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A Mump a Day: Rob Duprey

guitar god pose

The Mumps own bio on their website refers to Rob Duprey as a guitar god, so this photo is a natural in this week's Mump A Day feature. So without further ado, some Guitar God photos....

blurry live rob small


lance gives mic to rob small

It takes a lot of guts, gusto and persona to be in a band with larger-than-life Lance Loud, and when he puts the mic in your face, you better shout it out! Rob did actually take a turn at vocals in the Mumps live set. He sang the Standells "Sometimes Good Guys Wear White," and possibly (though I can't remember) contribute something to the Mumps cover of Alice Cooper's "Under My Wheels."

rob singing small

I've said it before and I'll say it a million more times... Mumps were the most photogenic band ever! More than that, their willingness to be photographed was remarkable, matched only by their friends The Cramps.

Pleasant and I managed to wrangle a couple Mumps at a time for Lobotomy photo spreads. We usually paired Kevin and Rob - I guess for the blond/brunette contrast... or that we found them extra photogenic! We thought that Rob was the long lost punk rock doppelganger of French nouvelle vague (that's "new wave" in Francais, in case you didn't know; clever eh?) movie star Jean-Pierre Leaud, who played (my favorite film director of all time) Francois Truffaut's alter-ego, "Antoine Doinel" all his movies, starting with "The 400 Blows" (which is one of the best films ever made. If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for?)

rob smoking small

If you search the world wide web for photos of Leaud, you will see where I stole the art direction for these shots.

rob portrait small

After his tenure in the Mumps, Rob went on to play with Iggy Pop both on his records and in his band. At one point, Iggy had Rob, Gary Valentine and Clem Burke all in the same touring unit! Iggy and the NYC punk rock all stars!

yellow iggysmall

To his credit, Rob was the co-writer, with Iggy, of all the material on Iggy's "Zombie Birdhouse" album, which was released on Chris Stein's label.

Be sure to complete your record collection with the fantastic Mumps compilation, "How I Saved the World" which the wonderful Sympathy for the Record Industy released! The Mumps music is available from many places. Don't be left out! Ordering info is here!
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Mark Ulrich said…
Mine is more of a detailed question: When I saw Iggy in San Antonio, TX back in ’84 he came out on stage draped in a dark purple outfit. He was ferocious looking w/dirty blonde matted hair styled just right. The lead guitarist wore a black & white prison tunic over his trousers, had short black hair, long bangs – hung to the side in an insolent manner - ,played his guitar way low in posture and cranked/screamed out the most appropriately aggressive, slow leads I have ever seen ‘any’ guitar play. All this, while openly encouraging & cajoling Iggy on in the most star supporting showmanship I had ever seen in a long time. This guy was a bad dude on stage & - you could see – quite use to being in his element there. He had a deep scar on the upper bridge of his forehead/nose, as I noticed it back stage when we were invited back to meet Iggy & the band and have some beer. It was great! But I must insist...Who the hell was that guy, an amazing guitarist, musician & showman?
7:56 PM
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