Videos

Mike Watt’s Day After 9/11 Show

 

Included below are Mike Watt’s unedited blog comments about the journey up from San Pedro heading towards Northern California that day and a clip of him performing a Lou Reed cover with Tom Watson and Jerry Trebotic at Old Ironsides in Sacramento

 

“We make good time and pull in front of the (Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco) just before six. there’s a sign in the window saying the show’s cancelled. this has happened before but for different reasons. I started a fIREHOSE tour in the fall of 1989 w/the first gig here at the i-beam and this huge earthquake hit. The whole city was blacked out ‘cept for this huge fire in the marina part. We, in fact, drove over the epicenter of the quake in Watsonville while it happened (for some reason we went the san jose route, us-152 instead of just I-5 up to I-580 – maybe cuz it was the world series where there was two bay area teams, the giants and athletics, one of the games was going on that day) and didn’t even feel it cuz of the winding road! the phone and power lines were sure wagging between the telephone poles though! we thought it was weird no wind was buffeting the boat – like “what’s moving those?”! man, have I been so stupid on tour sometimes, looking back. probably will continue that tradition despite my intentions. 

   oh well, we’ll try to make this gig up at the end of tour, after Tempe. I dig playing this town but understand about having to roll w/the blows. Tomorrow, we’ll start the tour in Sacramento.

The next morning I gotta get the shirts that were supposed to be waiting for me at the club last night. Kenny’s got the tv on and it’s an endless loop of yesterday’s hell w/his commentary. He points out significant stuff. It doesn’t lift the heaviness off of my heart though. I call jimbo in nyc and he’s ok, thank good. emails from thurston and lee too – great. After that, we’re off to “brother in-laws #2 on divisadero for the best ribs I’ve ever had. I dig this pad. we get another happening parking place, whoa! down the street used to be the african orthodox church of saint john coltrane but it’s gone now. 

we head east out of town over the bay bridge towards sacramento, where we play tonight. it’s actually the first gig of the tour now. we blow by the right turn-off and have to loop – the first one of the tour. we make it eventually to the pad for tonight’s show, _old ironsides_, right by the capitol. yet another perfect place to park – lucky number three. it’s a real old pad, from at least the 30s. the soundman, larry, is a nice cat. the boss, brian, comes by after soundcheck and it’s good to see him. he’s an old friend. then it’s time to konk – I am emotionally frayed to the bare wire. my first konk this tour in the boat. I shave right before – I’m shaving this tour, by the way. just want to.

   I’m out for like three hours and miss my friends, _bargain music_ open. damn. so good to see them cats. I produced their first record. they’re from long beach, near pedro. good folks – josh, jeff, phil and new man zippy. I miss _hella_ too – tom and jer said they were great – a two-piece from this town. I was just so beat though and want to play my best. sorry to all of you.

   jer rouses me right before it’s our time and I head for the stage from the boat. I’m wearing these dark sun glasses when I play in respect for all the loss of the nightmare from yesterday morning. we start the gig and I’m just crying a river, I can’t help it – the feelings are so overwhelming on me. I don’t say much, I want the music to speak. I know I’m tiny but I just want to up the love and balance all the hate that’s going down now. like john coltrane said, “my goal is to uplift people.” maybe it’s because I feel so inferior and it would be so easy to pick-up on some self-righteous revenge tip – even if it might seem justified – I know it would be just an overcompensation for those small feelings I have of myself. I can let that win out. I can’t let the bitterness worms burrow their way into the holes of my heart. I must keep them flushed w/warm blood of love feelings and not let my heart grow hard and leathery. such a small feeling I have of myself. I want my little bass to talk for me and nurture some kind of goodness.

   my guys play great. I blow bunches of clams, damn I gotta get it togther. I try to focus but my eyes are so welled-up w/crying. thank god for the glasses. this would surely not inspire anyone. the last thing I want is pity. I want to put out the feeling of hope and possibility. this all might sound funny coming from an old punk rocker but this is the place where life has brought me. all fortythree years add up to this. I’m a mess but at least I have for this moment the little bass in my hand and the spirit of john coltrane to learn from. like that song he has called “alabama” about those four little girls getting bombed in that church in the 60s. such a man – a real man. and those eyes, so much love in those eyes… tom and jer and help buoy me w/their playing. I get more composed and join together w/them. we have good flow, one song into the other like one big piece. the folks have us back for more and then that’s it – the first gig of the tour done. I’m just glad I made it though it – this was really tough. sometimes I feel I’m a reed blowing in the wind, a hostage of the wind and unable to find my center. I don’t have that much confidence these days, I feel quite fragile. I’ve been praying much, analyzing everything about myself. this really underlines doubts about myself and thank god I have the momentum of the years behind me to keep me rolling. I don’t feel very strong now.

   I sling shirts and these righteous posters rr made for me from a raymond pettibon drawing. by the way, he just had a big show in london where he showed the movie we made this july on jim morrison, “red tide rising: venice or mars.” I was so embarrassed to do that but I would do anything for raymond, I love him so. he’s taught me and inspired me in so many ways – what remarkable luck and fortune to have him in my life. yas says hi and gives me some salsa from an uncle’s “secret recipe.” thank you! one thing that’s kind of creepy is some cat harassing my while I’m slinging – he’s says he’s doing it from love by it’s a total torment trip. he’s had a bunch of beers and keeps telling me he’s coming from love but damn, it’s getting too much. I think this is a reaction to consumer culture in a weird way. it’s not like it’s even conscious to him, I think. any of us. it’s reacting w/out thinking – a perfect target for marketing. I feel bad about this. I would think I would be the last person someone would want to gush on. I feel more like a trippy uncle. one cat, an older guy who has me sign his blue oyster cult record wants me to write “death to afghanistan” but I say no and instead write “love to afghanistan.” he says it’s ok. I think he knows what I mean.

   I say bye to brian and the bargain guys – we’ll see them again in lawrence. concepcion, an old friend from pedro invites to stay w/her and husband mario. they live here now. she goes back to the minutemen days and knew d. boon. it’s great hearing her talk about her adventures back then w/him in them. I am so beat and want to just be out, just like that. on the deck, by the couch, I stake my claim. after the sunlamp-like lights are extinguished, sleepytown comes quick to end this first gig night of tour.

 

Check out Lil’ Mike’s Randomly Revelating History Tour of San Francisco Sites On Google Maps

Flogging Molly Selfish Man in Solana Beach CA April 2000

I shot this live video clip at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach CA in what I believed was September 2000, but have now confirmed through newspaper archive searches the show was earlier that year on April 7th.

 

local newspaper advertisement for San Diego area gigs by Flogging Molly, The Uninvited, Femi Kuti, King Sunny Ade in April 2000
Belly Up ad for that week in spring 2000

These were the days when the relatively new band fronted by former FastWay singer Dave King were still touring on their own self released debut live album, Alive Behind the Green Door, recorded at their old stomping grounds Molly Malone’s on Fairfax in LA. The Flogging Molly debut studio album Swagger came about after hooking up with the Side-One Dummy label around this time and they were invited to tour with Kevin Lyman’s Warped Tour later that summer.

 

 

They’ve since gone on to have a huge career, selling out venues around the world, playing major festivals, securing corporate sponsorship funds from the likes of Jack Daniels & Bushmills whiskey, Orrick law firm and Death Wish Coffee, and even having their own branded  Salty Dog Cruise themed cruise weeks.  Salty Dog Cruises are annual cruise ship traveling circuses curated by Flogging Molly that cost attendees thousands to attend on giant cruise ships from the Port of Miami Florida on into the Caribbean, down to Belize and back  joined by their fave bands performing sets including Rancid, Slackers, Stiff Little Fingers, Vandals etc. It all seems pretty amazing to me since they used to play free shows weekly in LA in the months before this gig where I shot them in Solana Beach where admission was just $10 at the time.

Flogging Molly at Belly Up Tavern April 7th 2000
Flogging Molly at Belly Up Tavern April 7th 2000

Kelley Stoltz – Ah! (etc) ! Team Earth recruitment drive live at Great American Music Hall

Kelley Stoltz in Concert
Kelley Stoltz in concert at Great American Music Hall

While the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown threw many musicians for a loop and reassessment while away from the rigors of the road, Kelley Stoltz managed to stay focused mixing and making music, and get multiple vinyl releases out, even with pressing plants backed up. One such release was his Agitated Records release “Ah! (etc)” which starts strong with track one Team Earth and then piles on Stoltz penchant for poppy post punk eighties influences heard developing on his past releases.

At the majestic Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Stoltz recently highlighted tracks from the underrated “Ah! (etc)” album and here are two clips from that release I shot of the performance using about 5 cameras I snuck into the venue.

First up is the aforementioned Team Earth

Kelley Stoltz – Team Earth (Ah! (Etc) Live!)

#KelleyStoltz invites you 2 join #TeamEarth …video caught live in action behind the barricades at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco November 19th 2021

Kelley Stoltz 20th Anniversary Celebration of “Antique Glow”
feat Kelley Stoltz on vox Allyson Baker on gtr Russell James Miller on drums Doug Hilsinger on gtr / doodads and Corey Largent on bass

Posted by Lil Mike’s Vidiocracy on Saturday, 20 November 2021

The next song I captured from the set is the third tune on the “Ah! (etc)”album called Never Change Enough …

Kelley’s music is available from all the usual streaming and download sites, but if you want to buy physical copies direct from the musician, I can attest he is a prompt shipper! In the USA check out his bandcamp page at https://kelley.bandcamp.com/album/kelley-stoltz-ah-etc to order what’s in stock . UK/European buyers may wish to purchase his Ah! (etc) album from the Agitated Records bandcamp site at kelleystoltzagitated.bandcamp.com/album/ah-etc … and save on shipping, as they are based in UK.

Foreigner Faux Spike’s Double Vision Halloween Tribute

Below is a video link to The Re-Volts caught live in action disgracing themselves doing a stunningly sick seventies throwback recreation as DOUBLE VISION at the Bad_Acid_Presents  Hallorager VIII at San Francisco’s storied Bottom of the Hill on 10-30-2021 …

They perform two Foreigner Facsimile songs in this quickly edited clip, two corporate cock rock classics: Long Long Way From Home and Cold As Ice ( which was a top ten hit back in summer of ’77).

The posse comin’ at us is led by Spike Slawson, who has taken to heart (vest and wig) the role of Lou Grammatico in his Halloween DOUBLE VISION Foreigner Tribute. Here is backed by pedigreed punk pals including co-founding Dwarves member HEWHOCANNOTBENAMED on keys,  local ne’er do ‘ell and jocular jerk of all horns Jamin Barton , Jack Dalrymple on guitar, Colin Delaney on skins, and Paul Oxborrow in the role of late great OG bassist Ed Gagliardi .

 

A ghastly time was had by all at the Bad Acid Presents Glitter Wizard/Blue Öyster Cult~Re-Volts/Foreigner~Rockers/Thin Lizzy~ Whateverglades/Blondie fest.

 

 

percentages of enablers

The Percentages

enablers is :

Goldring & Thomson – guitars

Ospovat – percussion

Simonelli – words

Recorded Jan 7 2016

The Make-Out Room SF CA

studio version of “the percentages” also is currently available as a pay what you can single:

more enablers downloads including the companion album The Rightful Pivot here: http://enablers.bandcamp.com/

the album was released 07 February 2015 Recorded and Mixed By Desmond Shea and Joe Goldring May/June 2014
at Coast Recorders S.F.

 

LTD vinyl edition is available below in handprinted jackets / digital downloads are also available

 

 

 

Afrika Bambaataa 1983 Club DJ Set At The Roxy NYC

This is a 6+ hr DJ Afrika Bambaataa set list from tunes he would put down at the Roxy ( a roller disco) in NYC circa summer ’83 where the flyer proclaimed:  No Skating! Just Dance Your pants Off Every Friday Night! – B There! 

NYC 80's Hip-Hop Club Flyer

Hosted by Fab Five Freddy, with live Graf art provided by Futura 2000, while the Double Dutch Girls & Crazy Legs from the Rocksteady Crew would be Breakdancin’ down on the floor Jazzy Jay & Bambaataa would man the wheels of steel and a DJ battle featuring Grand Wizard Theodore vs Grandmaster D.S.T. ( made famous via Herbie Hancock’s Rockit) would soon be scratchin’ up a storm. To get a sense of the vibe, this clip posted below from the 1984 film “Beat Street” has a scene shot there featuring Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force performing their electro funk rap song “Same” with cameos from the Rock Steady Crew.

 

This 6 hr+ mega mix I have made available as a playlist on either Spotify or Amazon Music recreates the crate diggin’ sequences of contemporary music one might experience in a hot early 80’s club that kept beats pumpin’ until the sun came up.  This old school tracklist featuring soul , electro funk, rock, new wave & early Hip-Hop faves of the day was compiled from archival playlist info provided by Bambaataa himself. The original posted mix included 80+ Songs, but rights holders have begun pulling catalog songs from shady silicon sucka streaming platforms, so results may vary on your music apps.

I listed all the O.G. 80’s club mix tracks below, whether currently available, for completists to seek out and so you can find out what you’re missing from artists as varied as Newcleus, Marley Marl, Strafe, Egyptian Lover, Reggie Griffin, Re-Flex, KRS One, The Fantastic Aleems ft Leroy Burgess and even Foreigner whose recordings may no longer can be found on Spotify.

 
2009 pic of the Roxy in the old Meat Packing district on edge of Chelsea before it was demolished to make way for a modern residential highrise
Photo By Aloughman – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7161708
Bambaataa Playlist on Spotify
 
 
 
 
Tracklist  :
 
Billy Squier – The Big Beat
 
 
 
The Treacherous Three – Yes We Can-Can
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa – Jazzy Sensation – 12″ Remix
 
 
 
Shango – Zulu Groove (Edited Version)
 
 
 
Trouble Funk – Trouble Funk Express
 
 
 
Hashim – Al-Naafyish – Radio Edit
 
 
 
Strafe – Set it Off …
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa & Family – Bambaataa’s Theme (Assault On Precinct)
 
 
 
Malcolm McLaren – Buffalo Gals
 
 
 
Foghat – Slow Ride
 
 
 
Ram Jam – Black Betty
 
 
 
Queen – We Will Rock You – Remix Ruined By Rick Rubin
 
 
 
Rush – Tom Sawyer – Z-Trip Remix
 
 
 
Gary Numan – Cars – Live
 
 
 
Liquid Liquid – Cavern
 
 
 
Jimmy Spicer – The Bubble Bunch – Original Jellybean 12″ Mix
 
 
 
Cheikh Lô – Shakara/ Lady (Part One)
 
 
 
Love Childs Afro-Cuban Blue Band – Life and Death in G and A
 
 
 
Shirley Ellis – The Clapping Song
 
 
 
Larry Graham – Now Do-U-Wanta Dance
 
 
 
KRS-One – M.a.r.l.e.y. (skit)
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa Nation Soul Sonic Force – Zulu Nation Throwdown (Soul Sonic Force)
 
 
 
Malcolm McLaren – Double Dutch
 
 
 
ESG – Moody
 
 
 
The Flying Lizards – Money – Edit
 
 
 
Herman Kelly – Dance to the Drummer’s Beat
 
 
 
Defunkt – Razor’s Edge 12″ Version
 
 
 
The B-52’s – Mesopotamia
 
 
 
Culture Club – Time (Clock Of The Heart) – 2003 Mix
 
 
 
Sequence – Funk You Up – Long Version
 
 
 
Re-Flex – The Politics Of Dancing
 
 
 
Man Parrish – Hip Hop Be Bop (Original Version)
 
 
 
West Street Mob – Break Dance – Electric Boogie
 
 
 
Yazoo – Situation – Us 12″ Mix
 
 
 
The Pointer Sisters – Automatic (Album Version)
 
 
 
Michael Jackson – P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
 
 
 
New Edition – Candy Girl
 
 
 
Kool & The Gang – Jungle Boogie
 
 
 
The O’Jays – For the Love of Money
 
 
 
Prince – Controversy
 
 
 
Rick James – Super Freak
 
 
 
Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime – 2003 Remaster
 
 
 
Run–D.M.C. – It’s Like That
 
 
 
George Clinton – Loopzilla – Broadcast Version; 2000 Digital Remaster
 
 
 
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Mickey’s Monkey
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa – Renegades Of Funk
 
 
 
Blondie – Rapture
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock
 
 
 
Afrika Bambaataa – Funk Jam Party
 
 
 
Cameo – Flirt
 
 
 
Lyn Collins – Think (About It)
 
 
 
Grace Jones – My Jamaican Guy
 
 
 
Yellowman – Zungguzungguguzungguzung
 
 
 
Sister Nancy – Bam Bam
 
 
 
Michigan & Smiley – Diseases
 
 
 
Nicodemus – Boneman Connection
 
 
 
The Bus Boys – Did You See Me
 
 
 
The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up – Remastered
 
 
 
Steppenwolf – Magic Carpet Ride
 
 
 
Grand Funk Railroad – Inside Looking Out – Remastered
 
 
 
Billy Squier – Everybody Wants You – Live
 
 
 
Foreigner – Urgent – Radio mix
 
 
 
Madonna – Everybody
 
 
 
James Brown – Papa Don’t Take No Mess
 
 
 
The Fantastic Aleems – Release Yourself
 
 
 
Newcleus – Jam on Revenge (The Wikki-Wikki Song)
 
 
 
Kraftwerk – Numbers – 2009 Remaster
 
 
 
Reggie Griffin – Mirda Rock
 
 
 
Ronnie Hudson – West Coast Poplock
 
 
 
The Egyptian Lover – Egypt, Egypt
 
 
 
Shriekback – My Spine Is The Bassline
 
 
 
Tom Tom Club – Genius Of Love
 
 
 
James Brown – Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved – Pt. 1 & 2 / Mono
 
 
 
Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want to Have Fun
 
 
 
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam – Head to Toe
 
 
 
Daryl Hall & John Oates – I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)
 
 
 
Re-Flex – The Politics Of Dancing – Extended Version
 
 
 
Donna Summer – I Feel Love – Edit
 
 
 
Bobby Byrd – I Know You Got Soul
 
 
 
Freeez – I.O.U. (12″ Version)
 
 
 
The Sequence – Funk You U

Shotwell – Wolves (Dead Bats)

Wolves is the 9th of the 10 songs featured on the Dead Bats CD , the most recent release from Shotwell whose first 7″ EP appeared in 1995. 

Twenty-five years and as many band members later Jimmy Jazz of Shotwell brought back percussionist STEVE MORIARTY (THE GITS, PINKOS, ST. BUSHMILLS CHOIR) to record & release Dead Bats. Joined on bass by JOE FUCKO (NAKED AGGRESSION, STRYCHNINE) they stuck to the tried and true, passionate political lyrics set to pissed drunk punk pacing that has defined their output over the decades.

Shotwell Wolves Lyrics

 

Said Steve of the brief but feisty Shotwell Dead Bats Protest video he put together : “I made this on my I-phone, mostly using Black Lives Matter protest footage from Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, Brazil and Paris France. It’s what I did for my summer vacation.”

Shotwell Dead Bats CD is available via Revolver Mid Heaven Mailorder

Heartbreakin’ Hero Walter Lure Leaves Us All …

Sad news came down the punk rock pipe yet again lasterday when I got word that Walter Lure, the affable sartorial sidekick to Johnny Thunders onstage antics for many years had succumbed to liver & lung cancer at age 71.

Walter Lure photo by John DeMasi
Walter Lure aka Waldo

R.I.P. Walter Lure aka Waldo

Numerous musicians & fans took to social media to pay tribute to a guy who remained far from a household name to most casual rock music fans, played key roles in some seminal punk rock records, was there when it all went down, often in flames and had recently toured and performed with a long list of rebel rock heroes and mutual admirers.

I got a few chances to shoot video of Walter playing over the past few years, and he was a true old school rock n roll showman, and the ramshackle style made for gigs that were always a blast. I’ve included a few clips from some of Walter Lure’s last gigs in San Francisco on this page as a he salute to his bravado and role in providing us all with such great rock n roll memories over the decades.

Walter Lure was in NYC in the mid 70’s when he left his gig as guitarist for largely unheralded rock band The Demons, whose lead singer was a drug dealer to local musicians including the New York Dolls, to join up with Johnny Thunder’s post Dolls disastour outfit The Heartbreakers. Lure was already a fan of Thunders, who’d he watched at the Mercer Arts Center as they threw away the rock rule book, and eschewed the currently in vogue prog & hippie folk ditherings for a more animalistic vital 50’s influenced street rock sound. The charismatic & chaotic Thunders “could get a round of applause simply from messing with his own hair,” Lure writes in his recently published memoir “To Hell And Back”, and Walter, a banker’s son, who’d attended Fordham U and enjoyed classic literature, was eventually asked to join the rough housing unit known as The Heartbreakers in 1975 and quickly tried to fit in. ” I played my last show with The Demons on a Friday night at CBGB during a 1975 July 4th festival to about 20 people at 2 am and my first Heartbreakers show the next night to a jam packed house of probably 500 people with lines around the block. ” He let Dee Dee Ramone cut his fashionably long 70’s locks off, and then had to get on the same drug wavelength as his bandmates , writes Lure “like an idiot I said: yeah, I’ll try it.  Within six months or a year became as fucked up as they were.” In addition to a dope habit, he established a role in the band as a sidekick and musical foil to the notoriously unreliable and drug addled singer/guitarist.

#WalterLure

The sole survivor of the classic #JohnnyThundersAndTheHeartbreakers era has left the building #RIPWalterLure Got to see Waldo a few times, and it was always a blast… Here he is performing an old #Contours classic #DoYouLoveMe with his 2017 #LAMF touring band featuring #GlenMatlock (@glenmatlock1) , #DannyRay (@explodingsax) , #MikeNess (@mikeness) and the mighty Clem Burke on drums ( @cbdproject )

In 1976, at the invitation of former NY Dolls manager Malcolm Mclaren, The Heartbreakers traveled to England for the potentially promising, but very soon to be The ill fated, Anarchy in the UK tour, with the infamous Sex Pistols headlining, as well as The Damned & The Clash as support. The New Yorkers had barely cleared customs at Heathrow when it became apparent the tour was going to be sabotaged by mountains of bad press, public out cry, boycotts and bans by local gov’t councils . This tumult arose as a result of the aftermath of the Pistols appearing on the live BBC Bill Grundy TV talk show and mischievously uttering some four letter expletives in the direction of the lovably lecherous lout of a host and all heck broke loose. Recounted Walter to interviewer Joe Whyte in 2017 “Malcolm picked us up at the airport in a limo and he was really nervous and muttering to himself. He mentioned something about the band cursing on a TV show, but we had no idea. The next day we woke up and every newspaper had nothing else on the front pages but the hideous outrage that some punks cursed on national TV. We couldn’t understand it at all. “

The Heartbreakers played what UK shows they could, and as they’d a bit of a reputation in the UK, unlike NYC where they just had debts and detractors, they stayed in London with their raging queen of a manager Leee Black Childers, hoping to score a lucrative or at least livable UK record deal.

 “Leee Black Childers had kept some cash in reserve for a few spare meals and transport needs. Luckily the Clash’s roadie, Sebastian Conran offered to put us up for “a few days” at his parents flat in Belgravia. They were out of town – they being the founders of Conran’s department stores. The flat had around 5 floors and about 8 bedrooms and was beautiful. I knew Sebastian was nervous that we’d destroy the place but we were actually fairly well behaved didn’t wreck anything. I guess we didn’t have enough cash to get lots of drugs and booze and start vomiting over everything. The Clash members would stop by with friends during this time sometimes bringing food and booze. I know Johnny sold his Gretsch White Falcon guitar to Joe Strummer while we were there. “

Remaining in London throughout most of 1977 working on their debut album, they went from place to place, even crashing at a famous punk dominatrix residence, where they’d hang out getting high, while she tortured her clients in the back. Said Walter to Louder Than War in 2017 “Someone said they saw David Frost coming out one afternoon looking all red faced after having gone through a session with her. Quite the scene at the time. . . “

Upon getting a record deal offer Walter said he “finally quit my day job as a chemist with the Food and Drug Administration in New York and embarked on my new career as a drug addled punk rocker! It doesn’t get much stranger than that.”

While his bandmates used their spare time pursuing pints in the London pubs, or nodded out waiting for the man and calls from management, Lure took in musicals on the West End, and read Sartre. He came across a used English school girl tie, and incorporated it into his look, and adopted the Bowler as his headwear. They played many gigs with Siouxsie & The Banshees, and after the Heartbreakers one & only album was released and quickly bombed commercially they “officially” broke up, but soon began doing “reunion” gigs as early as 1978.

Living in New York in the early 1980’s, Lure was openly bisexual, had his drug habit, occasional “reunion” gigs with the ever impossible Johnny Thunders, and own band affairs to tend to with groups like The Heroes, The Blessed, The Hurricanes, The Waldos, but he still needed a job to pay bills. His father stepped in to get him work on Wall St. and Lure would suit up daily, and often cop dope on his lunch break at a brokerage firm, doing millions of dollars in trades while managing a debilitating drug regimen, and by night head to gigs and change out of his day job outfit backstage, in his book says he finally managed to clean up by the late 1980’s. Lure told interviewer Jeffrey Wengrofsky that after finally putting the needle down after Memorial Day 1988 “I was in charge of a settlement operation of 125 people, making four hundred grand a year.  I had thought that music was complex, but this was like a world unto its own. It gets so complex with private equity. All through the ‘90s, I would work during the day in suits and change into my rock clothes at night – beat up pieces of shit from the other side of my closet.  Sometimes, people from my job would come down to the gig, and there I’d be, on stage, singing “Too Much Junkie Business.” It would blow their minds.  I lived a double life. I’d play once a month at The Continental with The Waldos.”

His former Heartbreakers bandmates attempted one last reunion in the early 1990’s, and Lure was achingly aghast at his old bandmates chronic condition, and could see the grim future for Jerry Nolan & Johnny Thunders barreling down hard. Writes Lure in his autobiography “Musically, they belonged together, and when they passed away, both in the span of nine months, they were buried within fifty yards of one another. Together again.”

Lure eventually was reunited with his long lost son Damien in the early 2000’s, and while the kid quietly told friends he didn’t really appreciate Walter’s simplistic “Nursery Rhyme” style songs, at least the two had a chance to bond and reacquaint after years of separation. Just a few weeks months before he died, Walter’s autobiography emerged in both hardback and paperback editions from Backbeat Press. Walter Lure Autobiography

Entitled “To Hell And Back: My Life in Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers, in the Words of the Last Man Standing” the tale mostly delves into the sordid stories, tawdry shenanigans, that make up the trials and tribulations of being an on/off again bandmate to the legendary Johnny Thunders for umpteen years. Walter spends much of the story detailing the “Too Much Junkie Business” they were known for until the men parted. An Epilogue and Discography are provided for those that care to follow the tale past the Heartbreakers saga. Said reviewer Jim Spaeth on Amazon of the self penned tome “I couldn’t put this book down. Non-stop excitement, craziness, drama as the weirdest cast of characters rampage through the pages. I love inside stories of the music biz; this book recounts the birth and death of punk from the inside out. Walter also tells the very human and personal stories of his bandmates as they struggle with the music industry, the music press, the fans, each other, but mostly with themselves. You root for them to make it, then you root for them to just stay alive. Most didn’t; Walter lived to tell the tale. Don’t miss it!”

 

 

Tulsa Storyteller Dwight Twilley

Dwight Twilley performing on Oakland

Invoking heady mid-seventies days with late associates Leon Russell and Phil Seymour, then 65 year old Power Pop songsmith Dwight Twilley tells of the struggle getting signed by Shelter Records and making “Sincerley” his debut LP featuring the hit “On Fire” over 40 years ago.

 

 

Eventually after regaling the audience at the Starline Social Club in Oakland California with musical memories and a rare peek at his poetic process, Dwight sucks down a beer, and plays his song “Three Persons” about a thorny love triangle, in a style much like the demo was made for his Shelter Records debut.  

Down here below, we have a video towards the end of the set where Dwight invited Sarah Bethe Nelson and here band to join him on a version of “on Fire” a track he originally recorded with Phil Seymour back in 1974

 

 

 

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Fundraiser For Fun Raisers At Make-Out Room & Latin American Club in SF

“Hello you beautiful people! …so began an email plea from my friends that run the SF Make-Out Room, amidst all the worrisome news related to the covid-19 panic was the news that a few dozen fine people I know, and the businesses they work for are desperately struggling during to the efforts to stem the spread of some “novel” virus…

It continued “I hope everybody is holding up OK and staying safe during these unprecedented times. As many of you know, once we are free to go back to our day to day lives, the city of San Francisco, and many of our favorite bars and venues, wont be the same, if they are even there at all.”

Then came the call to action…

“That’s why the Make Out Room and the Latin American Club need your help. And why I am begging you to donate anything you can. ”

-click to read more at link below from my friends on the Make-Out Room Staff hard hit by the Corona Virus lockdown and if you can, help support them while their jobs are in limbo…

Make-Out Room & Latin American Club Staff Go Fund Me

Or as my pal Pat Thomas (a multipurpose culture vulture whom you can see talks with here) put it more succinctly: “In 1997, my band Mushroom played their first ever gig at the Make Out Room in San Francisco. Our most recent gig (August 2019) was there too. Over the past decades for many of us – the Make Out Room has been a home away from home. Not only a place to play, but a place that has had weddings and funerals for members of the Bay Area music scene. I encourage every San Francisco musician who has ever graced the stage, every fan who attended a show, every drinker who got wasted there to donate even just $10-20 dollars – if we all do it, we can save Marty’s sweet succulent ass. click on the link here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-make-out-room-and-latin…


Here below are some linked videos I shot to give ya an idea of the type of recent music related events the Make-Out Room has hosted over just the past 5 years… the club also hosts numerous gigs, “Writers With Drinks” & “Litquake” spoken word events, comedy, burlesque, DJ music and many other types of community gatherings ranging from birthday parties and political benefits to cumbia dance nights.

I donated instantly because music seems about main thing that makes my life worth living, and there is no where else left in SF that would serve as a clubhouse people like this… it is a creative concentration camp of affable alcoholics, cantankerous cranks, dapocaginous DJ’s, hirsute hipsters harboring bad bourgeois beards, musical misfits & morose mopers amidst the last of the loquacious & lovely ladies that all should know better. This injustice will not stand…this too shall pass. Vive La MakeOut! There’s links below to two dozen some videos of various live music I’ve edited from the Make-Out over the past few years fer yer perusal

Dig into the video links below…

Continue reading Fundraiser For Fun Raisers At Make-Out Room & Latin American Club in SF

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