LION'S SHARE - Newfoundland Street Punk

LION'S SHARE are a new band from St. John's Newfoundland, channelling a sound you'd expect to hear from northern England in the early 80's. I caught up with guitarist Jon to chat No Future Records and the Atlantic Canada punk scene among other things.


1. Can you introduce the band, who play's what, age occupation etc. ? How did Lion's Share get going?

J: Two Jon's, a Steve, and sometimes a Kyle. Jon 1 - 27, cook for a living or break concrete with Kyle, Jon 2 is 26 and a teacher, Kyle's age is unknown and he does things like build walls and shovel, and Steve is our little guy who works and lives in a park half the year. Both Jon's basically wanted to start a band that sounded like Blitz and we wrote a couple songs and jammed them forever until we managed to get Steve on board to play drums. I don't think we sound like Blitz, but that's how it started anyway.

2. Your sound reminds me alot of the No Future bands, is that stuff a big influence on you guys? What other influences do you have, does everyone in the band have similar musical backgrounds?

J: A few people have referenced No Future bands as comparisons. Some of them definitely are influences, like Crux, Blitz, the Partisans, The Samples, and so on, as well as some French oi. We've all been playing in punk bands together for years so our tastes may vary a little but more or less the same foundations.

3. What's the punk and oi! scene like in Newfoundland, and Atlantic Canada as a whole? Are there any stand out bands, or bands you've played with regularly?

J:  Not much in the way of oi out this way but there's still punks. At the moment there's not a lot of punk bands in St. John's but there's some crazy shit coming out of Nova Scotia. Halifax is killing it. Check out Fragment, Alienation, Outcry...

4. You've released yer 6 song demo cassette this year, are there any plans to get it on vinyl? How can people get a copy?

J: Call Jon he'll mail you a tape for sure. Other than that no plans really, some cool guy in France wants to put out a bootleg so if that happens you can get one from him. Cassettes are really the ultimate format, but if anyone wants to put it out you should that would be sick.

5. What have been your past gigs/any coming up in the near future? What does 2017 look like for Lions Share? Are there any plans to play outside Newfoundland?

J: The best punk show of the year in St. John's happens on Tibbs eve which is December 23rd. We've played that two years in a row and it always rules. Other highlights were playing in a barn, and playing at a skatepark. The best punk shows are free and happen in illegal/diy venues. There a no definite plans for 2017 right now. We have a few new songs and hopefully we can get them recorded before too long. I'd love to play other places but it's tough to say when we'll be able to. We're all kind of all over the place. I really wanna go on tour but it's a pretty big endeavour from out here, but hopefully we could at least get out to play a show here or there.

6. Any final comments?

J: 6. Thanks for this and also for living in the same place that Pura Mania came from(ed. not quite!), who are the best punk band in the world. email jwhittle709@gmail.com for tapes