, are set to release a 20-song collection of what I feel is our best work. If you've ever wondered what all the fuss about Teenage Head has been about, now you can finally hear it for yourself, for the first time, all on one amazingly remastered package. This is the one.

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Teenage Head’s Steve Mahon hyping the Nov. 24 release of Fun Comes Fast, a double album collection of songs spanning the group’s 40-year career.

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Kneecap Blasts Norwegian Government at Oslo Festival, Accusing It of Funding ‘Genocide’ Against Palestinians
Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Mo Chara, DJ Provaí and Móglaí Bap of Kneecap performs on the West Holts Stage during during day four of Glastonbury Festival 2025 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 28, 2025 in Glastonbury, England.

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Kneecap Blasts Norwegian Government at Oslo Festival, Accusing It of Funding ‘Genocide’ Against Palestinians

The Irish rap trio went after the Norwegian government over its investments, which are currently under scrutiny, at Øyafestivalen.

Irish rap group Kneecap – which has drawn a storm of criticism, support, attention and legal action over the past half-year – continued to speak out about the war in Gaza during an afternoon set at the Øyafestivalen in Oslo, Norway, on Friday (Aug. 8).

Right before the trio of Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí took the stage, an English-language white-text-on-black-background message played on a video screen, accusing the Norwegian government of “enabling” the “genocide” against the Palestinian people via investments held in the county’s sovereign wealth fund (referenced as “oil pension fund” in the message). “Over 80,000 people have been murdered by Israel in 21 months,” the band’s message continued. “Free Palestine.” The message was greeted readily by a cheering audience. Most estimates (including those from health officials in the area) place the Palestinian death toll at more than 60,000. That number does not distinguish between civilians and Hamas militants. An estimated 18,500 of those killed were children.

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