Slow (band)

Slow was a Canadian punk rock band in the mid-1980s. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the band consisted of vocalist Tom Anselmi, guitarists Ziggy Sigmund and Christian Thorvaldson, bassist Stephen Hamm and drummer Terry Russell.

Hamm and Russell had previously been in a West Point Grey punk band called Chuck & the Fucks, playing an infamous concert at Queen Mary Elementary in the spring of 1980 where many of the teachers forced the children to leave.

They recorded and released their debut single, "I Broke the Circle", in 1985 on Zulu Records, and followed up with the EP "Against the Glass" in 1986.

Expo 86 riot

Slow are most famous for a controversial incident which both marred the Expo 86 festivities and effectively ended the band's career. On the opening night of the Festival of Independent Recording Artists, several people who were not attending the concert wandered into the pavilion, witnessed the band's outrageous live show, and rushed out to complain to Expo management. The officials turned off the power, ending the band's set. Anselmi expressed his displeasure by mooning the audience, and Hamm quickly followed suit, also exposing himself frontally.

The band were detained by the Vancouver police, who considered charging them with indecent exposure. Expo officials initially cancelled the evening's concert, citing security concerns.

Some of the fans in attendance got onstage and refused to leave the venue, others began to riot, and yet another group stormed BCTV's onsite studios, where they protested the concert's cancellation so loudly and persistently that the station had to pull its 11:00 p.m. newscast.

The following day, Expo announced the cancellation of the whole concert festival.

The band subsequently split up. Anselmi and Thorvaldson formed the band ©, while Hamm and Russell launched Tankhog.

Legacy

In a 1996 reader poll conducted by "Chart", "Against the Glass" was named the 17^th best Canadian album of all time, and their single "Have Not Been the Same" ranked as the 10^th greatest Canadian song.

"Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995", a 2001 book by music journalists Michael Barclay, Ian Jack and Jason Schneider about the rise of alternative rock in Canada in the late 1980s and early 1990s, also took its title from the latter song.