- Back in 2014, shortly after the release of his ‘Solo’ album, I was lucky enough to arrange a telephone-interview with former Dead Boys and Rocket From The Tombs guitarist Cheetah Chrome. If you’re interested, you can still find the interview on this very-same website… It was a real treat to talk to someone who I rate as one of the seminal Punk Rock guitarists, someone whose sound can still be heard being borrowed by new bands even to this day. On top of that, he turned out to be a really friendly, down to earth guy and we had a really great conversation. One of the things we talked about was his intention to play in Europe again and, at the end of the interview, he promised that we could do a proper face-to-face interview when he finally made it over…
Of course, the doubters immediately made their voices heard and, for once, they did have a point. How could a band really call itself The Dead Boys without their original frontman, the legendary Stiv Bators ? That being said, for me, just the chance to see Cheetah and Johnny playing together was more than enough to ensure that I would be there. I mean, how many bands have you heard playing ‘Sonic Reducer’ over the years? Not to put any of them down, but now we were going to see the guy who actually wrote that riff playing it live !
As if that wasn’t enough, I started to hear reviews from friends who had recently seen the new line-up playing in the States. There wasn’t a single disappointed comment, and this even came from people I know to be natural born cynics…
The London gig had originally been announced in October 2017, taking place in the main Islington Academy venue. Fans were excited and definitely intended to be there, but with the Xmas holidays inbetween, didn’t buy their tickets straightaway. You would think this was fair enough, but by early January, the promoter panicked over slow ticket sales and switched the gig to the much-smaller Academy Bar. Once this was announced, the gig sold-out within days, leaving plenty of fans desperate to get their hands on spare tickets. So on one hand, we were going to get to see the band in a small, packed-out venue but at the same time, lots of people were going to miss out. You really would have thought the venue would figure-out these sort of thing…
Anyway, the gig got closer and I tried to get back in touch with Cheetah to make sure our interview would still go ahead. Unfortunately this didn’t go smoothly as I discovered that his old email address was no longer valid. I tried a few other channels to get in touch, but by the day of the gig, nothing had worked. So I put my faith in the fact that we had got along well when we previously talked and decided to get down to the venue early for to see if I could speak to him there.
I really shouldn’t have worried, but it’s too late in life for me to buck the habit. As I walk into the club, the first person I meet turns out to be the bands’ tour manager, Tony. I explain to him why I’m there and he helpfully explains that Cheetah hasn’t arrived yet but introduces me to Johnny Blitz. Once he hears why I’m there, he says, ‘That’s cool – do you want a beer ?’ How could I say no to such hospitality ?
Cheetah arrives a little while later. I introduce myself, he remembers our previous conversation and is more than happy to talk again as soon as their soundcheck is completed. So, I wait and watch the band getting ready to play. When they run through a song together, goddammit, they sound awesome. The new singer Jake Hout has just the right voice to do this, sharing enough mannerisms with Stiv to sound right, but also with enough of his own character to avoid just sounding like an imitation. New rhythm guitarist Jason Kottwitz and bassist Ricky Rat do a similarly spot-on performance and I already know this gig is going to be one of the highlights of the year !
After they’re done, I wait a while and then Cheetah comes to get me and we go back to the dressing room for the interview. Johnny joins us occasionally, while also sorting out a few technical problems with his drum kit…
Anyway, the gig got closer and I tried to get back in touch with Cheetah to make sure our interview would still go ahead. Unfortunately this didn’t go smoothly as I discovered that his old email address was no longer valid. I tried a few other channels to get in touch, but by the day of the gig, nothing had worked. So I put my faith in the fact that we had got along well when we previously talked and decided to get down to the venue early for to see if I could speak to him there.
I really shouldn’t have worried, but it’s too late in life for me to buck the habit. As I walk into the club, the first person I meet turns out to be the bands’ tour manager, Tony. I explain to him why I’m there and he helpfully explains that Cheetah hasn’t arrived yet but introduces me to Johnny Blitz. Once he hears why I’m there, he says, ‘That’s cool – do you want a beer ?’ How could I say no to such hospitality ?
Cheetah arrives a little while later. I introduce myself, he remembers our previous conversation and is more than happy to talk again as soon as their soundcheck is completed. So, I wait and watch the band getting ready to play. When they run through a song together, goddammit, they sound awesome. The new singer Jake Hout has just the right voice to do this, sharing enough mannerisms with Stiv to sound right, but also with enough of his own character to avoid just sounding like an imitation. New rhythm guitarist Jason Kottwitz and bassist Ricky Rat do a similarly spot-on performance and I already know this gig is going to be one of the highlights of the year !
After they’re done, I wait a while and then Cheetah comes to get me and we go back to the dressing room for the interview. Johnny joins us occasionally, while also sorting out a few technical problems with his drum kit…
We start with a general chat, just catching up, and then I go back to our previous interview, when Cheetah had been talking about his plans to come over to Europe to play with his own band. That seemed to be happening back in early 2017 but eventually fell through. What happened ?
Cheetah : We just had some differences with the promoter, about how we wanted to do things. I mean, she’s a very competent promoter, I certainly wouldn’t want to diss her or anything like that, but the way things were coming together just wasn’t working for me. My manager eventually talked to her, when I told him how things were going, and he advised me to pull the plugs on it. I really wasn’t sure at the time whether we should do that or whether we should just stick with it and see how things turned out, but once he advised me that was what we should do, I just thought, well, that’s why I hired you. We were supposed to be playing at the Rebellion festival plus other shows in the UK and also going over to Germany, playing our own gigs and other festivals over there. But it got to the point where I was supposed to be buying our tickets to fly over to Europe and I hadn’t even seen any of the contracts from the different venues, so I started getting a bit nervous. It wasn’t as if someone over in Europe was going to buy us the plane-tickets and I just couldn’t get the confirmations from the club-promoters that I wanted to see before we went ahead and put-up all our own money to get there. And I have to say, I wasn’t doubting the tour promoter, because I know some of the other people she works with, like the Dictators, and they’ve all told me that she’s really cool. People recommended her to me when we first started talking about playing over here and everyone spoke highly of her. But at the end of the day, it was the first time I was going back to play in Europe for a very long time, I didn’t really know what to expect and I was very nervous about spending $7000 of our own money without seeing what I needed to see as guarantees. Maybe I should have been more trusting about it all, but it was going to be my first time working with these people and my first time playing in Europe for years, so I just wanted to be certain that everything would work out for us. It’s a lot of money to put up front and a long way to go to find out we’d made a mistake, so I just couldn’t risk that happening even though it probably would have worked out fine.
Cheetah : We just had some differences with the promoter, about how we wanted to do things. I mean, she’s a very competent promoter, I certainly wouldn’t want to diss her or anything like that, but the way things were coming together just wasn’t working for me. My manager eventually talked to her, when I told him how things were going, and he advised me to pull the plugs on it. I really wasn’t sure at the time whether we should do that or whether we should just stick with it and see how things turned out, but once he advised me that was what we should do, I just thought, well, that’s why I hired you. We were supposed to be playing at the Rebellion festival plus other shows in the UK and also going over to Germany, playing our own gigs and other festivals over there. But it got to the point where I was supposed to be buying our tickets to fly over to Europe and I hadn’t even seen any of the contracts from the different venues, so I started getting a bit nervous. It wasn’t as if someone over in Europe was going to buy us the plane-tickets and I just couldn’t get the confirmations from the club-promoters that I wanted to see before we went ahead and put-up all our own money to get there. And I have to say, I wasn’t doubting the tour promoter, because I know some of the other people she works with, like the Dictators, and they’ve all told me that she’s really cool. People recommended her to me when we first started talking about playing over here and everyone spoke highly of her. But at the end of the day, it was the first time I was going back to play in Europe for a very long time, I didn’t really know what to expect and I was very nervous about spending $7000 of our own money without seeing what I needed to see as guarantees. Maybe I should have been more trusting about it all, but it was going to be my first time working with these people and my first time playing in Europe for years, so I just wanted to be certain that everything would work out for us. It’s a lot of money to put up front and a long way to go to find out we’d made a mistake, so I just couldn’t risk that happening even though it probably would have worked out fine.
That tour was originally being advertised under your own name, Cheetah Chrome. Were you using a different band at that time ?
Cheetah : No, it was the same line-up that we have now, with Johnny on drums, Jason Kottwiez on guitar, Ricky Rat on bass and Jake Hout on vocals. The idea was that, as me and Johnny were going to be playing together in the band, we’d play ‘Young, Loud and Snotty’ as the main part of the set and then we’d play a bunch of my own stuff. But when we got Jake in to do the vocals, it started to become a little stupid just to do it as my solo band. Especially as it was the anniversary of the album, the gigs started to get billed as ‘The 40th Anniversary of ‘Young, Loud and Snotty’ featuring Cheetah Chrome and Johnny Blitz’… it was like a fucking paragraph on the flyers just to say who was playing ! At first I didn’t really want to do it like this, but when we saw what was happening, my manager asked me, ‘why don’t you just call it the Dead Boys ?’ And by then, I'd realised that we sounded good enough and the band was good enough, so why not ? And as it’s come together, we’ve been playing songs from the second album and we’ve even started working on new material, so it’s started to feel like a real band again. I didn’t want to do it at first as it was only going to be me and Johnny from the original line-up, but as things have continued, I think we’ve realised that this really feels like the Dead Boys again and we’re not just using the logo for no other reason that nostalgia.
It’s cool that things have sort of come together to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the first album. You’d been releasing your own solo material which had been getting a good response, so things seemed to be naturally building-up towards this, rather than original members of the band just getting back together for this one event…
Cheetah : Yeah, well, it was the real anniversary last year, 2017, but we’ve kind of stretched it out because, at first, we didn’t know if people were going to be all that interested, especially as Stiv is no longer around. But as we’ve been playing, we’ve really been enjoying ourselves and the audiences all seem to have loved it, so we’ve been asked to play more than we expected. Obviously, we can’t all just drop everything now and go out on the road, but we’ve tried to play everything that we’ve been offered. We’ve been having a great time so there’s been no problem in playing the extra shows and the offers just seem to keep on coming.
Cheetah : No, it was the same line-up that we have now, with Johnny on drums, Jason Kottwiez on guitar, Ricky Rat on bass and Jake Hout on vocals. The idea was that, as me and Johnny were going to be playing together in the band, we’d play ‘Young, Loud and Snotty’ as the main part of the set and then we’d play a bunch of my own stuff. But when we got Jake in to do the vocals, it started to become a little stupid just to do it as my solo band. Especially as it was the anniversary of the album, the gigs started to get billed as ‘The 40th Anniversary of ‘Young, Loud and Snotty’ featuring Cheetah Chrome and Johnny Blitz’… it was like a fucking paragraph on the flyers just to say who was playing ! At first I didn’t really want to do it like this, but when we saw what was happening, my manager asked me, ‘why don’t you just call it the Dead Boys ?’ And by then, I'd realised that we sounded good enough and the band was good enough, so why not ? And as it’s come together, we’ve been playing songs from the second album and we’ve even started working on new material, so it’s started to feel like a real band again. I didn’t want to do it at first as it was only going to be me and Johnny from the original line-up, but as things have continued, I think we’ve realised that this really feels like the Dead Boys again and we’re not just using the logo for no other reason that nostalgia.
It’s cool that things have sort of come together to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the first album. You’d been releasing your own solo material which had been getting a good response, so things seemed to be naturally building-up towards this, rather than original members of the band just getting back together for this one event…
Cheetah : Yeah, well, it was the real anniversary last year, 2017, but we’ve kind of stretched it out because, at first, we didn’t know if people were going to be all that interested, especially as Stiv is no longer around. But as we’ve been playing, we’ve really been enjoying ourselves and the audiences all seem to have loved it, so we’ve been asked to play more than we expected. Obviously, we can’t all just drop everything now and go out on the road, but we’ve tried to play everything that we’ve been offered. We’ve been having a great time so there’s been no problem in playing the extra shows and the offers just seem to keep on coming.
You’ve also re-recorded the entire first album as ‘Still Snotty : Young, Loud and Snotty at 40’. What were your reasons for doing that ?
Cheetah : Well, we wanted to do something special to celebrate the 40th Anniversary with the new line-up, you know, to let people know how good these guys are, and we kind of got talking about, Why not record those songs again in the way that we’d do them now, with all of the experience we’ve gained in between times ? I mean, the original recordings were really only intended as demos and were never really meant to be released as a proper album. The idea was to record them to give us and Sire Records an idea of what we could do, because we’d never properly been in a studio before then. Once we’d done that and got an idea of what we had, we were supposed to go back in the studio again to record the whole thing for the actual album. But Seymour Stein decided that he liked the tapes as they were and realised that he could save some bucks on the original deal, so that’s how the album came out. Which was good in a way, because it was really raw and caught the spirit of the band, but at the same time, we’d also always thought, well, how might it have sounded if we had gone back and recorded it again as we had originally been planning to do ? Personally, I don’t think there would have been many changes, but one of the main things would have been the guitar sounds. Plus, we didn’t have a full-time bass player when we recorded those original tracks. We had tried to find someone in New York but when that didn’t work-out, we called-up Jeff (Magnum) who had originally played with us in the band Frankenstein, which basically became the Dead Boys. Jeff hadn’t moved to New York with the rest of us so he was still back in Ohio. At first, we’d been playing gigs in New York without a bass player, but when we got offered the deal with Sire, we decided we should call him up and see if he’d now be interested in re-joining us ? But even though he agreed to do it, we were already recording the tracks for what became the first album by this point , so Sire got Bob Clearmountain to learn the songs quickly and come in to play while we recorded them. I’m not knocking him, as he’s certainly an accomplished producer, but he wasn’t really a musician, not in our style at least. So it was all done that way and, over the years, we inevitably ended up wondering what it might have been like if we’d had our own bass player on the record and better guitar sounds ? It could have made a big difference, so we decided to try it and see how it might’ve worked. We were all happy with the results so we decided, this is valid enough. Let’s release it !
Cheetah : Well, we wanted to do something special to celebrate the 40th Anniversary with the new line-up, you know, to let people know how good these guys are, and we kind of got talking about, Why not record those songs again in the way that we’d do them now, with all of the experience we’ve gained in between times ? I mean, the original recordings were really only intended as demos and were never really meant to be released as a proper album. The idea was to record them to give us and Sire Records an idea of what we could do, because we’d never properly been in a studio before then. Once we’d done that and got an idea of what we had, we were supposed to go back in the studio again to record the whole thing for the actual album. But Seymour Stein decided that he liked the tapes as they were and realised that he could save some bucks on the original deal, so that’s how the album came out. Which was good in a way, because it was really raw and caught the spirit of the band, but at the same time, we’d also always thought, well, how might it have sounded if we had gone back and recorded it again as we had originally been planning to do ? Personally, I don’t think there would have been many changes, but one of the main things would have been the guitar sounds. Plus, we didn’t have a full-time bass player when we recorded those original tracks. We had tried to find someone in New York but when that didn’t work-out, we called-up Jeff (Magnum) who had originally played with us in the band Frankenstein, which basically became the Dead Boys. Jeff hadn’t moved to New York with the rest of us so he was still back in Ohio. At first, we’d been playing gigs in New York without a bass player, but when we got offered the deal with Sire, we decided we should call him up and see if he’d now be interested in re-joining us ? But even though he agreed to do it, we were already recording the tracks for what became the first album by this point , so Sire got Bob Clearmountain to learn the songs quickly and come in to play while we recorded them. I’m not knocking him, as he’s certainly an accomplished producer, but he wasn’t really a musician, not in our style at least. So it was all done that way and, over the years, we inevitably ended up wondering what it might have been like if we’d had our own bass player on the record and better guitar sounds ? It could have made a big difference, so we decided to try it and see how it might’ve worked. We were all happy with the results so we decided, this is valid enough. Let’s release it !
I must admit, some of the reviews I read before I heard the album had suggested that it was a rather pointless exercise, so I was a bit wary about hearing it. But once you actually sit down and properly listen to the new version, it does add so much more to the record. From a fans’ perspective, it certainly doesn’t take anything away from the original album, but at the same time adds things to the songs in a way that definitely makes it worthwhile…
Cheetah : Yeah, I agree. When we made that record originally, we’d never been in a proper studio before, so we had no idea of what we were supposed to do. We had very little, if any, input in the way it was supposed to sound.
Johnny : It was a fucking demo, we only recorded it to get an idea of how the songs might sound once the were recorded properly.
Cheetah : By the time we’d finished those recordings, we had a better idea of what we were doing and were all set to go back into a studio and do them the way we knew they ought to sound. That was the whole idea of giving us the experience of recording the demos.
I guess doing this new version of the Dead Boys album was similar to when you went back into the studio to record new versions of the old Rocket From The Tombs material ? Although the original recordings by the band are great in their own right, the band never got a chance to record them properly at the time, so it made sense for the remaining members to create an album from the original songs when they got the chance to do so in 2003…
Cheetah :Well, with that stuff, there were no proper studio recordings at all. The only stuff that remained from the original band were rehearsal tapes and live recordings. So that’s why we did that… I just wish we’d had a chance to do it back then.
Cheetah : Yeah, I agree. When we made that record originally, we’d never been in a proper studio before, so we had no idea of what we were supposed to do. We had very little, if any, input in the way it was supposed to sound.
Johnny : It was a fucking demo, we only recorded it to get an idea of how the songs might sound once the were recorded properly.
Cheetah : By the time we’d finished those recordings, we had a better idea of what we were doing and were all set to go back into a studio and do them the way we knew they ought to sound. That was the whole idea of giving us the experience of recording the demos.
I guess doing this new version of the Dead Boys album was similar to when you went back into the studio to record new versions of the old Rocket From The Tombs material ? Although the original recordings by the band are great in their own right, the band never got a chance to record them properly at the time, so it made sense for the remaining members to create an album from the original songs when they got the chance to do so in 2003…
Cheetah :Well, with that stuff, there were no proper studio recordings at all. The only stuff that remained from the original band were rehearsal tapes and live recordings. So that’s why we did that… I just wish we’d had a chance to do it back then.
Obviously, Stiv is sadly no longer with us, but were there any attempts of involving the other original members, Jimmy Zero and Jeff Magnum, in this current reunion ?
Cheetah : Well, Jimmy has various health issues so he really has no interest in touring, if you know what I mean. He really doesn’t want to do it anymore. I don’t even think he really wanted to do it the last time we got back together, back in 2004, although he did do that. But in the case of Jeff…
Johnny : Asshole…
Cheetah : He’s kind of sore because he never signed on the contract and there were so many times that he just didn’t show up…
Johnny : Asshole…
Cheetah : So he’s just the wrong guy for this band, now. Plus, he’s an asshole…
Johnny : Asshole !
I seem to be detecting a theme on this subject ?
Johnny : Yeah… Asshole !
Cheetah : Basically, he excluded himself from being part of the party because last time, he didn’t behave very well and acted like an…
Johnny : Asshole !
Cheetah : On which, I have to agree. I mean, he ended up going on Facebook and started ranting and raving before he even had a chance to think about what was going on. He’s bitchin’ about us, he’s bitchin’ about the fact that he’s not on the Anniversary Tour, but the fact is, he didn’t even play on the album. I mean, if he had kept his fucking mouth shut and got in touch with us in a decent kind of way, he might have made it back on the tour at some point. But once he started doing that, I just felt like, I’d rather get the bass player from The Shaggs before I’d get your sorry old ass back up to play in the band ! It’s not like we’re making so much money that it’s worth putting up with shit like that. We’re making enough money to get-by doing this and we carry on doing it because we enjoy it. So the last thing we’d want to do is bring back a guy that would probably stop us enjoying the whole thing.
Johnny : Jimmy Zero is still a fucking-solid kind of guy and if he could have physically done it, I am 100% sure he would have been here with us right now. But he simply wasn’t able to commit to doing it and there’s no bad blood between us and Jimmy at all.
Cheetah : Well, Jimmy has various health issues so he really has no interest in touring, if you know what I mean. He really doesn’t want to do it anymore. I don’t even think he really wanted to do it the last time we got back together, back in 2004, although he did do that. But in the case of Jeff…
Johnny : Asshole…
Cheetah : He’s kind of sore because he never signed on the contract and there were so many times that he just didn’t show up…
Johnny : Asshole…
Cheetah : So he’s just the wrong guy for this band, now. Plus, he’s an asshole…
Johnny : Asshole !
I seem to be detecting a theme on this subject ?
Johnny : Yeah… Asshole !
Cheetah : Basically, he excluded himself from being part of the party because last time, he didn’t behave very well and acted like an…
Johnny : Asshole !
Cheetah : On which, I have to agree. I mean, he ended up going on Facebook and started ranting and raving before he even had a chance to think about what was going on. He’s bitchin’ about us, he’s bitchin’ about the fact that he’s not on the Anniversary Tour, but the fact is, he didn’t even play on the album. I mean, if he had kept his fucking mouth shut and got in touch with us in a decent kind of way, he might have made it back on the tour at some point. But once he started doing that, I just felt like, I’d rather get the bass player from The Shaggs before I’d get your sorry old ass back up to play in the band ! It’s not like we’re making so much money that it’s worth putting up with shit like that. We’re making enough money to get-by doing this and we carry on doing it because we enjoy it. So the last thing we’d want to do is bring back a guy that would probably stop us enjoying the whole thing.
Johnny : Jimmy Zero is still a fucking-solid kind of guy and if he could have physically done it, I am 100% sure he would have been here with us right now. But he simply wasn’t able to commit to doing it and there’s no bad blood between us and Jimmy at all.
So how did you get to meet the new guys in this line up ?
Cheetah : Well, Jason was in my solo band, when I was promoting my last record. When it became time to do this, he was actually one of the main catalysts for me getting Johnny back-in to play with us. He knew that Blitz was still playing and really wanted to get him involved again, so we could all do something together. At the time, the drummer we had been playing with was about to move to Seattle, so we had to find a replacement anyway and I just thought, why get a ringer when I could ask the original guy ? Ricky was someone we already knew from Detroit and Jake had been playing in a kind of Zombie-Dead Boys tribute band, the Undead Boys. Once we heard him, we knew he was the perfect guy to do it. He’s got his own character but he can also cover the way that Stiv used to sing, not just like an imitation but in the way he does it himself.
There have been occasional Dead Boys reunions over the years, both before and after the loss of Stiv…
Johnny : I think the last time we’d played together was in 2005. We did one benefit for CBGB’s, another one for Stiv’s parents, and then finally, we did a benefit show for ourselves, as we thought it was fair for us to make a little cash after we played for all those other people…
But both of you have continued playing your own music with your own bands all the way through…
Johnny : Oh yeah, I’ve been playing in bands up in Canada, where I live. I was in a band called Slaughterhouse, who actually played at CBGB’s in the early 80’s alongside Cheetahs’ band, and we even played an encore together with Jeff that night. After that, I was in another band called Raw Dogand we were together for over twenty year. That was a really good band, too. I’ve played in a couple of other bands since then…
Did any of those bands record and release any music ?
Johnny : Well, there’s stuff that’s out there, but who gives a fuck, right ? We did our thing, obviously we were enjoying it otherwise I wouldn’t have continued doing it, but at the same time, I doubt if anyone was really paying attention to anything we were doing.
Cheetah : Well, Jason was in my solo band, when I was promoting my last record. When it became time to do this, he was actually one of the main catalysts for me getting Johnny back-in to play with us. He knew that Blitz was still playing and really wanted to get him involved again, so we could all do something together. At the time, the drummer we had been playing with was about to move to Seattle, so we had to find a replacement anyway and I just thought, why get a ringer when I could ask the original guy ? Ricky was someone we already knew from Detroit and Jake had been playing in a kind of Zombie-Dead Boys tribute band, the Undead Boys. Once we heard him, we knew he was the perfect guy to do it. He’s got his own character but he can also cover the way that Stiv used to sing, not just like an imitation but in the way he does it himself.
There have been occasional Dead Boys reunions over the years, both before and after the loss of Stiv…
Johnny : I think the last time we’d played together was in 2005. We did one benefit for CBGB’s, another one for Stiv’s parents, and then finally, we did a benefit show for ourselves, as we thought it was fair for us to make a little cash after we played for all those other people…
But both of you have continued playing your own music with your own bands all the way through…
Johnny : Oh yeah, I’ve been playing in bands up in Canada, where I live. I was in a band called Slaughterhouse, who actually played at CBGB’s in the early 80’s alongside Cheetahs’ band, and we even played an encore together with Jeff that night. After that, I was in another band called Raw Dogand we were together for over twenty year. That was a really good band, too. I’ve played in a couple of other bands since then…
Did any of those bands record and release any music ?
Johnny : Well, there’s stuff that’s out there, but who gives a fuck, right ? We did our thing, obviously we were enjoying it otherwise I wouldn’t have continued doing it, but at the same time, I doubt if anyone was really paying attention to anything we were doing.
The ‘CBGB’s’ movie which came out in 2013 quite rightly featured the Dead Boys very prominently.
Do you think that helped to raise the profile of the band once again ?
Cheetah : We actually got a lot of stick from some of the other bands because we were in the movie so much. Some of the other bands were complaining, like, why the Hell are they in the movie so much as we played there first ! But the fact was, Hilly was our manager and the movie is really based around Hilly. That’s the only reason why the Dead Boys feature so much in the movie. So there you go… we were part of Hilly’s story so that’s why we’re a part of the movie. It all tied together because of Hilly. If we went down, the club went down and if the club went down, we went down. We had as much of a stake in that place as anybody, so that was why we were featured in the film. I just thought it was really cool that someone would want to make a movie about CBGB’s and I think they did a great job. I guess they could have got some more appropriate actors to play the parts, but I still think they did pretty well. You’re always going to find faults with actors when they’re playing people that you knew or still know, but they can still do a good job. I mean, I was there when the kid who was playing my character did my his first speaking scenes and I have to say, when I heard him, he had me down right from the start. So I was cool with that and I told him, it was all good. The weirdest part was at one point when he was doing an interview for ‘Entertainment Tonight’ or some shit like that and he was sat there on a directors chair, in front of the cameras, dressed like me… I just happened to be walking-past on that day and seeing that was really weird !
Okay, well, to finish with, one of the great rock’n’roll stories of all-time concerns The Stooges and Iggy’s infamous performance at the Cincinetti Rock Festival. In the film clip when Iggy is clambering over the heads of the audience, someone hands him a jar of peanut butter which he subsequently smears over his chest. Legend has it that the person who handed him the peanut butter was Stiv… is that true ?
Cheetah : Well, I really can’t say for certain because I didn’t see it happen, but I do know that he was there and all I can say is that he repeated that story so many times and it never once changed. If it wasn’t him, he certainly got some mileage out of it and if it was someone else, they never came forward to contradict him. So down in my heart, I really think it had to be Stiv !
Do you think that helped to raise the profile of the band once again ?
Cheetah : We actually got a lot of stick from some of the other bands because we were in the movie so much. Some of the other bands were complaining, like, why the Hell are they in the movie so much as we played there first ! But the fact was, Hilly was our manager and the movie is really based around Hilly. That’s the only reason why the Dead Boys feature so much in the movie. So there you go… we were part of Hilly’s story so that’s why we’re a part of the movie. It all tied together because of Hilly. If we went down, the club went down and if the club went down, we went down. We had as much of a stake in that place as anybody, so that was why we were featured in the film. I just thought it was really cool that someone would want to make a movie about CBGB’s and I think they did a great job. I guess they could have got some more appropriate actors to play the parts, but I still think they did pretty well. You’re always going to find faults with actors when they’re playing people that you knew or still know, but they can still do a good job. I mean, I was there when the kid who was playing my character did my his first speaking scenes and I have to say, when I heard him, he had me down right from the start. So I was cool with that and I told him, it was all good. The weirdest part was at one point when he was doing an interview for ‘Entertainment Tonight’ or some shit like that and he was sat there on a directors chair, in front of the cameras, dressed like me… I just happened to be walking-past on that day and seeing that was really weird !
Okay, well, to finish with, one of the great rock’n’roll stories of all-time concerns The Stooges and Iggy’s infamous performance at the Cincinetti Rock Festival. In the film clip when Iggy is clambering over the heads of the audience, someone hands him a jar of peanut butter which he subsequently smears over his chest. Legend has it that the person who handed him the peanut butter was Stiv… is that true ?
Cheetah : Well, I really can’t say for certain because I didn’t see it happen, but I do know that he was there and all I can say is that he repeated that story so many times and it never once changed. If it wasn’t him, he certainly got some mileage out of it and if it was someone else, they never came forward to contradict him. So down in my heart, I really think it had to be Stiv !
The band have to leave to book-in to their hotel, so unfortunately the interview has to be cut short. I still have a load of stuff I would have liked to talk about, but maybe that can wait until further opportunities. As it stands, I’m already really enjoying this gig and it hasn’t even started yet !
I stroll down the road to meet some friends at one of the local pubs. I need some food to get me through the evening and, let’s face it, more beer is inevitable !
An hour or so later, we all return to the gig, in time to catch several songs by Desperate Measures. I’ve seen this band a few times and I have to say that it does seem to depend on where they play and what sort of sound mix they get. In a good venue with an enthusiastic audience, they can work really well and tonight is one of the better examples. With a lively crowd supporting them and a decent PA sound, the songs sound good and their performance really makes the most of them. I won’t pretend they’re one of the best bands around (after all, most of the material was written in the early-Eighties when the original band members were still pretty young and new to the game) but when you catch them on a good night, they’re certainly a lot of fun !
The place is jam-packed and everyone seems to be surging towards the front in anticipation for The Dead Boys. We don’t have to wait long and suddenly, they’re onstage. Those classic opening chords ring out, and they’re straight into ‘Sonic Reducer’. It sounds perfect. Hearing Cheetah play that guitar sends a chill down my spine. This is the real deal. In celebration of their first album, they play the first side of ‘Young, Loud & Snotty’ straight through, every song sounding better than ever. The band had sounded great at soundcheck, but now they’re playing the gig, they throw everything into it. As I said about his vocals, Jake is a similarly frenetic frontman to Stiv, but adds his own style to the performance and never looks as if he’s just trying to play a part. He’s a great performer in his own right and singing for a band like this certainly brings the best out of him !
The set continues into Side Two of the album with ‘Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth’ (surely one of the greatest song titles ever !) but then veers away from the running order to play ‘Calling On You’ from their second album instead of ‘Little Girl’, before completing the set with ‘I Need Lunch’, ‘High Tension Wire’ and ‘Down in Flames’. The time has flown past, you really don’t know how long they’ve been onstage. It’s just been exhilarating, a great show, more than living-up to the legend and the legacy. And we still have the encore to come – ‘Ain’t It Fun’ and ‘Son of Sam’, my two faves from the second album, sounding so much better than the poor mix they had on the original vinyl. This is exactly what we wanted and, for our sins, was exactly what we received.
I stroll down the road to meet some friends at one of the local pubs. I need some food to get me through the evening and, let’s face it, more beer is inevitable !
An hour or so later, we all return to the gig, in time to catch several songs by Desperate Measures. I’ve seen this band a few times and I have to say that it does seem to depend on where they play and what sort of sound mix they get. In a good venue with an enthusiastic audience, they can work really well and tonight is one of the better examples. With a lively crowd supporting them and a decent PA sound, the songs sound good and their performance really makes the most of them. I won’t pretend they’re one of the best bands around (after all, most of the material was written in the early-Eighties when the original band members were still pretty young and new to the game) but when you catch them on a good night, they’re certainly a lot of fun !
The place is jam-packed and everyone seems to be surging towards the front in anticipation for The Dead Boys. We don’t have to wait long and suddenly, they’re onstage. Those classic opening chords ring out, and they’re straight into ‘Sonic Reducer’. It sounds perfect. Hearing Cheetah play that guitar sends a chill down my spine. This is the real deal. In celebration of their first album, they play the first side of ‘Young, Loud & Snotty’ straight through, every song sounding better than ever. The band had sounded great at soundcheck, but now they’re playing the gig, they throw everything into it. As I said about his vocals, Jake is a similarly frenetic frontman to Stiv, but adds his own style to the performance and never looks as if he’s just trying to play a part. He’s a great performer in his own right and singing for a band like this certainly brings the best out of him !
The set continues into Side Two of the album with ‘Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth’ (surely one of the greatest song titles ever !) but then veers away from the running order to play ‘Calling On You’ from their second album instead of ‘Little Girl’, before completing the set with ‘I Need Lunch’, ‘High Tension Wire’ and ‘Down in Flames’. The time has flown past, you really don’t know how long they’ve been onstage. It’s just been exhilarating, a great show, more than living-up to the legend and the legacy. And we still have the encore to come – ‘Ain’t It Fun’ and ‘Son of Sam’, my two faves from the second album, sounding so much better than the poor mix they had on the original vinyl. This is exactly what we wanted and, for our sins, was exactly what we received.
As I said back at the beginning, there were plenty of naysayers before these gigs took place and to a certain degree, I could see where their doubts were coming from. But, as they say in Yorkshire (and certain villages in Tibet) the proof is in the pudding. Straight after this set, I spoke to two people who had actually known Stiv Bators and they both said, without prompting, that they had enjoyed this gig as much as they had enjoyed the Dead Boys back in the Seventies. Add to this that I’ve subsequently heard from people who saw them at the other shows around the UK and I still haven’t heard a negative comment… well, that just means that this line-up is doing it right ! If you missed them this time around, pledge your entire earnings to rock’n’roll and pray that you get another chance to see them !
Afterwards… Cheetah invites an bunch of friends backstage for a few more drinks. I’m lucky to be included. It’s more fun and I end up missing my last train, having to catch those pesky night buses, but I just didn’t care. It was worth it.
Afterwards… Cheetah invites an bunch of friends backstage for a few more drinks. I’m lucky to be included. It’s more fun and I end up missing my last train, having to catch those pesky night buses, but I just didn’t care. It was worth it.
www.facebook.com/deadboysofficial/
…and if you’re interested, here’s a direct link for my previous interview with Mr Chrome ;
www.fearandloathingfanzine.com/cheetah-chrome.html
…and if you’re interested, here’s a direct link for my previous interview with Mr Chrome ;
www.fearandloathingfanzine.com/cheetah-chrome.html
