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OCTOBER 2011
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COVER & CONTENTS PHOTO: THURSTON HOWES
CONTENTS
RICKY AND THE WHITE BOYS SUNSET LOU DENNIS’ PROBLEM RED CROSS TOURING BANDS GWAR HONOR ROLE TABLE OF CONTENTS
16 18 22 26 34 48 58
PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE UNSEEN FORCE SORDID DOCTRINE mudd helmut ABSENCE OF MALICE The Prevaricators WHITE CROSS
60 62 64 68 78 82 86
GAIL WRONSKY, FRANK GRESHAM (TOP) AND BILL FREIMUTH ressed up and heading out to see Ricky and the White Boys at The Pass: Bill actually has a kielbasa sausage around his neck, lanced and bleeding down onto his t-shirt. This being our very first ever “punk” show, this is how we thought we should dress. Bill is now producer of the Grammy Awards; Gail is now a poetry professor.” -Frank Gresham
D
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RICKY AND THE WHITE BOYS SHAFER COURT, 1978
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SUNSET LOU
Lou is a madcap musician and Sunset inventor who got his start in late 70s
CLONE JUBILEE 18
Richmond leading a band called the Fabulous Daturas. His music was more bluesy than extreme, but if punk is an attitude, Lou was one of Richmond’s first true punks. One of the most notorious stories about Lou involves him showing up drunk at a Ramones show at the VCU gym--this would have been 1978 or 79--intent on committing a “performance art assassination” of the Ramones. Lou was then a proponent of his one-man art movement, “diarrhealism,” of which this was to be the crowning moment. Wearing a modified stereopticon mask (see alley photo), with a beak that had been fit-
ted with razor blades, Lou ventured into the mosh pit, attempting to slash people with the sharp edges of his mask. Several people were injured, and the police providing security for the concert were quickly alerted, at which point he was arrested, beaten up by the cops, and thrown in jail. For some reason, though, he was given a suspended sentence. Fortunately, he never attempted to repeat this particular escapade, and the story passed into local punk legend. For all we know, the version of the story we heard is loaded with hyperbole and falsehood; only the people who were there at the time know the truth, and none of them are talking. 19
MEMBERS OF PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE AND OTHERS HARDTIMES
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UNSEEN FORCE
GRETA BRINKMAN
PHOTOs: ADRIENNE OWNBY
1982
YFA HARD TIMES
Dave BrockiE
TAYLOR STEELE, BEN SCOTT and MARC CORBETT 21
DENNIS’ PROBLEM THE PYRAMID, 1987-88
GEORGE SOFFEE, FRED LAPIER and MARC CORBETT
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PHOTOs: ETHAN ISENBERG
23
HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY, 1985
CAMERON THOMPSON, SHANE WAMPLER, PHIL FOXWELL, AYNE BALES, AARON ISRAEL, ADRIENNE OWNBY AND GALEN TAYLOR
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GRACE ST., 1985
Hollywood Cemetery, 1985
YOUNG SKATE PUNKS 1985
Cameron Thompson, Wendel Poore, Philip Perrine, AND Phil Foxwell
Photos: Greta Bollinger 25
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RED CROSS
E
veryone knows about White Cross, one of the first Richmond hardcore bands. But have you heard of Red Cross? There were actually two American punk rock bands by that name in 1981; one was from LA and are now known as Redd Kross. The other was from right here in Richmond. After intervention by the international charity organization of the same name, Richmond’s Red Cross became White Cross, but the well-known later lineups of that band were almost completely different from Red Cross’s
original lineup. Coming together in 1981, Red Cross quickly made a name for themselves in the city, for better and for worse. Their wild, raucous stage show resulted in them being banned from a bunch of local clubs, including a few (Benny’s, Hard Times, Going Bananas) that would be hosting punk shows regularly within a year or two. Their confrontational performance at a Halloween show in Shafer Court ended their ability to play on the VCU campus. Singer Frank Gresham tells the story: “We opened for 27
our pals the Orthotonics. By the time they got to the stage, I’d broken glass bottles all over it, and then bombed the audience with plastic bags packed full of white flour--which exploded on impact. The place looked like hell afterwards (a foul “batter” of beer, flour, and glass) and I got the band into trouble for it.” In a 1982 interview from Throttle magazine, bassist Alford Faulkner disavowed all involvement in the Shafer Court massacre. “FRANK did it! We had nothing to do with it! Frank did it all!” Not long after that interview, Frank left the band and the name change occurred. White Cross went on to a more respectable and widely-known history than their short-lived predecessor, but Red Cross have a distinct role in Richmond punk history.
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CASABLANCA, 1982
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SHAFER COURT, 1982
FRANK GRESHAM, ALFORD FAULKNER, SCOTT PRICE, AND MIKEY RODRIGUEZ 30
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PUNKER BIKE RACE SHAFER COURT, 1983
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Photos: mary ann golden
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DEAD KENNEDYS THE MOSQUE BALLROOM, 1983 34
PHOTO: CINDY HICKS 35 3535
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THE EXPLOITED HARD TIMES, 1985
PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES 37
MINOR THREAT BENNY’S, 1983
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PHOTOS: CINDY HICKS
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BLACK FLAG
hard times, 1984
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PhotoS: THURSTON HOWES
Rockitz, 1985
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BROKEN BONES GOING BANANAS, 1985
GBH HARD TIMES, 1985
COC 538 CLUB, 1983
SCREAM MOSQUE BALLROOM, 1983
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GBH BENNY’S, 1983
PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES 43
PSYCHO DRAMA HARD TIMES, 1984
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PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
sycho Drama were a Washington DC band who came down to Richmond for a couple of Pmemorable shows in the early 80s. These pho-
tos are from Hard Times, taken when the singer climbed a ladder midset, only to fall and injure himself, ending the show and requiring a trip to the emergency room. Legend has it that he was proclaiming himself to be Jesus as he climbed the ladder. Legend also has it that he appeared to be wearing a fake tail during the set, which later turned out to be one of those horse-tail buttplugs that you can find on fetish websites these days. Who knows whether you can trust the legends? One thing is for sure, though--these guys freaked everybody out when they played. 45
LEFT TO RIGHT:
CRISPY BROKEN BONES UNKNOWN SEAN SUMNER JOEY SHITHEAD WIMPY ROY GBH BOB SCHICK GBH BROKEN BONES ROB MOSBY GRAVES TRUESDALE TOMMY RODRIGUEZ DEWEY ROWELL OPPOSITE PAGE:
CIRCLE JERKS BROKEN BONES GBH TOXIC REASONS 46
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GWAR backstage at pb kelly’s
DAVE BROCKIE 48
PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
ROCKITZ
PHOTOS: KIT HALSTED
G
WAR started out as a side project of an early 80s Richmond hardcore band called Death Piggy. They were having trouble finding opening acts for their shows, and decided to create a joke opening band made up of Death Piggy members playing different instruments and pretending to be hostile aliens here to conquer the world. Perhaps unsurprisingly in hindsight, that concept was a bigger hit than Death Piggy ever managed to become (ubiquitous cartoon pig graffiti notwithstanding), and soon GWAR had completely eclipsed the 49
PB KELLY’S
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PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
SHAFER CT. VCU, 1986
group it had originally opened for. Members of local instrumental prog/punk group the Alter Natives became the musical backing for a troupe of wildly costumed performance artists. They were working with very limited budgets, but that didn’t prevent them from coming up with wildly outrageous costumes from the outset of the group. With the addition of shocking onstage antics and wild public stunts, GWAR soon began to take over Richmond, at one point talking their
PHOTOS: CINDY HICKS
way into a one-minute segment on the Channel 6 evening news. Dave Brockie told Throttle that the members of the band had barged into the station, fully costumed, and “demanded that we be put on television immediately or we’d kill everyone in the room.” It worked, and the band were shown on tv that night, climbing on snowbanks and waving makeshift foam weapons at passing cars. 51
Dead Kennedys the Mosque, 1983
Doug Dobey stagediving
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Photos: Thurston Howes
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DOUG DOBEY HARDTIMES, 1984
STEVE HUNTER 1984 54
ANDY MARCUS HARD TIMES, 1984
DIRTWOMAN
PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES 55
538 CLUB, 1983
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PHOTOS: CINDY HICKS
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Honor Role 1986
Pen Rollings 58
Photo: SAM MAUNEY
1989
Photo: JOEY ODETTE
Casablanca, 1982
LINDA GRIGGS AND Pen Rollings DANCING
BOB SCHICK
CHIP JONES
Photo: SHARON FRIEDHOFF 59
PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE PB Kelly’s, 1985
Bo Steele, George Soffee, Taylor Steele AND Marc Corbett 60
P.B. KELLY’S, 1985
PhotoS: Chris Stoddard
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Unseen Force PB Kelly’s, 1985
Bob Verderame AND Scott Badger 62
PhotoS: Chris Stoddard
GRETA BRINKMAN
DEWEY ROWELL 63
SORDID DOCTRINE 1987
Bryan Bridgman, Dwain Curd AND Nick Smilek
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PhotoS: Adrienne Ownby
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CLIFF BENNY’S, 1983
CLIFF FARRAR 66
Photo: CINDY HICKS
67
MUDD HELMUT 1989
ben lawes, rob mosby, dan deckelman, wes freed and mike rodriguez 68
rockitz, 1986
photos: cindy hicks
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DAVE BROCKIE BENNY’S
KAREN BRYSON BENNY’S
538 CLUB
DAVE BROCKIE ROCKITZ
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JON GRAFT BENNY’S
TAYLOR STEELE HARDTIMES
BENNY’S
538 club
PhotoS: THURSTON HOWES 75
GOING BANANANS, 1985 76
PhotoS: BRIDGET CAMDEN 77
ABSENCE OF MALICE DUPONT CIRCLE (DC), 1986
Shane Wampler, Graves Truesdale, Joel Benson, AND Tim Hohmann
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PhotoS: Chris Stoddard
Photo: AYNE BALES
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PhotoS: Ayne Bales 81
PREVARICATORS 538 Club, 1987
CLARK BALL AND DAVID STOvER 82
PhotoS:CINDY HICKS
STEVE HUNTER AND FAN 83
ALTER NATIVES 1986 84
Photo: KIM K
THE GOOD GUYS 1982
BEEX 1982
THE DADS 1981
PhotoS: CINDY HICKS 85
WHITE CROSS BENNY’S, 1983 86
PHOTOS: CINDY HICKS 87
538 club
MIKE RODRIGUEZ 88
PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
89
DWAIN CURD GRAVEN IMAGE 7 INCH COVER, 1983
ne night at a gig, Honor Role started handO ing out these stickers to people, after calling their names off a list. There were names of peo-
ple in the scene, and these stickers said “kicked out of the scene”. It turned out that it was just a sarcastic joke on their part, making fun of some girls that had actually kicked this one girl out of the scene.” -Mike Rodriguez (White Cross) From interview in Maximum Rocknroll
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CONTRIBUTORS
THURSTON HOWES
CINDY HICKS
FRANK GRESHAM
AYNE BALES
ETHAN ISENBERG
MARC CORBETT
LINDA GRIGGS
ADRIENNE OWNBY
CHRIS STODDARD
KIT HALSTED
THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT PROVIDED IMAGES AND INFORMATION: THURSTON HOWES, CINDY HICKS, FRANK GRESHAM, ADRIENNE OWNBY, MARC CORBETT, LINDA GRIGGS, ETHAN ISENBERG, AYNE BALES, CHRIS STODDARD, KIT HALSTED, SHARON FRIEDHOFF, AND OF COURSE, THE INTERNET. THANKS TO CHRIS BOPST AND PETE HUMES FOR INSPIRING THIS PROJECT. THIS MINI-MAG IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF BRYAN HARVEY, STEVE HUNTER, DWAIN CURD, GRAVES TRUESDALE, CHRISTINE GIBSON, AND SEAN SUMNER. 91
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