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.
In my weekly travels I'd hit the only other record store besides Zig Zag that carried new and hot metal releases and hard to find vinyl--Titus Oaks on Avenue U in Brooklyn. Considering that on an average afternoon I would be dressed in full metal apparel (boots and hair up to there), I didn't exactly blend into the racks. I'll never forget the day I met Melinda, the future MissD guitarist and big banana. She bounced and clomped behind me up and down the record aisles, snapping her gum, and in a heavy Texan drawl shouted "
HEY. Y'all got a band 'er something?" So we chatted each other up and I liked her instantly. She was out of her gourd (always a plus), and immediately started running off about Michael Schenker, UFO and Scorpions. She wanted me to go home with her to "meet Michael." That was her beloved Flying V guitar. OH yeah. Handful.
It's hard to capture here all that Melinda B. Whitley was, but like a true Texan, everything about her seemed bigger--her MOUTH, her HAIR, her giant flying V, and her PERSONALITY. We got tight pretty quickly, and all she wanted to do was get in the band with us. So, I had to make a choice between never going to Titus Oaks again to avoid the risk of being mauled, or ask the girls if we needed a 2nd guitarist. If I didn't need that Sad Wings of Destiny picture-pressed 10" so damn badly, life may have turned out differently. But, Mel could play, and had a great melodic sound. She was not as adept as Linda at that time, but what she lacked in her playing capabilities, she made up for in character. We wanted to start filling the songs out and a rhythm guitarist seemed like a good idea. We thought that her and Linda could play nice in the sandbox.
HOUSTON, WE SURE HAD A PROBLEM.
Some people come into your life and stay forever. Even if forever is cut way too short. I can remember the day that Cat Coleman auditioned for the band. It wasn't really an audition, it was more like: OK, I'm here. You want me. I want to be here. I can sing, and there's nothing else to discuss. SNIPPY BITCH! God, I loved that girl instantly. She made ME feel like a dumbo, and I'm pretty damn sharp between the ears. I think we decided on the spot (after she opened the pipes and let roar some Ann Wilson) that she was in.
Cat was this tall, cool, dark person from Jersey. She wore long flowing scarves and had a sneer. There was something about her that told you she had been through something in life that wised her up quickly. She wasn't there to mess around. She KNEW people. She knew PEOPLE who knew people. She wrote for the Aquarian, which of course gave her some shtank AND she knew all the up and coming bands and was not the least bit impressed. Although, she did like those glamour boy bands (see earlier reference to Poser extraordinaire from Poison).
I can write about the personality clashes and bitching and moaning that we all did, but I'd rather say that the band now had it's foundation in 1984. This was the essence of MissDemeanor although we didn't go by that name yet.
I can also go on about how Cat and I forged a lifelong friendship that far outweighed any band stories, but no one really cares about that but me. When she died, she took part of me with her instantly. She was my dearest friend.
Make no mistakes, though. We were ALL friends for the next few years...with a few blips on the radar screen...
