Punk Turns 30

Tweet We have always had TONS of fun doing these shows. I forget sometimes, since this was my daily life during the 70s, that these sneak peeks at the secret life of rock stars is fascinating to look at in grainy black & white photographs... when I knew these folks and hung out with them, they weren't quite the rock stars they are today. Sure - they were performing and had audiences, but they were earning their stripes. My friends and I believed that Blondie and the Runaways were superstars. The Ramones were like the Beatles to us (face it, they ARE punk's Beatles... just accept it: yeah yeah yeah). Friend and neighbor, Joan Jett has made all us punk rock girls proud with a lifelong career of loving and playing rock n roll. I'm proud to have been asked to contribute photos to the two books about her that have recently been published. On October 1, Backbeat Books published Bad Reputation by Dave Thompson . Here's what they want you to know about it: Bad Reputa...

I saw the Slits in Los Angeles on November 11, 1980 -- that's winter in most places. But as you know, the warm California sun and all... November and December in LA can be the most temperate months of all! Look at those gals! They're wearing summer clothes and enjoying the mild weather on a winter's evening on the Sunset Strip. Its 28 degrees from where I write at this moment... and that's balmy for winter in many locales. But its bitter. The wind bites. Snow falls occasionally. I wear my socks to sleep because it's that cold to me! Winter is the time to hunker down and scan a whole bunch of old material for new viewers. 2010 brings the Punk Turns 30 Archive Restoration and Preservation Project forward. As many readers know, last fall, there was a flood in the warehouse where many of my pictures (as in negatives and slides) were stored. Thanks to good pals who were my proxies, nearly everything was rescued. Now I'm restoring it. 2010 brings more in t...

Dee Dee Ramone I guess everyone who cares knows that there is a motion picture feature about The Runaways in the making... I wondered who would be cast as whom... the one thing I had known for a long while that it was going to be directed and written for the screen by Floria Sigismondi, who is best known for her photography and for directing a ton of high profile music videos ( Bowie, Marilyn Manson, White Stripes, The Cure, Raconteurs, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and more). She's a good 5 - 10 years younger than the median age of the 70s punk rock era people, so I have also always wondered how this age gap would work in terms of her being able to translate my particular "coming of age" period (and I'm 8 years older than she is) in a cultural milieu that my generation made safe for hers. It all remains to be seen, of course, but news comes from the PR machine about the casting of The Ramones in this story. Johnny Ramone Here's the actual press release. New ...

Tim James strikes a campy pose outside the Hotel Chelsea in NYC, a landmark of culture for the ages The Chelsea Hotel has probably always been on my radar...from my earliest memories of literature that didn't involve Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter... it was the Dylan Thomases and Brendan Behans, titans of a British Isles literature that held nothing back... and the Existentialists of the modern era, Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir... Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road there... it is an endless litany of literary figures and of musicians and artists as well, but none hit closer to home than homeboy, Lance Loud. Young, handsome and buff, Lance was the inadvertent star of reality TV before such a thing existed. As the oldest child in the Loud family, whose lives were lived on PBS in the series An American Family , Lance's move away from the nest in cozy Santa Barbara, CA was documented for the nation to see. He landed in New York City at the Chelsea Hotel. Famous f...

Eighty-seven years ago, on Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, was certified in effect by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. Of course, we have always run the show! I think its time to show off a little punk rock girl power in pictures once again. Yes, we recently had a lengthy photo tribute series to the ladies who rock the punk - but its definitely time for a reprise! You all know Cramps co-founder, Poison Ivy Rorschach , the lithe lady with a big guitar who invented a whole new punk genre. Alley Cats co-founder Dianne Chai has a big surprise for fans of this loved-by-all and legendary but mysterious Los Angeles band. Please click this link to Time Coast Music and see what vintage Alley Cats music you can listen to and download for next to nothing. It will make you happy, I guarantee. Miriam Linna, early member of The Cramps, eternal A Bone and co-founder of Norton Records. Everything that Miriam und...

The Runaways were the first girl group I'd categorize as a punk rock band. They were from Los Angeles, and in 1975, formed their first line-up that included Kari Krome, a gifted rock n roll lyricist, whose tenure in the band would be cut short once the star-making-machinery started rolling. That's Kim Fowley, the man who co-wrote several of the Runaways hits with Joan Jett, produced their records and crafted that star-route that won these girls international fame and notoreity. In 1976, when The Runaways first album was released on Mercury Records, they were the first of the LA punk bands to be signed to a major label deal. They were ahead of their time...so many punk-influenced girl groups followed in their shadow. And that's a good thing. For me, it was always Joan Jett who stood out as the one with the chops to make this rock n roll a lifetime thing. I think she's still the standard-bearer for any girl who wants to sling a guitar. Here she is in 1977, with t...

He keeps popping up in the background of many photos – but here, he is a photo in a photo. That adorable little boy in the photo that Joan Jet and Cynthia Ross are swooning over is Kent Smythe. Kent was LA Punk’s most trusted road warrior. As Runaways road crew head, he was their big brother, body guard, and all around loyal man behind the scenes. Joan’s joking around for the photo, but truth be told, there was a bond there as strong as family. Kent was also the guy trusted by the Dickies and the Dead Boys …and the Go Go’s and most of LA Punk’s bands that hit the road. That’s why he’s always in the background of so many LA punk rock photos. For many bands from LA that went on tour, the advice they shared with each other was: Kent Smythe: don’t leave home without him! Kent against the wall with the Dickies backstage at the Starwood Frank Secich told me a tale of how during a Dead Boys show at the Whisky, Kent chased down and retrieved Frank’s pea coat from a thief. The gu...