Showing posts with label IGGY POP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IGGY POP. Show all posts

1.04.2019

DIAMOND DOGS: RELOAD, REWIND & RECALL ROCK N ROLL


RELOAD, REWIND & RECALL ROCK N ROLL - Swedish glam boogie blue-eyed soul rockers DIAMOND DOGS are back to set things straight!

After the loss of saxophone player and longtime band member Magic Gunnarsson (who died in a drowning accident 2014) Sulo and the rest of DIAMOND DOGS called it a day. They released the album “Quitters & Complainers” in 2015 and went on a farewell tour ending in Oviedo in October together with Iggy Pop.

Since then Sulo’s been releasing 3 solo albums, working with Chris Spedding, Paul Young, The Crunch and the rest of the members been busy with other projects. During this time a lot of DIAMOND DOGS gig requests been dropping in from all over the world and when they found out that 4 of the 10 previous studio albums been out of stock for a long time and wasn’t available as download they started to make a plan.


Sulo & Honk (Henrik Widen), the remaining original members thought it was time to set things straight and release “that” compilation they’ve been talking about for many years. One thing led to another and soon they had a plan and even some new tracks to blend up the compilation with.

“RECALL ROCK & ROLL” (Cargo Records) will be a double album including 30 tracks. 25 old and 5 brand new songs. At the same time Cargo Records will re-release 4 previous albums on Vinyl/CD & download.

DIAMOND DOGS 2019 are:

Sulo - Lead vocals
Lars Karlsson - Guitars
Martin Thomander (ex Electric Boys) - Guitar, Backing vocals
Henrik “Honk” Widen - Keys, Backing vocals
Stefan Bellnäs - Bass
Thomas Broman (ex Glenn Hughes) - Drums

Members of Diamond Dogs also have associations with such fine artists as The Hellacopters, Johnny Thunders, The Solution, The Dogs D’amour, The Nomads, Lisa & the Lips, Ian Hunter and The Crunch.

www.facebook.com/everylittlecrack

9.25.2018

DETROIT ROCK PHOTOGRAPHER ROBERT MATHEU DIED


Sad news tonight, the Original Detroit Rock photographer Robert Matheu passed away suddenly September 21, 2018. Details are still pending and we will update this tribute as soon as possible.

Heather Harris Los Angeles Rock Photographer graciously wrote this tribute to Bob for DRNRM tonight...

Robert Matheu, Ron Sobol and Kurt Ingham photo Heather Harris

My colleague, photographer Robert Matheu passed away September 21, 2018 at the house of a friend. He leaves a wife and his three young daughters that everyone who even vaguely encountered Robert knew were the light of his life.

Robert Matheu's photography career includes hundreds of album and magazine covers worldwide. Bob had photographs in PLAYBOY, ROLLING STONE, CREEM, LIFE, TIME, MOJO, MELODY MAKER, HARPERS, VOGUE and THE LOS ANGELES TIMES.

The MC5 Olympia Arena Robert Matheu

He was a documentarian and tour photographer for Iggy and The Stooges, tour photographer for Brian Wilson, photographer of memorable shots, live and studio of George Harrison, Johnny Cash, MC5, The Rolling Stones, The Pretenders, The Clash, Cheap Trick, Patti Smith, Adam Ant, the Stray Cats, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen, The Faces, The Who...(whew, out of breath) and so on and so on and continued from 1969 through 2018.

Fred Sonic Smith with Iggy and Sonics Rendezvous Band phot Robert Matheu

His two books of his own and others' photography were Creem: America's only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine by Robert Matheu and Brian J. Bowe, plus The Stooges: The Authorized And Illustrated Story, by Robert Matheu and Jeffrey Morgan.  The official Iggy Pop action figure is based upon a single photo that Robert took at the first reunion of Iggy and The Stooges with James Williamson, Scott Rock Action Asheton and Mike Watt, London, England, May 3rd, 2010.

Ron Asheton (The Stooges) and Niagara Detroit were two of Bob's friends

But even these myriad accomplishments sound a little dry considering whom I'm describing. One of the touchstone continuities of anyone who had anything to do with the Stooges, Robert was the everpresent reminder of the Stooges' Detroit roots, to which his enduring friendship with Iggy Pop was testimonial.

Robert began photographing at the Grande Ballroom and all those other legendary venues that hosted all those other legendary acts from 1969 on. His loyalty to his Detroit friends and clients was equally legendary.


Backstage at Iggy and The Stooges show at the Hollywood Palladium, December 1, 2011- Evita Corby, Robert Matheu, Allie Shields (daughter of Sabel Starr Shields.)

He always seemed to be in a great mood, loved to joke around with one and all, in the audience, in the photographer areas, backstage or just with fellow music fans.

My friend Evita Corby, who James Williamson's girlfriend in the 1970s reminded me of another side of jocular Robert though. When James was onstage, she said Robert was very protective of her, since young beauties like her were a magnet to too many creeps otherwise.

Live rock music, particularly the Detroit-spawned variety meant everything to him and it showed in his spectacular photos of all this city's greatest musicians, then spread his talent to artists worldwide, everywhere.  Rock music past and present has lost one of the good guys who cared passionately about what he shot. RIP Bob

-Heather Harris, 9/24/18

Robert Matheu Website
Robert Matheu Facebook

4.17.2018

STOOGES GUITARIST JAMES WILLIAMSON RELEASES NEW VINYL/CD!!


James Williamson of The Stooges has started a new band with Frank Meyer of The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs and Petra Haden of that dog. It's called James Williamson & the Pink Hearts and they will be releasing their debut album Behind The Shade on June 22 via Leopard Lady records. Order it Below.


Behind the Shade by James Williamson & the Pink Hearts will be released on LP+CD, standalone CD, and digitally by Leopard Lady Records on Friday, June 22, 2018.



Riot On The Strip from the Album "Behind The Shade" by
James Williamson & The Pink Hearts
Directed by Amy D'Allesandro
Cinematography by James Rodney Stolz
Edited by David Schneider
Executive Producer James Williamson

Williamson supplies all of the riffs, guitar parts, and most bass parts. In addition, Behind the Shade features a wide array of talented accompanists. Michael Urbano (Smash Mouth, Bourgeois Tagg, Todd Rundgren, John Hiatt) provides inventive percussion and driving drum patterns. Gregg Foreman, Hervé Salters, Paul Roessler, Nick Hart, and Audrey Vera guest on keyboards and piano. Additional musicians on the sessions are Jason Carmer (bass), Don Rooke (lap steel), Geoff Yeaton (saxophone), Tony Peebles (saxophone), and Steffen Kuehn (trumpets).

The origins of the Pink Hearts stretch back to 2012 when Williamson was searching for backing singers to appear on what would become the final Stooges album, Ready to Die (2013). Latter-day Stooges bassist Mike Watt suggested his friend Petra Haden to Williamson. “Petra came in with her violin and blew me away with her playing and singing,” recalls Williamson. “Months later when we recorded the basic tracks, I included her on what would become Ready to Die’s closing track, ‘The Departed’.”

RACKLIST:

1. "Riot on the Strip"
2. "Judith Christ"
3. "Pink Hearts Across the Sky"
4. "You Send Me Down"
5. "Destiny Now" *
6. "This Garden Lies"
7. "Purple Moon"
8. "Miss Misery"
9. "The Revolution Stomp"
10. "Behind The Shade"

CD BONUS TRACK:
11. "Died a Little Today" **

All songs written by Frank Meyer & James Williamson except:
* Paul Nelson Kimball & James Williamson
** Alejandro Escovedo

  

5.05.2017

BOB SEGER/IGGY & THE STOOGES @ ROCK N ROLL FARM BY PHOTOGRAPHER KEN SETTLE


Article/Photo from Photographer Ken Settle

From The Film Archives: Very early Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band photo, taken on February 12, 1974 at a little bar in Wayne, Michigan called The Rock'n'Roll Farm. Admission was $3.00 at the door. The band that opened for Bob was called The Brooklyn Blues Busters, an outfit out of New York that had recently relocated to Ann Arbor. The singer and harp player was a guy named John Leslie, who would soon embark on a career in porn where he became one of the first male porn stars of the "Golden Age" of porn, acting in something like 300 films!!!!

The Rock'n'Roll Farm was an amazingly colorful little bar, which was also the hangout for a motorcycle club known as The Scorpions (they would kind of float between The Farm and a place down the street called The Dog House).

About a week before this Seger show, Iggy & The Stooges played The Farm, and Iggy squared off against one of the Scorpions right on the dance floor and was knocked out cold! That ended that gig, but it set the stage for the cacophonous end of the band five days later at Detroit's Michigan Palace, which was forever preserved on the Metallic K.O. album.


A suburban doctor named Leo Speer ran the Rock'n'Roll Farm, and he also ran the famous Michigan Palace in Detroit. So often times, Mr. Speer would showcase bands at The Farm that were also playing at The Michigan Palace. One such band was Aerosmith, who played at The Farm about a month after I took this Seger shot!!

Again, you could get in with three bucks at the door! Some of the other artists that played The Farm in its brief three years on the music scene was blues greats Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Luther Allison, James Cotton, as well as artists like Tim Buckley, Spooky Tooth, Spirit, Mitch Ryder and Wayne Kramer in The Knockdown Party Band, the earliest incarnation of the legendary Rockets, and local favorites like Salem Witchcraft and Stonebridge.

The Rock'n'Roll Farm eventually became a bar called Baby's. A bar called US-12 now resides at that address.

Photographed with a Canon rangefinder camera, 35mm 2.0 lens, one of those big 1950s era pan reflector flashes that took those huge bulbs, and Kodachrome X 64 ISO film.

Contact KEN SETTLE
HIS WEBPAGE IS HERE
FACEBOOK HERE

6.05.2016

CINETOPIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2016!

http://www.cinetopiafestival.org/2016-program/

Cinetopia International Film Festival is here again! They have ten days of film screenings, special events, celebrities, filmmakers and film fans experience excellent cinema at venues throughout the Detroit region.


Thanks to the help from their Cinetopia partners at the Arab American National Museum, Cinema Detroit, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, College for Creative Studies, the Henry Ford Giant Screen Experience, the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, the Maple Theater, Redford Theatre, Campus Martius, New Center Park, Ford Resource and Engagement Center, and the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, together with the Michigan Theater and the State Theatre in Ann Arbor, movie lovers now have approximately 120 screenings from which to choose over the festival’s ten days!



6.04.2016

IGGY POP LIVE AT BASEL: FILM PREMIERE IN DETROIT & ANN ARBOR!


Sun, Jun 5 7:00 PM

Detroit Film Theatre

Sun, Jun 12 7:00 PM Ann Arbor

Michigan Theater - Auditorium


There’s a reason why many consider Iggy Pop the godfather of punk – every single punk band of the past and present has either knowingly or unknowingly borrowed a thing or two from Pop and his late ’60-early ’70 band, the Stooges. Iggy Pop, an outstanding artist known for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics, sings at the Baloise Session in Basel, Switzerland, where he was honored with a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award.


This fantastic performance features many of Iggy Pop’s top hits, including I Wanna be Your Dog, The Passenger, Lust for Life and many more. Advance tickets and festival passes are available at the Cinetopia Film Festival website. - See more RETROKIMMER.COM

10.11.2015

STOOGES SAX MAN STEVE MACKAY HAS DIED


Steve Mackay, saxophonist for The Stooges, has died due to complications from sepsis. Steve was 66.

Steve was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the 1960s, he went to Ann Arbor to attend  the University of Michigan's art school. This is when he met Iggy (Jim Osterberg) at a Carnal Kitchen gig.

Iggy invited Steve to jam with the Stooges. Steve played on: "Fun House" and "1970".

Following the recording of classic LP Fun House, Steve toured with the Stooges. when Iggy and the Ashetons reunited, he was invited back to perform on the band's 2007 album The Weirdness and 2013's Ready to Die.

 Stooges Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame..Steve second from left

Steve toured with the band in recent years. We got to see him in 2011 play with the Stooges at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor...he was fantastic!

Steve also made solo records and worked with so many other groups such as, Violent Femmes, Sonny Vincent, Mike Watt, and R. Stevie Moore

Iggy shared his thoughts on Steve's passing:

"Steve was a classic '60s American guy, full of generosity and love for anyone he met. Every time he put his sax to his lips and honked, he lightened my road and brightened the whole world. He was a credit to his group and his generation. To know him was to love him. - Iggy."


Rest in peace Steve...our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and legions of fans..

Enjoy this full Stooges show from Detroit



5.16.2015

MOTOBUNNY: FABULOUS DETROIT LACED BAND HAS NEW RELEASE

MOTOBUNNY Photo by Susan Jordan Anderson

When you arm two wild front women with Detroit-laced hooks, you get MOTOBUNNY: Iggy-Pop-meets-Icona-Pop, American rock n’ roll.

The debut album was released May 12 on Rusty Knuckles Records. With radio singles already spinning around the USA and a US tour in the works for Spring 2015, this bunny is ready to roar. #VROOM



Before Motobunny, the band members toured internationally and shared stages with Michael Jackson, Karmin, X, Iggy Pop, The Damned, The Dirtbombs, Mary Weiss, The Neighborhood, Billy Corgan, Little Richard, Jim Adkins, Prima Donna, Kongos, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, The The New York Dolls, Franz Ferdinand, The Jim Jones Revue, and appeared in official SXSW showcases and in official Fender promo films.


Their other projects have been featured in Rolling Stone, SPIN, Little Steven's "The Coolest Song in The World" compilations, Rock & Folk, Village Voice, Austin Chronicle, LA Weekly, Detroit RocknRoll Magazine, Phoenix New Times, RETROKIMMER.COM and XMU's Radar Report, among others, and aired on Sirius/XM and BBC radio. Their original tracks have been featured in a 2014 Canada Dry commercial and in the syndicated TV shows Rescue Me, Fairly Legal, Bad Judge, and Being Human.


Members

Christa Collins, Nicole Laurenne, Michael Johnny Walker, Rik Collins

Management
 Steev Ricardo, Twisted Rico Management, Pittsburgh, PA. 
 twistedrico@gmail.com 857-389-0532

Links

motobunnymusic.com
facebook.com/motobunnymusic
twitter.com/motobunnymusic
instagram.com/ motobunnymusic
youtube.com/motobunnymusic

6.03.2014

IGGY POP: GIMME SOME SKIN BOX SET


Los Angeles, CA - Iggy Pop fans rejoice! Cleopatra Records will be releasing a special limited edition 7-inch singles box set from the undisputed king of modern punk rock, Iggy Pop! The release includes 7 individual 45s featuring exclusive new tracks as well as classic recordings from 1972-73 with the Stooges - all packaged with a full-color booklet, detailed liner notes, a custom 7-inch vinyl adaptor, and collectible patch!


Track List:
(1) I Can’t Explain / Lonely Boy
(2) Cock In My Pocket / Tight Pants
(3) I Got A Right / White Christmas (Guitar Stooge Mix)
(4) Money (That’s What I Want) / Open Up And Bleed (Single Edit)
(5) I Wanna Be Your Dog (Fast Version) / Johanna
(6) Gimme Some Skin / I’m So Glad
(7) Louie Louie / Scene Of The Crime

Seven singles, fourteen sides. The Stooges in their prime, Iggy in his pomp. And all sufficiently sharp and shapely that, even if you’ve never heard the performers in your life, you’ll know that it couldn’t be anybody else.


2.22.2014

IN AN IGGY POP GALAXY 1982


In an Iggy Pop galaxy far, far away comes this 1982 interview by Pamela Peer

Iggy Pop, also known as, James Newell Osterberg of Ann Arbor, Michigan was in a reflective mood on that drizzling San Francisco afternoon. He was recuperating from a sprained ankle suffered at an Edmonton, Alberta gig on the “Zombie Bird House” tour, which gave him pause to evaluate his circumstances.

“It’s the funniest thing, because it’s made me think about what’s important to me. It’s only a bad sprain. I’ve had much more basic things happen to me, but they didn’t faze me. But not to have your two feet on the ground, it’s like where’s my swagger?”

Before recording Zombie Bird House on Chris Stein’s (Blondie) Animal Records, Iggy had been soul searching. Touring to support Party, his last Arista Record, The Rolling Stones put Pop on a couple of their dates. Although he enjoyed it, when he got off the tour in December 1981, he “had this nagging dissatisfaction with where things were at for me. I was starting to feel too much like I had a career with a small ‘c’.”

That was when Stein approached Pop about recording an album on his Animal label. Stein outlined the structure of his small corporation and Iggy knew that the budget for the project Stein was proposing would be low.


At that time, Iggy had been living for two years at an “outrageously” priced Manhattan hotel and describes his life as” living it up daily”. Iggy needed time to consider the offer, so he popped down to the Carolinas to see family and golf with his parents during January. He concluded that if moved forward with Stein, living large at a Manhattan hotel and dining at NYC’s finest eateries would no longer be an option.

“I wondered if I had it in me to do something else,” Iggy recalls. Pop put himself to the test and sought shelter in Brooklyn. Actually, he asked his light man, Sal Lupo to find him an apartment because by his own admission, Iggy is “really lousy at apartment hunting”. To him, “Brooklyn was a vague image. I mean it might as well be Berlin.” After a thoughtful pause, Iggy continued, “My Brooklyn image was where a lot of writers came from and that sort of what I’ve been dying to do for a long time…to be an author. I’ve always wanted to articulate more fully in my work.”


And he did just that with the publication of “I Want More: The Stooges and Other Stories”. What started out as a photojournalistic Stooges chronicle, Iggy had an angle, and “I just wanted to spit that part of my life out.”

The book and new album reflects Iggy Pop’s new life experiences of living in an apartment, taking out his own garbage and learning to type. He says he uses the town well by eating its fresh food, writing all morning on his second-hand Smith Corona and commuting daily to the city. Pop feels he is living “efficiently and making every dollar count”.

When formulating the creative blueprint for Zombie Bird House, nothing was left to chance. Two months were spent in pre-production work. Iggy and long-time musical mate, Rob duPrey became equal collaborators noting, “There’s only so many times when it’s appropriate to have a hired hand. It’s nice to have somebody with equity.”


The two pooled their instruments and musical resources and had the sound on each song almost complete before going into the studio – “right down to which drumbeat goes where. “The words were the hardest thing. But what I was shooting for basically was alternative news. I was getting a real bad aftertaste from television. Real People (an NBC reality television series that aired from 1979 to 1984) isn’t a bad idea, but it isn’t real enough for me,” says the former Stooge. “I don’t mind the news, but I don’t love it either. So I wanted to talk less about myself and more about what’s around me.”

The vocals on Zombie are not as fluid in range as on his previous albums. Pop attributes this to his concern for diction in conveying the alternative news’ message and the lack of intoxication. Iggy says he was straighter during these sessions than on other albums. A little juice to grease the pipes on the next album probably wouldn’t hurt.

Considering Iggy’s new fascination with writing, it seemed obvious to ask if music was still a priority. He responds, “I enjoy live work, but I don’t think the traveling constantly is all that good for you. It’s like eating too much ice cream. I could never stop doing music. I really want to do Off-Broadway. I’d like to stay in a town and perform every night, with the ability to make it finely honed. I couldn’t imagine not singing or playing…I’m a rocker!”

Iggy Pop & Glen Matlock live in 1982, photo by Roberta Bayley.

Even among the most rebellious rockers, Iggy Pop has the reputation of being outrageous. But at 35, it seems the man is mellowing. Being sidelined in a hotel with a healing ankle, Pop notes “these past couple of days have been one of those times when in the past, I would have blown up.” But he isn’t exploding, he’s examining…himself.

Detroit audiences have always joined in the madness at an Iggy gig – after all, Detroit is his home turf. And he says, “when Iggy comes to town, get the bottles, the eggs, the pineapples…even guns have been displayed. I was shit scared this time ‘cause it wasn’t only Detroit, it was Halloween in Detroit.”

He did the Detroit and an Ann Arbor gig and a book signing – all interactive activities and Iggy was pleased. “I got respect. Nobody threw anything. I felt great about that.”

To what does he attribute his newfound respect?

“My attitude,” says Iggy. “I rocked my butt off on stage and tried to remember to say ‘thank you’ once in a while.”

2.07.2014

LA 1973 IGGY AND THE STOOGES: ROCK PHOTOGRAPHER HEATHER HARRIS:



How a born and bred Los Angeles person like yours truly came to appreciate Detroit/Ann Arbor/Michigan music from afar at a relatively early age... Rock and Beatles/Stones had saved my sanity from a toxic family, and I liked my music loud and fast. While I preferred Lennon's hard-edged rocker covers my chums gravitated to their beloved McCartney ballads and worshiped the latest faux-Joni. Egad, why?


Experts contend that in popular musical tastes, females prefer emphasis on great lyrics and males fixate on insistent beat or groove. Balderdash. If you don't remember the power and musicality of a song first, how can you later dissect what was sung? With this in mind, I tried to infiltrate any club that didn't catch my underaged ass and began photographing that to which I could get access in 1967. I was open to anything good, preferably great. With greatness in mind, a lot of focus came upon The Stooges circa 1970.


I was fortunate early on to encounter the in-person musical orbit of John Mendelsohn, a music writer for Creem Magazine and Rolling Stone who mattered in the late 1960s and 70s. And he didn't just like but loved the Stooges as kindred subversives. He trumpeted same to anyone who'd read or listen, particularly like-minded, quirky new friends such as visiting rookie musician David Bowie on the latter's first USA trip.

 
Corroboration of Mendelsohn introducing Bowie and consequently, for better and worse, his management MainMan to the Stooges' music can be found on page 148 of Paul Trynka's first edition of his Iggy Pop bio "Open Up and Bleed.") Here in L.A. as with most of the world in the pre-internet Pleistocene, absolutely no one beyond Midwestern zip codes had any prior Stooge exposure prior to Mendelsohn's lauding thereof.
 

Hence the importance of Mendelsohn's 1970 Entertainment World feature, one of the first if not the first nation-wide cover stories on The Stooges in a mainstream multi-arts magazine, not just a regional, music-based one. Their centerpiece article by Mendelsohn featured lots more natural stage light, live performance photos which took great skill then (and a close, personal relationship with a pro lab that would push film beyond recommended specs) by Kurt Ingham (AKA singer Mr. Twister) (and future Mr. Fastfilm.)
 

Unfortunately I hadn't met the great arbiter until after the first Stooges gigs in California mid-1970, so my first opportunity to photograph them became the Whisky A Gogo, Hollywood CA in 1973. At the only freebie possible for this impecunious college student/photojournalist, my twenty-two minutes of photographing an appallingly short second set of two songs ("She Creatures Of The Hollywood Hills" and "Open Up And Bleed") yielded all my vintage Stooges' shots since seen over the years in domestic and international periodicals both print and online. They were everything heretofore touted, wild yet precise musicians, wasted, cute and dangerous. The audience initially was scared of them: I thought it was hilarious. At the time, 1973, I could only sell a single image. The world had yet to catch up.


As a Fine Art major at UCLA, I was used to true innovators in my art history lessons being ignored by their contemporaries. Outliers are outsiders, so the slander and malediction of The Stooges meant zero to me. At least in this instance forty plus years later, its audience finally caught up with the onetime maligned Iggy and The Stooges, inducting them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, acknowledging what punks everywhere had known in those intervening decades: they fucking ROCKED. I have been sufficiently fortunate to photograph Iggy and The Stooges in about a half dozen venues, nowadays always to huge, out-of-control-enthusiastic audiences. See LINK to find them all.

 Scott Thurston, James Williamson and Heather Harris

Iggy and The Stooges were my gateway drug to all that Detroit/Ann Arbor/Michigan music had to offer: now let's hear it for The Ruiners and Turn To Crime! -Heather Harris 2014

1.20.2014

BOOKIE'S CLUB 870: DETROIT PUNK


SCOTT CAMPBELL:

Back in the mid-70's, Detroit was a vast arid wasteland for bands playing their own music. The coffeehouse and ballroom scene of the mid-60's had disappeared. No band got a bar gig without five sets of Top 40 mainstream radio covers. Bar owners would actually give song lists to bands with the condition that they had to play those songs if they were going to play at all. Stages were short and tiny or nonexistent and no bar had it's own PA.


Then, disco reared its ugly head. It was cheaper to hire a deejay than a band and bar goers seemed to like it. Original rock bands had nowhere to play unless they were huge national acts. Even mid level bands from outside Detroit had nowhere to play if they couldn't pull in 4,000 people. One band that was willing to do something about it was The Sillies.


They formed in 1977 and did their first show second-billed to Rob Tyner's new version of The MC5, renting a theater for the show. The crowd topped 1,000 but the band lost money due to a curious lack of money at the door. Something smaller and on a weekly basis was needed to kick start the local music scene again. By early 1978, The Sillies did a few shows in closed bars that were open one night for the event. They soon got an invitation to play Frank Gagen's, an old supper club on West McNichols (Six Mile) that was operating as a gay disco.


The bar down the street (Menjo's) had taken most of their business and the owner Sam Stewart was willing to try anything. Though the sign said "Gagen's", the place was known as "Bookie's Club 870" after Stewart's nickname and the address, 870 W. McNichols. Two weeks before the scheduled show, Don Fagenson, better known now as producer "Don Was", came in with his Motor City Revue and his attempt at a punk band, The Traitors. The Sillies bided their time and did their scheduled shows on March 17 and 18. By the end of the second night, Bookie handed the bar over to The Sillies to book as they chose.


After that, every weekend was a concert with three bands doing a set of their own music instead of one band doing five sets of radio hits. Detroit acts like Wayne Kramer, The Romantics, Destroy All Monsters (with Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, Niagara, Rob King and MC5 bassist Mike Davis) would headline some weekends while bands such as The Police, The Damned, Ultravox, The Cramps, The Dead Boys, and many others made Bookie's their one and only Michigan tour date.


Bowie parked outside the front door in his limousine the night he played Detroit in 1978, but only his band actually came inside to hear "punk rock disco" for an admission price of 50 cents (it was a weekday with no live band).

The music before and between the live sets was the only place people could hear the latest punk and New Wave records in Detroit as no radio station would play them. Sillies vocalist Ben Waugh would bring his own records from home or borrow others from friends and bar regulars, then stop the music and run to the mixing board to run sound for the live band.
 

Radio deejays like Sky Daniels of W4 would occasionally come to the club and hear "Roxanne" by The Police before it was ever released in the U.S. Eventually, Bookie's was a victim of it's own success. A concert promotion company took over the club and The Sillies concentrated on touring the U.S. and Canada.


A succession of promoters ran the room for varying periods of time until Bookie sold it to someone who thought it would be a good idea to turn it back into a drag show bar. The building mysteriously burned to the ground in 1991 and was torn down. Now only a parking lot exists where J. Geils played to a packed house after a three day sellout at Pine Knob.


A handful of unreleased recordings, videotapes, and photos are all that is left of that brief moment of creativity and originality. On the other hand, Bookie's inspired the opening of Lili's, Paycheck's, and an endless stream of like-minded clubs that exist to this very day. Bookie's itself disappeared before its ashes were cold, but its legacy as a showcase for Detroit music continues to this very day.


"It wasn't huge, but it had a faded elegance about it that gave it a lot of character. After I left in late 1979, they gutted it to shoehorn as many people as possible. It was awful. It was like they stuffed and mounted Syd Barrett and put him on tour. I saw what they did to it and it almost made me cry."


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