Videowave Clips Vol. 1: Joey Ramone, Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave, Jim Foetus, Bow Wow Wow, Lene Lovich, Nina Hagen

Text (c) Robert Barry Francos, 2011
Videos (c) Alan Abramowitz/Videowave, with permission

I became involved in the Videowave cable access program pretty early on, starting off as a photographer and ending as a videographer, but for most of the shows from the 1980s, I was floor manager for those clips below, being the connector between the set and the control room. Yeah, the guy with the clipboard and the headset. There was no money involved for anyone, but it gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of great talent, and also connected FFanzeen to some future interviews.

Back then, the technology was top of the line U-Matic 3/4-inch tape, but in today’s HD world, well, it looks worse for wear. However, the artists are what matters, and what they say is still relevant for fans, if dated. However, it is not as passé as some of the fashions being worn by the artists and especially the interviewers.

Here is a selection of a half dozen of bits of interviews from shows on which I worked. Meanwhile, Videowave is still on in many of the tri-state markets, and new shows are still being created. These interviews were taped at Young Filmmakers Studio (no longer in business), on Rivington Street on the Lower East Side, during the first half of the 1980s, except for the first one, done on-location. The stage background was a painted on shower curtains by the late artist Chester Parnell.

Here is the first in what I hope will become a series of blogs, but I will only put up ones that has a direct link to either FFanzeen, or to me directly.

1. Joey Ramone, April 1997
With me on camera at Arturo Vega's apartment, Jimmy Marino interviews Joey R. on the night he was filming a clip to be shown at a party for Boston DJ Oedipus, which we got to watch being taped, and included Aurturo paint the “blood” on the apron. The apron was thrown into a corner after the interview, and I took it home as a souvenir; I later heard that Joey had a fit, and I returned it with an apology. If I still had it, it would be framed and put on the wall. RIP, Joey…


2. Lydia Lunch, October 1983; November 1985
Merle Ginsberg (who has gone on to a media-focused career: www.buddytv.com/info/merle-ginsberg-info.aspx) interviews Lydia first, followed by my then-FFanzeen Managing Editor Julia Masi. I had interviewed Lydia back in 1977 when she fronted Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and she was a complete asshole, but she was still quite young. A lot of her anger came across as bullshit poseur, and that’s what turned me off to her. The whole I’m cool because I’m a nihilist; aren’t I just terrible and annoying? came across as performance art to me. At the time of the first interview shown here, which I floor managed, she was collaborating with Nick Cave, Clint Ruin and Marc Almond, as well as doing “poetry” with Exene Cervenka of X. I don’t believe I was present for the second interview, though. It could also be noted that she did not remember me from our first encounter.


3. Immaculate Consumptive (Clint Ruin and Nick Cave), October 1983
This is just a short clip of Merle interviewing Clint Ruin (Foetus on the Wheel, etc) and Nick Cave (Birthday Party, Bad Seeds, etc.), which was taped the same day as the first Lydia Lunch interview above (explaining why Merle is wearing the same outfit). While Lydia was being taped, they sat in the back of the studio finishing bottles of whatever it is they were imbibing, and by the time it was their turn, they were completely blitzed (note the bottle in Cave’s hand). Though they were pissed to the gills, they were not disruptive to whatever was going on around them, I’m happy to say. The pre-chaste Dawn Eden talks us down at the end, and I believe the photo of her is one I took when she was interviewing the Buzzcocks on a hotel bed.


4. Annabella Lwin (Bow Wow Wow) , July 1983
They had recently played at a club called the Brooklyn Zoo (great show, BTW), and from there went further on their tour when disaster struck. This was actually the beginning of the end of the band, though Merle or Annabella could not have known that. It was really hot in the studio that day, as it was mid-summer and the air conditioner broke, but Anabella was a true dear and stayed around in a sweat without complaint.


5. Lene Lovich, March 1983
Introduced by Michele Piza, Lene was a pleasure to work with, as she was when Videowave interviewed her again in 1990, on location near Grammercy Park. Here in the studio, she was interviewed by David G. (Rosenberg), and was very open and friendly. American born and living in England, she later shared the interview stage with fellow expatriate Holly Beth Vincent (to be shown in a later blog), who gave me the impression she did not want to be there (though Alan had a different, more successful experience with her that day). But Lene, no one had any argument about her positive energy on that day, and in ’90.


6. Nina Hagen, February 1984
Nina Hagen did everything she could to be a thorn in the side of all of the people working on the show, including holding up a can of guava juice in front of her face and refusing to take it down for a long, expensive waste of time. Again, I wonder how much of her “personality” is real, and how much is affectation. I do know that I wanted to smack her. Merle was a total pro, though, and she did not reflect the previous goings on during the interview.


Should I continue this series, readers?

BOW WOW WOW: When the Going Gets Tough Annabella Takes Charge

Text by Julia Masi
© FFanzeen Magazine, 1983
Images from the Internet

The following article originally appeared in FFanzeen Number 11, which was issued in 1983.

“I didn’t expect anything. I didn’t expect to be anything by myself. I’m just doing what I want to do. The environment changes you. The music business really changes you. A lot of people are greedy. A lot of people are just out for their own end and they don’t give a damn for anyone but themselves. And I think that’s a damn shame,” says Annabella Lwin, vocalist of Bow Wow Wow, reflecting on her four-year flight to fame. Slipping away from the crowds at the New Music Seminar, she shad on the bed in RCA’s suite at the Hilton and tried to explain what it is like to be the center of attention in an extremely hot rock'n’nroll band.

“I enjoy performing live. It’s the only time I get to stand next to the audience and have any real contact with them.

“I can’t really build up any solid relationships. People in your record company, you build up a relationship with, but people you met at gigs, you talk to them. And you’re on tour for four-and-a-half months; you leave and never see them. You meet so many people it’s hard to remember who they are. It’s the faces I remember.

“It’s really interesting being on the road. So much can really mix you up. You have to look after your heath, that’s the first thing. So many things can happen to you. Look what just happened to Matthew.” Earlier this summer, when the band played at Great Adventure Amusement Park in New Jersey, lead guitarist Matthew fell from the stage and broke his hand. And the band had to cancel the remainder of the tour to give Matthew time to recuperate.

“All those people are disappointed. Even the waiter in the restaurant the next day (after the accident) said, ‘We’re really looking forward to seeing you play.’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry, but the tour’s been cancelled.’ He was really disappointed. We’re disappointed, too. It wasn’t our fault. You’ve got to explain, that’s what we’ve been doing for two weeks. We’re all having a bit of a break.”

The past two weeks have not exactly been a vacation for Annabella and band. Their days have been heavily scheduled with interviews and appearances on local talk shows. Most of the band’s publicity centers on Annabella. And even though she is extremely loquacious, she’s often a little uneasy about all the attention.

“When I first joined the band, I was young and too naïve to know about the business. And sometimes people can push until they push a bit too far and push you over the edge.

“There was always a lot of controversy about album covers and stuff. Because I’m a girl and I was young. The media picked up on that right away. And I was being looked at differently. And it was really just me doing what I wanted to do.

“[The press] just see an image. They just see this shell,” she runs her hand in front of her face and torso. “Because I am what I am to people, they don’t seem to realize that there’s a different person underneath this shell. I’m a different person. They let their minds wander as far as images concerned. When people meet me, then they know what I’m like.

“It makes me laugh inside when I see these people; they act a certain way because they think I’m my image. Then they put on an image themselves just to talk to me. And I want to,” she collapse on the bed, points to the corner and laughs, “’Why are you doing that? Don’t you look funny!’ But I don’t. I just,” she sits upright, demurely crosses her legs and appears to be biting her tongue, “say, ‘Yes. No. That’s interesting.’ It’s really funny!

“That’s another thing I learned being the lead singer: I have to be the focal point. I have to do a lot of the plugging. The rest of the band doesn’t really understand the responsibility. You don’t understand that responsibility unless you’ve had it, and they haven’t.

“When the band started out it wasn’t meant to be [just] the lead singer; it was meant to e a band. Everyone in the band is one-quarter of the band. Me and Dave came over to do the interviews because we’re half the band. But they see it as Annabella of Bow Wow Wow. It puts more responsibility on me.”

She is very careful about how she handles the stress that accompanies her lifestyle. She watches what she eats and eschews liquor. “It’s not worth poisoning your body. Or poisoning your mind. Another thing I can’t understand is why people take drugs.” She quickly considers all the usual excuses and rationalization for indulging in chemicals and how prevalent it is in the business. Then she adds, “If they can’t handle the responsibility then they should get out of the business.”

Annabella, of course, has no desire to shed the spotlight. But if she did retire, she muses that, “I’d probably work in the dry cleaners. I’d probably make more money because of my success. When I left, they put a sign in the window: ‘Girl wanted to work in dry cleaners. Please don’t be able to sing.’ Actually, I’d always wanted to work in a cake shop. I love to bake anything that’s edible.”

Enough though Bow Wow Wow performs a concert scene in the soon to be released movie, Scandalous, staring Sir John Gielgud and Robert Hays, Annabella is not planning a life in the cinema. “I can’t act to save my life.” That’s probably a blessing in disguise because it’s her honest, on and off stage, that makes her appealing.

The following interview is from cable access show Videowave; other great interviews with various artists can be found on YouTube from this program.