A Lot O’ BLOTTO (1981)

© Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 1981/2023
Images from the Internet unless indicated

My pal Dennis Concepcion, who turned me onto Blotto, came with me when I went to interview the group at a club on Long Island. Backstage was a weird mix of calm stillness and pandemonium. Their comments on past members is a bit harsh, in my opinion, but the band played on, and they were pretty much self-deprecating anyway, so I took that as the band’s “personality.” After the interview was over, but before they went onstage to play, two members whipped out a chess board and were deeply into it. On the other hand, being a smart ass, I mentioned to Cheese Blotto (d. 1999) that perhaps he should shave his head as he was noticeably balding. Not only did he do it right then and there with one of those tiny travel razors, Dennis documented it with photographic evidence. The pictures are included in the original article, and as far as I know, Cheese remains curds-less.

This interview was published in FFanzeen, No. 8, dated 1981. – RBF, 2023

Rear: Bowtie, Lee Harvey, Sarge
Front: Broadway, Cheese

A Lot O’ Blotto

Rock’n’roll. Blitz. New Romanticism. Punk. Psychedelic Revival. New Wave. Cabaret’n’roll?!

 

There appears to be a new trend in rock’n’roll which refused to take itself seriously a-toll. Out on the West Coast, there is a group called the Toons, who sing of “Roast Chicken Faces”; in New York City, there’s Junk Rock, who explain the virtues of being a “Sanitation Man.”; and from Albany, NY, there is the more popular leader of this movement, named Blotto.

 

Blotto came into prominence two years ago with the hit, “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard” [which still airs on the radio and weather reports every summer to this day – RBF, 2023], which was played ad nauseam in, in seemed, every club (though the outer boroughs still cheer when it comes up). That cut was off a four-song 12” EP which sold quite well for an independent label, titled Hello! My Name is Blotto, What’s Yours? At that time, the lineup was Broadway Blotto (Bill Polchinski; vocals/guitar), Bowtie Blotto (Paul Jossman; vocals/guitar), Blanche Blotto (Helena Binder; keyboards/vocals), Sergeant Blotto (Greg Haymes, d. 2019; vocals/percussion), Cheese Blotto (Keith Stephenson; bass), and Lee Harvey Blotto (Paul Rapp; drums).

 

The next year (that is, the last from now), a new EP hit the stands, sans Blanche, with Chevrolet Blotto taking over the keyboards, titled Across and Down. Although none of the songs reached the cult status of “Lifeguard,” the four songs on it were consistently good in their own, bizarre ways.

 

Now the present, and the release of a new record, this time a 7” 45.

 

There have been quite a few people who have been onto me because I think these guys are okay. Well, hell, they like what they’re doing: acting a bit irreverent and making damn asses of themselves. Sure, it’s not mainstream rock’n’roll-whatever, but the point is that they are not trying to claim they are. Nothing pretentious here, just a lot of fun.

 

What amazed me was the fact that they use their stage names all the time, even among themselves. Very weird.

 

As a rule, they are nice guys, but a bitch to interview. It was nearly impossible to get a straight answer from them. In fact, what follows, is all that was coherent of a ninety-minute interview.

 

Broadway Blotto: Our new single will be out soon. “When the Second Feature Starts” is on the A-side, and on the B-side is a song called “The B-side.”

 

FFanzeen: How original!
Broadway: Somebody had to do it!
Sergeant Blotto (Sarge): We figured it was better than running the same song backwards. Like Napoleon XIV [“They’re Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Ha” – Ed, 1981].

 

FFanzeen: Why a single instead of the usual EP?
Broadway: Why not?! It’s cheaper.
Sarge: Now we can play them in jukeboxes at diners, by the eclairs on the counters. Also, with a song like “B-Side,” you can’t put that on the back of an EP.
Broadway: And also, after we put out our last EP, we said, “We’re not putting out any more EPs. It’s either albums or a single.”

 

FFanzeen: Why not an album?
Lee Harvey Blotto: We wanted to do a single.
Broadway: You can’t put an album on a jukebox either.

 

FFanzeen: They used to have a shorter album on the jukebox. They were called EPs. [All laugh]
Lee Harvey: One’s like Frankie Valli.
Broadway: I like Frankie Valli. He’s my favorite.
Sarge: He was okay.
Lee Harvey: Was? Isn’t he still alive?

 

FFanzeen: That’s debatable. [That was meant career-wise; as of this writing, FV is still alive – RBF, 2023].
Sarge: I don’t know – check the list behind you. [Written on the wall of the club where the interview is taking place is a list of dead rock’n’rollers – Ed., 1981]
Broadway: You mean, “All the people who died, died?”
Sarge: Yeah. “All my friends, they died, died.”
Lee Harvey: Or the sequel, “People who lived.”
Broadway: We were going to put out a song, “People who Dine, Dine.”
Lee Harvey: Did you hear about that band playing, the Dead Lennon?

 

FFanzeen: Yeah, from Boston.
Lee Harvey: Well, they used to be on Lawrence Welk, didn’t they?
Broadway: Yes, until they died. Arrrggghhh.
Sarge: Then they decomposed.

 

FFanzeen: Did you ever notice that the music for the chorus of “People Who Died” is identical with “Red Hot”?
Broadway: Yeah [sings “Red Hot”:]. “My gal has died, died” [laughs]. Have you seen the video tape from “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard”? It was filmed at various shoe stores and lakes in Upstate New York.

 

FFanzeen: The song came out two years ago. Isn’t it a bit late now?
Broadway: Hey, we’re timely guys.
Lee Harvey: It’s kind of a statement because, like, Albany is two years behind everything and we were just noting the other day that Legs Diamond, the gangster, was shot in Albany two or three years after all the gangland slayings in Chicago and New York had taken place. People had already forgotten it and went on to new things, like baseball and other pastimes. So, that’s why our video tape is two years late. Plus, the fact that some guys came up and said, “Hey, we want to do a video tape of you guys and it won’t cost you anything,” and we said, “Well, now you’re talking.”
Sarge: You see, we don’t like to spend our money on video tapes and things like that. Every once in a while, we like to spend it on foolish little things – like food.
Broadway: Luxury items like that. So, is it true that all the street signs in New York (City) are color coordinated? My cousin told me that. In Queens, its white on blue, the Bronx, is blue on yellow, Manhattan’s black on yellow, Staten Island is black and blue –

 

[At this point, the discussion went on a long tangent on how the band found out about Lennon being shot while on their way to tape an “Uncle Floyd Show” and had to act zany. From there, it went to the imagined shooting of Queen Elizabeth and the shooting of the Pope, and two tourists from Buffalo, NY, where we pick it up.]

 

Broadway: It was on the tour plan: “Would you like the $1000 tour to Rome and you get to see all the monuments, etc., or would you like the $500 tour where you just see Rome from the bus, or would you like the $25 tour, where you get to see everything, but you have to get shot.”
Lee Harvey: “Well, let’s see – if I save up enough money in Buffalo doing piecework separating weenies from chickens –“

 

FFanzeen: Tours in the future?
Sarge: On August 24, we’re play the Garden –
Broadway: That’s planting the garden!

FFanzeen: Whatever happened to Blanche Blotto?
Broadway: What’s become of who?
Sarge: That’s old news. Why don’t you ask us what’s become of Chevy (Blotto)?

FFanzeen: Okay, what’s become of Chevy?
Sarge: Well, it’s all pretty strange. Two weeks ago, he dropped out to join the sink-hole worship cult down in Florida, and he’s living in a tent just outside that sink-hole.
Broadway: He’s a Chevrolet that wants to be at one with the Porches. Actually, his warranty ran out. We heard from [Ralph] Nader’s people and we had to recall him from the group.

FFanzeen: Who is replacing him?
Broadway: No one could replace Chevrolet Blotto.
Sarge: Now, we’re just the Blotto Quartet.
Broadway: Actually, Sarge is filling in on keyboard stuff, Lee Harvey is picking up the slack on the vocals, and business as usual.

FFanzeen: Why “Blotto”?
Broadway: Why notto? Well, if you play crossword puzzles – which I don’t – you find the words include “spiflicated” [not in my edition of Websters – Ed., 1981], six letters, beginning with “B,” fifth letter “T,” ending with “O” – with a “LOT” in the middle!

 

 

 

STIFF LITTLE FINGERS: Wait and See (1981)

© Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 1981/2022
Images from the Internet unless indicated

Bassist Ali McMordie in the forefront

One of the great and little-known aspects about Irving Plaza in New York during the 1980s was that the back door was not only open, but unguarded until a couple of hours before a show. While I didn’t often take advantage just to see free shows by hanging around, settling down for a long wait (and not wanting the management to become aware of the situation, killing the golden goose), I did occasionally use this knowledge to gain access to bands that were playing at the club.

Alan Abramowitz and I went through the back door one late afternoon and caught the Stiff Little Fingers soundcheck. After, we approached the band about the possibility of an interview. The only SLF member who did not have a previous appointed place to be was Ali McMordie, the bass player, and we propositioned him. Ali agreed to the interview, which we did upstairs in the Irving Plaza dressing room.

This interview was published in FFanzeen, No 8, dated 1981.

Stiff Little Fingers: Wait and See

I am not one to extol the virtues of the new music coming out of England right now. When the punk movement died and the Blitz and New Romanticism fashions came in, my interest sort of declined. The better groups still seem to be the older ones, like Buzzcocks and the Jam.

About a year ago, a friend came to me telling of a great new song he’d heard called “At the Edge,” by some group called Stiff Little Fingers (named after a song by the Vibrators).  When I saw a copy of SLF’s Nobody’s Heroes in a cut-out bin, the album on which the song appeared, I figured what-the-hell. And I’m damned glad I did.

Stiff Little Fingers has been around quite a while now –since the mid-punk days of late ’77. Their first album, Inflammable Material, is a social comment, as well as a musical one. A rare, successful cross between the power of the music of the Ramones and the biting lyrics of the Pistols.

The band’s four members – Jake Burns, guitar and lead vocals; Henry Cluney, guitar and vocals; Ali McMordie, bass guitar; and Jim Reilly, drums, replacing Brian Faloon after the first album – hail from strife-ridden Belfast, and have since moved to London to help their careers (Henry, however, chose to remain a resident of Belfast) – which has been going full-guns since Nobody’s Heroes was released. From the time I first started listening, two more albums have followed: the live Hanx (Irish slang for “thanks”), and the recently released Go For It.

I caught up to the band when they appeared in New York City on a cross-American/Canadian tour. The following interview was done upstairs at Club 57/Irving Plaza, on June 20, 1981, with bassist Ali.

FFanzeen: Where do you head from here?
Ali(stair) McMordie: I wish I knew. I don’t know the exact dates, still. It’s always the same any time we come over here because to organize anything in the States, you actually have to be in the States. You can’t do it on the phone because it just takes too long and nobody bothers calling you back. We sent our manager over two days earlier than us to do that, specifically. We’re going to both coasts and Canada. Last tour we just did the two coasts.

FFanzeen: When the group first started, I read that you rented out your own gigs, and then sold tickets on the sly.
Ali: Yeah, because any time we booked a club, there were some places that were really cheap, like $20 for a night. The club made its money on the bar, and of course, you weren’t allowed to sell tickets because that would mean you’d be making quite a bit of money. So, we’d sell them for 60p; that’s less than $2 anyway. We sold them at the carpark outside so the management couldn’t see us. We used to give them to record shops to give to people or to sell. We never got our money back anyway, so after a while we Just let people come in for nothing to try and fill up the place. It was pretty hard in Belfast, finding clubs; there weren’t that many. There were only about two clubs left in those days.

FFanzeen: There’s a large music scene growing out of Belfast now.
Ali: There’s a lot of bands there, right.

FFanzeen: The Undertones, Protex –
Ali: Protex, yeah. They’re based in London, right now. They did okay over here. Not as far as records go, though.

FFanzeen: They played a lot of gigs here.
Ali: Back in Belfast, we played our first gig of the tour. You’ve heard of the recession over in England, nobody’s got any money? It’s crazy. Out of all the towns, they’re hardest hit in England, up north there, Belfast being in it as well. But we really enjoyed being back there; part of the fact that it’s our home town, they don’t bother much about worrying about the recession because they’ve got so much else to worry about.

[Ali leaves to get cigarettes, then returns]

FFanzeen: According to the souvenir books at your concerts, the band has, “always done things the hard way.” How true is that when your first single [independently released “Suspect Device” b/w “Wasted Life,” on Rigid Digits Records – RBF, 1981] sold over 30,000 copies?
Ali: The first sold about 60,000 so far. I know what they mean about making it the hard way. I think we were very lucky to start off with. We brought the first single out, and the two guys managing us, Gordon Ogilvie and Colin McClelland, took the single an sent it off to (London DJ) John Peel, and thanks to him, basically, people heard the single and picked up on the band. And from then on it was pretty plain sailing. We were sucked into the big music business, where so many things are hyped. Over here, it’s not how good a band is, it’s how much money their management has. Over in England, it’s not quite that bad. I was talking about this earlier when we first came to London, we didn’t really know our way about. We didn’t know anyone over there. It was quite a big move from Belfast, across the sea. We joined Rough Trade and that gave us a kind of breathing space where we could sit back and look at things objectively, detached. We could see that record companies weren’t as they were cracked up to be. Our first experience with record companies was Island Record, and from that we said, “Fuck this, we don’t want any part of it.” So, we put the record out with Rough Trade and a couple of singles, and just took our time with lots of offers from record companies, but we waited until we could get a deal where we could virtually tell them what we wanted instead of it being the other way around. And Chrysalis did it. In the U.K., we got complete control. We didn’t get any advance or anything because that’s not important, it’s only money. We deal with the record company and we’re in the black. Which is good. Most bands work heavily in the red, like the Clash. They’re so much in debt that they’ll be tied to CBS for as long as CBS wants ‘em. You have no control of your lives, virtually. It gets to that stage. New York pays a lot of money. For the gig we’re doin’ here – I don’t know what it is, exactly – but they’re giving us all the money and we could easily just do a lot of gigs here and then piss off and make a profit. Instead, we’re just using the money to go to other places around the States and up to Canada. Most of the clubs here seem to jump at anything.

FFanzeen: As long as you’re from England, you can get plenty of gigs here.
Ali: Japan’s just like that. I haven’t been there yet.

FFanzeen: Your booklet also called you “exploiters of Northern Ireland’s troubles.” They seem to rip into you as much as compliment you.
Ali: That’s pretty close to the truth, though. They’re not saying we’re cynical exploiters, they’re saying that’s what we’ve been called.

FFanzeen: Well, why have you been called that?
Ali: I don’t know; we’re not cynical. I don’t see how we can exploit Northern Ireland since we come from there. On the first album, there actually is only about four songs on there about Northern Ireland. The rest of them could apply to any place. There are as many songs about the troubles as there were about the fact that there was a fuck-all attitude in Belfast. That’s why the band came about, because it was a hobby, something to do on a Saturday afternoon. And a place like that, you look for your own entertainment or you really have to go out and search for it. Here (in New York), you go two blocks and there is something there. It’s completely different. We were the top acclaim as rebel heroes, yet with the first album, the reviews that Inflammable Material got in the British press, they were very good. They were all five-star reviews of over the top, which meant it got a lot of publicity and all that, and that’s something that’s hard to live up to. One of the main reasons why that was so, is because at the time, people were getting fed up. It was just about the time of the demise of the original punk bands, and people were looking for something new. We came along and they said, “At last, a real punk band.” We took no claims to what kind of band we are. We just play rock’n’roll.

FFanzeen: Yeah, but you’ve been around just as long as they have [1977].
Ali: Yeah, but most of the time we spent rehearsing in Ireland. We just had a couple of gigs here and there. We were always pretty much apart from the rest of the music scene. The Sex Pistols, Gen X, they all hung around and knew each other. We came over and didn’t know anybody.

FFanzeen: Did you find the move to London difficult to adjust to?
Ali: Not now; I did then. There’s a couple of songs written about it, like “Gotta Getaway,” when we first came over from Belfast. The very first time was with Island Records, and they fucked us about, so we just got fed up and decided to move out on our own with no money and no support. Rough Trade was interested, but that was all. There were five of us stuck in one dark hotel room in West End Grove in West End, London, with no money, so we had to live off Gordon. Imagine five of us – four guys in the band and one guy who was working with us – and the arguments that went down. We couldn’t get out anywhere because there was no money and we didn’t know anyone. There’s no way I’d like to see that again. In that way, it’s been hard. We’ve been lucky, though, because it’s so much harder for other bands. There’s so much competition. All it really takes is a lucky break or lots of money. And no one’s got money now. Especially over there. It’s a shame because there’s so many people I know who’re great musicians. Good bands. They haven’t done that well. Even recorded bands; Sector 27 – I think they’re excellent. That band’s really good, and I loved TRB [Tom Robinson Band] – but they’re not doing all that well.

FFanzeen: It says here that you consider your new album as “punk.” Do you really think that is accurate?
Ali: Call it what you want. It’s punk in that – well, what does the word “punk” mean? It’s an attitude. Jake said that he said that punk is more an attitude than a style of music. You know the Ruts? A lot of their music is more heavy-metal-oriented than punk, but because of their attitude and their lyrics, and so on, they’re considered a punk band.

FFanzeen: In the fanzine Damaged Goods, they commented that this past album is different from your previous albums, but I found it very similar to the others, which is a quality I liked about it.
Ali: I don’t think it changed that much. There are a few things on the new album that are pretty different. “Gate 49” is done tongue-in-cheek in rockabilly style. It’s good fun playing that. There was an instrumental [“Go For It”]. It’s the second time we’ve done that. First time was “Bloody Dub” from Nobody’s Heroes. That didn’t work very well. I think the “Go For It“ instrumental is a lot better. That was written in the studio. There were supposed to be lyrics, but we decided not to spoil it. The thing I like about the new album is – well, what I like and don’t like – is that it was done in two weeks, in February and March, and none of the songs were written before January. It’s just suddenly all these ideas came together. Listening to it now, there’s a lot of things we could have done – all these ideas and arrangements and so on – but maybe if we spent a month doing it we could have lost that initial roughness and impact. I think it’s a rougher album than Nobody’s Heroes. Who knows, we might put an album out in six years’ time that will be like Inflammable Material. Kickin’ up a racket. It’s the sort of thing we regret three years ago. It’s just different. We’re just playing songs that we like. There’s no way we could be calculating about it. It’s impossible to figure out what people will like. We just do what we do and hope people will like us. The new songs have been doing okay so far. We were worried about it because where we come from, things are so different. But fans that we’ve got, most of them are die-hard fans, and they’ll always be there. The people who have come and gone are those who come in and then go away because all they want to hear is “1-2-3-4” Ramones stereotypes. Don’t want to get in a rut, now; it would get boring for everybody, including us. That’s the first album over and over again.

FFanzeen: It’s a bit passe now.
Ali: I don’t like to listen to it now. I think the songs off the first album we do live, they’re a lot better than the album. But the thing is that it was perfect at the time; that’s the way we felt. It was done really roughly. It’ll be the same with every album – it’s the way we were, at the time. Times change, so we still do the songs live, because they mean a lot to us.

FFanzeen: Are you really heavily influenced by Marc Bolan [d. 1977], or is it just Henry [see album covers]?
Ali: No, just Henry. Henry is in love with Marc Bolan. Necrophilia.

FFanzeen: What about you?
Ali: We used to argue about it. Everyone’s tastes are completely different. We can’t bother arguing because it’s pointless now. The first band that really sort of influenced me was the Velvet Underground. I got back and discovered all these great Velvet Underground records. From there, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, things like that. Patti Smith, I think she’s great. The main bands are American, but they’re not mainstream American. I’d even listen to some jazz-rock. I like a lot of reggae. If any music influences, for me anyway, it’s reggae. That’s one thing that we all like.

FFanzeen: Why do you think reggae is such a big influence in England right now?
Ali: Mainly Bob Marley (d. 1981). Reggae has always been associated with punk, since punk came along in ’77. I don’t know why it all came about, really. I think they were supposed to share the same ideas, the same philosophy. I think it’s that the rhythms of reggae are important, because it’s better dancing to reggae than dancing to disco. Reggae has such a great beat, a distinctive rhythm. [In a Jamaican accent:] Dat’s wot it’s all about, mon.

FFanzeen: Is that the point of the song, “Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae” [on the Go For It album]?
Ali: Have you heard the original? You should play the original. Its far better, obviously. We did it so different. The original is about half the speed. It’s a brilliant single; Bunny Wailer (d. 2021) brought it out. It’s on Island Records. If you ever get the chance to hear it, it’s probably really hard to get over here. It’s pretty hard getting it in England, but it’s a great song. That’s if you like reggae. It’s like “Johnny Was.” That’s another great thing about reggae: you’ve got a lot of space, a lot of freedom to be spontaneous. It’s different every night.

FFanzeen: As the bass player, don’t you ever get tired of playing the same rhythm for extended periods of time [on Inflammable Material, “Johnny Was” runs for 8:05, and on the live album Hanx, 10:15 – RBF, 1981]?
Ali: It’s not all the same. There are differences, but it’s very subtle. As the bass player, I reckon there’s one difference in the song. Listen to it tonight. It’s a lot shorter now, it’s only five or six minutes instead of ten. That went on a bit long. Listen to the reggae break and you can hear the changes – I hope [laughs]. Whenever I get home and listen to reggae or watch a band, the main thing I get into is the rhythm. It doesn’t matter if it’s virtually the same for five-ten minutes. The Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray” had this rhythm going all the way through it – sort of mesmeric.

FFanzeen: Same thing with Fred Smith’s bass line in Television’s “Little Johnny Jewel.”
Ali: I have that. On the original Ork label. In Belfast, it took about six months to get it.

FFanzeen: A friend of mine asked to ask you this: there is supposedly a video game called “Go For It,” which has a boy climbing up the side of a building. Have you seen it?
Ali: A video game? No, [ours] has nothing to do with that. I’ve never seen it. I’ll tell Gordon (Ogilvie). That’s the sort of thing he’d be really choked about. Most people think the guy (on the cover) is falling off the top, but –

FFanzeen: – He’s climbing up.
Ali: Originally, it was just that [covering up the right side of the album cover that has the character’s arm and leg – RBF, 1981], which looks like he’s falling so the guy who was doing it works in the creative department at Chrysalis in London added a knee and leg and arm reaching up.

FFanzeen: Here’s an original question: What do you think about the whole punk movement, then and now?
Ali: The music then had a bit of energy to it. I suppose, looking back now, I’m a lot more cynical than when the whole thing started. At the same time, I believe in what we’re doing. I couldn’t get cynical about that. It’s funny looking back at those early punk bands and to realize how shallow a lot of them were. I think at any start in music, whatever point it is, it’s the second wave of bands – heavy metal came along; Cream were pioneers, really, but they didn’t last. It was Led Zeppelin who took over.

FFanzeen: Unfortunately.
Ali: The Sex Pistols, the Damned – the Damned are still going, but that’s to be reckoned with. They’re like a comedy routine. With the Sex Pistols gone, it’s just up to us to keep the plan flying. Punk doesn’t have to be a noise. We’ve met a lot of very nice people – but now, there’s beach punks. These guys come along, they’re wealthy with rich parents and they can afford to have a beach of their own.

FFanzeen: You know, with all the first wave bands changing and all, one of the things I like about your band, as I said, is that you’ve been consistent. Not like in the Clash who have gotten “glossy,” or the Ramones who have gone the way of Phil Spector.
Ali: I like what the Clash are doing now. I like the ideas that they’re trying to do, and they are trying to break away. They’re trying to make it in America. It really was a conscious decision. They’re doing it quite good enough. Their reggae songs are not true reggae songs. You’d really have to come from Jamaica to do real reggae. It’s just really an influence, a rhythm.

FFanzeen: Sort of like the difference between the Police’s white reggae as opposed to the real Black reggae.
Ali: I remember when I first heard them, I really didn’t think of any reggae connection. Then so many people started saying about their second record, Reggatta de Blanc, “White Reggae,” everybody started calling it that. But it really didn’t seem that reggae-oriented as far as I could see. I haven’t seen them live, but I think I’d get bored. I like some of their songs, but (Sting’s) voice does grate on the nerves.

FFanzeen: I think he’s a better actor [laughs] [I saw the Police at the Diplomat Hotel when “Roxanne” was a hit, and was incredibly bored; I totally agree with Ali about Sting’s vocals – RBF, 2022.] What do you think of the style of some of the other bands, like Adam and the Ants, and Echo and the Bunnymen?
Ali: I saw Echo and the Bunnymen, and I thought they were pretty good. Adam and the Ants; I like a couple of their singles. I never thought they’d become as big as they did; but that’s fashion. The Pirate. Malcolm McLaren (d. 2010) did it with Bow Wow Wow. He (even) told Adam how to dress. I think Bow Wow Wow are better, musically. They’re a very strange band if you listen to them. The bass player’s incredibly fast. There’s just one drummer and he can do it live. I understand from people that he can get that sound live, where Adam and the Ants takes two drummers. It’s been done before, with Gary Glitter and the Glitter Band. 

FFanzeen: Stiff Little Fingers’ lyrics are pretty political. Have you had any trouble getting airplay because of them?
Ali: Whenever we play the U.K., our most requested song is “Alternative Ulster.” It was the second single we did. It was on Rough Trade and Rough Digits, in collaboration. It was banned at BBC. We sent it to them three times. It was up for playlists three times, but they said no. We had to change the lyrics. Whenever you send a single in, you have to send a single and you have to send a sheet wit the lyrics on it. One of the lines is “RUC dogs of repression are barking at your feet.”

FFanzeen: What’s the RUC?
Ali: Royal Ulster Constabulary; Irish cops. Instead, on the sheet with the lyrics on it, we had, “All you see are dogs of repression,” which is practically the same, but because anything – anything close to home that might be in any big way politically-oriented – there’s a complete clampdown from the BBC. It’s ridiculous. I think that’s our most catchy single. It’s got a good bass line, a nice guitar riff on it, but just because of the lyrics, they don’t want to know. That’s censorship, you know? The BBC and the media over there got pretty radical – they get more radical the further away from England. If there’s anything close to home, right on their doorstep, you only hear what they want you to hear. It’s worse over here, though. It’s like, if the Mafia pulled out – if they stopped business right now – the whole U.S. would collapse. And everybody knows it’s going on, but there’s never any mention of it, because Reagan (d. 2004) eats jellybeans. I mean, there’s got to be somebody above the president.

Ali is on the far right

As the interview was winding down, Ali commented that he was feeling peckish. I asked him if he had ever eaten sushi. He answered in the negative, but had been curious, so Alan and I invited him to join us. We walked over to one of the better local sushi houses at the time, Shima, the place where I was first introduced to sushi by Dawn Eden Goldstein, which used to be on Washington Street near the old The Bottom Line club (at the time, there was no proliferation of sushi bars, not even in New York). It was an enjoyable dinner, and lively conversation about music and politics. After the dinner, we all headed back to Irving Plaza. Alan and I were able to walk in again, thanks to Ali. Thanks, Ali.

I managed to see Stiff Little Fingers play twice, once at the aforementioned Irving Plaza, and once at a sweat-filled, pogo-bouncing night at the Peppermint Lounge. I came out as drenched as if I had stood under an upturned bucket of water. Both times there was a strong energy level from the band and the audience equally. They were great nights.

Stiff Little Fingers broke up some time in the 1980s, and reformed without Ali (his choice), who eventually rejoined, and they are still playing out today.

THE MARBLES – For Rockers of All Ages (1977)

 © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 1977/2022
Images from the Internet unless indicated

When I started to collect pieces for the second issue of FFanzeen, I decided to begin with a band I enjoyed: The Marbles were an amazingly entertaining band. Their sound was a unique combination of power-pop / rock’n’roll that they made their own.

I was a fan of the group and saw them often, sharing bills with bands like Television, Mong, the Mumps, and Milk & Cookies (another personal power pop fave). And yes, they shared the bill with the infamous CBGB AC/DC show, which was Bon Scott’s last New York performance, to which I was present (the enclosed pictures by me here are from that night).

The musicians had similar pageboy hairstyles and looked very boy-next-door, in fresh pressed white shirts and slacks. Their main power lay in their songs, which were hard-hitting, killer pop tunes, fueled by Howard Bowler’s lead guitar and bolstered by Eric Li’s keyboard. This is evidenced especially in their first single, on Ork Records, “Red Lights” b/w “Fire and Smoke” (“Red Lights” was also included on ROIR’s excellent Singles cassette collection). Eventually they would come out with another single, “Forgive and Forget” b/w “Computer Cards.” Unfortunately, these two 45s represent all the existing officially released catalog of the Marbles. What happened to the tapes they refer to in the interview following is a mystery. According to their ex-manager, Alan Betrock (d. 2000), they no longer exist. It’s a shame, because they had some killer tunes, like “Closing Me Down,” “She’s Cool,” “Jealousy,” “She’s Pleased,” and especially the bouncy “You Tomorrow.” Live versions of many of these songs can be found online. After all this time, I still remember the tunes to many of these songs. Despite being a pop band, they also had a snotty attitude, which help them fit into the scene.

I was fascinated with Jim Clifford’s bass, and bass playing style. It was Clifford’s bass that made me first notice the Rickenbacker brand. I couldn’t figure out how anyone could play a bass with a neck that long. I was also amazed at his technique, which I have rarely seen since. Rather than just bending his wrist around the bass and curling his finger to play the frets, his wrists were turned at an almost ninety-degree angle so the fingers were nearly straight. I tried duplicating it, but couldn’t come close.

This interview was published in FFanzeen No. 2, dated October 31, 1977.

The Marbles – For Rockers of All Ages

The Marbles are really one of the better bands around now-a-days. I have been a fan of theirs for a few years now and have caught their act whenever I could. Recently they went on vacation. When they left, they were very good, but now, they are just great. I had to interview them, and below is the outcome.

It was a hot night when I visited the Marbles’ loft, that last day of August 1977. The entire band, Howard Bowler (guitar, vocals), Jim Clifford (bass, vocals), Eric Li (keyboards, vocals) and David Bowler (drums, vocals), was present:

FFanzeen: How did the first single (“Red Lights”) sell?
Jim Crawford: There were 1,500 copies made at the most, and they all sold out.
David Bowler: We’re negotiating for a re-pressing.

FFanzeen: How did Terry Ork [d. 2004] approach you to do the record?
Jim: Over a joint.
David: He got us our first gig at CBGB on the same bill as the Ramones. And I work at Cinemabilia [with Ork]
Howard Bowler: He likes the band. He wanted to do a single … and he was picking bands he wanted to record. He started with Television [“Little Johnny Jewel, Parts 1 and 2” – RBF, 2022]. The second was …
Eric Li: Hell. Richard Hell [“Blank Generation” b/w “Another World”  – RBF, 2022].
David: Then we came out.
Jim: Then he went berserk.
Howard: And we haven’t seen him since [laughs].

FFanzeen: His next single is going to be with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. [Note: either this never happened or was not released – RBF, 2022]
Jim: Yeah? The New Wave bands have to make a splash with the critics.

FFanzeen: Are you satisfied with the single?
Jim: No. The master recording we did for Terry Ork was very clear; you could hear every instrument. You could hear the vocals: ... We’re satisfied with our performance on the record. There’s a lot of energy on that record, but as far as the actual pressing and mastering of the record, it was done – well, face it, Terry Ork doesn’t have that much money to work with. He tried the best he could but with the things he was using, the best is very sub-standard. Plus, this was one of the first recordings he put out, so he was still experimenting with different pressing companies. And unfortunately, the ones he experimented with us were really crummy. I mean, the first press cuttings of the single came back and it wasn’t even printed on the record straight. You’d put on the needle and it would speed up and slow down. It wasn’t on the central axis. The second one had a skip on it that was printed on the record. And five test pressings later, we finally decided to just go ahead with it. The third test pressing sounded like there were five thousand mosquitoes in the room. We were not satisfied with the sound quality, but we were satisfied with the energy. We like the record. The songs come through anyway.
Eric: After the last pressing, we just got so disgusted we just said, “Go ahead with it,” ‘cause it was just taking so long.
Howard: We had planned to release it in September, and by the time we were finished, it was January when it was released.
David: Now it’s over a year old to us and we know we could do it better.
Jim: Anyway, we’re gonna put out a new one now.
Eric: That’s the main thing.
Jim: I don’t know if it’s gonna be by Ork or not, but we’re going to record a new single, “Free World” and “Love Today.”

FFanzeen: Are they new songs?
Howard: No, they’re about a year old now, but they’re very mature, and ripe for recording them. One of the songs is sort of a political statement, “Free World.” “Love Today” is, well, a love song about “every-man.”
Jim: It’s a revolutionary single. You have never heard a single like this.
David: Next question.

Eric Li (ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

FFanzeen: I was going to ask if you were satisfied with the way Ork promoted the single, but …
David: He didn’t do any promotion, so we’re very satisfied.
Eric: We did about what we expected.
David: No, really. He told all his friends.
Jim: Well, actually, they sold out so we can’t be unimpressed. He only pressed 1,500 copies, and the fact that it was an Ork record and we were a part of the New York rock scene. We were just so disappointed in the sound quality, that before he printed any more, we wanted it pressed at a different place. He has to come up with the money to do that before we’ll go ahead with it. (We) want to do it, but it’s just a matter of getting the monkey wrench out of the works.

FFanzeen: Was “Jailbait” recorded at the same time?
Howard: Yeah.
David: There were two others. “From Me For You” and “Closing Me Down.” All recorded at Douglaston.

FFanzeen: Will you release those?
Jim: No, actually those will be burned.
Eric: We’re thinking of changing the B-side to “Jailbait.”

FFanzeen: When was the last time you played together publicly?
David: Our last New York job was four months earlier.
Jim: In May
Howard: We took a summer break. We went to Minneapolis. And we played there three nights.
David: It was great. Parties every night. Encores every night.
Eric: Unqualified success.
Jim: Everyone liked us a lot.
Howard: The bar owner there did the best he had ever done, and they want us back. That’s part of this tour. The reason we set up this tour is because we did so well in July when we played there and he asked us back in October, and we figured if we’re going out there in October, this time let’s make some money, so we want to have jobs stopping off in Cleveland and Ann Arbor. We have connections for a few jobs on the way out and hopefully on our way back. And we’ll be playing. That’s another thing.

Eric Li, David Bowler, Jim Craford, partial Howard Bowler
(ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

FFanzeen: Did you enjoy your vacation?
Eric: Oh, yeah!
Howard: It was great.

FFanzeen: Why did you take a break?
Jim: Because we couldn’t get a job in New York. Summer in New York is so hot, and Hilly [Kristal, of CBGB] at that point was not really excited about hiring us. We didn’t want to play at Max’s because – eh – we just didn’t want to play there. And the summer here was just very dead.
David: We had to get our heads together.
Eric: We just wanted a break. We needed a vacation and it was really fun.
David: We kept on rehearsing, we worked on our material, and we were going through managerial problems that was taking up a lot of our attention.

FFanzeen: That was Alan Betrock?
Jim: Boy, you leave no stone unturned. Next question.

FFanzeen: How did you get to play at the ECHO convention (two years ago)?
David: Our first manager [Betrock] got us the convention. Next question.

FFanzeen: OK, I'll pass on that one. Never let it be said I couldn’t take a hint.
Jim: He’s a fine rock writer.

FFanzeen: What do you call what you play?
Jim: Music. Definitely music.
Howard: Noise with a sprinkling of screaming. No, I call it Alfred.
David: Marbles Music Mania.
Jim: It’s hard to classify us. We’re somewhere between AM and FM, whatever that means.
Howard: Nirvana.

FFanzeen: What do you think of some of the other New York bands?
Howard: We like the Mumps. I like the Heartbreakers. I like the Voidoids, despite their music. I used to like Television. Blondie’s gotten better. Patti Smith is dead. She was great.
Jim: That about covers it.
Howard: You see, the bands that we listen to are not the so-called New Wave bands that have cropped up in the last eight months. Teenage Jesus, the Cramps. They’re just awful. There's a fundamental philosophy that if you get on stage with an instrument, you should know how to play it.
Jim: I just find it boring. I have no place in my mind for the thoughts those people have.
David: I mean, what does it mean to be “cramped?”

FFanzeen: If you had a choice, what band would you choose to play with?
Jim: Marbles and Mumps are the strongest. Actually, the Rolling Stones.

FFanzeen: What are your ultimate goals?
Jim: To be the first rock band on the moon.
David: First goal is Number One single, ten gold albums.
Jim: Right now, my ultimate goal is to have enough money to buy a TV set. We’d like to tour Europe. I don’t know. Just to be rich and famous. To have fun. Pleasure. Eat a lot of beans. I want to be a major political force: ... for the youth of America. We want to lead America out of the depression. To give people something to believe in again.
David: We want to put rock music back on the map.

FFanzeen: What kind of fan is a Marbles fan?
David: Beautiful. Female. Eighteen.

(At this time, Jim got up to show me something and accidentally knocked my tape recorder off the table, and being consistent, my tape recorder stopped taping).

The publishing of this interview, in part, may have led to the dissolving of the band. At a time when CBGB and Max’s were the two key places in the city to play, the Marbles were considered a CB’s band. And from this interview, you can tell that not only did they insult Max’s, they were not on Hilly Kristal’s A-list either. At the time this interview was completed, the Cramps were CBGB’s Number One house-band. A week after this issue came out, the Marbles were booked to open for, who else, the Cramps. The story I heard is that when the Cramps read the interview, they told Hilly it’s “them or us.” Of course, Hilly went with the money (who wouldn’t) and blackballed the Marbles.

Having burned their bridges with Max’s, there really was no decent venue for them, and they could either move out of the city or dissolve. For a long time, I felt guilty for printing their comments about the Cramps, but in retrospect, I did not ask the Marbles about specific bands, they spoke up voluntarily, and on the record.

The band was very antagonistic in the interview. They were fresh and just back from vacation, excited about their material, and yet they were bitter about the whole scene. Others who have worked with Terry Ork were disappointed in his production, management of the promotion, and especially his handling of the cash, so that’s understandable. David told me years later, with some chagrin, that they were “young and arrogant.”

After Clifford left the band (he became a teacher in Minneapolis), they broke up, and then reformed with the late Richie Lurie (who would eventually join the Waldos with brother Walter Lure), calling themselves the Volts. I had the chance to catch them on February 13, 1981, at the long-since-gone Botany Talk House (Sixth Avenue and 27 Street).

When that ended, as David later explained to me, “Eric, Howard and I formed a production company called Atomic Records, and began writing and producing records for other artists. In 1988, we had a number one dance record with Denise Lopez, whom we had signed on to A&M. During this time, unbeknown to Howard and me, Eric developed a drug habit. Our record actually went Top 40 with … Denise Lopez, and we did two LPs for A&M Records [Truth in Disguise in 1988, and Every Dog Has Her Day in 1990 – RBF, 2022]. At any rate, Eric didn't show up at rehearsal for a few days and we knew something was up. So, I went to his apartment and found him. He'd been dead about 2 days.”

In the early 2000s, the Bowler brothers formed a new band called Contraband, leaning more towards a roots/folk rock sound. I have since regained contact with them and have even taken some publicity photos, including one that is incorporated in their second CD.