Joining the 2019 Burger Boogaloo onstage revue was Derv Gordon, the Septuagenarian original singer of London based swinging sixties two tone rockers The Equals. He is amused that an obscure novelty single he had long disregarded called “Michael and The Slipper Tree” still gets requests.
Here is Derv performing The Equals biggest hit, one that was atop the music pop charts in several countries in 1968. It was number 1 in the UK, Belgium and South Africa, and top ten across the rest of Europe and Canada, and hit the top 40 in the US.
Like fellow UK rockers of the same era, the Small Faces, the Equals also never toured the USA in their prime and many fans were excited to hear of a chance to catch some of the seminal sixties band’s under appreciated psychedelic pop rock live on stage.
With the original lineup spread asunder and after decades of bitter business dealings etc, they were not on “the best of terms”, so the Equals original vocalist has found musicians from the East Bay based band So What to back him up and they do a damned good job. Guitarist Jason Duncan is such an Equals aficionado that in the course of collecting their records, and then working on a book about the ground breaking band, he became part of the story after awhile. He began a correspondence as a fan with singer Derv Gordon that eventually evolved into a full fledged and interestingly fruitful musical partnership.
The first Derv Gordon / So What show was his US debut back in January 2017, and then 68 years old, Derv fought off a bad flu, and delivered a steamy set of sixties faves to a sold out crowd in San Francisco at the old Elbo Room. Since then they’ve developed a unique punchy foot stompin’ sound that harkens back to the Equals but with a truly hard glam & punk flavored edge. The group have now done shows on the East Coast and in Europe since then, and tightened their set up a lot too.
It is truly great to be able to see an original member of one of the most amazing, yet under rated groups of their time play songs that have laid dormant in the dustbins for decades. The Equals were one of the few multi-racial rock bands anywhere, much less in London, and were putting out records in 1965 on the President label. Derv was the lead-vocalist and his twin brother Lincoln played the bass, while Eddy Grant was the guitarist and main songwriter. If you’ve never heard of them, you owe it to yourself to check out their back catalog from the 60’s that was ahead of its time, as it combines psychedelic soul, with an early glam rock edge and of course a Caribbean rhythmic influence too.
A Tribute to Elvis Costello featuring loud mouth blabbering Blag Dahlia, HeWhoCannotBeNamed playing with his organ & Salt Peter putting the bass in yo face just like he always did in that classic Dwarves line-up are seen here tackling Elvis Costello’s Mystery Dance, joined by fk’d up friends Eric Moffat on guitar & Dave Leonard on drums.
Multi-Cam Clip shot live at the Make-Out Room in 2016 by @LilMikeSF
It was lil’ bit smutty, a lil’ bit rock ‘n roll as the old school Dwarves lineup of Blag Dahlia, HeWhoCannotbeNamed and bassist Salt Peter Strauss were onstage along with Rex Everything and spry lad Hunter Down on the drum kit. As host John Waters says of the Burger Boogaloo , “Burger Boogaloo is the perfect cult gathering of young and old music rebels who hate everybody in the world except each other.” Or as Blag himself put it “the place to be” in vogue Oakland with the “greatest rock band in the world”, apparently his own.
Here’s a 360° video perspective the Dwarves closing down their set with “Unrepentant”, the lead off track from their 1997 album “Dwarves are Young & Good Looking” which was their first release after getting booted by Sub Pop for pranking the death of one of their own band members in a PR seeking stunt meant to ride the 90’s post Kurt Cobain suicide sympathy wave. The song is all chunky riffs and bluesy wails, dark humor augmented by some anti-crowd control antics as they end their ribald appearance at Burger Boogaloo July 6th in Oakland’s Mosswood Park. They are joined by some feral female friends like Burlesque Boogaloo beauties Ms Edie Eve, Szandora LaVey and voluptuous Bo Vixxen.
“Live action show In stereo On TV, radio Smokin’ dust Like there’s just no tomorrow But they don’t know Said they don’t know Yeah, they don’t know! Aww, they don’t know!!
Yeah, I’m unrepentant And I don’t regret it There isn’t any other way Yeah, I’m unrepentant “
– Blag Dahlia ( aka Paul Cafaro )
I brought a new 360° camera to capture some of the action stage side at Day 1 of the Burger Boogaloo but as soon as I took it out, the frantic pit action and stage diving of big boy Blag Dahlia soon knocked the lil dual lensed guy off its gimbel mount and into the mud, so I apologize for the smeared lens on some of this footage. Thankfully my co-camera operator Eric Moffat noticed it flying and snagged it from the mud, I later saved his camera as it was knocked around onto the ground minutes later during the stage diving and crowd surfing caught at the end of this number.
A rock concert video shot at big bear-like vocalist Gary Floyd’s ersatz 21st Anniversary Dicks celebration at the late great Paradise Lounge on 11th Street along Folsom Gulch in San Francisco.
Unable to bring together the Texas lineup for another year or so, this was a locals only version of the band featuring an all San Francisco citizen lineup. This song featured here, “Sidewalk Begging”, a caustic indictment of the SF Bay Area’s infamous yet still shocking urban poverty problem, first emerged on The Dicks 1985 album, “These People”, recorded and released on Alternative Tentacles records. Lynn Perko who plays drums on this live track, was in the later Dicks lineups with Gary ( as well as Sister Double Happiness), after moving to the region from Reno NV
The reunion here was really with Lynn Perko-Truell on drums, also recruited for the eve guitarist Matt Margolin ( R.I.P. Matt also played in Smoking Rhythm Prawns & Gary’s Black Kali Ma band) …plus Ed Cagnacci (later of Dirty Power, and now in PDX) on bass… This show was taped May 16th 2001 from the Paradise Lounge large room balcony… show was so loud it overloaded the lil’ microphone on my Sony Digital Video Camera…
The club this was shot at was originally known as Febe’s back when it was a South of Market gay biker bar in the 70’s and 80’s down the street from the original Stud location, in the late 80’s it was purchased by the late Robin Reichert and renamed the Paradise Lounge.
The bar grew from a small 50 person capacity joint to a multi-level club with many staircases, and even a large annex next door called the Transmission Theater. Eventually Dicks singer Gary Floyd was employed there in the mid 90’s after Sister Double Happiness deal with Warner Brothers dried up and the band members started to need some side money between gigs , and Gary often would be found working the door on many nights.
Here John reads a passage about how time takes its toll and about the lingering influence of bands like The Germs, Gun Club and Flipper. He recalls the first waves of punkers and not quite classic rockers like Top Jimmy, Biscuit Turner, D. Boon, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Will Shatter who didn’t get a chance to live long enough to make the kind of money and acceptance available to 21st century bands that would later ape their memorable moves and music.
John Doe and Tom DeSavia authors of “More Fun In The New World” engaged in a book discussion with audience members as well as with moderator Beth Spotswood. Thanks to Craig Love for getting down to Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA and documenting this book release Q&A event 6/8/2019 .
Towards the end of this nearly hour long video Q & A segment, John Doe talks about doing a documentary of the first book he wrote with DeSavia, “Under The big Black Sun”, and securing Allison Anders as show runner “… so she’s gonna be our advocate, and so far so good, someone has approached us about doing a scripted version of it and we entertained that…but I think I’m gonna put the kibosh on that because they always get it wrong. There’s no movie even if it’s the best best ever network, it could end up like that horrible show “Vinyl”, embarrassing. I don’t want to see that ruined and I think the final nail in that coffin was hearing what everybody had to say about that one.
He talked about artists who didn’t get their due, like Top Jimmy, who “was a great blues singer and he killed himself because he drank too much, and Country Dick Montana, who was a great, like very simple drummer, and had this awesome voice, and he passed away because he also did too much of everything. So people look back on that, or Rank-and-File…the Germs were were a complete mess, and they would end their shows by playing this song called “Shut Down” which is a kind of similar to the Willie Dixon song “Spoonful” and it was endless and they they just they ended their show through attrition. So they were great, they transcended moments. The Alley Cats, The Plugz were and The Weirdos were all fantastic bands that didn’t really get their due, or get great recordings.”
You can read more about this and other topics covered by John Doe and Tom DeSavia as well as see over 4 dozen rarely seen photos of the era in their new DeCapo Press book “More Fun in the New World: The Unmaking and Legacy of L.A. Punk” which is linked below for purchase online…
Here are Redd Kross, currently comprised by band co-founders, the McDonald brothers, Jeff & Steven, plus recent additions of drummer Dale Crover, and guitarist Jason Shapiro. They were captured in action at Slim’s in san Francisco, doing their song “Pretty Please Me” originally featured on their 1997 album “Show World’. You can catch Redd Kross on tour during the summer of 2019 in GA, & NC, and all over US in the fall with the Melvins.
Scott McCaughey photographed in Novato CA the night before his stroke in Nov 2017 (photo by Craig Love)
Thank God for Obamacare, y’know? Or rather, thank the people who did this compromised half-assed version of health care, which really added up to something for me. And now they’re busy trying to get rid of it. So, #FuckMitchMcConnell… you can quote me”
Read the great profile by Jason Cohen of Scott McCaughey, the multi talented musician who co-founded such bands as The Minus Five, The Filthy Friends and Young Fresh Fellows, and who has contributed much to the sounds of others either live or in numerous studio sessions with such artsists as R.E.M., The Walkabouts, Mudhoney, Alejandro Escovedo, Arthur/Buck and many others ad infinitum
Love Me From A Distance” a live version of a song from the Elettrodomestico album If You’re a Boy or a Girl.
Shortly before the Hemlock Tavern shut down for good in San Francisco, I was privileged enough to attend an evening’s show where Jane Wiedlin (formerly of the Go-Go’s) was giving her latest musical project a chance to test it’s club rock legs. Featuring her latest songwriting collaborator, Pietro Straccia on guitar, plus some local pedigreed rockers like Dawn Richardson of 4 Non-Blondes on percussion and and longtime Tom Waits’ guitarist Joe Gore playing bass, they put a great intimate show in a tiny sweaty club that has since been torn down.
Jane Wiedlin is still an energetic vital musical force and her talented backing band Elettrodomestico is living proof she’s still got it going on decades after the music industry certified her platinum!
