Ian Curtis

Ian Kevin Curtis (15 July 1956 – 18 May 1980) Listening to the radio yesterday I heard more Joy Division songs than usual, and realized it must be the anniversary of his death – but 32 years came as a bit of a shock. Ian formed Joy Division along with Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris in 1979 after meeting at a Sex Pistols gig. Signed to Tony Wilson’s Factory Records they recorded 2 great LPs  – Unknown Pleasures and Closer. Ian suffered from epilepsy and depression and on the night before Joy Division was set to leave for their first American tour, Ian Curtis hung himself in his kitchen. Joy Division would evolve into New Order and continue to play to this day. Ian would become known as another dead young rock star and for Joy Division’s only real radio hit - “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. A biopic – Control - directed by photographer Anton Corbijn would be released to acclaim  in 2007.

 

Big Fan: The Gun Club & Jeffrey Lee Pierce

Coming out of the boiling smelly stew that was the LA punk scene of the 80′s, along with X, The Blasters, The Flesheaters, et al, The Gun Club certainly stood out. Fronted by an overweight, alcoholic, blues obsessed, Blondie Fan Club President, lead singer – Jeffrey Lee Pierce, they were a mess. Mixing raw blues, DIY punk, country and rockabilly The Gun Club made quite a noise. Their first LP Fire of Love is a classic (go buy it right now). Their 2nd, Miami is real good too – and then something bad happened. Various line-up changes (the 1st pictures here are the second version of the band), erratic behaviour, shakey live shows, drugs, booze, blah, blah, blah caused their remaining LPs to be pretty hit-and-miss. Jeffrey Lee however bounced back with 2 pretty great blues LPs – Wildweed, and Ramblin’ Jeffrey Lee & Cypress Grove. Alcoholism and bad livin’ finally caught up with Jeffrey Lee in 1996 - he suffered a stroke and passed away at the ripe old age of 37. **As a side note – I saw them play at an upstairs dining room in a shitty German restaurant in Ann Arbor MI. I didn’t know at the time that they would start their show with about a half hour of pure out-of-tune noise, just to piss people off, and then play their normal set. Needless to say I left about 20 minutes into the show.

Terry Graham, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Kid Congo Powers, Patricia Morrison

Jeffrey Lee & Patricia

Jeffrey Lee 1982

The Band

Jeffrey Lee Pierce

Patricia Morrison

J.L.P & Patricia Live

Live

Kid Congo Powers & Jeff

Terry Graham, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Ward Dotson and Rob Ritter (1981)

Big Fan/Style: The Specials

The Specials (The Specials AKA) – The Specials came from Coventry England and started life as The Coventry Automatics, changing their name to The Specials AKA The Coventry Automatics (that’s a mouthful) and finally and gratefully, The Specials. They were the leaders of what became known as the Ska Revival of the late 70′s (along with Madness, The Selecter, et al). It was a mix of punk speed and ethos and Jamaican Ska beats (pre-reggae) and it would become huge in England. The Specials were more political then the rest, singing about racism, poverty and unemployment and looked good doing it in their mix of rude-boy suits, pork pie hats and Fred Perry polos. They weren’t made to last though and would disintegrate 3 years later (1980) with “internal disagreements” - each would go on to form or play in different bands, most notably, Terry Hall (singer) and Lynval Golding (guitar) and Neville Staple (vocals, toasting) would form The Fun Boy 3 and have a hit w/ ‘Our Lips are Sealed’. The Specials would reform again in 2009 with all the original members, minus founder Jerry Dammers, to tour to sold out audiences. Their biggest hit - “Ghost Town” number 1 in the UK in 1980. (you’ve heard it in Shawn of the Dead and a bunch of other movies, if not on the radio).

The break-up band The Fun Boy 3

35 years later

Big Fan: The Kinks

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                                                                                 The Kinks struggled hard for their place in Rock music history. Coming up at the same time as The Beatles and The Stones they had neither the bad-boy swagger of the later or the good lucks and pop talent of the former. Plus they hated each other. Comprised of 2 brothers, Ray & Dave Davies, along with original drummer Mick Avery and bassist Pete Quaife, they all fought constantly. In an onstage fight at a 1966 show in Cardiff, Wales, Dave kicked Mick’s drums in frustration so Mick bashed him in the head with his cymbal stand, knocking him unconscious. Fearing he’d killed his lead guitarist he fled the stage (To placate the police, Avory later claimed that it was part of a new act in which the band members would hurl their instruments at each other). The brothers would often fight onstage and just as they were about to break America, they were banned for 4 years from performing because of their rowdy behaviour – one particular fight at an American radio station sealed the ban. They did manage however to write a ton of huge hits, “You Really Got Me”, “All Day & All of the Night”, “Lola”, “Set Me Free” as well as the best song ever written (arguably) “Waterloo Sunset”. It wouldn’t be until the 80′s that they would finally really break big in America with their hit “Come Dancing”. If you’re new to The Kinks – ignore this period – it’s awful. 1965 -68 were the salad years.

The Kinks on TV - Ready, Steady, Go!

Early Promo Shot

Unfortunate Promo Shot

On TV - *Note awful logo on drum kit

Village Green... Promo

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Music: Johnny ’59

John R. “Johnny” Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), Johnny was 27 years old in 1959  though he looked about 40. By ’59 Johnny had gotten out of his contract with Sun Records and was touring on his first big hit Folsom Prison Blues. He’d recently performed and recorded his shows at Folsom Prison in 1958, which wouldn’t be released for 10 years and would later become one of his biggest selling LPs.  He was also heavily addicted to amphetamines and considered a tad erratic (note pictures 12 and 13) due to his heavy drug use. Johnny would go on to be a true American icon and elder statesman of country and blues, but in ’59 he was young and ready to rock.

Johnny and 1st wife Vivian Libreto

Johnny w/ his 3 daughters

Back Stage - On Stage

Big Fan: Kraftwerk

You may or may not know these guys, but you’ve certainly heard their music or bands directly influenced by them (Joy Division, David Bowie, Depeche Mode – Africa Bambata, J Z , Foxy Brown and Mac Dre have all used Kraftwerk samples). Kraftwerk  (translated as Power Plant) was formed in Dusseldorf Germany in 1970 and was one of the first bands to  popularize all electronic music. Kraftwerk’s breakthrough was the 1974 LP Autobahn featuring an 18 minute long song  – car horns, road noise and the lyric “Wir fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n auf der Autobahn” (We are Driving on the Autobahn) repeated over and over. An unlikely hit single but one none the less. This brought them international fame and they would record an LP and tour every few years. 1978 saw the release of The Man Machine. This would establish their, somewhat, severe signature look of red shirts and black ties. They would also unveil the ‘life-like’ mannequins that would ‘perform’ the song ‘We Are The Robots’ on tour. The robots would become more complex over the years and would continue to be used in their live shows. Kraftwerk stopped touring in the 80′s but reformed in 2003 and still perform occasionally – Ralf Hutter being the only original member. Oh and their song ‘Tour De France’ was used in the race segment of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (among other things – like the Olympics)

The Man Machine promo shot 1978 - Florian Schneider, Ralf Hutter, Wolfgang Flur, Karl Bartos

Poster included w/ vinyl of Trans-Europe Express - 1977

Promo shot 1977

Man Machine on German (?) TV - 1978

The Robots

Robots and Humans

The new Kraftwerk on tour - 2003

On Tour w/ The Robots 2003-2006

On Stage 2004