Little Boy Blue's a Big Girl Now…
2008. Although much has been said and written about my old band from NYC, Missdemeanor, not much of it is accurate. Tall tales of fiery car crashes, love-struck bass players eloping in the night, spontaneous human combustion, of course...and WHAM!...two of the band's original members were expunged from the books. But, a funny thing happened on the way to the L'Amour reunion... people remembered. Or should I say, people NEVER forgot the original line-up of this band. Two of the OG's may have gone away, but 20 years later people still remember, fans still exist, and have asked me to put something, anything online that could stand as a testament to the old days. I probably would have left well enough alone until a life-altering experience occurred on March 1, 2007. My incredibly talented, beautiful, brilliant friend, Cat Coleman, succumbed to a life-long battle with cancer. A few months before she passed away she realized there wasn't much online that included the two of us. As a tribute to her I've decided to put up this page.
I have been digging through the "basement tapes" to find whatever material I could dust off. I couldn't stand one more person asking me if some of the crap on YouTube was me, or Cat, or having to explain what happened and why. So, with the help of some outside sources and a special friend from up north who located some footage, I will post some old shows and photos, unedited.
So, we needed a singer. Lin, Jo and I were getting tired of going to the studio or Jo's basement. We practiced a few times a week. The "setlist" was a mix of "songs" we were busily crafting. Jo, who was barely five feet, could hit those drums like a mofo. I'd turn the SVT up to 10, and Lin was cranking.
My best recollection of singer auditions is that they went something like this... - Wide-eyed young girl enters studio, clutching copy of our Aquarian classified ad.
- Carries on for 10 minutes about how she drove all the way from Wherever, Upstate, Queens to be there.
- Jo, with head down hiding behind drum kit, already shaking her head NO, PLEASE, NO, and throwing out snippets of Looney Tunes (Foghorn, The Big Bad Wolf and Yosemite Sam instantly jump to mind).
- Lin, being diplomatic, trying to get the first song going.
- Me, somewhere in the middle of being serious with Lin, and matching Jo's cartoon excerpts.
The quest for a singer was endless. I think we auditioned at least 50. In fact, we had some stalkers. We ended up with a girl named Charisse (pic). Bronx born, tough, looked great. Had a banging patch of blonde in her dark hair. Whether or not she could sing was a different story. But for the time being we forged ahead. Band practices became farther and wider as now the Bronx was a new place to explore. I can vaguely remember getting lost in Harlem a few times on the way home. Life was full of excitement.
Useless Tidbits of Information:First complete song played as "band": Not one
Setlist: None. Primarily riffs, early beginnings of Miss D songs
Outcome: Band relieves singer of position due to "creative conflicts"
Postscript: Lin and I return to Mount Richmond Cemetery for deep contemplation about finding new singer. JoJo cracks open numerous beers and hangs in there. New ad for singer is placed into the Aquarian classifieds.
For the life of me I cannot remember exactly when we met JoJo, but I believe it was sometime within these 2 years. It probably had to do with an ad placed somewhere in a local Rocker paper. What I do remember is the constant teasing imposed by Lin and myself on Jo regarding her living locale. As the new Jersey Girl, she was on the receiving end of many a "that's because you're from NEW JERSEY! Dweeeee!" comments.
Anyway, without the specifics on hand it's safe to safe we met Jo in this time period. Sometime before that, Lin and I had become the closest of friends and went to recording and engineering school in a far off place called Chilicothe, OH. We studied 24-track recording, perfected our out-of-town bar hopping, signed autographs in the small airport (some poor shlub was convinced we were KISS and the whole gender thing didn't seem to matter), gained new respect for Old Granddad, and came home older and wiser. That trip was a musical mix of Accept, Scorpions, Sabbath and Sabbath. We even found a kitten on that trip, she wasn't black, but we respectfully named her --->Sabbath.
Back home, the scene was brewing heavily. L'Amour's had become a regular hang. It was in it's 2nd phase (after they got rid of the central disco dancefloor) and the bar in the way back was home away from home.
Ah, yes, the beginning. Linda and I started getting together on a regular basis to jam. This meant I would drive to Staten Island, meet Joe, drive to Lin's school and pick her up. She was already playing with a local drummer whose folks graciously offered up their basement for practice. I do remember a lot of yelling, chaos, and a really cute cat came along with the deal. No pix of the cat, but the basement walls pictured above were covered in small throw rugs, and provided much visual appeal. Didn't provide much sound buffer to the family eating dinner above us, thus the yelling and chaos. A lot of door slamming also. The drummer's brother used to get agitated and hide my car keys, sometimes by throwing them in the toilet. Joe (pictured above with Lin) enjoyed the display and happily provided beverages.
Useless Tidbits of Information: First complete song played as "band": Paranoid
Setlist: None. Primarily riffs, feedback, chaos (and more yelling)
Outcome: Band breaks up due to "creative conflicts"
Postscript: Lin and I return to Mount Richmond Cemetery for deep contemplation about finding new drummer
