Archives: live Pure videos

 For the past few weeks I've been posting old live videos of my 90's band Pure. It's been quite a lot of fun to re-experience those days from more than 30 years ago.

Here's a few of the full song clips I've cleaned up so far.

 

 Special thanks to Dan Maynard for not only videoing all these shows while doing lights for the band, but even finding a working camera for us to transfer the old tapes from. It's great looking back at these days!

Archive: Pure performs Anna on CMVA 1993

Back in 1993 Pure was invited to perform live on Much Music as part of the Canadian Music Video Awards (following picking up an award for best Alternative Video). This was in the autumn and following a summer writing session for the second album. In this clip the band is performing a brand new song Anna Is A Speed Freak, one of the first of the new batch of songs that would become Generation 6 Pack.

Archive: Pure wins Best Alternative Video - CMVA 1993

Way back in 1993 Pure won the best Alternative Video award at the Canadian Music Video Awards held at the famous Much Music studios on Queen St, Toronto. We attended a couple of these and both times I recall being a huge party and a great time. The old Much Music was so important to the Canadian music scene, establishing bands like ours right across the nation. It's fun to watch this again, with VJ Erica Ehm talking with us and the Bare Naked Ladies announcing our award.

Archive: Pure - Pure (video)

This was the last video we made from our debut album Pureafunalia. This song has a long and interesting history too. The song Pure was written when we were still calling ourselves The Grin Factory. Though that name was short lived this song wasn't.  We made a demo with John Webster (the producer of Jordy, Todd and Leigh's former band After All). John had been working on sessions with the likes of Motely Crew and Bon Jovi and had built up a respectable array of sampled drum sounds over that time. When we brought him this song he has a Tascam 488 (8 track cassette multitrack) that we striped one track with sync to drive his Mac running MOTU Perfomer. John loaded up his Akai S1000 sampler with some incredible drum sounds that he told us had been made either for a Motley Crew album or maybe it was Aerosmith, they had been made at Little Mountain Studio for a record that Bob Rock had produced (John was usually brought in to play keyboards and generally make things sound even huger than normal).

Leigh Grant, the drummer in Pure, played his parts on a keyboard, triggering these fantastic drum samples and then Jordy put down the bass part. (I don't remember if David Hadley was in the band at this point). Todd laid down one rhythm guitar part and I sequenced all the strings and the clarinet sample along with the little percussion sequence that I'd done in my Ensoniq ESP-16. I vividly remember the moment when John flipped the tape and told Todd to play a solo, but in reverse. The result was mesmerizing. Jordy's vocals went down pretty quickly and we had a killer demo.

Pure, the song, was then played at a Music West listening panel (in fact the festival was called Westex that year) wherein Ron Goudy from Restless Records stood up at the end of the playback and announced to the room that "this band will be signed in 24 hours." We weren't, but it did lead to us meeting a music lawyer and later signing to Reprise Records.

Months later we found ourselves living on houseboats in Sausalito, California and recording our album Pureafunalia with former Talking Head's guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison producing. We tracked an entirely different version of the song with live drums and Dave on bass but something didn't feel right. Turned out we'd recorded it a bit faster than the demo and we had lost some of its groove. That lead to us getting John Webster to transfer the music to a 2" 24 track up in Vancouver and sending it down to us in California. The real irony came later when we built the song up to so many tracks we had to transfer everything over to a Sony PCM 3348 digital multitrack. We managed to go from the day's cheapest recording medium to the most expensive in the course of recording one song!

Pureafunalia came out, we made a handful of videos, toured several times and then figured we could get one more single off the album and made a video for the song Pure. It was filmed in a rehearsal room that was decorated with the items you see in the video. Co-directed by Rob Chong and Jordy Birch, with camera and editing done by Rob. It's a great song and typically Pure looking clip (all our videos seemed to look alike) that I'm happy to share with the world 28 years later.

Thanks for reading. Stay healthy. Cheers!
Mark

Archive: Pure- Spiritual Pollution debut on Much Music

Spiritual Pollution was the third single from Pure's debut album Pureafunalia. This video was co-directed by Blair Dobson and Jordy Birch, with Dobson handling the camera and editing as well. Made in a loft in Vancouver with not much more than a concept, a couple horns and a smoke machine Spiritual Pollution was one of the more successful videos from the band.

This clip included a short interview with Much Music VJ Steve Anthony talking with Jordy Birch and Mark Henning before debuting the  clip.  I believe this was sometime in late 1992.

Pure - Blast (Cdn Version) 1992

Here is the first version of the video for Blast, the first single from Pure's debut album Puerafunalia. Shot and directed by Dermot Shane in a warehouse in Burnaby, B,C., Canada back in early 1992. Blast came out in near the end of the summer in 1992. This video was later replaced by a second, higher production level version directed by Troy Smith (which won Best Alternative Video at the CMVA's in 1993).

Once again, this clip was transferred from vhs tape that had been taped from Much Music television. I've replaced the broadcast audio with CD audio to increase the sound quality for YouTube.

Blast From the Past: Pure on Ear To The Ground

I found this interview on a seldom used old hard drive, one that contained a bunch of old footage, transferred from VHS. This is a CBC production called "Ear To The Ground" featuring my former band PURE. The interview portion was recorded in Vancouver at a now defunct poolhall (called The Automotive if memory serves) while the live footage was filmed in Toronto during a show at Lee's Palace. Following the release of Pure's debut album "Pureafunalia" this Ear to The Ground was one of several nation television moments for the band. Please enjoy this blast from the early 90's, when Much Music was still important and people loved to see bands perform live!

Combine the Victorious - Stop Givin Up On Love

New from Combine the Victorious, Stop Givin Up On Love, from their soon to be released full length album Autonomous. 

Words and music: Mark Henning and Isabelle Dunlop
Recorded at Boutique Empire Studio
Mixed at The Armoury Studios
Produced, engineered and mixed by Henning with extra production from Stefan Sigerson
Mastered by Craig Waddell at Gotham City Studio
Artwork by Robert Edmonds

Vocals: Henning, Dunlop
Guitars: Don Harrison
Drums: Leigh Grant
Additional guitar and piano: Stefan Sigerson
Synths and Bass: Henning

©2015 Combine the Victorious

Read the story behind this song over on Victorious Combinations. 

New Music: Best Tonight

Combine the Victorious - Best Tonight

Produced and performed by Combine the Victorious

Music composed by Henning, Dunlop, Harrison, Grant
Lyrics by: Henning, Dunlop, Birch

Vocals: Mark, Isabelle
Guitar: Don Harrison
Drums: Leigh Grant
Synths: Mark


Best Tonight will be a part of the upcoming Combine the Victorious album Autonomous, set for release later in 2015.  It is the first collaboration of core members Henning and Dunlop with Don Harrison (Sons of Freedom) and Leigh Grant (Pure) as well as Jordy Birch (Guilty About Girls).  

Pure / Guilty About Girls at A Change of Frequency

Saturday night was a full night of music at the Change of Frequency festival. Eight bands on stage in total, but it's been suggested that the highlight of the evening went to Todd Simko's former bandmates.  Performing three classic Pure songs from back in the day, as well as two more current Guilty About Girls tracks, the remaining original members were joined by  other friend's of Todd's to recreate those songs.

Jordy Birch and Mark Henning were complimented onstage by Justin "Juice" Kadis and Misty Reid (formerly of the Yoko Casionos and currently members of Combine the Victorious) as well as Stefan Sigerson and Guilty About Girls drummer Lucas Poth.   Leigh Grant, original drummer of Pure, was also called up to make a special appearance on the kit for a very authentic version of Denial.  Isabelle Dunlop from Combine the Victorious joined the group for the last two Guilty About Girls songs as well.

With eight acts to perform in one night the sets were fairly short, but Pure / Guilty About Girls managed to squeeze in several old favorites.  The set order ran as follows:
Blast (from the Pureafunalia album)
Anna is a Speed Freak (off Generation Six Pack)
Denial (Generation Six Pack)
Candy Candy (The Very Best of...)
Polygraph (The Very Best of...)

The band for the evening comprised:
vocals: Jordy Birch
keyboards: Mark Henning
drums: Lucas Poth / Leigh Grant
lead guitar: Justin "Juice" Kadis
rhythm guitar: Misty Reid
bass guitar: Stefan Sigerson
guest vocals; Isabelle Dunlop



(Thanks to Rod Grim for shooting video on the night)

It was a great event, for a good cause (Canadian Mental Health Association), and everyone had a great time.  Big thanks must go out to Minna Simko for organizing the entire thing, as well as the excellent crew who ensured everything went smoothly and professionally: Bob, Brian, Chris, Boris, and Jason all deserve special praise for their professionalism and great spirit!

Thanks for reading.

Pure and Combine @A Change of Frequency Saturday!

It's been quickly coming up on us, and this weekend is the first ever Change of Frequency music festival in New Westminster.  Put together by Minna Simko in memory of her husband and our dear friend Todd Simko, this is the realization of a dream Todd held to bring live music back to the Columbia Theatre in New West.

We've been rehearsing away in the studio, both bands making a lovely racket in our peaceful neighbourhood (thank you to out extraordinarily tolerant neighbours!) and things are sounding really amazing.  Combine the Victorious has the best line up ever with the additions of Juice and Misty.  The new songs are epic and masterful sounding, and there is even a brand new song written specifically for Todd Simko that will open the show.

Pure has expanded its lineup for this one off performance.  All good friends of Todd's, Jordy Birch and Mark Henning have even managed to get a hold of Leigh Grant (Pure's original drummer) to join them for a definitive version of Denial on stage this coming Saturday night.  With eight bands on the bill, it set is relatively short, but the music is sounding great and we're all excited to be playing some of the classic tracks. 

Come on out for both nights of great music, Friday night promises a more folk bases start, but concludes with the music of Fake Shark Real Zombie.  Saturday night is jam packed with indie rock, punk rock, garage rock, electronic experimental pop and of course the songs of Pure and Guilty About Girls.  It'll be great, not to be missed!

Tickets available online right now, but they are almost sold out, so get em quick!