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Holiday Sounds History
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Let’s go back to grade 9 at Senator O’Conner College School. A group of friends came together at that time and formed a friendship that still lasts to this day. Holiday Sounds started with Walter Rosati and Silvio Mazzotta in a conversation that was driven by the love of the new music that was starting to take hold at the time. It was the early eighties and music was changing and evolving. We had bands like Cameo, Starpoint & Midnight Star blowing up the dance floors, and the birth of new wave… Depeche Mode, New Order, and of course Freestyle and early Hip Hop… All these styles coming together on mixed tapes in cars, ghetto blasters, school dances and halls. Let’s not forget this music was not on the radio at the time, and was truly ours. In the eighties, Toronto did not have a dance music radio station, so the only source for dance music was from the DJ’s of the time.
Holiday Sounds grew quickly, and became a bigger and bigger force on the party scene. The first big party was at St Johns Oct 19 1984… Yes, this was the very first St Johns party ever, and we continue for many years at that location. Holiday Sounds did grow quickly, and shortly after its inception, we had some key figures join.
Dave Valerio aka MC Dazzy D, Sam Zambri aka Sammy Scratch, Angelo Palmieri, Lenny Nunno, Ivan Reel & Cory Bradshaw. This formed the core of Holiday Sounds that would continue on for some years to come. Locations varied from St Johns, St Lawrence, Kennedy Banquet Hall, Armenian Community Center, St Clements and many more with over 300 parties (we lost track).
The scene through the eighties was so strong and we had plenty of help from other crews and teams.
These groups truly deserve a big amount of credit for creating what we now consider great memories:
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Gemini Sound Crew, GQ Supreme Team, Musical Magic, Evolution, 4th Dimension, Phase 4,
Unique Musique, IOU Sound Crew, Plus +1, Forbidden Sounds, TKO, East Side Crew, Sunshine Sounds and many more.
Holiday Sounds did evolve over the years, and with new and energetic team members lasted for over 20 years. The new school team made up with DJ Lil Pete, Nenad and Tommy K turned Holiday Sounds into the Holiday Boyz, and launched weekly parties and various clubs.
Pop up live performance was always our trademark surprise and we like to continue this tradition today.
Some past live performers…
Stevie B, Snap, Joee, Lil Suzie, Cover Girls, Herbie, Sugar Hill Gang, Maestro Fresh Wes, Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock, Martika, Emjay, Johnny O, Trinere and the list goes on and on…
The Holiday Sounds team over the years.
Walter Rosati, Dave Valerio, Silvio Mazzotta, Sam Zambri, Angelo Palmieri, Mike De Lucia, Ivan Reel, Lenny Nunno, Cory Bradshaw, Peter Pantzouras, Nenad Nenadovic, Tom Karakopolis
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