Despite Steve having played guitar since he was eight years old and I having started playing drums when I was 10, our first actual “practice” together was New Years Eve 1987. Steve would have been 13 years old and I would have been the ripe old age of 12. We recorded the entire session on my ghetto blaster, warts and all. We were so supremely untalented together that we could only play the songs we were creating once. Although we’d often have a song-title decided upon before we would start it, our songs consisted of little more than one of the two of us shouting and swearing whatever happened to come to mind. The swearing bit was especially liberating seeing how our parents really couldn't make out what we were saying in our songs anyway. We recorded a few different demos in this manner with song titles like Stick A Fork In Your Eyeballs, Do The Monoxide, Acid Rain and Farts (and its French-counterpart Petes). Up to this point, the music and the songs never went beyond the two of us.
That was until we met the infamous Mark Gaudet. We got to know Mark just by hanging out at Sam The Record Man in Moncton's Champlain Place shopping mall. One day, we had mentioned to Mark that we had a band and he quickly encouraged us to bring in a tape for him to hear. One night, we brought in our "Kick The Bucket" demo and he promptly threw it onto the store's stereo system for all customers to hear. Steve and I were both horrified and delighted at hearing our music being played over the store's system. And to compound how funny the whole situation was to us, a customer actually came up to Mark to ask him what was playing at the time to which Mark enthusiastically replied "The Monoxides! A great little band from England," which made Steve and I laugh even harder.
Not long after this, Steve invited his friend Dana Robertson over to "jam". Steve knew Dana from school; Dana played bass and of course, it was the next logical step that we could have possibly taken as a band. Although the song quality hadn't improved too drastically, this time was crucial as it was the time that we started being able to play and replay the songs we were creating. Who wouldn't want to hear classics like Take A Pill over and over again? The year was 1989.
Around the start of 1990, Dana and Steve both recommended their friend PJ Dunphy come over to jam with us as they felt he would be a great addition to the band on vocals. At the time, we were practicing at my Grandmother's old house and as soon as I saw PJ, he was instantly familiar. I remember walking by him one day when he had stopped by Riverview Junior High to visit some of his friends (PJ was actually attending a school in Moncton) and I recall thinking how silly his "skater" haircut was. (Not that mine would have been any better)
The Monoxides first show ever was March 2, 1990 at the Irishtown Boys and Girls Club. Mark had set up a show with his band Purple Knight and local punks Bad Luck #13 and said that if we came out, he'd give a chance to get up on stage and play. So after Purple Knight and Bad Luck played their sets, we got up on stage and did our best to plow through four songs: three originals (Minimum Wage, School Sucks, Don't Come To My Door) and a cover of God Save The Queen.
After the show, we really thought we were the shit. Truth was when we heard the audio recording of our show a couple of weeks later, we were just shit. PJ's vocals dominated while you hear Steve, Dana and I barely keeping the rhythm together behind him. We were awful but that was the charm of the band as far as the guys in Purple Knight and Bad Luck #13 were concerned. In fact we were so awesomely terrible, one of the guys in Bad Luck said they had considered tossing in the towel after having seen us play as they felt their throne of being the worst (therefore best) band in Moncton could be usurped.
