Episode 41

Ep41: Punks on air with Johnny Nolan

Grab a kettle of tea and dive into the isolated, vibrant, and "too radical" world of the St. John’s punk scene. In this episode, Dups and old-time punk musician Johnny Nolan reunite to spin tracks and tell stories from a time when you couldn’t throw a stone in downtown St. John’s without hitting a live gig.

Inside the Episode

  1. Island Isolation: How being stuck on a rock in the Atlantic forced a tight-knit community to pick up instruments and create their own "cultural smorgasbord".
  2. The Venues: A look back at the all-ages shows at the LSPU Hall and the legendary Peace A-chord festival—which was eventually shut down for being a bit too loud for municipal politics.
  3. CHMR Roots: Dups and Johnny reminisce about their days behind the mic at St. John's alternative campus radio station.

Featured Tracklist

  1. "Newfie Rastaman" by Da Slyme A "fabulous" track from the band that started it all and released Canada's first double punk album.
  2. "No Protest" by Hardliner A "peace punk" anti-military anthem about a young Newfoundlander with no alternatives.
  3. "Evil Drunks" by Dog Meat BBQ A fun song that serves as the ultimate reminder of university drinking days.

All songs played by permission of the artist.

You can reach Johnny @ https://substack.com/@johnnydafink

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About the Podcast

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Tales under the cat tree: Conversations on Imagination, Tech & Human Adventure
Hosted by tech leader and storyteller Duleepa Wijayawardhana, this podcast explores the intersections of technology, fiction, and human adventure. Words create the worlds we live in—join us for weekly conversations that spark your imagination.

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About your host

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Duleepa Wijayawardhana

It started with late nights, glue sticks, and a university newspaper / radio.

That early obsession with how words reach people took me from student journalism to a career spanning the globe. I’ve gone from designing newspapers and having radio shows to building systems at BioWare (yes, the RPG legends), managing data at MySQL, and now leading tech at Supermetrics in Helsinki.

But at my core, I’m still that geek who believes writing is just code for the human mind.

While a computer chip executes code exactly, your imagination runs stories based on your own unique wiring. Tales under the cat tree is where we run those programs together. Whether we're exploring the fiction that inspires us or the tech that defines us, my goal is to spark your imagination and—most importantly—never make you go "meh."

Words create the worlds we live in. Let's explore them.