Punk Turns 30

The Starwood was located on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Crescent Heights in West Hollywood, California. The photo above is familiar to many readers of Punk Turns 30 -- it was taken 30 years ago on April 14 in the parking lot of the Starwood. One of the most rollicking birthday parties I've ever had was the day and night that The Jam headlined the club. That's me above - fairly naive, just entering my 20's, feeling, however that I knew it all - or at least plenty... sure, my friends and I had a lock on the local punk rock scene. We were the Lobotomy Fanzine crew, after all! There came a point when bands wanted to know us as much as we wanted to know them... But what I didn't understand... not even when I read in the papers when the Starwood eventually closed in 1982... was the high level of real low-down-dirty sex and drugs and rock n roll that went on behind the scenes at this club. Pleasant , pictured above with Blondie's Debbie Harry , and I were am...

Playboy, February 1981, cover and page 226 - which includes my photo of Stiv! Playboy Magazine is copyright Playboy Enterprises, Inc. Although the pictures were taken in the Summer of 1980, it wasn't until February 1981 that they started showing up in the press... Playboy was the first publication - and scored an exclusive - to pick up on the sexy backstage photos of Stiv Bators and Sabel Starr fooling around for the camera. I was thrilled beyond belief when Playboy's photo editor sent me a contract for the use of the photo. It ended up on Page 226 of the magazine - on the leading page of their "Grapevine" section - their photo/gossip pages near the end of the magazine. Because... everybody READS Playboy for their witty writing, don't they? I'd get a whole new set of eyes looking at my photography. Stiv always brought me good luck with our photo opportunities, to be sure. I've been showing this color picture of Stiv and Sabel for some time... its ...

Although Blondie is associated with New York City and the CBGB and Max's scenes, the two most photogenic members... Debbie Harry and Clem Burke grew up in New Jersey... Since I have been staying in Jersey City since the beginning of the year, as I have driven back and forth between Newark Airport and Jersey City, I've passed Bayonne more than a few times and always think of Clem. I think of Clem as one of the most valuable players, not just of punk rock, but of the last 30 years of pop music. This image of Clem during a 1978 sound check at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA is a favorite on my Unguarded Moments: Backstage and Beyond Tour. If you're in NY, you can see the print in person - the exhibit at Magnetic Field is hanging throughout January! All of these photos were taken in April, 1978 when Blondie were touring the USA relentlessly in support of their second album, Plastic Letters , which had been released six months earlier, in 1977. The album was a smash ...

I never know what images people are going to respond to... but the past few weeks, these are the ones that have been stand-outs. Blondie has always been popular... and this shot of Debbie Harry and Nigel Harrison with Rodney Bingenheimer in tow visiting the B Girls backstage at the Whisky has been a consistent favorite and seller! If you have Cathay Che 's book Platinum Blonde, you saw this photo in there! Much to my pleasant surprise, this summer while scanning everything I own, I found this shot from the Plimsouls record release party. No one has seen it ever! It made its debut in Houston. Pictured are Eddie Munoz of the Plimsouls and his friends, Penelope Sevier on the left and behind them, Kyle Hetherington. People who came to Sound Exchange last month were happy to see Texas represented in Eddie, and since I only had one print, the photo was "the one that got away" to many an attendee. Clem Burke, punk rock's most valuable player... When I present...

While Blondie were paying their dues in small clubs almost every day of the year, and while Pleasant, Randy and I were making Lobotomy in her bedroom and in my apartment...somewhere back in 1978, we spent a lot of time together. The Lobotomy crew made road trips to see Blondie all over California from San Francisco to San Diego, mostly in my little Honda hatchback. In 1978, just a few months before they hit the pop charts with "Heart of Glass," a surprise to everyone, we spent just about the whole month of April seeing Blondie play all over California. Above is a series of shots from an April show in Berkeley, CA, and below are some shots from the trip and hanging out. This crazy action hair shot was on one of the covers of Lobotomy. Clem Burke during soundcheck. Clem and Chris Stein during soundcheck, in a room so dark and with such particular light that only Clem is in focus - the depth of field was that narrow in the darkness that I couldn't get both men standing ...