Today, an article appeared on MSNBC. It was about Julia Gnuse, our good friend and BEST client ever. We tattooed her EXCLUSIVELY from head to toe. Before any of you start judging, READ HER STORY. The story is pretty brief, but accurate. One of the details the story left out was the failure of the medical community to help her with her condition - cutaneous porpherya. There were prescriptions for experimental medications which cause blindness as a side effect, dermabrasions and chemical peels that were supposed to make the skin more resistant to blistering, which also failed. I (Art) started tattooing her from about 1991 to 1998, 2 times a week for 7 years. Steve took over after I moved to open Funhouse Tattooing in Vancouver British Columbia. We have appeared in lots of magazines and TV ("Guiness Prime Time", "You Asked for it", "Larry King Live", "Pro Sieben" - Germany, "Fuera de Serie" - Latin America"... and more) over the years and things had quieted down in the last 6 years until recently. Julia has been appearing all over the world!! Italy, New York, the midwestern USA with plans to do London in September...
Many addicts eventually admit to having a monkey on their back. Julia Gnuse actually has two chimpanzees. They're embracing on her left shoulder, just above a vintage rendering of the Three Stooges along with an image of the famous chocolate factory scene from "I Love Lucy."
"I like to honor anything that makes me happy with a spot on my body," says the 55-year-old California woman who has at least 400 tattoos that collide into one another in an immense collage, covering 95 percent of this jigsaw puzzle of a body.
"There are parts I can't show you," she says, mentioning that the only areas not tattooed are below her ankles. Still, she doesn't leave much to the imagination.
"I have a great cast scene in my buttocks area of the TV show 'Bewitched.' I have Samantha flying on the broomstick in the cartoon sequence at the beginning, as well as each character, including my favorite, Gladys Kravitz."
Gnuse dropped her robe and flaunted her colorful body of work at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, where Guinness World Records honored her as the World's Most Tattooed Woman -- a distinction she officially shares with Krystyne Kolorful, a Canadian exotic dancer.
"I saw a picture of Krystyne 25 years ago, when I was in Las Vegas," Gnuse says. "I didn't even have one tattoo back then. I didn't even dream at the time that we'd share this record."
In her mid 30s, this Missouri native developed porphyria, a skin disorder similar to lupus. Exposure to sunlight leaves her body scarred.
"It can look sometimes like I have third-degree burns," Gnuse says.
"So in 1991, I went to a tattoo artist named Art Godoy, and I got my octopus. That covered up one scar. Then I kept going."
Soon, she admits, she became an ink-aholic, visiting Godoy's parlor every week for more than 20 years, painting her body with a collage of images from TV shows, movies and pop culture -- all that meant something to her.
The Beatles, her favorite band, soon took a place on her right ankle. Considering that Ringo sang "Octopus's Garden," that must have kept her original tattoo happy. Naturally, all these critters needed to live happily in a yellow submarine, which Gnuse soon added.
Travel north on this living canvas and you'll find Noah's Ark and the Seven Dwarfs on her left thigh, Winnie the Pooh, Fred Flintstone and Popeye on her right.
Up a little more, and you'll find a Guinness World Records logo.
Gnuse holds Lisa and Marge Simpson close to her heart, just above her breasts. She once had a boyfriend tattooed in that region, too. But they had a falling out, and Godoy did some reinking and turned the ex-beau into Rodney Dangerfield.
"Rodney might be gone," Gnuse says, "but he still makes me laugh."
Only one other tattoo has been inked over, and that is a picture of Elvis, which was turned several years ago into Mickey Mouse. There has yet to be another Elvis sighting, at least on this woman's body.
Other pop culture icons elbowing for attention on her arms: Betty Boop, Jack Nicholson, Jim Carrey, Cookie Monster, Tweety Bird and Elmer Fudd.
Groucho Marx -- who famously sang the novelty hit "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" -- is proudly featured on the breast of another woman, tattooed on Gnuse's shoulder.
In other words, Groucho is a tattoo on a tattoo on the world's most tattooed woman.
Godoy and his twin brother are responsible for all of the work on this wearable masterpiece, which will be shown off extensively in the 2011 Guinness World Records book.
Gnuse estimates that she has spent more than $70,000 on her one-of-a-kind makeover. And after working as a courier and a cookie seller, among other jobs, she's now developing a business making personal appearances.
She's not always able to be such an extrovert. While she's quick to parade in a bikini for reporters at a photo op, her condition prevents her from flashing a lot of flesh on a sunny day, and that keeps her covered up much of the time.
"The tattoos have helped me appreciate my body," she says. "When I was younger, I was a pimple picker. It was just pick-pick-pick, and I thought, 'Well, if I put a beautiful art scene on my face ... that would help me not to pick at my blisters and scar myself even more."
In Groucho's song, Lydia leaves the circus after sweeping an admiral off his feet. "The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat," as the lyric goes.
In real life, Gnuse has a longstanding romance with a musician, while sharing her home with her beloved cats.
"My guy doesn't have tattoos," she says, "but he appreciates mine."
For us, liking punk was like someone who's 10 years older than we are liking the bands from their era... so it's understandable that the music happening now, is only "good" to the young of today. Our first exposure to the MC5 was the cover version of "Looking at you" by the Damned on the Machine Gun Etiquette LP.
Though we had heard of them before that... that was the song which made us decide to listen to them. So... influences are roots... people who influenced the MC5 did not sound like them. I can' t think of ANY band before them who even came close! But then again, people get forgotten about. I tattooed a kid the other day, 20 years old who didn't know who the Clash was!! Imagine that.
We got into punk at 11 years old, the same year we got into skateboarding. We lived in Pennsylvania at the time and all the new music would come from England to New York and then down to us. Our favorite record store "Stan's Records" would get all the stuff... tons of singles and LP's. You could go there anytime and get great sh*t. All the excitement a couple of 11 year old kids could want - Music and being active in a sport which, like "punk" music, put you outside the "Norm" which was disco, arena rock and team sports. This lifestyle reflected our personal attitudes and feelings toward the place we lived.
If we had this type of weaponry then... look out all you hicks...
Some years later, when punk started to evolve into Oi!, there came a band called the Cockney Rejects. When we got the "Power and the Glory" LP and saw the tattoos these guys had on them, that's when we went "Holy sh*t!!" spiky hair and safety pins in ripped clothes made a great statement but what better way to say "f*ck you!" to the world than tattoos!!
This is a feeling shared by the fans of so many revolutionary bands... like the MC5. So there is a parallel between all of this. Some of the Stooges and MC5 fans are older than we are but they can't tell me that they can't relate to this feeling. You must choose wether you are gonna be the problem or wether you are gonna be the solution. What the MC5 saw as the solution could have been seen by the mainstream as a major problem! Same as punk... same as tattooing.
This attitude affected us later as we became professional skateboarders. The time period was not ready to accept who we were and the image we projected. Tattooed, punk, skateboarders. If any of you remember the 80's, you CAN'T OVERLOOK the lame colors and styles, both musically and fashionably.
Imagine...your kid saying "Mom, dad, I have something to tell you...I wanna look like that!"
Sooooo bad. So fruity. Really, that era was marked with horrible music, horrible hair cuts and horrible clothing. How can anyone be involved in such a radical sport and wear that pink clothing, bleach your long bangs and listen to INXS!! It just doesn't mix!!! How about that!! In an industry controlled by NON skateboarding businessmen, who did market research to find that the boards were being bought for their 14 year old kids by their mommies... and realized that WE WERE TOO RADICAL for their taste, even though we didn't smoke, drink or do any drugs.
Ok.. see this ad? Look at these shorts...GAY! OK, OK, we wore the sh*t ONCE!!! ONCE!!! Were homeless in Dallas, and got a message through the skate shop next to this ramp, that we would be paid to actually WEAR these clothes AND these pads... we agreed. The ad appeared in Transworld Skateboarding Magazine. And guess what? WE NEVER GOT PAID!!! F*CK!
We were blacklisted for years! We did get a spread in Thrasher on tattoos... that was 1990, February I think. We had asked a certain photographer who worked for one of the 3 magazines happening at the time why our "coverage" was so sporadic...if not rare, and he said "if you guys were to appear in a magazine 2 months in a row, it would be too much exposure." Not sure what that meant. Maybe we were real memorable. Nobody who was in the mainstream skate industry realized that we had our own network of "skate hoodlums" all over the world which lived the same way. Though they are older, (and still younger than we are) most of these guys are now tattooers and still skate! Guaranteed. We know this because we get correspondence from tons of skateboard fans from those days.
Godoys, Argentina 2008.
It's funny to look at the skateboard industry now. Most of the professionals in the magazines are tattooed. This cross over can be seen in the Bart Saric film "Skinned Alive".
We started tattooing in 1985-86. Working on each other and on our friends. It was not what people think, that we skated professionally and then decided to tattoo. It wasn't like that. We were tattooing while we skated and when our skateboarding careers were over (at 23 years old) and the new generation came in, we had a career to fall back on - Tattooing.
For us, the connection between all of these lifestyles is what has kept us on the same path for all these years. We have devoted our whole lives to 3 things - Skateboarding, tattooing and punk rock. We have gotten notariety in ALL of these. Pro skateboarders, we hold 2 patents on tattoo machines - have exclusively tattooed the Guiness Book's most tattooed woman Julia Gnuse, and our bands have become relatively known in punk circles and have played with musicians from our favorite bands!!!
We have been so lucky in our lives to have gotten to play with people we have admired as kids getting in to punk. Everything we set out to do, we do. We are doers. Steve has been drumming for Gary Lammin (for the last few weeks on tour) who was in Cock Sparrer... the bass player was in CHelsea!!!... Steve has toured with the Vibrators for 6 weeks in the U.S. , We have and still do play with Deniz Tek... RADIO BIRDMAN is STILL our favorite band after all these years... just something about the energy of the music, the stealthness of the symbol... not to mention, they are ALL cool friends of ours now.
Steve and the Vibrators.
One thing we did, was a Visitors reunion tour in Australia. There were few dates but it was successful. We got into the Visitors in about 1986. We had been learning about the Radio Birdman off shoot/family tree bands, as well as bands which were influenced by them. First, it was the New Race!!! Holy Sh*t, that record didn't leave the turn table for months...
The excitement of finding and buying these records was putting us in the poor house!!! We couldn't get enough. Sh*t, when we found the Visitors LP, and saw that it had a version of Haunted Road on it, we couldn't drive fast enough to get to the house to listen to it!! We devoured all the information... band members, song titles, lyrics.. we even had a business card with the album's statues on it!! Who knew that we would be in the reformation line-up!!
The history is so long... and it's so mind blowing to be part of the family tree!! You know who's the best? Pip.. that guy is the funniest. It was so great to meet him... when we would watch old birdman footage where pip explains the difference between assertiveness and aggression, approximately 3:16 into this footage....
So great... Pip rules. We couldn't wait to play "Disperse" in the rehearsal room... f*ck, it was the greatest. Here's Pip live...
Another character is Mark Sisto... we had met him years before this date, when he was in California in 1996. He stayed at the house in Orange, the same house we did the Deniz Tek Jalisco tours... check him out, sneaking up on me in Deniz's back yard...
The guy is a genius. Listen to the lyrics on the Visitors record. "I left Paris on a midnight train, I was bound for Northern Spain when I spied a miracle creature, I couldn't talk so I sang to the wind and trees and country rolling out the window outside..." or how about "like spoims on a hot street dying with no target to meet she laughs at my death in pleasure..." everyone feels like that sometimes... like a spoim drying and dying on a hot street.
Me and Mark Sisto.
Here's Deniz dispersing during "DISPERSE" ...check the snake shoes... so smooooooth, just like the feedback coming outa that Marshall.
Here's Steve behind the drums at the Gaelic Club show... great lighting, cool logo on the front of the drum!! Guess what??? we have coming up?? Never mind, we'll share it next time.. you'll just have to wait...
Deniz Tek's returned to the new release racks with his US-based touring band, The Golden Breed, in tow. The album is "Glass Eye World" on Career Records, the label co-owned by Deniz and his Montana-based musical mate Ron Sanchez of the psych band Donovan's Brain. It's a bristling effort, full of feisty, rocking songs and arguably more punk in feel than The Iceman's recent solo band output. It's very much a band effort too, with the Golden Breed sharing the spotlight with songs of their own.
Steve and Art Godoy
The Golden Breed are Art and Steve Godoy, identical twins on guitar and drums respectively, and a more colourful background you're unlikely to find. Former professional skateboarders, they are tattooists by trade and cut their musical teeth in the burgeoning SoCal punk scene of the '90s as members of the Exploding Fuck Dolls. THE BARMAN decided to catch up with the Godoy twins over a virtual soft drink or two in February 2003. Here's the result.
The album's great and a different feel in many places than the stuff Deniz has done before. So how do a couple of ex-pro skaters from a Cali punk band join up with a rock 'n' roll doctor from Montana?
Art: How did we end up playing with Deniz? We started communicating with Deniz in, like '91, and ended up playing with Deniz for the first time in '93 or '94. We had read an interview with him in some zine where he said he was in an emergency room in Montana, Billings to be exact. We called info and by luck, we got the right hospital and he was even working that day!
We introduced ourselves and communicated by mail and fax for a long time. A year later, he was on a long lay-over in LAX airport where we all agreed to meet for the first time. Anyhow, we had gotten rid of the un-needed band members and were going as a three-piece with me singing, Steve on drums and Paddy on bass. Sometime after the initial meeting with Deniz, he told us that he had a medical convention in San Diego. We happened to have a gig one of those nights and he came and brought the white Epiphone and we did five Birdman songs..."Not bad for a first practice," he said.
We did lots of little tours in the coming years with him in between Exploding Fuck Dolls business. Those were so fun, so many funny inside jokes and great food...always. Tacos Jalisco is a restaurant in Orange California we would eat at every day.
Let's back track...who were your former band the Exploding Fuck Dolls? I believe there was some major label interest but it must have been fun getting gigs with that name!
S: The Exploding Fuck Dolls had a long list of members,but I will start from the beginning because the first line-up is the one we feel sums up the bands intended style and feel.The first line-up was Art on guitar/backing vocals,me on drums/backing vocals,Dev Gilmore on bass/backing vocals and Kevin Edman on guitar/lead vocals.This was THE Exploding Fuck Dolls we loved best.
Unreal music arranged and written by Art and Kevin,...we played like 10 shows...stronger and stronger following each time,then Kevin died...Art and I carried on,Dev moved to Hollywood,we got an ex-guitar player from one of our old bands, the Goat-fucker (his name)...to sing we got Duane Peters,an ex-pro skateboarder,on bass this guy named Ricky who was fired and replaced by a stand-in, non-commital guy named Brad.
This line up had the biggest following of Orange County punk fans...HUGE...Los Angeles,San Diego,San Francisco...BIG.But the members had drug problems,excepting for Art and me,who never did 'em. These others also were Alcoholic Anonymous/Narcotic Anonymous guys ...fuck...should have been called the Exploding Fuck-Ups. We actually had major label interest...
Who were some of your contemporaries on the scene at the time? Did you put out any recordings?
A: The other contemporaries during the Fuck Dolls' reign were bands who are now huge. We have had No Doubt open for us (before Gwen sang). Sublime opened a huge weekend festival which we headlined in Huntington Beach. Pennywise opened once, Offspring was around. We shared the bill with Social Distortion once, Guttermouth opened...
See, the major labels who showed interest were RCA, MCA, London, Virgin, Hollywood Records and Mercury. We would call these fuckers at major labels, like this one guy who was head of Immortal through sony and go,"Where's our deal? All your bands suck where's our advance?" Out of all the labels who did show up at gigs most said:"The band is great, singer sucks". That was Duane at the time.
Things went south with these guys doing their drugs and when the labels were signing all the bands, we had no singer. The timing was always hit and miss - or should i say shit and piss. The releases we had were one single and another ready to be pressed at that time. Later we released another single on Munster (pictured). We have tons of recordings tons of unreal stuff...just you wait til ya hear it.
S: We are releasing ALL the Fuck Dolls line-ups' recordings soon. You will NEED to hear and review it!!!
Art, I believe you're a tattooist in Vancouver. How's that for a working gig?
S: I tattoo for Outer Limits Tattoo, we both do the same thing,as we are twins...always have shared the same interests.I live in Santa Monica, California, though.
Tell me about the pro skating thing. Were either of you at the level that you could make a reasonable living?
S: As far as our pro skateboarding career,well...I could go on forever, but will make it brief. We did have the ability, notoriety and status to make a living at it and finally started to make real money at the end of our careers, but throughout it, our career was controlled by these idiots that would not allow room for two heavily tattooed guys who represented "outlawness" and the "do what ever the fuck you want and fuck 'em if they don't like it" lifestyle, yet never did drugs or drank and were dedicated to skateboarding, even through tough times we personally had... like being homeless for a year, eating out of dumpsters and so on.
We did not match their criteria - "they" being some of our sponsors or especially the two existing publications, so that meant, no coverage in the mags and even less support from our lame sponsors...so Finally,after four years, we got the right sponsors who backed our own company financially...yeah...then out came the rug from under our feet...skateboarding crashed along with our backers pulling out...again to back another surf style company. That's that.
But look at skateboarding now,they are all trying to be "punk" and have tattoos...we pioneered this ALL...12 years ahead of our time.
Do either of you guys play regularly in bands, seeing as Deniz Tek & The Golden Breed shows are few and far between? Tell us about the Vancouver show in 2002. What was the set list like?
A: In the Last of the Badmen currently. Steve and I are gonna start writing an album soon
S: The order of songs in the Vancouver set were:
What It's For, Hangin' On, Breaks My Heart, Let's Go, Hand of Law, Shellback, Day to Ride, Snake, Steel Beach, 1 Eye Sam, Smith & Wesson Blues, 2 Pam Chloride, Brother John, Dark Surpise, New Race. Encores: Blood From a Stone, What Gives?, I Got a Right.
Amazing show too...sold out. I would stand up from back behind the drums at any time and all I could see is people the whole way back to the entrance of the club...loud cheering, really appreciative fans,the best...
A: Vancouver was a great gig, I paid for all these 1/4 page ads and set up this club to play at. The promo was unreal not just from my end but from the club and it's promoters. The place was packed, from front to back - so packed that they were turning people away! That's the most packed place we have ever played with Deniz.
Did you hear about sighting of the late Joe Strummer in a Golden Breed T-shirt by the way? I heard he was spotted at a Mescalernos show in NYC.
S: We did hear about Joe Strummer wearing one of our shirts at the NYC show...cool.
As an aside, Deniz's love of all things Stones, the Stooges and MC5 is pretty well known. What are the main musical influences for you guys? (I suppose I'm trying to get a feel for the different nature of the album, compared to other things Deniz has been involved in.)
S: We are mainly influenced by early English punk bands...Chelsea, 999, Damned, Clash,...Irish ones too...Boomtown Rats, Stiff Little Fingers. We like Motorhead,Thin Lizzy...as far as rock bands go. Of course our all time favorite band is Radio Birdman. I think you can hear a bit of all of those in our songs.
Art is a genius songwriter...and him and Deniz together is unbelievable!
A: Our main musical infuences are old English punk bands, though we don't sound like any of them. We like the rawness and musicalness of those bands...Birdman is still a favorite. We write what sounds good to us.
So how long did it take, all up, to record the "Glass Eye World" album and in which studios was it put down?
S: The "Glass Eye World'"album is two years in the works. It wasn't intended to take that long...but here it is now. We recorded at Dave Weyers in Billings, Montana. That guy is great - there's no one like him! We then recorded at Ron Sanchez' place in Bozeman ,Montana. Rad set-up he has there in his basement. That was fun, especially watching Deniz sing Dark Surprise...YEAH.
Then finally in Vancouver, Canada...we recorded two songs with Arts friends/tattoo clients at their college for record engineers...all that was really not rehearsed, maybe three times each song. I am so stoked on that session,we worked together well.
The live song, "2 Pam Chloride", sounds like it was taken from an ulltra hot show. What was the deal with that? It was in Dave Weyer's shed, I heard, and you did a sprinkling of Birdman songs? Which ones and what was the rest of the set?
S: The live "2 Pam" is great,the show was in front of a bunch of Deniz' daughter's friends, fans of Deniz', invite only...sounds big in Dave's shed huh?
That set had some obscure songs in it: "Mesozoic Cave","Lunatics", "Ze Good Way", even "Hit 'em Again...basically a lot of the same songs we had done with Deniz on the first 'Jalisco Tours' through California.
Who's "1 Eye Sam" by the way? Any relation to "One String Sam", the Michigan blues guy? What's the song about?
A: Sam who? This song is about Sammy in Mexico. He is a cholo, he is real connected and he is someone you don't want on your bad side. We seem to get along with those types so we are now connected too. He's a great friend. He has a glass eye. He says he's the "only one left" and that he is "a survivor"- from the gangster/lowrider era.
He lives in Guadalajara and for being who he is and living as hard as he has (doing time in a US prison, deportations, drugs) he is now straight and owns several tattoo shops not only in hs town but at some beach resorts. He has contributed tremedously to building awareness of "safe" tattooing and passing legislation to make tattooing accepted and regulated in Mexico.
Mexico is a very catholic and religious country so it's hard work to do what he does. He puts on the biggest tattoo convention every September in Guadalajara. The guy is a tattoo pioneer in Mex, along with two others but the others fight for all the credit so It seems unfair that he hasn't gotten the recognition he deserves - "never get an equal piece of the pie". He scares alot of the tattooers in Mexico, the guy gets tons of respect. He's great.
The "plastic shades" part in the song is about a phony who 's going on 10 percent of his liver.
I like the feel on "Let's Go", the second album cut which you guys co-wrote. Are the lyrics autobiographical? Can you expand?
S: "Let's Go",was written originally by Kevin Edman (EFD's first singer,myself and Art)...we kept the music for the Golden Breed and changed the words. It's basically about Art and I hating incompetent people, wanting to get away from them...they will all be washed away by the rain...dead or alive...no sympathy from us...
What are your fave cuts, respectively?
S: My favorite songs on the "Glass Eye World" CD in order are...hmmmm..."Wild Card","What It's For","One Eyed Sam","Clifford Possum"..they all rock!!!
A: My favorite tracks are "What It's For", "Let's Go" "Flight 19". I actually like 'em all...I remember having low blood sugar while I sang "Wild Card" so I got all slow on some of the last verses. The Vancouver tracks rocked too - "Always Out of Reach" and "Out of Action". This album is so great.
Did you hear Birdman demo'd "Always Out of Reach" and "What It's For" recently? What's your reaction to that?
S: I have not heard Radio Birdman's versions.
A: The Birdman version of "What It's For" is what I heard. I thought it was real good. The middle eight's different. I think ours sounds more "raw" but theirs definitely rocks.
A: Let's see, if we were gonna order drinks at I-94, how about some lemonade? Bottoms up!
Steve and I were pro skateboarders from 1985 to 1990, around the time we started tattooing. We got into skateboarding in 1977 at the same time we got into punk rock. We lived in Pennsylvania, about 45 minutes from Philadelphia.
This was cool cuz all the music from England would find it's way across the sea to New York, then down to where we were. So exciting... this was the attitude we were waiting for!
We had been listening to Kiss... what did this ever do for us? NOTHING!! We already had a dislike for this society we were living in... even at 11 years old! We would do work around he house for an allowance, take it and spend it all on records!
So many bands... Generation X, Sex Pistols, Dead Boys, the Adverts, the Professionals, Buzz Cocks, Chelsea, the Damned... god, the list goes on. The excitement we had is indescribable. Punk summed up everything we were about. It was the "f**k you!" we were waiting for. In fact to this day, our musical taste is still the same, 1977 punk, with the addition of a few other bands.
We have dedicated our lives to skateboarding, tattooing and punk rock. All of which recognize individuality, creativity and originality. You had to depend on yourself.. you didn't lose the game cuz some one didn't catch the ball, it's all you! All these things together were our "f**k you!" to the world.
Anyways... we have lived a great life due to these things... homeless in Dallas for a year, traveling the world skating, tattooing and playing music. Our first band was "the Crabs", each letter stood for the name of a band member - Charlie, Ricky, Art, Brian and Steve.
We ended cutting out Charlie and Brian and ended up with Justin Ashby. He was from England. His thick accent made us sound authentic!! We were listening to the Jam everyday. Great music, great band... great look. For ourselves, it wasn't the look, we wanted to copy, it was the instruments... the Rickenbacker guitars and bass.
Ricky got a white 4001 bass with black hardware, that thing was so f**king hot, I ended up with a red 620 guitar!!! Ricky set up our first gig at a halloween dance at a school for retarded kids. Imagine, rehearsing our first songs and getting to play in a gymnasium FULL of down syndrome kids!
We had to do 2 sets... it was in a gymnasium, the stage was real tall, like 4' off the ground and the view was perfect to see these kids with different levels of impairment, some in wheel chairs, some had helmets on, all dressed up in halloween costumes, dancing around and thrashing around anyway they wanted was the best!!
Sh*t, there was one dressed as Alice Cooper, another as Rambo "with real plastic bullets" on his belt (as he commented)... there were witches, wolf men, draculas... it was the funniest sh*t ever. Part way through the set, they told us to stop playing so they could turn on the lights because the kids were getting scared of the dark!!
We got off the stage and got our first portion of the payment they owed us - punch and cookies! No sh*t, that's what we agreed to play for!!
One girl came up to Ricky, the bassist and kept hugging him and rubbing herself on him, he offered her cookies and a teacher came up to him and told him, "wait!! don't give any cookies, in fact, don't giver her anything... she's sexually active and she wants you, the cookies and sugar maker crazier!!" ha ha ha ha ha.. we f**ked with Ricky for weeks about his "new girlfriend" at the Blue Bonnet school!!!
This was in about 1986, still have the flyer somewhere... it said "Halloween party at the Blue Bonnet school, "CRAB" NEW WAVE BAND WILL BE PLAYING. ha ha ha ha... this is all you readers get until next time...
Two of my blog clients are the Godoy twins Steve and Art. These guys are absolutely bionic and talented in so many ways. They are musicians Steve drums and Art guitar (boy are they ever), Pro skateboarders and tattoo artists. Steve lives in Santa Monica and Art is in Vancouver Canada. I usually chat with Art. But it turned out that his brother Steve was playing with The Belmondsey Joyriders at the Corktown Tavern in Detroit.
Deniz Tek and Steve's twin brother Art really wanted me to go down and meet Steve so Kimmer and the Hatter took off to Detroit again! All three of these guys are my blogger clients. Believe it or not I am still up! Must have been that music and coney dog!
Steve Hatter Gary and Marty
We had to sit through a band before my guys went on and their drummer was pretty good and I said so to Steve. He laughed and told me he was going to make him look like a 6 year old and I'll be damned if he didn't do JUST THAT. Man did Steve beat the tar out of that kit!
Fierce!
All I could do is stare in disbelief at that guy!
Gary really kept the crowd fired up!
After the show we took the boys in the band to the Holiday Inn and after they checked in we took them on a landmark tour of Detroit. We ate at Lafayette Coney Island, saw the big new buildings, saw the old train station but best of all...
I shot them on the porch of the old run down MC5 house on 3rd and Canfield
Then I shot them outside the abandoned Grande Ballroom
Marty got back in the jeep because it was freezing at 4am! Smartest one of all of us!
I had such a great time! Haven't had that much fun since the 80's! Can't wait to meet Art and see the brothers play music together! Hanging with Steve made me want to go get a tattoo of the Radio Birdman symbol! But a tiny one...
Here is a little silly video to end the fun night with the band and Madhatter!
Thanks guys for the show and the CD and tee shirt! Oh I almost forgot! Look what I got for my collection... YAY!
