G.B. Jones Featured on Sounds Like Toronto

March 9, 2021

Fifth Column: Queercore Movement Leaders who Challenged the Cultural Landscape

Considered experimental and radical, the iconic underground band Fifth Column played a critical role in Toronto’s punk and post-punk music scenes. Active between 1981 and 2002, Fifth Column challenged Toronto’s cultural landscape.

As a landmark predecessor to the 1990s Riot Grrrl movement, which combined feminist consciousness, politics, and punk, Fifth Column used their music and voices as a platform for resistance in pushing back against society and its neo-conservatism.

ALL WOMEN ARE

Coming off the heels of Toronto’s punk scene, G.B. Jones was originally part of an experimental electronic band ‘Bunny and the Lakers’. When Jones joined a new band called Second Unit with Janet Martin and Kathleen Robertson, Caroline Azar auditioned to become their new member. They re-named the band Fifth Column. Fifth Column’s founding members included G.B. Jones on vocals, drums, and guitar, Caroline Azar on vocals and organ, Kathleen Robertson on bass and back-up vocals, and Janet Martin on guitar and back-up vocals.

The name Fifth Column stems from a military term for a group of people who undermine a larger group from within. Its original meaning was not lost on the band. Fifth Column existed in between labels. Deemed too radical, too feminist, too experimental, or too queer, their music lived on the fringes.

ZINE CULTURE

Zines, often small-circulation and do-it-yourself publications, became increasingly popular in the 1970s and 1980s, especially within the punk and post-punk music scene. G.B. Jones’ and Caroline Azar’s zine HIDE was the first to combine DIY, hand-crafted, self-published works of art with cassette tapes. These were treasure troves of information about bands, their music, and subculture as a means to support fellow bands and exchange correspondence. At that time, this information was not covered by mass media.

Caroline Azar, Kathleen Robertson, and friend Candy Parker launched HIDE as a cultural commentary. With a feminist approach, they poked at normative gay culture. G.B. Jones joined the group for HIDE’s second edition.

With the rise of male-dominated hardcore and homocore music, Jones coined the term ‘Queercore’ in her downtown Toronto apartment and started the zine JD’s with Bruce LaBruce. Her social and political vision was one of inclusion. Queercore drew upon the DIY spirit of zines and used art and music to address societal prejudices and discrimination against the LGBTQ2+ communities […]

To view the full feature visit Sounds like Toronto.

For more information about G.B. Jones please contact the gallery:

info@coopercolegallery.com

+1.416.531.8000

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