Any Night of the Week book highlights Ready Records’ outsized influence on Toronto’s transformation into a music mecca.


Ready Records has earned a book chapter in between a section exploring the divey downtown concert venues of the ‘80s and a chapter on Toronto’s burgeoning early reggae scene in writer and Wavelength Music co-founder Jonny Dovercourt’s new history of the city’s modern music scene.

Published in March 2020 by Coach House Books, Any Night of the Week: A D.I.Y. History of Toronto Music, 1957-2001 masterfully profiles Toronto’s remarkable rise to become one of North America’s preeminent music cities.

Label co-founder Andy Crosbie, Blue Peter’s Chris Wardman and Spoons’ Gord Deppe are interviewed for the chapter titled “Ready Records: Architects of the World.” It follows the label from its inception in the late ‘70s to the release of a series of landmark singles and albums, like Spoons’ Arias and Symphonies, in the early ‘80s.

“Ready Records was a pioneering indie label before that was a thing. The indie/DIY spirit was here to wipe out seventies complacency and cheesy rock bands,” Blue Peter’s Wardman tells Dovercourt at the beginning of the chapter.

From their formative student days at London’s Fanshawe College to releasing hit singles and a gold album together years later, the chapter encapsulates Crosbie and Ready Records co- founder Angus MacKay’s lasting impact on the Canadian music industry.

Dovercourt beautifully captures the energy, diversity, and, of course, the do-it-yourself spirit of the Toronto scene. This is recommended reading for anyone interested in how a relatively buttoned-down city birthed a dynamic and highly influential music culture.

It’s guaranteed to be a major nostalgia trip for those who grew up in the Toronto scene too. You’ll definitely recognize plenty of familiar names and venues mentioned in Any Night of the Week!