Leckie himself was infamous for cutting himself up on stage, footage of such can be found at the CBC Archives.[3] They appeared in magazines all over the world.

From July 7–10, 1977 the group joined The Diodes and Teenage Head at famed New York punk club CBGB at a showcase featuring "three outrageous punk bands from Toronto, Canada". Eminent rock critic Lester Bangs described the show in an April 29, 1981 article for the Village Voice: "This guy Natzee Dog hung from the rafters, crawled all over the stage, and hurled himself on the first row until his body was one huge sore. Somebody asked me what I thought and I said, 'Fine with me - in 1972 every band in the world was Grand Funk, now every band in the world is the Stooges.' I didn't tell Natzee Dog that, though; I told him: 'You guys were cooler with hockey haircuts.'"[this quote needs a citation]

Also that year, The Viletones released their first single, "Screamin Fist" b/w "Possibilities" and "Rebel" on their own label Vile Records.[4]

In 1978, they released Look Back In Anger,[5] which featured the songs "Don't You Lie" and "Dirty Feeling", b/w "Back Door To Hell", "Swastika Girl" and "Danger Boy". The same year Pompeii, Hate and X abruptly left The Viletones. The now former Viletones joined up with ex-Diode John Hamilton in The Secrets.

At the Rock Against Radiation concert in Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, on July 19, 1980, The Viletones shared a bill with DOA, Stark Naked and The Fleshtones, Forgotten Rebels and Joe College and The Rulers.

In 1983, a reunited Viletones released their first full-length album, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, recorded live at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto. Later that decade, they released a U.S.-only release, Live At Max's. In 1994, a record label, Other Peoples Music, released a retrospective, A Taste Of Honey. In 1998, Leckie released the What It Feels Like To Kill album, which featured among its 18 songs the 1995 Nailed EP, under the Viletones name. ran an art gallery in Toronto called Fleurs Du Mal and made a brief appearance in the film, American Psycho.

A reference to their song, "Screamin Fist", turned up in the pages of Neuromancer, a novel by William Gibson.

Other members of the Viletones include Screamin' Sam Ferrara/bass, Tony Vincent/drums, Steven Stergiu/guitar, Conrad Wiggins/guitar. The Viletones 2007 line-up consisted of Steven Leckie (vocals), Steve Scarlet/The Sinisters/Drunkula (guitar)[6] and Jeff Zurba (drums.)

In Oct. of 2013, Steven Leckie announced his last appearance onstage due to progression of his MS:

"VILETONES Last Stand of the First Gang .VILETONES last live show at The Phoenix Concert Theatre on Fri.13th Dec. 2013. Has fully taken shape: Steven Leckie - vocals, Ian Blurton of CMon - lead guitar, Scott McCullough of Rusty - second guitar, Damon Richardson of Danko Jones - drums, John Sutton of Weakertnans - bass.

VILETONES are proud to add the Cinema art work of Jubal Brown on video,

Don Pyle vinyl 45 DJ, plus 2 killer opening punk bands, full merch.

You'll be part of this history in a couple of ways, least of all this last VILETONES live show is being recorded by Doug McClement and Live Wire....TIX on sale @ TICKET MASTER, Rotate this, and if avaible, date of show at door."