Punk Turns 30

Randy Kaye, my dear friend, would have been 50 today. Together with Pleasant, Randy was a founder of our youthful venture into the world of media... Lobotomy, The Brainless Magazine. The myriad and memorable road trips we made were based on our avid interest in Blondie, Mumps, The Cramps and other bands from New York, as well as our friends in Los Angeles who just happened to form bands that you've heard of... Joan Jett, The Go Gos, The Germs to name a few. Randy is the person on the far left of the frame, you can see the end of his nose - he's next to the body who is next to be-spectacled Brad Dunning... Joan Jett is on Billy Idol's right and Pleasant is on his left. Lorna Doom is in the frame, on the right, Darby is at her side, blocking most of her face from your view This photo reflects just a small slice of our life in punk rock's heyday. Randy's life is so much more than the fun times that we had in our teens and twenties.. Randy went on to the world of...

This is a scan of the first anniversary issue of Slash, the Los Angeles punk rock and culture magazine that became a force unto itself. Born in the year that punk rock was at its very best - 1977, Slash was both a chronicle of and an influence on a generation. It was in August of 1977 that Slash held the first a few benefits for itself at Larchmont Hall. The Screamers, The Germs from Los Angeles and The Dils from San Francisco played. This is a scan of the first cover - Dave Vanian of The Damned. The great thing about Slash was that they covered punk rock in a way that made the world seem like it was all in your room or your own back yard. It brought everything home, put it in context and gave your own misfit punk rock world context. Slash was the brain child of Claude "Kick Boy Face" Bessy, his wife Philomena, Steve Samioff, Melanie Nissen and Bob Biggs, with serious and healthy contributions from many. The magazine was local and organically grown. It gave ...

The Summer of 1978 was a pretty spectacular one for LA Punk, and by extension for "our thing," Lobotomy. We had had Lobotomy Night Benefits at the Whisky earlier in the year. But in the middle of the summer, we had Lobotomy Magazine Weekend with all our friends playing, naturally. Pleasant really knew how to work a phone, write a column and convince people to do the right thing. In one of his earliest performances ever, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and his band the Red Lights took the Whisky stage, as did the Middle Class, Germs, and Marbles. This thing of ours -- Lobotomy, the Brainless Magazine -- was something completely fun and for a lark and at the same time, something we all took pretty seriously. It was one of the first entries into Pleasant's long, steady and successful career as a writer and go-to girl for things LA Punk. Our fabulous (and of course, unpaid but never uncompensated) Art Director was Brad Dunning, who has since become an interior designer of g...

Bruce Foxton of the Jam looks up at the Starwood marquee as photographers David Arnoff and Judy Lesta look on. I remember this show vividly, and I always will - because its my birthdate, and who doesn't remember when one of their fave bands plays a show on your birthday AND sings a chorus of "Happy Birthday" to you at their record-company-sponsored party? Unforgettable stuff. This was me in 1978. Photo taken with my camera by my dear departed friend, Randy Kaye, who together with Pleasant created Lobotomy. On this date, we were covering the Jam on their second visit to America and were outrageously delighted that our friends, The Dickies and The Eyes were also on the bill. I'm still surprised that I had the wherewithall to take these photos of the Dickies and of Charlotte Caffey from The Eyes backstage before they went on...because the Jam threw a fantastic party before the show! The Jam let me shoot their soundcheck. They gave everyone a photo opportu...

In honor of Pleasant's birthday this weekend, I thought I'd share a little bit about the inner workings of the Lobotomy interview. Above, you can see Pleasant and Anna Statman (that's her back) in a room at the Continental Hyatt House (Riot House, as rock n roll guests called it) interviewing Rick Bucker, drummer for The Jam. That interview was conducted on my birthday in 1978... so I guess we're kind of doing a full circle thing today. Notice the spartan decor of the room. Notice the rotary dial phone. Notice the unmade beds. Rick was sharing a room with Bruce Foxton, who showed up at the end of the interview, along with Polydor label promo guy, Len Epand, who stopped for a goofing off photo op with Buckler. As we approach the anniversary of the Jam, Dickies, Eyes show at the erstwhile Starwood club, I'll post more pictures from that night... the game of darts at the Kings Head pub, more pictures from the double decker bus... Until then, enjoy the weeke...

Lobotomy the brainless magazine was put together in Pleasant's bedroom, and photocopied at Charlie Chan in Gower Gulch. The "camera-ready" magazine was held together by tape and none of the photos were half-toned, and we manually staped it together. Its cover price went from 75 cents to a dollar and Pleasant distributed it herself, with either Randy or me driving to those stores that sold it, from the long gone Licorice Pizza (conveniently across the street from the Whisky) and the indie record and boutique stores on Melrose. We felt the need to do benefits for the zine - since the cover price couldn't exactly support the cost of printing it - and it was just the right thing to do -- and we did so at the Whisky. Pleasant and I both worked there (though at different times doing different things) and Elmer Valentine, the Whisky's owner was game, so Lobotomy hosted a couple nights at the Whisky during its sporadic lifetime (the zine's sporadic lifetime...

The Jam headlined a sold-out show at the erstwhile Starwood club on April 14, 1978. I remember the date because it was my birthday. The record company pulled out all the stops this time around. The Lobotomy crew was pleased to be invited along for this gravy train. In addition to the photo opp in front of the London double decker bus, we actually got to take a ride on that bus from West Hollywood all the way to the Kings Head pub in Santa Monica where a full-on British fish n chips and mushy peas meal awaited us. Everyone got a chance to play darts with the band and somewhere along the line, I remember drunken choruses of "Happy Birthday" to me. Earlier in the day, Pleasant and Randy interviewed Jam drummer Rick Buckler in his hotel room, and I was along to take pictures. We also attended the soundcheck. We were in the midst of a most-welcome British Invasion of new music. The Spring of 1978 alone was jam-packed with what seemed like one fantastic show after anothe...