Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Night I kicked Madame X's Ass--a tale from Punk Rock LA

The story begins at The Starwood Damned concert in April '77, my friends and I were backstage when my friend Natasha spotted an apparently abandoned tape cartridge on a sofa & grabbed it--now to be fair, I damn well knew whose it was, and roughly what the content was--it was the infamous Farrah Fawcett-Minor of "she had to leave...LOS ANGELES!" fame, who was chatting up Capt Sensible and recording the chat--and, although I didn't know her by name then, I did see her recording their conversation. At any rate, Natasha took the tape, and I didn't stop her--that is my sin in the matter. At the time I was writing for a fanzine, "/ for the Blank Generation," and I borrowed the tape from Natasha, and transcribed part of the chat; in my preface to the "interview" I described Farrah as a Dumb Blonde Groupie, and was generally dismissive of her, hehe. When the piece was published, the shit hit the fan and a prolonged war was on until the day I gave Exene, lead singer of X, a couple of karate chops, and Zandra hit her over the head with her heavy purse!


First of all, the core X people, not Don Bonebrake the drummer I must add, but the others, were prone to trouble, I remember one time at a Dictators gig at the Whiskey sitting at the upstairs bar when a major ruckus broke out, and I looked over and saw The Dictators, their Girlfriends, John Doe, Exene and a couple of other people trading punches--so that is who these people were back then.

Anyway, after the dumb blonde groupie article, I caught this skinny chick with a dirty blonde shag hissing and spitting at me at a SLASH benefit--one of those held at Larchmont Hall I believe, after that Farrah, Exene, and even John Doe to a certain extent, started bothering me, glaring at me, etc--basic High School shit even though all of us were 2-3 years out of High School. Finally at this gig, I was standing near the stage when I felt a drink being poured over my head--I looked around, and the only person I saw was Exene, so I assumed she did it, in retrospect, maybe it wasn't her, nevertheless the time had come for a showdown, words were exchanged, and I snapped, grabbed her by the hair, and did a few karate chops to her neck. etc., Zandra got into the rumble with the aforementioned shoulder-bag.

Amazingly enough, although none of Exene's close cohorts were around, there were a bunch of guys standing there including Claude Bessy, and they let me beat on her for a few minutes, LOL. Later Bessy reported the incident in SLASH (why didn't I keep my Slashes?)

Although Exene is tiny, and I am nearly 5'8, I didn't take her down, but after I left the gig I noticed that I had a hank of her hair caught in my ring. As often happens in such cases of bullying, she and her friends left me and Zandra alone after that...


The article that started it all:


"/ The Fanzine For The Blank Generation" issue #3 May 1977

And Still More Damned

by Jade Zebest


The Damned are fucking amazing! With seemingly unlimited energy, they have copped Iggy's old stance. Search and Destroy? More like Gimme Danger. What are these bad boys like, I asked myself. Being the curious type, I strolled back-stage (at the Starwood, April '77) and set up observation. I am happy to report that the Damned live up to their "I don't give a fuck" image. First, Rat Scabies threw a drink in Runaway Joan Jett's face, then Guitarist Brian James kicked a well known groupie in the ass (this could have been Sable Starr) Finally, they threw everyone out of the dressing room. The Damned ended their engagement in LA by staging a food fight in the ledgendary deli, Cantor's, on Fairfax--Don't you just love it?

The following interview took place between Capt Sensible (CS), and some dumb, blonde groupie (DBG):


DBG: That was fantastic! Your set was really fun.

CS: The whole thing about our group is...I don't know what I mean...maybe the audience misses the point, we are not stars, we are anti-stars. We're just proving that ordinary kids can get out on the stage and do it. We're really not the greatest musicians in the world.


DBG: But you're also real fun.


CS: We play, react differently, to each audience. Like in New York, the audience wasn't that good...well...they were great right, but not as good as here. This is the best audience that we've had in America.


DBG: Is that right?


CS: Oh yeah, they are fantastic. They are standing up. They make noise whether they like you or not. Some cheer, and some boo. In New York, it is polite applause. I hate to be rotten about American people, but they miss the point with us, they don't understand.


DBG: You don't think that I understand?

CS: Probably not.

5 comments:

  1. The "DBG" LOL!! Wasn't 'that' a snaggle toothed piece of work?!?! Do you reckon 'it' recoiled to some Trailer Park in some Floridian Swamp; the beknighted social stratum from which 'it' apparently sprang from....after "She Had To Leave"----Los Angeles....?? I can just picture it. The gaggle of brats, all with "Mountain Dew Mouth" that in all liklihood were placed in Foster Care?? I wish I had clearer memories of the altercation....but in those days I usually woke up blowing an 7.0!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know where she went James, but her leaving was the happiest day of my life, LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gee.

    After she'd bagged both John Doe and Viggo Mortenson, us non-beauties had just thought "you go, girl!"

    I've had stupid young girls try to trip me while I take photos near the stage (where I have to be since I'm short.) I have no idea why. Perhaps they're appalled at my geezerdom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Viggo? Oh my goodness. Heaven on earth.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Actually, DBG married a well known rock star, moved to England, and had one child.....no foster care...I don't know what a Mountain Dew Mouth is, but I dont think so.

    ReplyDelete