Talkin’ with Television’s Tom Verlaine (At CBGB’s, New York City, 7/29/76)

Interview text © 1976 by Bernie Kugel;
RBF intro © 2010 by Robert Barry Francos
Images from the Internet

The following interview with Tom Verlaine was originally published in Big Star magazine, issue #1, dated May 1977. It was conducted by Bernie Kugel, and reprinted here with his kind permission. I have left the text the way Bernie originally had it (cleaning up some typos kinds of things), changing only the way the names are presented in the Q&A (e.g., “Tom” rather than “T.V.”) for clarity. Text added by me in 2010 is in [brackets].

The esoteric level of television was lost on me to some extent in the mid-70s, but even so, there were a band a saw quite a few times back then, and enjoyed the experience nonetheless. My favorite live song of theirs, after “Little Johnny Jewel,” was the cover of Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” in an extended version they had made their own, much as Patti Smith had done with “Gloria.” This was around the time Richard Hell had just left the band.

I was sort of there the night Bernie Kugel interviewed the band. Well, I was at CBGB’s, saw the show, but I hung out with drummer Billy Ficca while Bernie was interviewing Tom (for privacy reasons). I can’t remember I talked with Billy about all that time, during the early sound check period before the doors to the club officially opened, but that’s not the point here.

Television, of course, is part of the reason there was a CBGB’s, and their history is well chronicled elsewhere (in many different places), so on with the interview. – RBF, 2010

Bernie Kugel: Would you think of Television ever going on television?
Tom Verlaine: No, I don’t want to do TV at all. Fact is, a lot of groups ruin their own live performances by playing TV because everybody sees them on TV and they’re not going to pay $6.00 for a concert if they can see ‘em like that. They might check ‘em out if they’ve never seen ‘em, but if they see ‘em and didn’t like ‘em, they’re not going to pay money for the concert, see? That’s why a lot of people don’t… Blue Oyster Cult don’t do TV for that reason…. A lot of groups are very smart in not doing TV… I wouldn’t mind doing a three-minute spot if I got my own video guy and did it my way, but usually the sound on TV is crummy and you got these asshole cameramen doing psychedelic shit with the lenses while you’re playing. It’s just silly.

Bernie: Would you say you like jazz more than rock…?
Tom: No, no… not by any means. I mean I like all kinds of music, but I’m not hooked on any kind of music, so to speak. Like I don’t sit around and play KISS records all day long. But I do like everything; all kinds of music.

Bernie: How does the writing of a Television song come about?
Tom: I get the words… sometimes get the words, sometimes you get the riffs first, rehearse and throw this around, and I might have ideas for guitar lines… show [guitarist Richard ] Lloyd something like this, he take it and maybe improve it. Same with Fred [Smith, bass]… Fred will come up with a line or I’ll come up with a bass line and he’ll take it and make something better out of it… Billy [Ficca, drums] will make something better out of it… It’s like in any group really. It’s like one guy who writes the material and has the basic idea for the arrangement and you do it for a week and throw it around and everything falls into place. If it doesn’t you find out about it when it’s too late.

Bernie: Would you think there would come a day when Richard or Fred or Billy would be writing songs for the group?
Tom: It’s sorta not how we operate, ya know… exactly… it could happen.

Bernie: Do you foresee Television lasting a long time?
Tom: Oh yeah.

Bernie: Do you see people in the band going into solo careers shortly or anything like that?
Tom: No, I think we’re getting closer as the years go on, so to speak.

Bernie: What’s your favorite types of guitars?
Tom: I’ve always liked Fender guitars; they have a real juicy sound, you know? They’re not great for rhythm, they‘re real good for lead. They don’t stay in tune either, though they’re still worth it somehow. I might end up playing a Gibson because it stays in tune and in a big space it makes a bigger sound; it doesn’t get lost in the room. But in a studio I like to play a Fender.

Bernie: In The New York Rocker, you were explaining about how drugs help you expand yourself…?
Tom: Oh yeah…

Bernie: Do you still experiment with drugs a lot?
Tom: No, not much at all. I wouldn’t say really at all. Drugs are like… if you’re intuitive about things or something and you take drugs, they make you believe in your own intuitions more ‘cause there’s something very nebulous about drugs, and there’s something unspeakably true about what you go through with any given drug.

Bernie: What’s this about Theresa Stern (authoress of a book of poems, Wanna Go Out, credited by many to be the early works of Verlaine and Richard Hell, currently denied by Hell in recent interviews)?
Tom: What do you know about Theresa Stern?

Bernie: Teresa Stern is, in reality, you and Richard Hell.
Tom: Who told you that?

Bernie: I’ve just sort of got the idea from everything I’ve read.
Tom: I got no comment.

Bernie: One of the deep dark mysteries of Television?
Tom: (laughter)… Ya see, I don’t wanna have any bad words about Hell, you know what I mean? He’s always accusing me of this and that over the years… he considers himself a founding partner in the band and I don’t even think about it. It’s like two and a half years ago. I got no opinions on it anymore and anything he wants to say, let him say, I don’t care.

Bernie: So it wasn’t exactly an amicable split when he split from the band?
Tom: No, he quit and that was it, you know.

Bernie: What have you done to earn money over the past few years?
Tom: I haven’t had a job since… Well, I quit the Strand Bookstore in 1970, so I haven’t had a steady job since then. At one time, I worked ten hours a week in a bakery bagging bread, shit like that, part-time job here, putting books in mailing envelopes, when I need money. After the Strand I stretched unemployment for like two years so that was real good.

Bernie: Were you doing writing when you were on unemployment?
Tom: Yeah, always working on stuff…

Bernie: I remember an early [Village] Voice article that mentioned you worked on fiction a lot during those years….
Tom: I was working on some stories…

Bernie: Did these later develop into Television songs?
Tom: Yeah, one of them did, a thing called “Breakin' In My Heart” that we stopped doing for a while; I think we’re gonna do it again. What I got sick of is the whole “spoken style”; I just got sick of it. I didn’t want to project that myself, so I stopped it. I wanted to make it a little more… “listenable” or something.

Bernie: Do Television practice a lot?
Tom: Yeah, we really work out. When we first started we rehearsed six days a week for four months before we even played live; then we still stuck. We were awful, y’know? Now we rehearse four nights a week if we have a job or are breaking in new stuff. If we have a month of no jobs, we might rehearse three nights a week. We have problems finding a place to rehearse, though. If we get some more money… We’ll get some money with this record deal… we probably won’t get a dime after it’s all… ya know lawyers take this, and managers take this, taxes that this, producers take this… and that’s the end of it. Then you buy a new set of drums and a couple of new guitars and you have to go play live for a year.

Bernie: But if you do get some money what do you think you’ll do with it?
Tom: If I had a lot of money?

Bernie: Yeah.
Tom: Well, I’d get a decent place to live. You wouldn’t believe the shithole I live in. You really wouldn’t believe it. The floors are like black with shit and the windows are… the glass is ready to fall out and kill somebody in the street, like it rattles. There’s one radiator for four little rooms. In the winter, it’s like… the only thing is I haven't paid my rent since last November… I owe my landlord like $1500 and he hasn’t come after me for it, which is like a miracle ‘cause I haven't had any money this year at all really. I’ve had enough money to live on from the jobs we’ve been playing. But it’s like a miracle that my landlord hasn’t asked me for rent in almost a year.

Bernie: Do you have television in your place?
Tom: I had one… I had this great little old TV, but the aerial broke on it.

Bernie: Do you watch a lot of television?
Tom: No, I can’t stand it, to tell you the truth. I do find a strange thing happening though. I very rarely watch television really; I watch a movie or something, or the boxing matches, or the Olympics or something, but I noticed that five of our songs that have titles of TV shows… There used to e a game show called Prove It I think in the ‘50s… there’s a soap opera on weekday afternoons called Guiding Light and this kind of shit… I don’t look through a TV Guide to find a sing title… this kind of stuff happens…

Bernie: You have a song called “Guiding Light”?
Tom: Yeah, we do. We can’t do it live ‘cause it’s so gentle that if the guitars go out of tune it ruins it… we’re going to put it on our record, though. It’s a real sweet song.

Bernie: What was it like playing your first performance in some theater in midtown Manhattan?
Tom: It was just a tiny theater; it only had at the most 140 seats and it was designed for screening movies for like Federico Fellini or something. It was just a little hole in the wall, but it was very plush, very small. And they wheeled in this P.A. – it was Alice Cooper’s old P.A. – it was an enormous P.A. It was like 15 feet tall; it was just completely nuts, just crazy. We were all like nervous as hell. We played for two hours or something, it was just completely crazy, insanely loud for a room… the room was like a third the size of this club. The P.A. was at least as big as the one that’s in here now, maybe bigger. Plus all of our equipment was completely fucked up, breaking strings on every song.

Bernie: Do you have favorite Television songs right now?
Tom: I like the long ones more and more for live… I like to do long stuff. I’d stretch any song out to 20 minutes, but it’s hard to do that within a group ‘cause if not everyone’s reading each other right it just sounds fucked up. It’s like a group must have a strong leader. No group survives without a strong leader. Our drummer’s completely behind the band here, he can’t really hear anything. He has to listen to hear what’s going on. We’ve got this room down pretty good ‘cause we’ve played here [CBGBs] 200 times. It’s like playing in your living room now.

Bernie: Do you ever think that you should be doing something else other than this, like you’ve chosen the wrong profession or something like that?
Tom: No, but I’ll tell you a feeling I have though, sometimes. It’s like half of me is in New York, and the other half of me is myself standing on some fertile hillside raking a lawn or something, with a real bright sky. The exact opposite of New York. It’s like completely true. It’s like simultaneous realities or something. Maybe it’s like… rock and roll is sort of self-destructive, there’s no question about it. Unless you attack it as a complete business, I guess that’s why a lot of people end up doing it. They just forget about anything but the business – just do this in the show, bring out this prop, and do this. But I’ve never approached it completely as a business. To me, it’s like an art. The whole struggle is to get the art as perfect as possible. And it is a struggle. I’m not in good shape at all. Like we had to play an hour and a half at My Father’s Place [Roslyn, NY] on Tuesday night. I get offstage, I feel like I’m gonna collapse, at the same time I’m so wired up I couldn’t fall asleep for eight hours. It’s really dangerous for your health, even if you don’t use drugs.

Bernie: Do you have favorite guitarists?
Tom: I have solos that I like. I like Hendrix’s solo in “The Wind Cries Mary,” thought that was a really fantastic little short solo. I used to like John McLaughlin playing on the records with Miles Davis. He had this really beautiful tone, this silvery tone that he doesn’t use anymore. The best John McLaughlin solos are on a record called Mountain in the Clouds by a bass player called [Miroslav] Vitous. They’re the solos of McLaughlin’s I think are completely untouchably fantastic. Really insane, but perfectly in control. Just incredible. There are some solos I like. But my favorite solos are the early Kinks solos on the ’64-’65 Kinks’ “All Day and All of the Night”…

Bernie: The ones that Jimmy Page’s taken credit for and Dave Davies says he did…
Tom: Nobody knows…but he was another guy I was thinking of getting as producer, Shel Talmy, who did the early Kinks and the early Who, but I hear he’s no good now that he has 16 tracks. He gets a great sound on a crummy tape machine, and he goes to 16 and he loses that. That roar, that big sound.

Bernie: Do you have favorite authors?
Tom: I went through a whole period where I was really crazy about French writers like [Paul] Verlaine, [Arthur] Rimbaud, especially this guy [Gérard de] Nerval. I really like Nerval. Nerval wrote this one story that’s really great. It’s sorta the diary of a guy going crazy, so to speak. It’s a real beautiful story. Nerval did go crazy, unfortunately. I still like Persian writers, like Omar Khayyam and stuff, about the “wine”… some of those poems are real sweet.

GARY GLITTER: Come Join His Gang (Yeah)!

Text by Mary Anne Cassata, 1985
Introduction by Robert Barry Francos, 2010
Live photos © Robert Barry Francos
© FFanzeen
Record images and videos from the Internet

The following article, written by Mary Anne Cassata, originally appeared in FFanzeen #13, from 1985.

Thanks to Mary Anne Cassata, I had the chance to catch not only Gary and his enormous toup play at NYC’s Limelight, which she mentions below, but I also had the opportunity to attend the press conference earlier, where FFanzeenphotographer extraordinaire Cathy Miller took a photo of him holding up one of our logo t-shirts (and another of me standing with Gary).

Yes, I know all about his disturbing sexual - ah - reputation, both in the UK and abroad, but this article was from way before any of that was known, and besides, this is a discussion about his musical legacy, not his jail-worthiness (rightful in my opinion). That being said, it is hard to read this interview today in hindsight without seeing irony in nearly every paragraph and many song or album titles.

Glitter’s music is especially catchy, which is why his “Rock and Roll (Parts One and Two)” is still used at nearly every sport event, even after all that has come to light. Joan Jett had covered a number of his songs, as well. It’s nearly impossible not to chant along with his boom-pa-TOOM, boom-pa-TOOM (etc.) rhythm that is as identifiable to him as that chukka-chukka is to Bo Diddley, or the I-IV-V to Chuck Berry (the true king of rock’n’roll).

The show at the Limelight (which started as a church, which became the Studio 54 wannabe Limelight, then became known as the Avalon, and is currently a shopping mall called the Limelight Market [thank you, Wikipedia]) was a blast, and it was obvious that Glitter was having fun as well, both of which fed each other into a love-fest of chants, sing-alongs, and joyous mayhem. Odds are he will never tour again (again, rightfully so), therefore I am happy to have had the chance to have had the experience when I did, free and clear of any guilt-by-association. Thanks, Mary Anne. – RBF, 2010

Who ever said old rock heroes just fade away? This may be true for some but not so for British phenomenon Gary Glitter. In the early ‘70s, he was acknowledged for inventing the flamboyant Glitter Rock era in America, and Glam Rock in England. Gary sold over 18 million records and had a total of 11 top-10 British chart singles between 1971 and 1975. With the release of his first Stateside hit single, “Rock and Roll (Parts One and Two),” Gary instantly became recognized as a rock legend.

With more than a decade behind him, the founding father of Glam Rock has returned in triumph, and is performing for American audiences for the first time. In support of the concert tour, Epic Records in America has released a “greatest hits” package album, appropriately entitled, The Leader. In a recent New York appearance at the Limelight, Gary thoroughly delighted an enthusiastic crowd with old favorites, like “I Didn’t Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock and Roll),” “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah?),” and “I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am).” Not all of Gary’s song titles have parentheses.

Some of Glitter’s contenders, David Bowie, Marc Bolan of T-Rex, and in America, Alice Cooper, to name a few, helped preserve the musical movement that remained till its demise in mid-1975. Although many rock critics at the time, and the late Marc Bolan himself, had proclaimed that “Glitter Rock is dead,” Gary viewed these opinions in a different way: “Either you are into Glitter Rock or you are not,” he said, relaxing in his New York hotel suite. “I have always had my own audience. Mostly, I get a lot of skinheads and punks at my shows. You just can not say I have one kind of audience.” Although Gary says he feels like “a man out of time,” his music sure doesn’t qualify as a blast from the past.

“David Bowie said to me,” Glitter states rather casually, “’It’s strange. Some years you are really big in America and not so in Europe. Then there are other years when you are big in Europe and no so in the States.’ For me, I guess it’s like a time warp everywhere. But now I think the time is right for me in the USA.” It does seem pretty favorable for Gary, who has always attained a faithful following in the States. As he opens the show to “Rock and Roll (Parts One and Two),” the audience cheers wildly to the first sight of Glitter, who ascends down a flight of stairs to the center of the stage.

The audience has always played an important part in a Glitter performance. If his new show is any indication that Gary is determined to conquer America, then perhaps it could very well happen. Fans still come dressed to his shows in versions of re-vamped glittered remnants and six-inch heels. “They are my people, and I love them,” Gary says with a satisfied smile. “When I play, the crowd sings along in a loud voice. The audience is very special to me. When I sing, ‘Do You Wanna Touch Me,’ a sea of hands goes up. The whole place goes up. From where I stand on stage, everybody is clapping. I don’t think there are any language barriers in rock and roll. I get calls all the time from people in the States who want to come over and see my shows. It’s really a great feeling to be wanted.”

There is no doubt that Gary certainly has been a major influence on many of today’s artists, some of which include Joan Jett, Shrapnel, and Rock Goddess. These and many others have included Glitter’s songs in their repertoire.

After the successful New York appearance, Gary sat backstage awaiting the party to be given in his honor. “I really think New York is buzzing now,” he says, having a taste of wine. “This is really the best time for me. You just can’t be a rock singer and not play in the States. It has been a dream for me because I have always loved America. It’s the home of rock and roll.” So far, no performer has challenged to match the veteran performer’s distinct showmanship on stage. Instead, today’s musicians, like Adam Ant, Phil Oakly of Human League, Dig Wayne of the JoBoxers, and even Boy George, would rather regard Glitter a genius.

Nearly 10 years ago, Gary made his American television debut on The Wolfman Jack Show, in New York City. It was his 30th birthday at the time, and Gary felt a little lonely and homesick for London. “I just finished up the show and went back to my hotel,” he recalled. “I think it was the (St.) Regis Hotel [2 East 55 St. – RBF, 2010] then. I really felt pretty sad that night. I went to my room and opened the door and, to my surprise, inside were Rod Stewart, Maggie Bell, and Led Zeppelin! I couldn’t believe my eyes. What a surprise, and I was so tired that night, too. I just wanted to go to bed and sleep.”

Born with the customary name of Paul Gadd, in Bradbury Oxfordshire, Gary spent much of his childhood living in an orphanage. As a young boy, he had expressed a strong interest in rock and roll music, and formed his first band at 13 years old. Changing his name to Paul Raven, he performed for many years on the grueling British pub circuit. Under the name of Raven, he had a minor hit in London, which he considered to be “simply dreadful.” During his formative years, Gary cited Elvis Presley as an essential role model. “Elvis was my guiding light, my hero for all time,” he says. “The Elvis Presley book of pop star was my bible, so to speak.” Several more name changes ensured before finally settling on Gary Glitter.

The veteran entertainer has been delighting crowds for almost 30 years now. He started out by playing rhythm and blues, before eventually crossing over to rock and roll in the late ‘60s. At one point in his career he moved to Germany and lived there for 5 years, playing intimate clubs. At 40 years of age, Glitter doesn’t mind if people can see a “few lines on my face,” or the slow decline of his early ‘70s heydays. He agrees that starting from the bottom up again is the only way to achieve recognition once more.

“Performing is my best medium. I love it and couldn’t do anything else,” he explains very solemnly, as though he were giving a testimonial. “The only way for me to do these clubs so the people who still want to see me can. Whatever the street level is, I what I want to do. I can build it from there. I really believe the best way for me to do this is from the beginning. I think this is the right and only way for me.”

Although Gary has attained a following in the States, his greatest strength lies as a major attraction in Europe. The question that seems to come up more than often these days is, if Glitter is so popular in America, why didn’t he come here sooner? “I honestly didn’t think the time was right for me,” he replied a little uneasily, “but I think now is good for me. It took me such a long time to convince the media and public that I am something different. When I did ‘Rock and Roll (Parts One and Two),’ I was with a small record company. After they released two more singles of mine, the company was bought out by Columbia, which eventually became Arista. I just happened to get lost somewhere in the shuffle.”

It was the latter part of the ‘70s when Gary’s musical vision began to wither. At that point, he became saddled with legal problems, as well as his marriage coming to an abrupt end. The distraught performer went into a semi-retirement to rethink his goals for the future, before deciding to hit the concert trail again. “I didn’t go straight back into television and big concert halls,’ he explained. “I went out and played all the universities and small clubs. That is what builds up an audience. I think this is more of an honest way, and I feel very good about it, too.”

Earlier this year, he almost considered being an opening act for a popular British group, but declined the offer because he felt it wouldn’t be a wise career move. “I had to say no because the band was playing big stadiums and all, and had a lot of success. I just didn’t feel it was right for me. I need my own audience and I need them to feel a part of my show.” Although Gary’s music is widely known in America, he is not so as a performer. Witnessing Gary in concert is certainly a visual feat to behold. Besides elaborate outfits and dynamic stage sets – and above all glamour – Glitter gives an unforgettable show.

Some of the main elements of the early glitter sound consisted of dual drummers and live handclaps. Gary co-wrote most of his songs with partner Mike Leander. Although the duo has kept in touch over the years, it is only recently that they are working together again. With his new songs, Glitter hopes to recapture some of the glory of his heyday. “Dance Me Up” is his first American single, which is supported by a video. Radio airplay is scarce for the song at this time, but a new studio album is in progress [Boys Will Be Boys – RBF, 2010].

“What I am trying to do with my music now is very much as it was in the past,” Gary explained. “I have always been very drum-oriented. The sounds we were making then were way ahead of their time, musically. They have handclaps now on every song you hear. Now they use electronic handclaps. When we did it, we stood in the studio for three hours, just clapping.” Glitter favors simple pop lyrics over the more meaningful ones, because there is a certain humor to it. “My lyrics are always about the same sort of theme. They are a little bit naughty-but-nice, I would say. I don’t like heavy-handed songs at all.”

He leans back in his easy chair and stares inattentively for a moment. Reminiscing about the old days is always a welcomed topic of conversation for Glitter. “The ‘70s were a very exciting time for me,” he recalled. “Some of those people are still around, you know. Do you know if Marc Bolan were still here, he would be big today? We used to ring each other up and say not to release our songs at the same time so we could both be at number one. It is always nice to have a number one record. We were true fans of each other, too. Marc is certainly missed by all.”

In America, some people refer to Alice Cooper as “the Granddaddy of Punk,” while British fans call Gary “Glam Daddy,” or “Gazza.” Of course, Glitter finds this category amusing, even if it seems somewhat out of context. “Sometimes they call me the Godfather of Punk, too. Isn't that funny?” Gary laughs. “I think it is really funny. It is also flattering, too. I may not be as young as I look, but I feel great. You know, Slade is having a very big success now. Do you know why?” he asks rather casually, “Because they are a live band. I am too. We are not video-oriented bands at all. We get off our asses and tour. Keith Moon told me once, ‘There is always someone somewhere that wants to see you perform.’ He was right.”

While Gary quietly contemplates the future, he strongly feels that he won’t be a forgotten hero in the pages of rock history. “I don’t think there is any age to rock and roll,” he sums up the interview. “Like everybody else, I am in search of the American Dream. I am now ready for it. I really haven’t been given the chance for the kids in America to see what I do. I just want the kids to know I am real.” The 40-year-0ld rock legend paused as though he were expecting a response before adding, “Well, we all need a little Glitter in our lives, right? Everyone.”

Two on RONNIE & THE JITTERS

Live photos © Robert Barry Francos
Album image from the Internet

Here are two pieces of the New Jersey band, Ronnie and the Jitters, who appeared around the New York scene right on the cusp of the ‘70s/‘80s. I was introduced to them by my then-managing editor, Stacy Mantel, who talked me into seeing the band at CBGBs, and then we all went over to Phoebe’s restaurant down the block for a very noisy interview.

However, the first piece here is by me, as was published in the Scottish fanzine Next Big Thing, by Lindsay Hutton. The second is the very interview I just discussed above, from FFanzeen.

In the short years that they were around, I saw Ronnie and the Jitters quite a few times, including Max’s Kansas City on one of the very last nights that it was open. I’m not sure where all of the band members are now, but I am aware that Steve Missal has a recording studio and teaches drums, and bassist Dave Post is part owner of Maxwell’s, the rock’n’roll bar / club in Hoboken, NJ.

Around the time they broke up, after one amazing studio album called Roll Over, Steve became the drummer for Billy Idol soon after he left Generation X. Supposedly there is a photo of Idol and his new band, which appeared in Billboard, has Steve wearing a FFanzeen logo tee-shirt. I’ve never seen it, so if anyone has a copy of that, I’d be grateful. – RBF, 2010

Part I: Introducing Ronnie and the Jitters
Text by Robert Barry Francos, early 1980s
Originally printed in Next Big Thing Magazine #13/14, early 1980s

New Jersey. Desolate. The joke of the East Coast (more so than even Philadelphia). Years ago, Dictator Adny Shernoff had put out a fanzine while growing up there and aptly named it Teenage Wasteland Gazette. But every once in a while a person or group comes out of that expanse of highway , trees and gas stations who shines through the factory smoke. There was Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye. Then there were some of the Dictators. And now there’s Ronnie & the Jitters. Each of these have their own sound, and each are masters of it. Ronnie & the Jitters are, alphabetically:

Ronnie Decal; lead vocals/guitar: As the frontman and songwriter of the group, he pulls the band together. He’s tall and possesses very round eyes, sometimes known as “doe eyes.” His eyes are the first thing to capture your attention. When on stage he uses a bit of eyeliner (for some God-knows reason) and he gets the band geared up. His voice is gritty and no nonsense – but there is the element of fun loving that is undeniably there. There are no wild guitar solos, no Ted Nugent tendency, just a good chordal strum and some solid riffs. A talent.

Warren Keller; vocals/saxophone: The heartthrob of the group. Despite his obvious Irish looks and name, his nationality is debatable. A mystery man. For a while he insisted he was black. He even does the Motown covers, like “My world is empty…” Then there was his “Jewish” period. He’s always coming out with these wild Yiddish expressions. And that’s not all that’s wild about Warren. All you have to do is hear him wail on his sax on their cover of “Wild Weekend.” To dissipate any doubt of his talent, even his erratic playing on some of their original material is controlled – but far from tame. He is also the fashion plate of the group. There is always flash in the way he dresses, from his red shoes to his multi-colored jacket. And the motions he can make with his sax.

Steve Missal; drums: One of the more powerful drummers on the scene today. He was once the drummer for a famous rock star, making some “real” money. But after hearing the Jits at a local N.Y. club, he knew what he wanted to do. “I was a born again rock’n’roller,” he would later claim. His chance came when he joined the band. He fit right in and is now the driving force behind them, with his two differently pitched snares and his power. Sometimes he gets into the songs so much that he starts playing standing up! He also has the sharpest sense of humor of the group.

David Post, bass: David is the historian of the band. Even now he is at work on an extensive piece on Duane Eddy. Though the most silent on stage, his presence is always there, as he keeps the rhythm at an even keel with varied, but steady bass riffs. A definite A-1 rock’n’roll bassist.

That is all the Jitters, but as Monty Python had Carol Cleveland, the Jits have Belinda, Steve’s girlfriend and group (I mean this kindly) mascot. She is there at every set and ahs become as much a participant of the sets as the group is. She’s the Spanish devil wit the large chest and the vodka and grapefruit juice right up front. Most of the jokes the band makes on stage deals wit her, but she doesn’t mint. She’s having as much fun as her compadres and the rest of the audience. Fun is the key work in Ronnie & the Jitters.

I once asked Belinda how she could sit through set after set, since the band has really started to play out now, after being together over a year. “Well,” she told me,” I can’t listen to the tapes they’ve made anymore and rehearsals are a bit boring, but every show is different. Every time they play there’s something fresh and new. They get along so well with the audience and the audience with them. Everyone just has so much fun and I love it.”

That’s true; every set has that spark of originality. The reason for this is two-fold: one is that they are friends on and off stage, and because they get along so well, they can always play off each other, but it musically or verbally, without worry about hurting each other because everything is taken causally and in jest. The second is that the sets are not totally structured. Sure there is a plan but they wing it once in a while and they just swing. It’s as though every show was a jam and everyone on and off the stage gets into it.

As of yet, they have only one single out on their own independent label, Meshugenah Records. They handled all the costs and production themselves. One side is a rip-roarin’ version of “Black Slax” which literally blows the lame Robert Gordon version away. There is no way to listen to it and not move some part of your body. The flip side is another cover, “Wild Weekend,” with lyrics (!) written by Ronnie that make you think that they were the original (“Alright, it’s the end of the week / I wanna dance ‘til I’m sore on my feet…”). Don’t’ bother asking for it though, ‘cause it’s been sold out for a while now (“Well, my mother has a copy,” claims David).

As of last count, they have another single ready to be released, as soon as they can get the money to pay for its pressing. One side will be my favorite of their originals, the rough, tough, wild in the streets, “She’s Not the Girl For Me.” The flip is supposed to be one of their more romantic non-ballads, “Take Me In Your Arms,” in which both Warren and Ronnie share the vocals.

But not all of their songs are fast, rip ‘em up rock’n’roll songs. They do have their ballads, such as “You Can’t Fool a Woman in Love,” one of their newer pieces. It only goes to show their versatility.

You may ask, how did they come up with the name, “The Jitters”? That in itself is remarkable. It’s taken from the title of one of their favorite movie shorts by the Three Stooges called Baby Sitters Jitters. From that they wrote a piece called “Jitter Me Crazy” (with Warren sputtering out, “Jit-Jit-Jit-Jit,” etc, at a very fast and frantic pace on the chorus, over Ronnie’s vocal). That led them naming themselves.

The full name, Ronnie and the Jitters, is misleading though. When you isolate the name of the lead singer it makes it sound as though the back up is not as important. However, the Jitters are not merely a back-up band for Ronnie, they are all the Jitters. The Jitters is also what they give the audience who dance the night away.

There you have the ideal band; rock’n’roll, fun, humor about their music and themselves who are out to have a good time, know their roots, and can entrance an audience. And there’s Belinda.

Part II: AMA Approved Case of the Jitters
Text by Stacy Mantel
Originally printed in FFanzeen #4, 1980s
© FFanzeen

Thanksgiving is “Bah! Humbug!” to a lot of apathetic Americans who forget about things like history and their roots. I was one of those until this past Turkey-Day when I became a giver of thanks. It happened at Hurrah’s. I was bored. While sinking into my drink, a group took to the stage. Without a word of warning, they ripped into the Rockin’ Rebels’ “Wild Weekend” (with the addition of more than appropriate lyrics). The next thing I knew, the place was hoppin’, my feets started shakin’ and my body was a-boppin’. It was a jolt as experienced upon seeing an old friend in a strange environment. The band was kickin’ out the kind of rock’n’roll that’s been trapped in 15 year-old vinyl jails. Jon Landau may have seen the future of rock’n’roll as having the name of Springsteen, but that’s all in the past. Rock has been rejuvenated – given a new face and fanny lift. I had heard this band before on the famed WPIX-FM Radio, Radio programme, but they definitely drive harder live. Colorful, kick-ass rock’n’roll – and its name is Ronnie and the Jitters.

Ronnie and the Jitters are:

- Ronnie Decal – serious front man with boyish good looks and a round, yet unadorned driving chordal guitar style. He has a prowess for writing enigmatic tunes reminiscent of early Ray Davies – mellow sarcasm with cream and sugar. Punchy;

- David Post provides measured, supportive bass lines and clever runs, the bones keeping the ligaments and guts in place;

- Steve Missal’s use of two differently pitched snare drums is unique, and so is his range – from machine gun attack to savage nonstop – vibrate your heart beats; and

- Fourthly, Warren “The Boy Who Should Have Been Born Black” Keller on manic alto sax, whose name should be synonymous with tremendous, or at least always thought of when one mentions King Curtis.

Together, their sound is more than just the sum of four intrinsic parts. It’s the kind of nourishment we were long in need for. The kind of rock’n’roll you and I were weaned upon.

The following interview took place between sets at CBGB’s at Phoebe’s on February 17, 1980. All the Jitters were there, along with manager Jim Green, FFanzeen editor/publisher Robert Barry Francos, and assorted girlfriends.

Stacy Mantel (FFanzeen): So you’re working on a new single now, I hear.
Ronnie Decal: Yes and no.
Warren Keller: Sure. No, we just tell people that.
Ronnie: As soon as we find someone to back it we’re gonna do a new single, but if nobody backs it soon, we’re gonna put it out ourselves.

FF: What songs do you feel are the best to put out now?
Ronnie: It’s gonna be “She’s Not the Girl” backed with “Throw it Away.”

FF: Well, what’s the problem; I mean, what’s the difference between putting out an album rather than a single? You certainly have enough good material.
Jim Green: Money.
Ronnie: We don’t have enough money to put an album out. If someone wanted to finance an album, certainly we would put out an album.
Warren: Of course.

FF: Okay, the boring questions... standard influences. As a group, do you follow any one particular guy or group – like you have this song dedicated to Little Richard (as the “King of Rock’n’roll”).
Warren: Everybody.
Ronnie: I like the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols.

FF: Warren, what about Lee Allen or King Curtis?
Warren: I heard one record by King Curtis once called “Floating” – it was good.

FF: What about Charlie Parker?
Warren: Naw, I wasn’t very jazzy – I never followed any of those guys.

FF: So, basically all your own style?
Warren: No, I guess I like later people [e.g., Clarence Clemens].

FF: How did you feel when you missed your cue on The Uncle Floyd Show?
Warren: Which one?

FF: I know everything was lip-synced and must be a real hassle – It was probably the first time any of you had to do that.
Warren: Wha’d I miss?
Ronnie: You know what he did…on The Uncle Floyd Show he stopped playing at the saxophone solo.
Warren: Yeah, dah da-da dah, I cut off early; that was pretty funny.
Ronnie: Yeah, that was it. Do you like The Uncle Floyd Show?

FF: Yeah, I watch it all the time. We have an interview with him in this issue.
Ronnie: He’s getting’ interviewed a lot lately.
Warren: Yeah.
Ronnie: He liked us a lot.

FF: You’re the new drummer.
Steve Missal: Yeah.

FF: How long have you been with the group?
Jim: It’s been about…
Ronnie: No, you’re [to Steve] supposed to answer that.
Steve: Fourth gig.
Warren: That’s why he has a manager, ha-ha.
Robert Barry Francos: Reminds me of the movie, The Girl Can’t Help It when Jayne Mansfield keeps saying, “Ask my agent.”

FF: On the single, “Wild Weekend,” you wrote “Traditional” under the title, when Todaro/Shannon wrote the song.
Ronnie: We just wanted to get in trouble.
Warren: He couldn’t spell it.

FF: But you wrote BMI, which was the company that copyrighted it.
Warren: He thought it was funny – he told me to do it, so I did it.
Ronnie: Told you to do what?
Warren: It.

FF: Did you mean traditional in the sense that having a wild weekend is traditional?
Warren: Sure, that was it.
David Post: It’s a traditional rock’n’roll song.
Ronnie: No, I didn’t mean it as having a traditional wild weekend; it was more or less like – that’s traditional rock’n’roll as far as I’m concerned, you know. Besides, I didn’t know who wrote the song, so I had to put something down. It served its purpose because everyone asks why I put “Traditional” down. And the true answer is – just to get in trouble, just to have people notice it.

FF: Do you consider yourselves a dance-band?
All: Yes.

FF: How do you feel when people cannot dance, like at CBGBs?
Warren: Bad; awful.

FF: I really feel constipated when I don’t have room to dance.
Warren: Yeah, a lot of people say that when they sit up front. They know why we’re Jitters, coz they just got it.

FF [To Warren]: I know you jump around a lot on stage like they did in the early ‘60s-late ‘50s, like the guys in Rock Around the Clock. The sax players would jump all over the piano and on everyone else, and lay down on the floor.
Warren: Oh, really, all the sax players I saw were so spastic.

FF: Everyone was doing choreographed dances.
Warren: Yeah, that choreograph stuff, that’s so corny, you know. You see all these little spastic horn players movin’ around.

FF: And all the people in the audience were doing the Bop – do you think that’s gonna swing around and come back again?
Warren: I don’t think choreography’s gonna come back, like everybody together, but I think energetic type stuff, jumping around will, definitely. It should come back. People are lazy; they hang back and they play. Today, too many people got that “sophistication” thing, like “this is the ‘80s so I’ll just hang out and play.”

FF: Do you see any major record deals coming up?
Warren: I hope so.

FF: You do… you’re negotiating?
Warren: Got interest.
Jim: [What he said here was totally muddled by “Heart of Glass” from the jukebox – anyone for symbolism? We’ll just say – they’ve talked to a couple of companies and got good vibes from them, but no signatures yet – SM]

FF: Is there any hesitation on your part to sign with a major label, or would you rather have your own?
Ronnie: If it doesn’t come soon, we’re all gonna die of malnutrition.

FF: I take it you all have other jobs.
Warren: Sure.

FF: How did you come up with the name “Jitters”?
Ronnie: It’s from an old Moe, Larry and Curly move, The Three Stooges.

FF: What was the name of the movie?
Ronnie: The Jitters.
Jim: I never heard of that one.

FF: A group like the Romantics, no comparison intended, but he sound is somewhat similar…
Ronnie: And we wear red pants.

FF: They have this image. I think they stay up nights just thinking about what kind of clothes they’re going to wear. Do you ever think of doing something like that?
Ronnie: No, we can’t afford the same clothes.

FF: Today you look pretty coordinated – kind of pinkish, reddish…
Warren: Yeah, we somehow manage to do that even though we don’t think about it.
Ronnie: It’s intuitive – except that Warren always asks if he looks all right before he goes on stage.
Warren: Yeah, yeah.
Ronnie: And he takes our word for it.
All: Ha-ha.
Warren: Yeah, they fix me up good – it’s fun to dress up.

FF: Do you think sax is going to regain its importance?
Warren: I hope not, because then I’ll just be another one. Sax got a lot of importance in disco, but as far as the really wailing rock’n’roll sax…

FF: Yeah, but not as much as synthesizers.
Warren: Yeah, but every song had its little alto sax solo. I hope not. I just don’t want to be just another one. Let ‘em stay; let ‘em stay the way they are.
Ronnie: I’m gonna clear it up right now, what we really want is big bucks.
All: Ha-ha.
Ronnie: We want big dollars… we want to ride around in gold-plated Cadillacs like Teddy Pendergrass.
Warren: Porsches and stuff, and houses; fireplaces.
David: How about paying the phone bill, Ronnie.
Warren: And oil.

FF: What kind of music do you like to listen to? [To Ronnie] I know you like the Stones and the Pistols…
Ronnie: I listen to the radio; I don’t have any records. Dave’s got records.

FF: When you buy records, like other stuff, what would you pick up?
David: Old rockabilly or Stones.

FF: What do you think about this song [on the jukebox is “Money,” by the Flying Lizards]?
David: I love this song.
Ronnie: This song, I think it’s great… this is the best song I’ve heard in my life, ha-ha.
Warren: Ha-ha, who is it?
Ronnie: The Leaping Lizards.
Steve: This song shows me that a new seed was planted…
Warren: The Flying Gizzards.
Steve: Take the go-go boots out of the closet – it’s gonna get back to rock’n’roll, r-i-g-h-t?
[All agree]

FF: Disco’s dying out.
Ronnie: Let’s hope so.

FF: Some people making the disco songs don’t even want to make them.
Warren: You know what I’m scared of? This whole things gonna get so packaged, all this New Wave stuff. It’s already stared to get so produced…
Steve: The Heat, the Knack, the This, the That…
Warren: It’s gonna be like, Donna Summer of the ‘80s.
Steve: Dress New Wave like Close Encounters.
Ronnie: We’re not a New Wave band.

FF: What do you consider yourselves?
Ronnie: We’re a rock’n’roll band; we’re not a New Wave band by any means at all.
Warren: We have to listen to a lot of that.
Ronnie: Did you think we were a New Wave band?

FF: No, I thought you were an early ‘60s-late ‘50s type rock band.
Ronnie: No, we’re an early ‘80s rock’n’roll band.

FF: Have you all played in groups before this? Warren?
Warren: Yeah, I had actually only one professional band before this. I ran the gamut from big brass Chicago to funk and disco. Rock like the Aerosmith sound.

FF: Dave?
David: This is my first rock’n’roll band. I’ve played weddings, symphonies, jazz bands, big bands. I’ve been playing bass for 10 years.

FF: Ronnie?
Ronnie: I was in one other band before this called the Ros. They were a New Wave / punk band.

FF: It used to be that, about three years ago, anyone could play at CBGBs even if they’ve played guitar or bass for only a couple of weeks.
Warren: Yeah, that was a shame.

FF: It’s not like that anymore. Do you feel a competition with any other groups?
Warren: No.
Ronnie: No, I don’t think there are any groups like us around.

FF: What’s happening in Jersey [where the group lives]?
Warren: Well, nothing. We’re definitely not a Jersey circuit band.
Ronnie: We just live in Jersey coz that’s where we were born and we can’t afford to move out. Once in a while we pick up a gig over there, but there’s no circuit in Jersey.
Steve: New Jersey’s Alabama. If you’re in New Jersey, you can be in Alabama.

[While FF is digging up questions…]
Steve: Do you do it in the road?
Ronnie: I do it wherever I can, whenever I can. I did it before in the dressing room.
Steve: By yourself?
Ronnie: No, you were there.
Steve: Ha, yeah, I remember. It was so fast.
Ronnie: He slapped my face.
Jim: What’s this locker room stuff?
Warren: Uh-oh, here comes another one [question].
Ronnie: Here comes a good one.
Steve: A new one.

FF: Why do you think there’s such a big resurgence of the ‘60s in clothes, music and movies? Do you think it’s because we’re bordering on war?
David: Are we bordering on war?

FF: You know, the whole scare with the draft.
Warren: What it is, is the cyclic theory of history. You get so sick and tired of using what you did right up to your technological capacity and then you go back. Dig it all up again. I think rock’n’roll lost its fun and went progressive – somebody was smart enough to say we gotta go back.
Steve: Rock is getting back to the prestige it lost when it got hyped up in disco. Rock is making a big, big comeback. Everybody’s talking about dancing to rock, which is one of the first questions you asked, “Do you consider yourselves a dance band?” Of course. People shouldn’t be able to sit when we play.
Warren: I think we’re enough of a show. We want people to watch us, too. So we don’t exactly want everyone jiving away there and not checking us out. But we think it’s cool, too.
Ronnie: Do you like the band?

FF: What band?
Ronnie: Us.

FF: We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t.
Warren: Ah, a newspaper with integrity, that’s what I like.

FF: The first time I saw you was at Hurrah’s. I was just standing there and you went on and [with Marty Feldman eyes] I went “wow.”
Ronnie: They had to revive you, right?

FF: Yeah, ‘cause I’m really into that sound. I loved the Crystals, the Dovells, Duprees, Ventures.
David: The Del-Tones, the Tone-Dels…
Steve: You know the movement for Born-Again Christians? The Jitters made me a born again rock'n’roller.
Warren: Hallelujah!
David: Hallelujah, thank the Lord.
Ronnie: Praised be the Lord.
Dave: Oh yeah, that’s right.

FF: What were you [to Steve] doing before?
Steve: Whatever New York had to offer to someone from out of town. Trying to make a living playing with various…
David: Steve has six months combat duty with Ted Nugent.
Steve: It’s true… I saw the Jitters at Hurrah’s on probably the same night you were there.

FF: We were there Thanksgiving.
Steve: I saw them one date previous to that. That’s when I met her [points to his date]. The day I saw the Jitters, I met her; yeah. I looked up [smiles and blushes].
Warren: Oh, what a good story that is.

FF: You see, everything falls into place, eventually.
Steve: You see, you can go to the Heat, CBGB. You can go to Trax or any club, and a lot of bands are rockin’, but this band really, really rocks, totally… Robert Gordon, Levi and the Rockats may be in the same ballpark, but they don’t really twist it.
RBF: They both take themselves too seriously. They don’t relax when they’re doing it.
Warren: That’s where it all gets pretentious. When you’re dealing with a sound that should be fun and rock’n’roll, and then you take yourselves that seriously, that’s when it really comes off, you know.

FF: You can always tell you enjoy yourselves because you’re always kidding around on stage.
Warren: Yeah, man. It’s fun – it’s fun as hell. Well, we’re out to have a good time.

Check out Warren's current Website on astro-imaging: billionsandbillions.com

GET WET, Wild and Wonderful

Text and photos by Robert Barry Francos; interview by RBF and Alan Abramowitz
Interview text © FFanzeen; Photos © RBF; cover sleeve image from the Internet

The following article originally appeared in FFanzeen Number 5, which was issued in 1980. The intro and outro text is from 2009.

I do not believe it would be accurate to say that I had a crush on Sherri Beachfront, the lead singer of the group Get Wet, but I will admit that I thought she was an amazing and exotic looking woman. In the times I saw the band play, I don’t think I’ve ever taken a picture of her that was factual enough to capture her looks. In fact, I’ve never seen any photo that did that honor.

Alan Abramowitz joined me the first time I saw the band, at a co-gig with Brenda Bergman, a shared bill these friends would often partake. And frequently, Alan and I would be in the audience.

It was the music that kept us coming back, though. Get Wet’s songs, written by co-member Zecca Esquibel, had a strong pop backdrop with a mixture of Motown and Connie Francis, if one can picture that. Their songs ranged from happy (“Lucky You”) to sad (“Lonely”) to downright desperate (“Morton Street”), to a powerhouse encore of Sherri in crinoline doing a cover of “Where The Boys Are.” Sherri could belt out a number that could be felt on a Richter scale.

Alan and I interviewed Sherri and Zecca at their apartment in the West Village, before we all headed out to the opening night party at the Ritz on 11 Street, which became known as Webster Hall.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
GET WET, Wild and Wonderful (Issue 5, August-September 1980)
By Alan Abramowitz and RBF; original intro by AEA (not included here)

FFanzeen: Zecca, what’s your history – before you were a member of Cherry Vanilla’s back-up group a few years back, the Staten Island Band?

Zecca: That’s a long story. I played piano as a kid. I did a lot of piano competitions ... and always with a sharkskin suit.

FF: Was this in America?

Zecca: This was in the States. I came to the States [from Brazil – ed.] when I was seven. And when I was 14, I just OD’d on this classical piano trip and left home, hitchhiked to New York a few years later, goofed around ... I joined a band called the Jimmy Castor Bunch. I was very unhappy with that. And a friend of mine said Cherry Vanilla needed a piano player that played rock’n’roll. I didn’t know what their kind of rock’n’roll was about, so I went to the audition and just faked what I could remember hearing off their record.

FF: How did you eventually evolve into Get Wet?

Zecca: Well, the Staten Island Band dissolved only a month after I joined, so it was just me and Cherry. There was nobody else. We lost all our musicians. I think they’d all gone to [David] Johansen. So we had a howling gig up in the mountains and we had three days to come up with a band. We picked up Manny Mancuso, Jay Napp – who is now with the Boyfriends – Louis Lapore and, in three days, we had a band. From that we fragmented even further. Me, Cherry, and Louis were from New York and eventually met Howie Finkel. And out of that band, we have Howie Finkel on bass and Manny Mancuso on drums. The first three out of the five members of the Cherry Vanilla Band that’s on the first album [Bad Girl on RCA, 1978 – ed.] formed Get Wet.

FF: Sherri, what’s your rock’n’roll history?

Sherri Beachfront: My rock’n’roll history is very small. I was just singing backup in two groups for three months in, unfortunately, what was a real job gig. That’s where I met Zecca and that was my first rock’n’roll stage scene. First time, I was in Max’s Kansas City. I had taken vocal training before that and stopped, and that’s it. And I had a job singing on a tape. I invited [Zecca] to the studio because he thought I could only sing backup vocals. “I could do it; really, I can sing, I can sing.” So I invited him down to Electric Ladyland to [let him hear me] tape for certain producers and lead vocals for what, ten hours?

Zecca: Eight hours.

Sherri: Yeah, one song for eight hours, and finally we finished. And Zecca walked out and said, “Yeah, you can sing – you can sing real shitty songs real good.” And then we decided that we have something worth it because I knew we did. I didn’t believe it took so much work. After that, he spent Labor Day weekend writing tunes for Get Wet, but that time it was for my voice. Get Wet wasn’t even a name yet or anything. It was just, “Play tunes for Sherri and what I had in mind for Sherri,” and he saw me getting my vocals out the same way I do. He saw I always wore gloves and had a lot of physical gestures on stage.

FF: How did you finally get around to picking the name Get Wet?

Sherri: We’d finally decided that after a week or something. We didn’t have a real concept or visual or anything, so we just tried to figure out a way something would relate to the group as much as we could discover, and what we discovered was that we were drenched (with sweat). We were really very wet. So we said, “Wet.” Then we said “Get Wet” so we might have the audience participate with the band – and it was final.

FF: I see advertisements all over the place for Wet magazine that reads, “Get Wet.” Has anything erupted from that?

Sherri: They were a little irritated with us. They got in touch with Interview magazine, and they gave them our phone number. The first phone call wasn’t all that irritated; it was just “We know you’re alive.” The posters uptown were getting scratched (by our fans) ... “Magazine” was being scratched out. They got in touch with us and we met each other. Then we did posters (for a club), but our “W” was the same as the magazine’s “W” and we got another phone call from them telling us not to use that “W” anymore. We told them it wasn’t our idea; it was the club’s.

FF: You seem to be very influenced by rhythm and blues, sixties rock, and the Motown sound.

Zecca: Well, I grew up in Washington, DC, and that is a predominantly black city. To be white in Washington meant one of two things: you live in the affluent corridor from Georgetown Northwest – that slice of Washington – or you were a white in a black neighborhood. I grew up sneaking in the back of places like the Howard Theatre and the Loew’s Palace Theatre to see eight soul bands back-to-back in a soul show. And that was the music I fell in love with. Gladys Knight, the Temps, etc. All those kinds of bands and a lot of times, six, seven, or eight (bands) in one night. A Soul Spectacular. The first record I remember hearing was “Baby Love.” I heard a neighbor play it. Now, that’s not that far back. It’s just that until that time I listened to nothing but classical music, so I didn’t hear too much of anything else besides that, unless I snuck out of the house and went somewhere.

FF: How have you incorporated that into what you do today? Do you have any trouble getting a transition going?

Zecca: No, I remember hanging around with Bruce Foxton from the Jam, and he was talking about what the Jam were doing, about getting back to the roots of the music; that that was the most important thing. They loved to play that kind of pop music. I couldn’t understand why his kind of roots didn’t make any sense to me. Then I realized that his roots were totally different. I didn’t grow up on the Who; I grew up on Otis Redding and James Brown. So the minute I realized that, everything was easy, everything snapped right. It was a natural groove. It was not, “How come my group sounded different from everyone else”; this was the natural groove where I belong.

FF: Have you ever seen The TAMI Show?

Sherri: What is it?

FF: It’s a film of, like, great rock’n’roll groups in 1965: the Dave Clark 5, the Rolling Stones, Barbarians, Jan and Dean, the Supremes, James Brown – the best I’ve ever seen him. He throws himself on the floor and fights with the Flames (his backup group) to keep possession of the stage. They play it at Max’s between sets. They show the same clip all the time of the Supremes singing “Baby Love,” and it’s a little off-sync.

Zecca: You mean that clip that they’re showing at Max’s is from The TAMI Show? We were tuning up while they were playing it. Behind the curtain, we wanted to really see this. We couldn’t go out and watch because we were busy backstage. That whole kind of show is ... the word “show” is weird because in the punk bible it could almost sound like an insult. “It’s not real, man. You’re putting on a show. A show is not real.” But those are some of the most realistic theater experiences I ever saw as a child – watching the show of James Brown singing a ballad; singing, “It’s A Man’s World.” The guy really reached inside himself in some incredible way that was not cheapened by the fact that he did it the best he could.

FF: What gave you the idea of doing “Where The Boys Are” as a finale?

Sherri: I just started singing it one day and he said do it.

FF: Everybody goes crazy when you do it.

Sherri: It still shocks me when they do this. Either they think it’s a new song that’s really good or it’s trippy because nobody’s done it but Connie. It’s a beautiful song. The first line in that song really grabs you.

FF: I knew the set was over when you did that.

Sherri: It’s good for a closing ... I like it; it’s a real sum-up of the show.

FF: What impressed me is “Which Window.” The chorus has a great hook that, two or three days after hearing it, you catch yourself singing it.

Sherri: That’s the one that seemed to go over well on WPIX-FM. When they played (our demo) tape, we got a phone call to play “Which Window” again.

Zecca: That’s what a pop tune should be.

Sherri: Ya know, the first time I sang it like if I had to sing with the notes I’d fall apart. All I did was pretend I was in a movie. That was the first way I could get myself into it. It’s a very emotional song. And I used myself as a vehicle for the song. Because it as a weird song, all the hard rockers were there and I was afraid for my neck what would happen to me.

FF: People are opening up. It’s not like, “Gonna kill, gonna kill.” Now that’s settled down a little and people are getting more to the pop side of things. And songs like “Where The Boys Are” are starting to catch on. And people are dancing again.

Sherri: Seems like there’s an obvious change going on here. It’s like disco broke New Wave in. It was just a passageway to what we have now. Like when Get Wet gets a break, we don’t have to do anything that’s disco-related. We’ll be accepted as rock’n’roll you can dance to. We won’t have to do a disco-beat song in order to get a good deal or to get a popular record like “Which Window.” It certainly is good to get ahead in rock’n’roll, but we won’t settle for something out of the disco crowd.

FF: It’s a bigger catch-song than “My Sharona,” which is not meant to insult you.

Zecca: It’s a funny thing. Someone yelled at me when we were playing at the Meadowbrook. This guy was decked out like 1977 and he leaned over the railing, all in black – really punked out – and made a face using a beer can, and I thought, he must have seen this in a movie. And he’s yelling, “Your ears are governed by the charts.” And I was thinking, so are Paul McCartney’s. Charts are a totally irrelevant thing. Your ears ... you hear what makes you happy. When I started writing these tunes we decided we’d risk making the music we really like, no matter what anybody said about it. And it was weird to get the most negative reaction from the most negative people.

Sherri: To our music?

Zecca: Yeah.

Sherri: We didn’t get a bad reaction.

Zecca: No, the first night we played, no.

Sherri: Max’s, we had a great reaction.

Zecca: It’s weird to know that there’s this whole system that preaches belief in negativity. When something positive comes around it can’t give it enough freedom to exist, because being negative is hip: “positiveness should be stamped out.” I noticed that at a lot of places.

FF: Have you had any trouble in the places you’ve played?

Sherri: The only place is the New York Connection; we were three months old and punk was so popular that there was no way you could do anything but that. But Max’s always loved us. The only time Max’s was bad to us was this last time – we had three really shitty ... punks. Shootin’ up dope in the bathroom. With some slob of a girl who comes over to me and says, “This isn’t music, your show sucks,” so I squirted her in the face with my squirt gun [laughter]. She threw her scotch on me and I told the bouncer that I didn’t want her near the stage, but that was the only time I got a bad reaction in a club. And then there are just people that like to make noise ... Jordache punks/drunks. There are people that like to make noise about everything – sort of frustrated souls.

Zecca: And we’re going to continue doing the positive music because it’s what everyone needs.

FF: Do you feel that having a woman fronting the band really changes its appeal?

Sherri: You mean as an asset? Well, this is a very anxiety filled lot because Blondie broke it for women in rock’n’roll. Then you have solo artist like Ellen Foley, Pat Benetar ... and the Pretenders. I love Chrissie Hynde because she’s female and a total musician and I really respect that. And for me, I want to be a member of the band. I don’t want to come out as Debbie Harry and get a little upset at the thought of, “There I am a female singer who doesn’t play any instrument,” but my roots and my feeling is to act – I perform my songs. I don’t just use my voice, I use my heart and I use my vision as a total instrument and, of course, there’s a lot of focus on me, but I still want to be a person in a band. I wanna be Get Wet; I just don’t want to be Sherri Beachfront. I got plenty of time for Sherri Beachfront.

Zecca: I don’t think it’s much of a turn-on to be on stage with musicians who are so far behind you that they deserve to be your backup musicians. It’s much more of a turn-on to know that the people on stage with you are your equals.

Sherri: It took so many years that I wanted to do this. I wanted to be a singer and I went through musicians and musical directors. I didn’t have this kind of relationship with (Zecca) – not that he was my boyfriend – on a musical level. There was reason to work with him because we had the same tastes, which is very hard to find. We have the same ability to communicate, intellectually and musically. We have a very good musical marriage.

FF: Any offers to sign with a label?

Zecca: Yeah, we got a couple of offers. I don’t know what to say about that.

FF: Would you rather sing or have your own independent label?

Zecca: We thought about it, but not too seriously.

Sherri: It seems so unfeasible.

Zecca: We’re still worried about fixing notes on the piano. It’s kind of absurd to think about scraping together enough money to put out a single. So basically, we’re looking towards the big record labels.

Sherri: We have been going to managers and checking out all sorts of leads. We’ve been giving out our tapes like crazy.

Zecca: We’re looking for managers more than anything else at the moment. We’re looking for that fifth Beatle; that team member who’s going to feel like a team member. It’s very important to do it on vibes that rate as well as every other one. To really find someone that you feel is your buddy, is in your team with you and is not somebody strapped on just to help smooth out some rough places. He’s going to be another one of us. And we’re looking for that person.

FF: Do you want people to dance to your music or listen to it?

Sherri: Dance! We want them to be part of it. That’s why we’re called Get Wet; it’s an action.

FF: How do you feel about playing at places where people can’t dance?

Zecca: When I was a kid, the best thing I could say about a band was that I didn’t sit down all night. That was the most exciting thing. The minute that guy in the wings was coming out from behind and when that band or that act or that man or woman hit that stage, I was up there standing and dancing all night. That was the highest point, the best thing that could happen. That’s what I dream of, too. Putting a band together that, the minute we walk out, everyone’s dancing. And then when we leave they want more.

FF: Is there any one band now that you like a lot?

Zecca: We used to see Brenda Bergman a lot. We’d be dancing all night to that. The last time we saw her was at the Mudd Club. She’s got both a Motown and pop song beat at the same time. Irresistibly delicious.

FF: She used to work for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sherri: I can’t imagine that. I can just see her posing in one of the cases in the fifties section doing cheesecake.

Zecca: Calendar pix.

FF: What’s your message, quote-unquote?

Sherri: Death to negativity.

Zecca: Yeah, death to negativity.

FF: Yeah, I think that a good ending. And besides, it’s five to nine and the show starts at ten.
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They finally did get a record deal with Boardwalk Records and put out their one and only eponymously titled album. It did not succeed, mainly because it did not present an accurate picture of the band’s sound. As with the Nervus Rex album, the production on the Get Wet release, produced by Phil Ramone, was in high-gloss form (as was the modus operandi of the larger record companies caught between the disco and Brit synth-pop periods), stealing whatever energy, roughness, and spark made the band unique. There was still some power left in “Morton Street,” but most of the other songs, including the showstopper, “Where the Boys Are” and “Which Window?” were left limp through no fault of the artists. The record got lost in the glut of the major’s vision of the New Wave zeitgeist, which was actually tied more to the wallet than the music.

Sherri and Zecca are divorced now, with Zecca involved in a same-sex relationship, and Sherri an AIDS activist on the West Coast.

Meanwhile, thanks to singer/chanteuse Kathy Zimmer, I have managed to hoop up again with Zecca, and thereby Sherri. Here is what Zecca recently “Facebook’d” me, in part, in a manner to catch up:

“I was just in D.C. with my lover Tom Smith, for the HUGE National Equality March where, coincidentally, Sherri was the MC for the Fight AIDS Rally on the Ellipse in front of the White House! 48 hours earlier, my Tom held a press conference on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall with Borough President Marty Markowitz, re. Tom's founding of the multi-million dollar Brooklyn LGBT Community Center (like the one on 13th street in Manhattan). Can I pick 'em or what?! Meanwhile, after five years touring with Garland Jeffreys (ending 2007), I've basically left the rock stage for the theater. I was just in San Fran. with John Kelly and have a show coming up at the Gershwin Hotel with Hattie Hathaway on Nov. 10th. My life now is as a music director for radical nightclub and the kind of theater that, in the ‘60s, would have been called "avant-garde", so I don't work on original CDs.”