Review: Wendy O. Williams: Live and Fucking Loud in London!

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

Wendy O. Williams: Live and Fucking Loud in London!
Directed by Rod Swenson
Trilion Pictures; Sledgehammer Entertainment; MVD Entertainment Group
55 minutes, 1985 / 2022
www.mvdvisual.com

Back in the late 1970s, I saw this relatively new band a couple of times at CBGB, led by Wendy O. Williams (a.k.a. W.O.W.) called the Plasmatics. They were wild, including sawing a guitar in half with a chainsaw while still plugged in (noise reminiscent of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music).

Back then, Williams (d. 1998) was known for a lack of clothing that might make Iggy blush, stage presence, and a voice so gravelly you could use it to cover a country road. The Plasmatics were getting quite a name for themselves, and not just from blowing up a car during a show on a Manhattan pier. They broke up in 1983 (they reformed for a moment from 1987 to 1988).

Plasmatics at CBGB (pic by Robert Barry Francos)

After the first demise of the Plasmatics, Williams went on her own journey, including acting (e.g., 1986’s Reform School Girls), and forming a new band – guitar: Michael Ray (who also worked with the Plasmatics); bass: Greg Smith; drums: T.C. Tolliver, including all doing backing vocal duties as well – and toured extensively.

The part of the tour that is represented on this DVD was shot during October 1985, at the Camden Palace in London. Hot off a Grammy nominated album (produced by Gene Simmons of KISS), she moved out of the punk world and into metal, including speed metal on Kommander of Kaos, the album she was promoting on this journey through Europe. This particular show was originally broadcast overseas on Sky TV (I believe it was titled Bump and Grind), and fell into obscurity for years.

At this stage of her career – some might call this her “pinnacle” – she was in top form, both musically and working the stage. Geologist and Plasmatics’ guitarist Richie Stotts may have been gone, but the power trio backing her up were dedicated and in fine form keeping up with her Tasmanian Devil stage antics. To be honest, through the growl in her voice and the speed of the songs, I cannot tell most of the lyrics, but I do not care, it is the performance that matters.

The video was directed by Rod Swanson, which should be no surprise as he managed her career from the beginning, meeting when she was still doing porn (e.g., Debbie Does Hollywood) and live sex shows (fortunately, she got outta da biz before AIDS hit hard). Rather than criticize her, I think this was an important step for her getting used to being mostly unclad on stage when singing. As she once said, “It was just like working in a doughnut shop, except you didn't wear a paper hat”.

Anyway, back to the DVD, the show begins with the blistering guitarwork of bare-chested Ray, and of course it only builds once Williams hits the stage with “Gone Wild.” But it is the second song, “Pedal to the Metal,” where her inner Ramones comes in (right down to DeeDee’s count-off at one point), Williams just blisters. By the third song, she is in total sweat from dancing around on the stage. Considering she was in her late 30s by this point, she goes full tilt out.

The song “You’ll Succeed” sounds more like “You’ll Suck Seed,” reminding me of Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers’ “Born to Lose”/”Born Too Loose” double entendre. “Party Tonight” is a killer tune as well.

“Jammin’” is just what it says: Williams goes backstage to wipe off and remove more clothes, and the band jams for longer than I was interested. As talented as this trio is, and they truly are, like most jamming, it is a “show” with little melody but lots of note fingering. This is the main reason I like the simplicity of the Ramones rather than hair bands.

By the time she gets to “Jailbait,” she is joined by the Lemmy (d. 2016) and Wurzel (d. 2011) from Motörhead for just this song (and if you are in NYC, be sure to check out the Motörhead cover band, Motörbrained).

Amusingly, the camera keeps going back to a guy in the front of the audience who has a huge green mohawk and heavily studded leather jacket who seems to watch the show stoically (though occasionally doing a head bop), not even joining in for the chant-along of “Bump and Grind.” Also, during this song, Williams goes back to form and sledgehammers a television. Like comedian Gallagher (d. 2022) and his watermelon, well, you just have to come to expect that. But Ray playing while sitting on Williams’ shoulders is a nice touch.

Pyrotechnics are used intermittently throughout the show, though not to KISS level, but more appropriate to the venue. It’s all fun, and it smokes up the stage for “Fuck That Booty,” which I thought was the weakest song of the show, though Ray gets to show off once again.

During the last song, “Fuck’n’Roll,” a killer number, I thought about the difference between Plasmatics Williams and this show: for this, she uses way less props, even with the TV smashing. I remember her holding up signs. And while she is still sensual as hell, she no longer rubs her crotch often nor goes topless with electrical tape Xs over her nipples. But it is good to see her chainsaw a guitar again, as she finishes off the show. I always wondered what guitar mavens like Binky Phillips and Tom Guerra thought about that practice. One other difference is that Wendy seems even more comfortable and confident as a singer on stage.

The DVD’s visuals and sound are crisp and clear, most likely shot on the superior European PAL technology. This is a hard rockiin’ set with some punk elements, but Ray’s guitar makes it solid hair metal with a hard edge. Miss ya, Wendy O.

Set List:
Gone Wild
Pedal to the Metal
You’ll Succeed
No Class
Party (Tonight)
Jammin’
Hoy Hey (Live to Rock)
Jailbait
Ain’t None of Your Business
Bump and Grind
Fuck That Booty
Fuck’n’Roll

Review: Plasmatics Live! 1978-1981 – Rod Swenson’s Lost Tapes

Text/live photos © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2017

Other Image/video from the Internet

Plasmatics Live! 1978-1981: Rod Swenson’s Lost Tapes

Directed by Rod Swenson (historical) and Randy Shooter (modern)

Pandemonium Merchandising / Plasmatics Media / MVD Visual

64 minutes, 2017

www.mvdvisual.com

First of all, and I believe it’s important to state this before the review, I never found Wendy O. Williams attractive, despite the band’s highly charged sexual narrative (and yes, I did see her adult film, Candy Goes to Hollywood). Also never thought she had much of a singing voice as much as a screech, and even her speaking voice was, well, flinty. But man, I so enjoyed the Plasmatics’ live show, and I respect Wendy for all she had accomplished.

I feel lucky to have seen them play in the 1977-78 period, always at CBGBs. They often had a pretty packed house. Never stayed too close to the stage though, as I was usually wont to do, because the chainsaw made me nervous (yeah, I’m a wuss punk, so fuck off). Yet I went back and saw them again a few times, early enough when they had their original bassist, Chosei Funahara, who would do a Dee Dee Ramone-type count off, but in Japanese.

They pre-dated GG Allin’s infamous decent into whatever that was GG was doing at his ending, truly living as the ultimate punk, but even they were not the first to be “shock” punk rock. That right goes to the confrontational and transgressional Suicide and Red Transistor/Von Lmo; but the Plasmatics were definitely something new and something… else. With Wendy O. [d. 1998] out front and greatly underrated guitarist (i.e., those who know, know better) Richie Stotts’ on-stage antics – usually playing in a dress and tutu, with a dyed ‘hawk of changing hues – they were nothing short of a force to be reckoned with, and I both respected and enjoyed that energy.

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That is why I was so happy to see that this DVD existed. Rod Swenson was the one who discovered Williams (i.e., put her into Times Square live dominatrix sex shows), and formed/managed the Plasmatics. He was also Williams’ partner for over 20 years, and there is no denying that there was some kind of affection there, from what I’ve heard over the years.

The opening sets on here are at CBGB, and I was most likely there at least for the first show recorded in 1978. One of the interesting aspects on this collection is that even for the early shows, Rod, being a showman, used multiple cameras to shoot the band, even if they were edited together decades later for this collection by Randy Shooter after the tapes were found while moving around Swenson’s memorabilia.

The problem with video tape (be it VHS, beta or ¾”), of course, is at least twofold: first, over time it tends of decompose, get dry, and break; second, compared to modern HD digital quality, well, it looks fuzzy at best, digitally noisy at worst (remember those colored lines going up and down the screen? I don’t miss that). It’s important to acknowledge that even with some remastering, the master tapes were in that condition when viewing this, but as this is a historical document, so unless you’re a dick, you’ll see past it.

It’s also interesting to note how, as each section of venues pass, that in a very short time frame the venues get incrementally larger, from CBGB to the Calderone Theatre on Long Island in May 1980, to Times Square’s Bond’s Casino in May 1981 (where the Clash infamously played during that same month), into Perkin’s Palace in Pasadena in June 1981, and finally the infamous open-aired Dr. Pepper Festival at Pier 84 in September 1981.

By the third section here and the second venue, the band was starting to really get their stage shit together, even with some new personnel (e.g.., Funahara is gone). In one year they have gone from a band running round a stage in a club doing some arguably weird stuff like sawing a plugged in electric guitar in half with a chainsaw, to bigger and more dynamic activities, given the space, time, and finances. Luckily, this did not reflect on their sound, which remained tight and, arguably, also chainsaw-like. The energy level never dipped, even with ballads like “Sometimes I Feel It,” and the songs remained as mumbled and jumbled as ever. This is meant as a compliment.

The Plasmatics sound, at this stage, sometimes came across to me as a cross between punk, Alice Cooper level theatrics, and the occasional incorporation of the minimalist sounds and distortions of No Wave. This is evident in pieces here like “Dream Lover,” where some electronic equipment employed by Stotts sends waves of static noise over the rest of the band. While not my taste (the Lou Reed-ish electronica stuff), it does fit in well with their whole oeuvre, which set a new level of acceptance for women fronting volatile bands, who were usually led by men before this, though some may argue against the using of sex/the female body to be the focus of the – er – face of it.

The visual and aural quality of the Bond’s Casino show easily the weakest. If you’ve ever listen to a bootleg tape recorded at some arena show, you have some idea of what the auditory part is like. The visuals aren’t much better.

Wendy liked to engage with the audience, which appears to be mostly male, though that seems like not much of stretch to guess. As the venues became bigger, such as with the Dr. Pepper Festival, the stage is too far from the crowd, and too high to jump into it, so there is less contact. Also, by this time, the tone of the band had changed from a form of punk into more leather and metal, hence the final song, “Black Leather Monster,” where they infamously blow up a car onstage.

The ending is a “bonus” of an unreleased and highly low rez quality music video shot by Swenson of “Monkey Suit” from 1980.

From what I understand, Wendy was a strong, kind and giving woman who was political and a devout animal advocate who did not do drugs or alcohol, and yet was trapped (in my opinion) in a masculinist world that had trouble seeing past the stage persona, and refused to accept the band for who they were. Many interviews from the era with Wendy were contentious and on the offensive towards her and the band.

Many saw Wendy and the (lost?) boys as a joke or a menace to the culture. One must remember, this was around the time of Reagan introducing the hyper-religious into a more mainstream sphere, and it was shortly later in 1985 that the Parents Music Resource Center tried and failed miserably to censor music (how is that for an inconvenient truth, Tipper?). Between the PMRC and the Plasmatics, one of the bands at the forefront of the group, it shouldn’t be any wonder that the band were innovative enough to become influential, and even today there are bands that if not model themselves on the Plasmatics, one can see a sisterhood, with such as Colleen Caffeine’s band in Detroit, Choking Susan (though with much less “toys”).

Despite some negatives due to quality of the image and sound in some parts, overall this is a document that is worthwhile for fans of the band, musical historians, and anyone just looking to rock out for some fun music with high energy. Party on, Garth!

Song List:

Want You (Baby)

Tight Black Pants

Dream Lover

Sometimes I Feel It

Squirm

Butcher Baby

Living Dead

Summer Night

Fast Food Service

Nothing

Summer Night

Sex Junkie

Squirm

Lunacy

Black Leather Monster

Monkey Suit [Bonus]