Every week, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 37-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Ken Lester (1949-2021)
I doubt there would be a Mecca Normal without Ken. We played our first show opening for D.O.A. (at Vancouver’s legendary punk club the Smilin’ Buddha) because he was their manager. Inspired and informed by the radicalism of the ’60s, rock music and the beat poets, Ken made things happen. He had so much enthusiasm—a better world for more people was at the heart of it all.
Ken wrote the text on the poster for our 1986 Black Wedge group tour from Vancouver to L.A. on the bus he borrowed from D.O.A.
“1 step EASIER than punk.
5 political dynamos.
Hardcore poems
wild vocals
shredding guitars.
Radical voices
crushing MILITARISM
smashing SEXISM.
We want to set
some wild hearts and
imaginations free. We want
to release a riot of emotion
— opening up a new arena
for activist resistance culture.
Disintegrating CONFORMITY.
And hey, it’s going to be fun too.”
“I’m A Bit Confused” from Calico Kills The Cat (K, 1988) (download):
