A Typical Night Out

It wasn't always chaotic catharthis, safety pins and a brand new British Invasion. A typical night out in Los Angeles meant one or more of a few options:

the Sunset Strip - where there was Tower Records, Licorice Pizza, the Whisky, the Roxy, and the Rainbow parking lot

West Hollywood, with the Starwood

Hollywood - with the Masque and some dank dive bars like the Frolic Room and Firefly

Chinatown - Hong Kong Cafe and Madame Wongs

West LA - Madame Wong's West, Club 88 and the Rhino Records store

There were other venues, to be sure - the Troubadour on Santa Monica Blvd., which now is the place for rock, was still a folkie and mostly non-punk place. In the Valley, there was the Country Club, the Palomino, which had mostly country acts until the Pretenders played their first club date there in 1980. There was Gazzari's on the Strip, which was home to metal. Van Halen got their break there.

Hanging out backstage also wasn't always rubbing elbows with England's newest hitmakers. Usually it was hanging out with your friends.

On this particular night, Belinda Carlisle found these guys attractive and wanted a photo of them. Since she was forming a band at the time, it wouldn't have been unusual for her to be photographed. So photograph her I did.

Since this photo was taken (1979), Belinda has become quite the glamour gal. I prefer this look - the way she looked when she moved to Los Angeles from Thousand Oaks. Sort of like Norma Jean Baker before she became Marilyn Monroe.