Our first real gig was at gay disco-tech Club David’s on Halloween night 1977. This gig was at Club David’s on New Years Eve 1977, supporting The Ugly and The Viletones. The line up was Paul O’Connell on bass, Vince Carlucci on guitar, Richard Miller on Drums and yours truly John Paul Young on vocals. That night David’s burned to the ground including our P.A. I wonder why Liz Worth excluded us from her otherwise great book on the Toronto punk scene 1977-1983. (Treat Me Like Dirt). Maybe because I was in jail or in seclusion. Hee hee.

  THIS is a great track from The Life of Ermie Scub (1980).  I wrote it with the apocalypse in mind, as is most of the album. You should listen with headphones. Maybe SCUB is semi-autobiographical but the coming apocalypse is the main theme. On “Surrender To the Void” you hear a sound bite stating “The horses are on the track…”.  That’s a not so subtle reference to the four horseman of the apocalypse. If you don’t have a copy of my 1980 LP, you can get one on Discogs currently for about $CDN30.00 plus shipping. I don’t make any money off of it, but I like to spread the word. Here is the entire album on YouTube: Someday I would like to release new material and a sequel to this Life of Ermie Scub. If I win the lottery I will do just that.

  Live at The Horseshoe Tavern in 1978.  I think this is “Can Stress Kill” from the 1977 Cardboard Brains White EP.

  It’s been awhile Dear Friends.There hasn’t been a lot to report.  Went to the cabin near Bridgewater which is completely off the grid.  It’s about a KM into the secluded woods and you really need a Toyota Land Cruiser to get in there. It’s entirely built piece by piece by hand by an old German gentleman named Horst. No power, with the exception of solar power for charging batteries. No running water but a hand pump. No internet so doomscrolling is out.  The ideal place for contemplation. I’ll be turning 68 this July 16 and it sort of scares me. If I’m going to start a revolution or write a manifesto I had better do it now. I wonder if I will ever get around to doing music again. I’ve wanted to for years but life got in the way. For now I’m concentrating on my YouTube channel. I enjoy the feedback I get and I find it a joy. Please visit and subscribe. Here is the link: www.YouTube.com/@johnpaulyoung1956 Thanks!

Haven’t posted in a long time. Stayed for a while at an Air BnB in Chester, Nova Scotia.  Basically living the life and chilling. I’ll post again soon.  Thanks everyone.

 Clip on (the) Cardboard Brains from Colin Brunton and Kire Papputs’ The Last Pogo Jumps Again. (2013). I’m glad they got Nardwaur the Human Serviette to substitute for a noticeably absent John Paul Young.

  I Want To Be A Yank This of course is the 1977 iconic CARDBOARD BRAINS White EP with I Want To Be A Yank, Living Inside My Head, Can Stress Kill, and of course our pre-pistols cover of the Monkees (I’m not your) Stepping Stone. The Canadian punk outfit FUCKED UP did a successful cover of I Want To Be A Yank, however the lyrics aren’t correct. So I would like to take this opportunity to present them in their full glory. “WHO REALLY CARES ABOUT MAGGIE T.? I’M REALLY SICK OF THE CBC. THE KIDS ARE ROTTING AT U. Of T. JUST TO WORK FOR THE U.I.C. RENE LEVESQUE’S THE MISSING LINK CBC TV PROGRAMS REALLY STINK YOUR MONEYS ALL DOWN THE DRINK I WISH I DIDN’T HAVE TO THINK. U.S. THEY GOT TAINTED HAM U.S. THEY GOT SON OF SAM U.S. THEY GOT SIRHAN SIRHAN U.S. THEY GOT VIETNAM I WANT TO BE A YANK! WHO REALLY CARES ABOUT MAGGIE T.? I’M REALLY SICK OF THE CBC THE KIDS ARE ROTTING AT U.of T. JUST TO WORK FOR THE U.I.C. U.S. THEY GOT JIMMY CARTER U.S. YOU CAN BE A MARTYR U.S. THEY GOT WORLD SERIES U...

  I will get into this in much more detail at a later time, but for now I want to expose some initial truth. My brother passed away July 1996. I reformed CARDBOARD BRAINS in April 2000. I did the movie KILLER RATS in March/April in Bulgaria with Ron Perlman.  After an abysmal and unproductive 1990’s I was approaching 45 and hitting my stride by the time I was back in Toronto. I had money in the bank (MEG Entertainment in my mother’s name), I was buff and at my physical peak of health. I had a martial arts trainer, I did one hour of cardio each day plus weight training. Bruce Lee had become my new role model and I was adopting the philosophy of Jeet Kune-Do. I was at John Gundy’s house, formerly owned by producer Bob Ezrin. John Gundy was a patron who was Executive Producer of the White and Black EP’s of CARDBOARD BRAINS. His being knowledgeable in legal and financial matters, I told John I was slated to inherit a great deal of money and I thought I should put my affairs in ord...

  This blog is of course a work in progress. Just know I increased the font size in order to make the copy more readable. When I consider what to do with what is left of my life, the next and most logical conclusion is to write and publish my memoirs. I have to figure out how to divide my time between this blog and writing drafts for the memoirs. The way I see it, I can use this blog as a precursor to the book. In a recent post on Facebook, I lamented the absurd censoring of myself and CARDBOARD BRAINS out of Liz Worth’s book TREAT ME LIKE DIRT. In response to the post I received support from various Facebook friends, many of them entertainment professionals like published  author Peter Vronsky. They admonished me to write my memoirs in a tell all fashion. Which I have been working on for a couple of years, initially with Scott Edward Patterson of UNCOMMON FRANK in Melbourne, Australia. Today I have begun my writing as soon as I awake as I and Julia Cameron and so many others ...

  Kind of a blause title of a blog post but what the heck. Somewhere in the annals of this blog is a half assed Curriculum Vitae. It lists recordings but not movies I have been in, not to mention the myriad other wild and wacky things I have done. For the inquiring mind, IMDB.com doesn’t list all the movies I have done only the major ones and the ones I am credited. As a Voice Artist I don’t traditionally get credited because the studio doesn’t want the viewer to know it’s not the real actors voice they’re listening to. As in the case of Johnny Mnemonic (1996). So here are some movies I have been in according to IMDB.com (If you look me up on IMDB there are two John Paul Young’s listed. I believe I am the John Paul Young (1) Metal Messiah (1978) not the Scottish Australian John Paul Young (2) Strictly Ballroom whatever year that was. Metal Messiah (1978) (shot in 1976) Killer Rats Gambling Gods and LSD The Top of His Head The Gate Gate II: Trespassers Johnny Mnemonic (199...

  @5:30 in the morning there’s no time to get a slick self-portrait together. Spent the morning so far annoying people I know by inundating them with screen shots of things I find interesting or amusing.Going to post this on Facebook also in at shameless act of self-promotion. I’ve had Facebook since I believe 2009. Reflections of my life: I can remember what I was doing by certain mnemonic guideposts. For instance 2009 is the year Michael Jackson died. I was living in London, Ontario. It was summertime and I was shuffling around the streets of downtown London and I looked at a newspaper box and the cover of the paper showed simply a single still glove. It always hits me when certain notable figures die. I still can’t believe the death of Prince…especially by way of fentanyl. I was led to believe he was clean as a whistle. Two things I can’t deal with in 2023 are death and love. I mean I certainly do deal with them, I had to by default, but in my own way i have acquired and that is...

And so it goes. I continue to post using my hunt-and-peck typing on my 10.5 inch 7th generation iPad. I’m now using iOS17 and it “doesn’t support accessories”, that being my Apple Magic Keyboard for the iPad. The only difference that I can see is in that semi-nauseating auto-correct that gave me so many bizarre typos. To write is human to edit divine: so said Stephen King in “Stephen King On Writing”.And so I must edit and embellish the last 38 blog posts I have presented. I’m going to try writing first thing in the morning as Julia Cameron in “The Artists Way”, which I’ve never read but should. Ernest Hemingway also wrote first thing in the morning. There are many books I need to read including Liz Worth’s book on the Toronto punk scene “Treat Me Like Dirt” even though I and Cardboard Brains has apparently bleached out of the book.

    Here’s a demo that Brian Joseph Johns posted on YouTube. Year of recording uncertain, sometime in the eighties.

  Behold the limited edition (500 copies) of the 1981 Cardboard Brains and myself are at Gary Topp and Bary Cormier club Egertons (The Edge).

  CANADA DAY

  I omitted this track from the 1998 compilation CD because I personally thought it was weak. But I read someone’s blog or critique of the CD complaining that “All the Sad Goodbyes” was omitted from the Ermie Scub excerpts on the CD. So here it is. The middle instrumentation is a backwards grand piano, and I like the sequence extro. I must blog and vlog more. Thanks to however posted my links to Facebook etcetera. I’ll be turning sixty seven this July 16th. That’s pretty old. But what to do? I still want to record and perform. I fancy doing a Leonard Cohen reinvention at my age.  For some reason I’m getting a lot of Android views from Singapore. Hello Singapore!

  Wednesday June 14, 2023 @7:15AM Atlantic time, Halifax, Nova Scotia. I have the blahs today. A second Vyvanse was in order. There’s a course in cybersecurity coming up that the government of Canada will pay for, and I applied for it. But to be quite honest I don’t know if I have the chops.

 

KIDNAPPED!                   After the death of my mother I was yoked with the 24/7 task of taking care of my crazed 81 year old father who at the time was still a practising chiropractor in Etobicoke, Ontario, a part of Toronto. On July 2, 2002 I couldn't take nit anymore and in act of desperation loaded up my diesel VW Jetta and made the move of taking off cross country to Vancouver, British Columbia. I had in my possession a cheque for over a thousand dollars and my first move was to drive to a MONEY MART to cash it. And I cashed it and phoned my confidante and friend John Gundy (Executive Producer of the White and Black EPs) and told him of my planned exodus. I also told friend and fellow actor  Jason Barbeck and Christine Wrigglesworth former personal assistant to Adrienne Clarkson at the CBC. I drove from whatever MONEY MART I went to and drove to John Gundys house on Summer-hill in downtown Toronto. John livers in Bob Ez...

 Those were the days my friend.

  The Positivity Pole where I contemplate each morning.

  Not much to say about this. I’m trying to ignite some kind of creative spark, and as yet it eludes me. But be patient dear readers/viewers. Hope springs eternal. I’m experimenting. I will evolve.

  Paul O’Connell, Rich Miller, Vince Carlucci and John Paul Young in our summer of 1977 practice sessions. Together we made the iconic “White EP” (BRAINCO WORLDWIDE). Fun times of our youth.

 CONSPIRACY 465 (1) (b) Everyone who conspires with anyone to prosecute a person for an alleged offence knowing they did not commit that offence is guilty of i) an indictable offence…

 

  The Boulevards of Hope. You know, Dear Friends, what I really would like to do is release new music. But financing a project is the problem. If I were to use Ermie Scub as a guideline, it would cost about $CDN50,000.00 to release a comparable LP. Plus promotion and distribution. And I need things such as a practice space and gear. Maybe I will win the lottery or get a Canada Council for the Arts grant. Many sources including the CBC and Nardwaur and Canadian Composer (which was in the days of CAPAC) have commented on how depressing and down it is. But I submit that the above track is optimistic. And it’s one of my fave tracks on The Life of Ermie Scub.

  Je suis malade. Thinking about legal issues and the pursuit of justice makes me literally sick. I have a psycho-physiological reaction that incapacitates me. More to follow shortly dear friends.

  “Sure Mel. Maybe you can handle yourself one of them first class tickets to the resurrection.” Scarface (1983) brilliantly penned by Oliver Stone. I haven’t yet addressed the comments in this blog, put please keep them up, they’re great. It’s great to interact with others after so many years off the grid. Past couple of weeks I have been down to one 70 mg. hit of Vyvanse per diem but I could use additional to be on the ball. But the healthcare system in Nova Scotia is pretty bad and the possibility of me finding a physician that’s a wizard in the field of psychotropic medication is next to impossible. If only I had been diagnosed and treated for ADD/ADHD years ago, things would be much different.And in case it doesn’t show or hold itself self-evident, I have a bad case of complex PTSD which exacerbates the ADD/ADHD. As it is, I dropped out of high school and three universities and didn’t graduate. ( Humberside Collegiate Institute, where I was student council president. Ryerson P...

  ALLMUSIC REVIEW BY LAURIE MERCER “Canadian John Paul Young (not to be confused with the Brit-pop star of the same era) released The Life of Ermie Scub after leaving his band the Cardboard Brains, a popular Toronto art-punk club band who put out a few records and toured with such bands as Bauhaus and The Stranglers. A concept solo album (truly solo, Young wrote, co-produced, and played most of the instruments), ERMIE SCUB is a rather bleak tale of an introverted child struggling with confusion and loneliness, trying to figure out his place in a hostile world: “Have You Seen the Boy In the Gutter With the Broken Mind?”. Musically its a minor synth-pop gem. A postcard from a time when synthesizers offered unlimited possibilities and an electronic rhythm section eliminated the need for drummers and bass players And layered composition was all the rage. Like much music of this time, Ermie Scub can seem overbearing and pretentious at times, yet riveting and creative at others. fans may...

I wrote the last blog early in the morning, feeling terribly ill, which explains all the typos and such. One day, I intend to edit all of it, but for now, I'm just glad to have some material published. It's material that's difficult for me to discuss, yet it's something I constantly think about. However, I find it cathartic to share it on a public online forum. I touched upon my brother's death to some extent, though not completely. Honestly, I'd prefer not to delve into it, but I find it necessary. I felt compelled to mention discovering my brother's body to provide context to the series of events that impacted my nuclear family: the subsequent passing of my mother, my abduction, my seven baseless arrests, and four unjust incarcerations. Not to mention, enduring ten years on the harsh streets of Toronto while being swindled out of approximately fifteen million dollars in cash and assets. The "sick as a dog" episode began with a tickle in my throat...

I come from a family of four: my mother, Margaret Isabel Young (née Peace), my father, Dr. Robert Goddard Young, my brother, William Robert Stuart Young, who was six years my junior, and myself, John Paul Young. My brother's untimely death in July 1996 occurred just as I was about to turn forty. For the next six years, I took on the role of primary caregiver for my parents. The grim discovery of my younger brother's body in his apartment shocked me profoundly. The officer on duty, "Bart," suggested at the scene that by identifying my brother's body for the Coroner, I could shield our elderly parents from the anguish of seeing their son in such a condition. In clinical shock, I waited for the Coroner, a compassionate woman who arrived with the others. She understood the emotional impact of identifying a deceased relative, particularly given the condition of his body after two days. I wasn't allowed to see my brother's body until the Coroner deemed it approp...

I discovered amongst a mountain of paper the container the replicated CD came in, and it is from DODAX AG, OBERNEUHOFSTRASS 10a 6340 BAAR SWITZERLAND. Here are the two side by side for comparison: Notice the difference in the spines. One BLACK and the counterfeit one OPAQUE. Well I think that is interesting. I really more INTERESTING would happen. I used to have pints in the evening twenty years ago, just before all hell broke out in my life at a pub in Etobicoke near where I lived at Islington and Bloor Street West. Called The Squire and Firkin. There were a variety of interesting dudes that I hung out with, one being Curtis Smith, a drummer who toured across Canada with Janis Joplin. He was only 17 at the time and couldn’t understand why this good looking guy followed her around everywhere. That good looking guy was Kris Kristofferson. Another notable figure was a very smart fellow who I will dub IBM ROB.     

Amongst the unfortunately limited discography of myself  and CARDBOARD BRAINS is 1998 digital compilation of all the vinyl releases. Above you can   see the original, which has a BLACK spine. I found on AMAZON when I was scouring the internet, which I am prone to do, a copy of the compilation CD. Having lost all my possessions including all of the mint rare vintage vinyl that I had archived diligently, I am forced to buy up copies of my own records and CDs from collectors. I purchased the compilation CD, and when it arrived from Switzerland I could tell it was a reissue because  it was an exact duplicate except for the fact that it has an OPAQUE spine. To tell you the truth it remains unopened in shrink wrap, but yes it is an exact reproduction. This morning I cannot locate the package it was shipped in to publish the company and address. It is here somewhere amidst the chaos on my desk, a product of my ADHD mind. Sometime later when again scoring the internet, I discover...

  Before being known as The CASBY Awards, they were referred to as the U-Know Awards, serving as a populist alternative to The JUNO Awards. I had the immense honor of receiving a U-Know/CASBY Award for Most Promising Male Recording Artist. I recall it being simulcast on CBC. Carole Pope and Kevin Staples from Rough Trade had the pleasure of presenting the award to me. Once again, my heartfelt thanks go to David Marsden and the entire team at CFNY-FM.

  I’m just saying    The original intent of this post is to address my kidnapping, robbery, and attempted murder on Yorkville Avenue in Toronto, which occurred on July 2, 2002, at 6:55 PM in broad daylight. I intend to delve into this event in great detail shortly. Regarding my book, whether it's memoirs or an autobiography, there's a lot to discuss in an overview before I delve into specifics. On Wikipedia's "CARDBOARD BRAINS" page, it once stated that "John Paul Young is currently in seclusion," or in other words, hermitage. Although it has been edited out, it was essentially accurate.   I have been in seclusion since September 2002. My whereabouts and contact information were unknown, which was my preference. Consequently, when Cardboard Brains performed at the Horseshoe Tavern for THE LAST POGO JUMPS AGAIN in 2007, Cardboard Brains guitarist had his friend and former Cardboard Brains member John "Sandy" McFadyen step in as the front man-voc...

Haven’t posted lately and certainly haven’t posted daily like I said I would in earlier posts. If any of you are on my Facebook page (which I encourage you to do) I posted what Paul McCartney makes in royalties every single day (something like $USD600.000) and my asking $30 from SOCAN in November. I thought it was amusing. For the past couple of years I have been working on my memoirs. I was approached to do them by a friend of mine in Melbourne who is a digital marketing specialist. For months I would send him audio files via the net for the proposed project, but then I get interested in other things such as a Canada Council for the Arts grant to write and record new music. That didn’t work out but I will try again. The fatal flaw in my application was I forced Erica Veltmeyer to write the application. All things considering she made a valiant attempt but it caused her to have a meltdown in the process. Next time that I apply to Canada Council I will write the application myself and h...

  Here I found “Babies Run My World” by Cardboard Brains as discussed in an earlier post. (As I write I’m listening to “A Song for Europe” by Roxy Music off, I believe the Stranded album.) The last post I entitled “The Life of Ermie Scub (Dogsitting)” because I was indeed dog-sitting at The Veltmeyer Estate for ten days. I live the quiet life now, thankfully free of the drama that permeated my life. Especially the years 2002-2012. The dog in question Emmy-Lou, a rescue pup from Texas. She gives me solace, something to love and care for in my new found modest peace. Here my friends, is a pic of Emmy Lou: Just sayin’. And above a better pic of The Last Pogo (BOMB)(1979). In September 2002 GODS GAMBLING and LSD premiered at the Isabel Theatre at The Toronto International Festival of Festivals. I appear as myself with the Director, my friend Peter Mettler. GODS GAMBLING and LSD subsequently won a GENIE award for BEST DOCUMENTARY. It’s won other awards internationally but I haven’t real...

  Here we have on YouTube my 1980 LP THE LIFE OF ERMIE SCUB in its entirety. I had intended to post BABIES RUN MY WORLD (1978) released 1979 on BOMB RECORDS: THE LAST POGO (Live at The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto), but I couldn’t find it on YouTube. It’s somewhere in that cyber abyss of the likes of Harry Styles and Adelle. Or Adel or whatever. I’ll find the LAST POGO Babies Run My World, or perhaps someone will find it for me, eventually, and I’ll post it. It’s a lo-fi recording but I feel confident in saying its one of the best tracks on this release, at least Paul McGrath of The Toronto GLOBE AND MAIL thought so. To paraphrase Paul McGrath’s article in said newspaper: “CARDBOARD BRAINS should sign for respectable money on prominent dotted lines and stand heads held high in global new wave predominance”. A bold statement but I’m actually not making it up. The comment was great for our egos but always left me kind of embarrassed and uncomfortable, but all these years I might as well...

  Around the early years of the season of my discontent I noticed a strange phenomena on the internet. Something called a Nardwaur and apparently a band called THE EVAPORATORS had somewhat of a hit song called CARDBOARD BRAINS. By about 2005 I had put the pieces together to learn that NARDWAUR, The Human Serviette, was a MuchMusic VeeJay and legendary interviewer had a band called The Evaporators and a song entitled CARDBOARD BRAINS a homage of sorts to my band. In 2005 ( I’m Guessing the year, it was a blur) I was living on top of The Rex Hotel at Queen Street West across from the practice space we shared with John McLeod (Johnny and the G-Rays), down the street from The Horseshoe. It just so happened that I read in NOW magazine that the Evaporators were playing The Horseshoe that night, so I swallowed my beer and headed down to introduce myself to NARDWAUR. He said in a gentlemanly fashion: “ It’s an honour!”  Took a publicity photo with himself, yours truly and the bass pla...

  Sloth.There is much  for me to tell but  most of  the time  I don’t feel like doing anything. I would like to post daily because the search engines like to sniff the keywords. This Apple Magic Keyboard is pretty neat  but the space bar the is malfunctioning in that I must hit the shift key in between words. Which is much more than you need to know. Previous posts have been brief and vague because I am just getting used to blogging and the limitations of my technology. Topics such as Curriculum Vitae have been pretty vacant, I haven’t even included my filmography. Days go by. Canada Day July 1,2022 went by and I wanted to post. My birthday July 16, 2022 (66). Eventually I posted something but not much. Eventually I want to explore the Cardboard Brains history with an analysis of the various releases, including my solo LP “The Life of Ermie Scub “. I want to address my filmography including Metal Messiah (1978), The Gate (1986), Johnny Mnemonic (1996), Kill...