The Quick in the Studio with Kim Fowley and Earle Mankey (Mondo Deco sessions)/Rodney and the Flamin' Groovies/Dee Dee on L.A. & More/Blast Celebrity Rock Magazine December 1976 [Repost April 2014]

The December 1976 Rolling Stone magazine covers: Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Maurice Sendak. Almost a parody that Belushi would have had a field day with if given more writing time during the 1976-77 SNL season. Blast which billed itself as a "Celebrity Rock Magazine" (my kinda celebs for the most part, I might add) in their December 1976 issue: the Who on the cover with generous features on BOC, Bryan Ferry, Burning Spear/Toots/Marley and Tosh, as well as a 1960's SF rock family tree ala Zig Zag. Gotta say that Blast wins the December 1976 battle royale with a team including Jon Tiven, Trix A. Balm (Lauren Agnelli) and edited by Michael Gross (who had some nice NME articles circa 73'74). The Ferry piece was written by Mick Rock who also supplied the photos. Also among the contributing photographers for this issue are a who's who of rockist photographers including  Richard Creamer (who I consider the Brassaï of glitter Hollywood), Richard Aaron, Chuck Pulin, and the great Brad Elterman, my man from the SFV. For your enjoyment are two thumbnail photos by Brad a little larger for your perusal (where are the full negative sheets of these sessions!!). Historically, I think these two pictures would now get the full feature treatment given how important the events documented in the photos. The Quick at the Mondo Deco recording sessions.  The Flamin' Groovies with Rodney was taken by my guess at the joint Ramones/Flamin' Groovies bill at the Roxy, August 12, 1976. Sire Records double bill.  In the audience we can only guess the Denney Bros., Claude and Philomena, Mike Kelley, the entire nascent Masque scene, the Runaways, the Back Door Man crew, Plez and Kid Congo, Greg Shaw, Gene Scalutti, Gregg Turner (was Meltzer in LA by late 1976). Anyway, Brad WAS there to take the photos. Any crowd shots? Even better is Dee Dee's take on LA nightlife circa 1976 . . . .

The announcement of the start of Rodney on the Roq!

  [back in 2014, the much missed Don Waller confirmed that yes, the Back Door Man masthead was present at those shows!]

A Hairdresser's Battle Royale: The (Berlin) Brats v. The Quick/Radio Free Hollywood No.1 April 1977 [repost 2013]

I have written here before of my fondness for both the Berlin Brats and The Quick. From the first issue of Radio Free Hollywood, April 1977.

Sparksiana via Joseph Fluery, December 1973/Sparks Ltd

One from the barn. From December 1973 and Alan Betrock’s The Rock Marketplace, Joesph Fluery as Sparks’ propaganda minister/shadow manager/#1 Fan in Heaven, sponsors a full page ad saluting Sparks for signing to Island. Was Joseph managing Milk & Cookies at this point in Brooklyn? Soon after, Joseph heads over to London to work with John Hewlett as Kimono My House is about to be unleashed onto the world (only a few months later than Joseph states - June instead of March 1974). Joseph is also given the unenviable job of terminating the great Martin Gordon right after the lp takes off, whose Rickenbacker sound on that lp should have been a mainstay on Sparks’ 70’s output. Joseph goes on to manage the Mumps, the Dickies (who play NZ for the first time Sunday night!) and of course Sparks. I have written about Joseph previously, but another secret tastemaker of the 70's who had the vision to see the music of the 1980's in 1973.

'

The Quick in the Studio with Kim Fowley and Earle Mankey (Mondo Deco sessions)/Rodney and the Flamin' Groovies/Dee Dee on L.A. & More/Blast Celebrity Rock Magazine December 1976

The December 1976 Rolling Stone magazine covers: Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Maurice Sendak. Almost a parody that Belushi would have had a field day with if given more writing time during the 1976-77 SNL season. Blast which billed itself as a "Celebrity Rock Magazine" (my kinda celebs for the most part, I might add) in their December 1976 issue: the Who on the cover with generous features on BOC, Bryan Ferry, Burning Spear/Toots/Marley and Tosh, as well as a 1960's SF rock family tree ala Zig Zag. Gotta say that Blast wins the December 1976 battle royale with a team including Jon Tiven, Trix A. Balm (Lauren Agnelli) and edited by Michael Gross (who had some nice NME articles circa 73'74). The Ferry piece was written by Mick Rock who also supplied the photos. Also among the contributing photographers for this issue are a who's who of rockist photographers including  Richard Creamer (who I consider the Brassaï of glitter Hollywood), Richard Aaron, Chuck Pulin, and the great Brad Elterman, my man from the SFV. For your enjoyment are two thumbnail photos by Brad a little larger for your perusal (where are the full negative sheets of these sessions!!). Historically, I think these two pictures would now get the full feature treatment given how important the events documented in the photos. The Quick at the Mondo Deco recording sessions.  The Flamin' Groovies with Rodney was taken by my guess at the joint Ramones/Flamin' Groovies bill at the Roxy, August 12, 1976. Sire Records double bill.  In the audience we can only guess the Denney Bros., Claude and Philomena, Mike Kelley, the entire nascent Masque scene, the Runaways, the Back Door Man crew, Plez and Kid Congo, Greg Shaw, Gene Scalutti, Gregg Turner (was Meltzer in LA by late 1976). Anyway, Brad WAS there to take the photos. Any crowd shots? Even better is Dee Dee's take on LA nightlife circa 1976 . . . .

The announcement of the start of Rodney on the Roq!

 

A Hairdresser's Battle Royale: The (Berlin) Brats v. The Quick/Radio Free Hollywood No.1 April 1977

I have written here before of my fondness for both the Berlin Brats and The Quick. From the first issue of Radio Free Hollywood, April 1977.

The Teens of Temple Shalom Present Mercury Recording Artists the Quick, July 10, 1976

I just finished Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83 by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson, Ed. Steve Miller, Bazillion Points, Brooklyn 2010. Felt like I entered the confines of a fuggy teen bedroom straight into a high school detention with jocks only. To quote a Tesco fave: "I juvenile, I infantile." Kinda a dark age and an era I personally would not want to repeat, though it does boggle the mind looking at the number of great singles released and reviewed in each issue (at least as they moved closer to home and stopped the UK fixation). Would you probably pull out most of this stuff and play it today. Yeah, maybe if you are between the ages of 12-16. Beyond their worship of all things 999 (a midwest/DC thing you wouldn't understand - ask Rollins), the Misfits, baldie music and west coast punk/Slash, there lies in a single volume one of the great artifacts of the era, for better or worse. Their LA fixation was funny to me as I was writing to Negative Approach and the Necros in the opposite direction - LA was awash in UK/Vegas leather and stud save for the godhead chump rock of SST or the many garage revivalists of the day. Unapologetic, misogynist, anti-pc and arrogant, TV and Dave did mine the gold of the era and the reviews for the most part have held up. I did laugh at their top five worst ("woist") lps of all time (Issue #20, Pushead cover): They happen to be faves of mine and methinks that Tesco may actually like them as well in 2012: Von LMO's masterwork "Future Language" ("this one incorporates the worst elements of DEVO and bad Heavy Metal" - uh, such a combo sounds great to me), Milk 'n' Cookies ("if you thought Sparks or the Quick were the ultimate wimps . . .") - huh? and Budgie's 1st lp ("recorded like they liked the bass sound and forgot the other two guys") -dude, you probably don't like Dos or Jaco, do ya. Found this one in the barn the other day and figured it merited a post. Unfortunately, I have never been able to procure an original handbill like the pink one above but there is always hope (drop a note if you have one for sale). I have only had a xerox of it for all these years. Finding the flyer and then reading Tesco's diss had me thinking that "Mondo Deco" (and the Milk n' Cookies lp when I was finally able to get a copy) have had far more play in my house over the past 30 years than all of the baldie singles combined. I acquired a used promo copy for a dollar in Sherman Oaks when I was about 14. Danny Benair's drumming - his powerhouse intro on "Cantaloupe Girlfriend" that I enjoyed live too many times to count was then fresh in my head - anchors the lp and the name of the Quick (and the Falcons) always came up when the Salvation Army/3 O'Clock were interviewed. When I saw Sparks perform "Kimono My House" at UCLA a few years ago, before the show I saw Benair greet Danny Wilde in the foyer - that, my friends, is as close to a Quick reunion that I will be able to see. DB also got see the Stones at Altamont from the side of the stage. His account is here So take that wimps. I had always been curious about the story about the Quick show above. It was not until the great Avebury Records released some archival Paula Pierce material that I got the scoop. That first Pandoras' ep on Moxie is one of the best garage 45's of the entire 1980's hands down but that is the subject of another post. You can read the whole story here but this is a good start from the pre-Rage story below. Check out the Pandoras at the bottom - if I only knew at the time the Quick and Milk 'n' Cookies connection it would have all have made sense!

In April 1976, another change in Paula's musical life occurred when she wasn't even there. Don and his girlfriend, Sue Greenberg, went to go see a rock 'n' roll show at an on-campus club at California Polytechnic University, Pomona. On the bill were two bands yet to release a record—The Runaways and The Quick, both proteges of the legendary Kim Fowley. The two were already sold on The Runaways, having read about them in Phonograph Record Magazine. However, they were really taken by The Quick, a band Don described as "a cross between Sparks and The New York Dolls" in a review for his college newspaper, the Mountaineer Weekly at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. He spoke with the band afterward and they invited him to see them play at The Starwood, a Hollywood club that catered to signed bands, as there was no local scene in Los Angeles in the Spring of 1976. This introduction to local music, along with the release of the first Ramones album a couple of weeks later seriously intensified Paula, Don and Sue's interest in music. The three quickly immersed themselves in the new local band scene that summer, and that meant lots of shows including The Dogs, The Pop, Atomic Kid (later The Zippers) and, of course, The Quick. Along the way, Robin Cullen, a 14-year-old friend of Paula's started tagging along to the shows. In the summer of 1976, Sue's youth group at Temple Shalom in West Covina promoted an early evening show featuring The Quick with an admission price of 50 cents. Kim Fowley and his entourage demanded to be fed after soundcheck and Don's parents stepped up with a pool party/BBQ on minutes notice. The Quick performed Master Race at the Temple with Danny Wilde wearing a traditional Jewish skullcap, much to the dismay of a few of the Temple's more conservative members. Fortunately, a few of members of The Quick were Jewish and able to smooth things over, explaining that the song trivialized Nazis. The crowd of suburban kids weren't quite sure what to make of The Quick. One person at the show, Jeff Johnson (a classmate of Sue and Don's) yelled out, "Play some Hendrix!" Danny Wilde's reply that instantly became part of Quick fan lore: "Hendrix? He's dead!" Regardless, the crowd was generally enthusiastic and supportive. A few months later, the Ramones and The Quick unwittingly conspired to set the wheels in motion for these four friends to form a band. The Ramones made it look deceptively easy to play in a great band, even if you didn't have virtuoso skills. That really didn't mean much to Paula and the other three until The Quick dropped their favorite song, Teacher's Pet, from the set list and it wasn't going to make the upcoming Quick LP, Mondo Deco.

Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco Top 10 Winter 1973-74/"Star Rated Singles"/Motorboat! with Steve McDonald

I grew up listening to Rodney and his top ten lists in Flipside were always a kick (as well as the celebrity photos accompanying those lists). I always wondered what the top songs played at his English Disco were. In Bob Gruen's essential "All Dolled Up"(or is it the original 30 minute film?), we have a brief, tantalizing clip of the New York Dolls at the club dancing to the Velvet Underground (c.f. Television goofing to the Dolls in the Terry Ork video from the same year!) Well, here you have the very first of Rodney's published lists in the 70's from Marty Cerf's always entertaining Phonograph Record Magazine. Did Barry Blue's 45 even get a US release? I have to say I was surprised to not see the Jimmy Jukebox "Motorboat" 45 on here. As far as I am concerned that song is Kim's origin of the title to the Quick's "Mondo Deco" lp? I have chosen to highlight the lesser known numbers in the states. Based on Suzi's and the Sweet's placement TWICE, they ruled the roost at Rodney's - small consolation I guess as the Dolls ARE rock royalty as much as the Stones and Bo Diddley. Jimmy Jukebox shoulda been on there and because I really enjoy Steve McDonald channeling Uncle Kim to maximum effect, I have included that as well in the mix. Love that opening beat of Suzi's stomper.





Roy Wood at his Wilsonian finest:









Not quite up there with Legs & Co.'s take on Be Bop Deluxe's on "Maid in Heaven" seen here, but not bad Pan's People:



Speaking of all things Red Kross, one of the best powerpop songs of the 90's hands down and fantastic guitar (RIP Eddie) and bass playing. Nice keys by Gere and check out her 70's Runaways styled band in Japan here: