Fifth Column was a Canadian all-female post-punk band from Toronto, formed in the early 1980s. The band is formed by Caroline Azar, G.B. Jones, and Beverly Breckenridge and took their name Fifth Column from a military manoeuvre by fascist Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, in which Nazi-aligned nationalist insurrectionists within besieged Republican Madrid, called 'the fifth column', aided the four columns (north, south, east and west) outside the perimeters.
Soon after forming, the group became involved in the Cassette culture of the 1980s. Their first release was a selection of songs on the cassette compilation Urban Scorch released by Some Product in 1981. GB and Caroline along with Candy Parker released their own underground xerox art/ social commentary zine named Hide (5 issues) which, after its first issue, came out with audio cassettes that were compilations of music by their punk, post-punk and experimental contemporaries, like Anti-Scrunti Faction, The Dave Howard Singers, Mydolls, The Party's Over, Really Red, Rongwrong, and Michael Phillip Wojewoda, as well as Fifth Column. Their first vinyl release was the 7" Boy-Girl EP produced in 1983 by Voicepondence Records.
The name of their first full-length recording To Sir With Hate was a play on the theme song from the British school film, To Sir With Love, performed by Lulu. Produced by Michael Phillip Wojewoda, it is now considered a classic of Canadian music; at the 2016 Polaris Music Prize it was named a shortlisted nominee in the 1976-1985 category for the 2016 Polaris Music Prize, the 2017 Polaris Music Prize, and the 2018 Polaris Music Prize. A song from this LP, "The Fairview Mall Story" was based on true events concerning media publication of the names of men arrested after being entrapped by police and was instrumental in paving the way for the emergence of the queercore scene. Their live shows often included films played overtop of the band and a 'go-go' boy dancing. They were frequently accompanied by guest musicians who played instruments as varied as saxophone, trumpet, flute, or violin. Independent-minded, they released their recordings, including their second full-length recording All-Time Queen Of The World, themselves. A video for the song "Like This" from the album was directed by Bruce LaBruce with the band. The band also appeared on a number of compilations.
In 1992 they released a single, "All Women Are Bitches", on the independent record label K Records. "All Women Are Bitches" was produced by Walter Sobczak and Fifth Column.[1] Despite being controversial and receiving little airplay, the recording was reviewed by Everett True and voted "Single Of The Week" in the UK music publication Melody Maker. This song was included as well on their last full-length recording, 36C, released in 1994. That same year a video for the song Donna was also released. It was the flipside of the 1992 single and was also on the album. The band's last recording was released in 2002, on the Kill Rock Stars compilation, Fields And Streams.
In 2012, a documentary film by Kevin Hegge, called She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column was released featuring interviews with band members Caroline Azar, G.B. Jones, and Beverly Breckenridge, with commentary on the influence of Fifth Column by Toronto artist John Brown, Vaginal Davis, Kathleen Hanna and Bruce LaBruce.
