Punk Turns 30

Thank you dear readers. TEN THOUSAND of you have looked at this blog during the month of January 2007. Punk's not dead. No way. These are just some of my favorite punk rock moments from all the usual suspects - some Bators cohorts in George Cabaniss and David Quinton from the Disconnected band, some Dils and of course, two dead boys... Stiv Bators and Dee Dee Ramone, who are actually more alive than ever -- immortalized in all our hearts.

Some people think that backstage is where its at, and they try whatever clever lines they've got out on the security guys to gain entry. Sometimes, there is a party going on, and you'd want to be there. Other times, its just like this picture.... hazy and drunk, with people sticking together in their own little groups just like it was anywhere else. Most of the time, I've just seen guys changing guitar strings and waiting to go on stage, just like these Avengers boys are doing. Of course, sometimes, the Mayor of the Sunset Strip could show up at your gig, and so could your favorite recording artist, who then turns around and asks you to sing back up on the record she's working on right now... The B Girls surround Rodney Bingenmheiner, Debbie Harry and Nigel Harrison from Blondie, and Sabel Starr Finally, its always great when friends from back home pop by to say hello. If you're a London punk, that friend from home could be a Sex Pistol... Paul Cook and Viv Albe...

Debbie Harry April, 1978, Berkeley, CA "Blondie Does It" was one of the catch phrases of this tour, together with the slogan on the t-shirt "Blondie is a Group!" A month later, Pleasant and I drag Billy Idol around town for photo opportunities.... I'm so glad you like them.

Dave Parsons Sham 69 is in the news and its not pleasant.....the BBC is calling it a "bitter split" between front man Jimmy Pursey and Dave Parsons, guitarist. Who will get to keep the name "Sham 69"? My two cents worth - Pursey's saying in this article that Parsons left before, and first....but as I saw it.... Pursey seemed to have slunk away back in 1980, opening the door for the Daves, Parsons and Tregunna to join the Wanderers. I seem to remember at the time that the remaining Sham members were held liable for Pursey's share of Inland Revenue too... perhaps I should stop now...no need to stoke this fire. Good luck lads.

Oki Dog is hallowed ground in Los Angeles punk. This is an image from the cool Hot Dog Spot blog, and it shows the new Oki Dog location on Fairfax Ave., around the corner from the old Santa Monica Blvd. location - the one where we 1970s punks would hang out forever into the night, enjoying the freak show of the pill-popping counter guys, totally speeded out, making the weirdest combination of food involving hot dogs and tortillas. Indeed, hot dogs themselves have a warm spot in many a punk rock heart.... witness some images from the Punk Turns 30 opening reception at Goner Fest 2 in 2005...a hot dog cook-out hosted by Memphis's greatest punk men - Eric Oblivian and Final Solutions frontman, Zac Ives, who are also the proprietors of the Goner Records Store and label. Here's Eric getting the party started. Aron Ives and Zac enjoying Gus's Fried Chicken, another Memphis carnivorous delight. Chris Martel of Watch Me Eat a Hot Dog fame. But reading today's New Yo...

I don't think anyone could tire of more pictures of Dee Dee Ramone. This is another photo taken backstage when Stiv did some sold-out shows at the Whisky A Go Go while he was recording "Disconnected" in Los Angeles. From left to right are David Quinton, Dee Dee, and Stiv.

Billy Idol in profile, so you can see that 'do! Every time I check my statistics, I find that one of the most frequent search terms that got visitors here was "punk hair styles" - and I aim to please. This one is for all you looking for the ultimate punk hair style. And apologies to my regulars who have seen these before. Of course, London's Soo Catwoman might be the most iconic punk rock face of all time, but for my eyes, there's nothing more pleasing than Billy Idol's punk look.

Peter Case, singer/songwriter, rocking front man of the Plimsouls and solo artist has a book coming out this week: It's called As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport, and is a memoir of his first month in California. To quote directly from Peter, he arrived in California when he "was a teenager, playing music and living on the street, and having various adventures with fugitives, rounders, guardian angels, and other mad characters of the early 70's. This period was the last gasp of the sixties, and the time of the conception of the new punk culture. Some people have compared 'As Far As You Can Get...' to Dylan's Chronicles, but really, it's the Anti-Chronicles: Dylan went East and made it to the top, I came West and went straight to the bottom. John Doe has written an introduction to the book. 'As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport' is the first part of a work in progress, and is published by everthemore books in Atlanta." You can orde...

Kevin Kiely of Mumps was certainly one of the punk rock boys that set our hearts a flutter. He was Pleasant's favorite Mump... Don't they all look pretty great? That's Kevin, Pleasant and Mump Rob Duprey posing punk a la The Bromley Contingent. Future A&R guru, Anna Statman may have been one of Jeffrey Lee Pierce's muses. Here, the teenage David Quinton (right) and 20-something George Cabaniss from Stiv Bators' Disconnected band had their fair share of female attention, even though Stiv attracted the creme de la creme of groupie attention. Billy Idol was another of Pleasant's favorite punk rock boys, and his allure is still strong today (judging from how many hits this site gets whenever I publish a photo of his handsome face). Pleasant herself was one of punk rock's "It Girls," as were her best pals Belinda Carlisle and Wyline. Alley Cat Diane Chai is pictured here in her full Ronnie Spector appeal. Diane played a fierce bass a...

In the summer of 1981, Stiv Bators led the Wanderers on a jet-set tour of a few American cities. Here they are at the Palladium in NYC, which is no longer there...its an NYU dorm. That night, they opened for The Ramones. The Wanderers were: Stiv, and from Sham 69, Dave Parsons, Dave Tregunna, Rick Rock (Goldstein) and on keyboards, Dean Klevatt, who had been playing with Joan Armatrading. They had one album, "Only Lovers Left Alive" which was released on Polydor. After this tour, Stiv and Dave Tregunna formed Lords of the New Church with ex- Damned, Brian James and ex- Barracudas, Nicky Turner. These days, Brian James and Dave Tregunna are still playing together in the Brian James Gang.

Johnny Thunders -- a picture is worth a thousand words. From the Whisky A Go Go. this one is available in a limited edition archival/museum quality print here

Most of you reading this know Kristian Hoffman as the songwriting-keyboard playing musical director of Mumps, or as the keyboard playing-musical director for such talented vocalists ranging from the late Klaus Nomi to current day chanteuses Ann Magnuson, Carolyn Edwards, Abby Travis as well as essential musician in bands from his own Swingin Madisons to bonafide rock god and inventor of distorted feedback, Dave Davies. ... so why is he not pictured behind a keyboard here? Kristian Hoffman is quite frankly, a genius artist and renaissance man. I just wanted to show you images of him rocking out with Mumps! Kristian is also an accomplished and distinguished artist - as in the kind of guy who draws and designs. Take a look around your book and record collection and you might just see his name.... start with the New York Dolls debut album inner sleeve... What can I say about Kristian? Just go discover his amazing career! Click his name above and check out his website. One of my ...

The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame announced its inductees for this year and among them is Patti Smith. The ceremonies will be held on March 12 in New York City, and televised probably a week later. New York punk rock is beginning to be well represented in the Rock Hall, with the Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads, who together with Patti Smith all launched their careers at CBGB, which like the other magnificent punk rock dive, Max's Kansas City, is gone but not forgotten.

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...

I wouldn't really classify Television as a punk band. They are, however, supremely important and essential to the birth of NYC's punk scene as we know it. Urban legend has it that Tom Verlaine convinced Hilly Kristal to let the band practice at his Bowery bar, CBGB, and play live shows there too. The rest is history, and now CBGB is closed. Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, neither of whom is originally from New York, seemed to define a certain cultural shift for me, together with Patti Smith. They all brought to rock n roll their love of poetry and their mix of poetry and rock n roll kept an arty/beatnik edge alive in the punk world of downtown NYC. For those who don't know, Verlaine and Hell played together in the earliest version of Television, with Hell departing to front the Voidoids. What differentiates Television from other bands that blossomed in the mid-70s downtown New York music scene was that they were consumate musicians. Both Verlaine and Richard Lloy...