The London premier of a new documentary on the life of Johnny Thunders “Looking For Johnny” attracted a full-house of Thunders acolytes including John Perry, Peter Perrett, Patti Palladin, Anita Pallenberg and Bobby Gillespie. Introducing the film at the Prince Charles cinema were Alan Hauser of Jungle Records and Danny Garcia, the film’s producer.
Danny’s fascination with Thunders goes back a long way. “I first came across Johnny Thunders in the ‘80s as a teenager living in Spain. I used to buy records compulsively, every day, go down to the record shop, spend my breakfast money on second-hand records. I came across a New York Dolls compilation Night Of The Living Dolls. I totally fell in love with Thunders sound and his music, from there I started collecting his albums. I only saw him live once with the Oddballs, and it was a great show.”
Garcia’s motivation to make Looking For Johnny was to move the focus away from Thunders junkie lifestyle and focus on his many musical talents. “I just wanted to show that Johnny was a great songwriter / entertainer / musician who had some substance abuse problems. What interested me was the music, always. The film is called Looking For Johnny because I never met him so I’m just trying to find out about him, who was this guy: his music and his songs and what’s going on in his head. I was interested in looking at his musical talent, explaining where that came from, understanding why his guitar sounded the way it did.” Thunders private life is also included where relevant. Thunders’ Father walked out on the family when Johnny was a small boy which goes some way to explain his relationship with New York Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan “He was always looking for that father / elder brother figure and Jerry took that role. They were brothers-in-arms, they loved each other. “
The movie is structured around fifty specially recorded interviews, interspersed with live footage taken from throughout Thunders career. Notable absentees are David Johansen, Richard Hell and Patti Palladin, none of whom replied to Danny’s emails. The conversation at the Phoenix Club after the screening was whether there should have been more music and less talking. Danny is unrepentant. “There are plenty of live Thunders shows on video and YouTube. This is a documentary about his life, if we had put in more live footage it would have been over two hours long. A lot of the live footage like the Don Letts material is only twenty seconds long, that’s all I could use. The Heartbreakers performing Get Off The Phone and Can’t Keep My Eyes On You – that’s newly unearthed footage, never seen before.”
Why make a film about Thunders today? “I am doing this now because in twenty years I won’t be able to. It was very important that I got to film Leee Black Childers and Marty Thau before they passed away. The number of musicians influenced by JT is humungous. Steve Jones, the ‘punk guitar sound’, all those ‘80s LA Hair Metal bands with their Thunders lookalikes. We know this, maybe the mainstream doesn’t but in a hundred years time people will know where it all came from. I loved every minute of doing this film. I’ve been to many places that I would never have dreamed I would visit, meeting wonderful people everywhere I go – I owe a lot to Johnny Thunders.”
“There is so much information online now that kids are kind of lost. It used to be that you read an interview and it would make you think. People who had something to say and who were rebelling against the system, Now there is more reason to rebel against the system than ever and there’s nothing going on, everyone is content, everyone has their high band internet connection and doesn’t give a fuck about anything. There is no-one around today who can have the same impact as Johnny Thunders. I don’t see icons, like Thunders or Joe Strummer or Ian Dury, people with the attitude “Here we are, this is how we are, fuck you if you don’t like it.”
Danny cites Nina Antonia as being crucial to the success of Looking For Johnny. “She knows everything. She was very supportive from day one so I am really thankful to her.” Nina was at the screening, and found it “quite an emotional experience; not just for the loss of dear friends but also it stands as a testament to a rock n’ roll generation. After the screening I did a Garbo and went home with my memories. Danny’s documentary ensures Thunders and Nolan’s musical legacy and conveys their story to a wider audience who may not have been there the first time around.”
Further evidence of renewed interest in Thunders is the news that Nina’s official biography In Cold Blood will form the basis of a forthcoming biopic with the working title of ‘The Dangerous Life of Johnny Thunders’ . “We couldn’t call it ‘In Cold Blood’ because of the Truman Capote adaptation. There have been many previous approaches from film companies to adapt the book for a biopic but LAMF Films, who are a Hollywood independent headed up by Thunders aficionado, had the aesthetics that are so important to such a project. I’m a consultant on the film and it’s taken the best part of a year to get the script completed, now the big question is who is going to play JT?”
Jungle Records has a long history of releasing material that enhances Thunders’ reputation, such as Looking For Johnny. After the screening Alan Hauser reflected that “it was very strange to see it up there, after all this time. Danny first approached us in 2010, once he started in 2012 he planned to finish it by the end of that year, but kept finding people and things to add to it. Danny is great; he has a lot of energy and a vision of what he wants to do. Generally he gets it all done. And he already had detailed knowledge of Johnny’s life.”
The forthcoming DVD will feature extra material, still to be decided. “Danny knows better than me – all he’s confirmed to me is that there’ll be more of his interview footage and at least three full music clips. The full versions of ‘Alone In A Crowd’, ‘All By Myself’, and a video promo of Stevie Klasson’s ‘Looking For Johnny’ title-track song. The DVD will be released, along with a soundtrack album, by Jungle in Europe, and MVD in North America.’ And there is more Thunders to come from Jungle. “There is another release that had to be postponed to avoid clashing with the film which we can’t announce just yet. There’s certainly ebbs and flows of interest in Johnny. We try to do our best to create interest with the catalogue we hold, like the box set version of ‘L.A.M.F.’ As time goes on the original audience may be more inclined towards nostalgia. I realise at this distance he becomes almost a mythological figure. Presenting the history of Johnny’s life is a responsibility we take seriously.”
Also at the Prince Charles was long-term Thunders fan Pedro Mercedes “A mutual friend introduced us whilst John was spending a week in London just taking a break. At that juncture Johnny was in an exceptionally great place, at ease with himself, relatively clean, and such mischievous fun to hang out with you just would not believe me. Johnny had no idea that I knew who he was, we just clicked initially thanks to a shared obsession with Scorsese films and the Stones, and for that week there was no reason for him to know he was my ‘hero’. At the time I co-promoted a club night called ‘The Pipeline’ located in a Soho basement club called Gossips. Six months after we met I asked Johnny if he’d do a short acoustic set at the club, which he agreed to do as a favour for chump change. I got the feeling he felt a bit awkward having to be ‘Johnny Thunders’ when I’d been around his carefree ‘John’ persona.”
Pedro has a new Thunders-related project, Remarquable Records. “Throughout the ‘80s I was amongst those who helped Alan Hauser with his various LAMF reissues – it remains my favourite album of all time. Around four years ago I found loads of Johnny stuff from ’78 which I had not looked at or listened to in decades. As soon as I checked them out I found myself as electrified as when I first heard them. If I rewind back to 1979, I was a frequent visitor to Real Records, on Floral Street, in Covent Garden, my favourite record label offices and the label that released Thunders first and best solo LP So Alone. Wendy Dancey worked there for label boss Dave Hill, and she always entertained me and was very sweet. I would have a hundred questions about Johnny, and the Pretenders – around that time they had a residency at the Marquee and I thought they were the best new band in the land. Wendy would give me promo stuff and I would see Dave Hill doing business and looking dapper, it was a really cool place. Members of the Pretenders would drop in and when they’d go to the States with the band they always brought back Thunders gig posters or somesuch for me which was just brilliant.”
“Around the time I had met Johnny, Real were in the throws of calling it a day from their offices in Broadwick Street, I was living round the corner in Wardour Street. One day when they were packing up I hounded Dave into submission and he let me hear some Johnny outtakes from ‘So Alone’ from the reels lying around his shelves. WOW! There were things I had never heard before. Whilst Dave lectured me in a fatherly way about being doe-eyed about Johnny, with stories of how Johnny had fallen over mid-take at sessions etc I really didn’t hear him. The tapes Iheard were incredible – different mixes with even more guitar licks and outtakes like ‘The Wizard’ and ‘So Alone’. When Johnny died his sister and her manager got in touch with me and I tracked down both those tracks for inclusion on the CD issue of ‘So Alone’. “
Remarquable’s first release will be previously-unheard Thunders studio tracks. “With the help of Bucks Music I contacted the people who had recorded with Johnny in 1978: Paul Gray, Steve Nicol, Dave Philp and Steve Lillywhite have all just been amazingly supportive with their time and recollections. Phil Lynott’s mate Paul Mauger pointed me in the direction of the particular tape that has the tracks on the first EP that’s coming out. By coincidence Bucks Music were formerly Essex Music, and the Heartbreakers’ first recording session in England took place in their company office basement studio in February 1977 – Leee Black Childers has photos from the session, with the band alongside Chris Stamp. “
“ ‘Never meet your heroes’ is the usual word to the wise, but I could not be happier that I did, it was just at the right time and in the right place for both of us. Johnny’s legacy orbits around the cliché that he incessantly turned people onto Stuff. I was no exception in that case, he turned me onto fresh rainbow trout. I’d never eaten freshly cooked fish until the day Johnny took me to lunch. I’ve never quite kicked the habit ever since. How rock’n’roll !”
Jungle Records will be releasing Looking For Johnny on DVD ( www.jungle-records.net).
The Thunders 1978 EP is due in August ( www.remarquablerecords.com).
Nina Antonia’s latest book is a new volume of Pete Doherty’s diaries entitled “From Albion To Shangri La” ( www.thinmanpress.com )
Transcribed and edited by Nina Antonia, with original illustrations by Peter Doherty Thin Man Press (2014) Veteran biographer of assorted cults Nina Antonia has collaborated with Babyshambles’ Pete Doherty for her latest book. These diaries encompass the period 2008-13, a time when Doherty was constantly on the move and indulging in the traditional recreational habits demanded by his public image. The book is in three parts: a meandering chronicle, tour diaries and finally a Q&A between Nina and Doherty. Of these it is the Q&A that works the best, providing some much-needed structure. Elsewhere it is a lot of drugs (less fun then you might expect), some sex and surprisingly little rock’n’roll. If you are in thrall to Doherty’s visions then you will get much from this book. For true-believers only.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,400 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.
How many times have you fantasised about seeing The Rolling Stones in a tiny club? At this legendary basement venue Ronnie Wood and Mick Taylor played to seventy friends and family, who sat around small tables like a wedding reception. The gig was a warm-up for the BluesFest Jimmy Reed tribute taking place at the Royal Albert Hall two days later. A five-piece band featured Dave Green on acoustic bass and Ian Jennings on electric bass plus Dexter Hercules on drums. Over an hour-long set they played a dozen numbers written by or associated with Jimmy Reed with the highlights being Bright Lights Big City, Shame Shame Shame, Big Boss Man, I Ain’t Got You, Honest I Do and Baby What You Want Me To Do. Ronnie took lead vocals and played a lot of harmonica which freed Mick Taylor to solo extensively. Here were musicians playing for themselves with nothing to prove other than the love of the music with which they grew up. The relaxed vibe, intimate setting and immaculate music made for a truly special evening.
When first released in 1983 Hurt Me highlighted a welcome second side to Johnny Thunders. Entirely accoustic and with a mixture of back catalogue and cover versions here was the Thunders of You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory and It’s Not Enough (both reworked here). Hurt Me predated the MTV Unplugged craze and so felt fresh and alive. The songwriting isn’t 100% – Sad Vacation will always be maudlin and tuneless – but several previously obscure songs such as Diary Of A Lover and Too Much Too Soon are rehabilitated and some of the covers are choice, especially Stones obscurity I’d Much Rather Be With The Boys, done as a duet with the lush-sounding Charlotte. Easy Action boost the original LP by adding a couple of B-sides but record them from scratchy vinyl (even my copy is quieter).
The CD is housed in a newly-designed slip case containing some illuminating sleeve notes from Kris Needs and a second CD from the LP launch gig at Dingwalls on December 6th 1983. The tape sounds as though it was recorded in the midst of a boisterous crowd so sound quality is only reasonable. Thunders spends a lot of time demanding more reverb but still manages to perform most of the Hurt Me LP before retreating to the safety of a string of Stones covers including Play With Fire, As Tears Go By and a rare snippet of Wild Horses. Like many a Thunders acoustic gig the lack of a backing group appears to be an economy drive (more money for dope) rather than an artistic statement. His close proximity to the crowd leaves Thunders sounding uncertain and ill at ease so that the CD really only works as a historical document.
However the strength of the material and the performances on the studio disc plus a cleaner remastered sound makes this a recommended purchase for anyone who has already heard So Alone and LAMF and wishes to delve further into Thunders’ erratic recorded legacy.
From Bucketfull of Brains magazine
bucketfullofbrains.com
This publication is named after a Groovies LP, “I’d like a bucket full of Brains “ (beer) being the warcry of Groovies roadie John Seaton. So when original guitarist Cyril Jordan, bass player George Alexander and guitar/vocals Chris Wilson plus new drummer Victor Penalosa popped up in London for a brace of shows we were delighted to grab a brief interview with Cyril.
After well-received gigs in Australia and Japan the Groovies played their first UK gig for twenty-six years supporting Bruce Springsteen at the Olympic Park. “I don’t know if Springsteen asked for us himself. We know Little Steven and we used to open for Southside Johnny. We were on the road in Australia and we got an email from Live Nation booking the Groovies and that was it. The gig went well apart from the fact that we could not hear our monitors at all. They had $100,000 worth of gear on stage and they might as well have had none. We went down better and better towards the end of our set”
“Before we started rehearsing fifteen weeks ago we hadn’t played together for 32 years. By the third day the engine was back, George started turning into George, Chris started turning into Chris, I started turning into Cyril…it’s like the day after we broke up with Chris in 1980. Seymour Stein at Sire records had somehow dropped the ball on us and that threw us into turmoil. Most bands when their label drops them, they have management, they can still do gigs. But I was doing everything back then. I got the record deals, helped book the tours. Nobody would room with me because on the road my phone would start ringing at about 630am. We were all on cocaine, completely out of our minds. So the whole thing fell apart. We were trying to keep rock’n’roll alive and it was dying. George and I went on for another ten years. We toured Australia and the UK in 1987 with a much heavier sound. We had brought in Paul Zahl on drums and he had persuaded me to bring in his friend Jack Johnson who was a real heavy-metal style guitarist. During this last tour in Australia a lot of people said “Thank God the heavy metal guitar has gone” – we’re really known for a more jangly guitar style.”
“When George and I started talking about playing live again I suggested it might be a good idea to pull out some gems from the back-catalogue. Back in the day we always used to play what we’d just recorded, rather than what we’d released. So by the time we were playing The Roundhouse in 1976 we’d already dropped Slow Death from our set. This time we’ve got to do all those songs but only from the Shake Some Action era”
Cyril is adamant that the new incarnation is more than a nostalgia trip. “ We’ve already had three days recording in our producer Joel Jaffe’s Studio D in Sausalito. We cut three new songs. Chris and I wrote a new one called End Of The World, we re-cut Let Me Rock, the first song Chris and I ever wrote together, and we finally did a studio version of our live favourite I Want You Bad. When we get back off this tour we’re going back in for another two days. Chris lives in London, George is in Tucson, I’m in San Francisco and Victor is in San Diego so we need to record whilst we’re still together. But we are not doing a retro thing: we are picking up where we left off.”
“We’ve been getting royalties but the internet download thing has really hurt us – ten years ago my royalty cheques went down big time. Last November I was down to my last $40. I went to bed thinking what am I gonna do. The next morning the phone rings and it’s an associate of Val Kilmer who wanted to pay me $1000 to write out the lyrics to Whiskey Woman so he can give them to his daughter for her 21st birthday. You never know who is a Groovies fan – Kurt Russell, even Lucian Grainge – CEO of Universal. He told the Financial Times that the reason he got into music was going to see the Flamin’ Groovies with his brother Nigel.”
During their spell signed to UA in the early 70’s the Groovies were living in Chingford and were regulars at The Roundhouse. “We used to set up our own Roundhouse shows with promoter John Curd and I always used to look for up and coming bands. One time we played with the Troggs, we were very excited. We got to the Roundhouse and we noticed the Troggs were second billing and we were headlining, I said to John Curd “What are you doing, we can’t be headlining over The Troggs, Wild Thing is like Louie Louie”. Giving a helping hand to other bands misfired when the support to the Groovies July 4th 1976 gig got more coverage than the headliners. “I became very good friends with the Ramones manager Linda Stein. She was a real pothead, one of the only girls I ever knew who loved pot as much as I do. Being from California I had some really good skunk. We got real tight. She said I am managing a group and I wonder if they can open for you. She said they’re called the Ramones and she showed me a photo and it looked like one of our early shots so I said let’s bring them along. “
“Contrary to what you may have read on the internet we did not support the Stooges at their legendary Scala gig in ‘72 although we did come to watch them that night. We had first met the Stooges on our first tour in ‘68, we hooked up with them in Ohio – the Golden Earrings. Love Sculpture, the Stooges and us all on the same bill and we toured together for about three months. I didn’t even know Dave Edmunds at that time, I didn’t realise until I met him again at Rockfield in ‘72 that he’d been in Love Sculpture. “
The 2006 Rhino compilation At Full Speed did a good job in bringing together all the tracks recorded for Sire. Cyril is adamant that there are no unreleased outtakes and no prospect of a sonic upgrade to the subsequent Gold Star Tapes EP. “We were doing that with two guys from France. They didn’t pay the bill at Gold Star studios so we didn’t get a copy of the master. The tape they used for the record that came out was made on a $30 cassette records that was snuck into the studio without us knowing and put on the board whilst we were listening to a playback. Finally we got a 2” master tape from Dave Gold via a friend of Chris’, he sent us the tape for the $15 cost of postage. We had to bake the damn thing to stop the oxide falling off the tape. It’s got two songs on it, one Phil Spector song recorded by Darlene Love called A Long Way To Be Happy and an original that we never finished with the working title Don’t Forget To Write. We did a little bit of work on the latter, vocals and stuff but the quality of the recording is not up to par. “
Key to the Groovies renaissance is Victor, who first played with Cyril in his solo band the Magic Christians about seven years ago. Cyril is fulsome with his praise “We couldn’t have got here this fast without Victor. He knows all the drum parts exactly as they were on the record. It’s a gas. “ Victor admits that the Groovies are one of his top three bands of all time and that he’s been listening to them since he was four. His partner in rhythm George is amazed at the fan response. “I’ve been off the grid for so long, I had no idea that I would be treated with so much respect and adulation from so many fans. In Japan we had a lot of young fans who had discovered us on the internet, only a third of the audience were old geezers. One of the scariest things about Japan I ever saw was when we started playing You Tore Me Down and some people started crying. I was shocked. “
No tears tonight at the Scala but a full house of happy fans, albeit mainly blokes of a certain age. The Groovies took to the stage all looking commendably trim and youthful. They were joined by Mathew Fisher from Procul Harum on Hammond organ, only audible in the second half of the set. Cyril sported his vintage plexiglass Dan Armstrong which delivered his distinctive warm tone. Victor played (and looked) like the young Clem Burke – loud, precise and enthusiastic. George sang Married Woman to great effect and swayed and grooved gracefully throughout. Chris delivered an effective lead vocal on Slow Death but elsewhere it was the songs sung in unison with Cyril that worked best – You Tore Me Down, Feel A Whole Lot Better, I Want You Bad and the set-closing Shake Some Action. Teenage Head is so indelibly associated with the Roy Loney-era that it sat oddly here. Sadly there was none of Cyril’s excellent slide playing, although he is hoping to introduce some into future gigs. Three encores were demanded and delivered including a rather ordinary Roll Over Beethoven. Minor quibbles aside this was an intelligent reappraisal of the Shake Some Action years. The band plans to work up other Sire-era favourites such as Jumpin’ In The Night and Don’t Put Me On and introduce some new songs into the mix. Forty years after it was first recorded Shake Some Action still resonates, and so do the Groovies.
As an impressionable youth I was knocked flat by a double header of the Flamin’ Groovies and the Ramones, London Roundhouse, July 4th 1976 (The Stranglers were third on the bill so it was just short of a perfect evening). That night the Groovies were terrific, and I have followed their subsequent adventures with great interest . This gig was their first in the UK since 1987 and I was delighted to DJ for them and the support, The Bermondsey Joyriders. Here are the records I played:
City Slang – Sonic’s Rendezvous Band
Jail Guitar Doors – Clash
Looking For the Magic – Dwight Twilley Band
Flavor Of The Month – Posies
Do Ya – Move
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago – Yardbirds
Gone Dead Train – Randy Newman
(Come On Baby Let’s Go) Downtown – Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Color Me Impressed – Replacements
In The Street – Big Star
(I Thought) You Wanted To Know – Chris Stamey and the dBs
THE BERMONDSEY JOYRIDERS
This Perfect Day – Saints
Rock & Roll Queen – Mott The Hoople
2000 Light Years From Home – Rolling Stones
A Million Miles Away – Plimsoulls
I want You Back – Hoodoo Gurus
32-20 – Charlatans
Me And My Uncle – Fortunate Sons
Roxette – Dr Feelgood
Looking At You – MC5
Get Out of Denver – Bob Seger
Beck’s Bolero – Jeff’s Beck
Have You Seen Her Face – Byrds
THE FLAMIN’ GROOVIES
Let It Rock – Rolling Stones
Lovers Of Today – Only Ones
Fire – Robert Gordon
In A Lonely Place – Smithereens
Layla Part 2 – Derek and the Dominoes
Albatross – Fleetwood Mac
It’s All Over Now Baby Blue – Them
Before the gig I interviewed Cyril Jordan and this plus a live review will appear in the next edition of Bucketfull of Brains magazine (and eventually on this site)
Only Rock 'n' Roll 