What was it like hanging out back then at CBGBS and Max's ?

Actually at first I didn't want to hang out anymore., I was sick of it all, I'd been hanging out and (sneaking out of the house) and going to Rock Shows since I was 11 and hanging out with bands. At fourteen I was writing for a few Teen Music Magazines like "Circus" and I knew the Editor of 16 Magazine who Danny Fields (Danny 'discovered' the MC5, The Stooges and the Ramones - who wrote 'Danny Says' about him) worked for so I met Danny way back when I was a little kid and he was Gloria's apprentice and right arm, and I met EVERYONE by then except Gerge Harrison and Ringo and Bob Dylan and still haven't..yet and regretfully will never meet George who I really admired. Chris Stein said to me all the time when I was living in his apt "oh your so jaded you met everyone already.." I gave him all my photos I had that I took of Mick Jagger and Kieth Richards many that had been published. They weren't stage shots they were in Hotels etc and Mick posed for me once which was EXTREMELY INCREDIBLE for a little kid that I was or I guess anyone who wants to photograph a rock star , celebrity. Mick was always the best., Keith too..all the stones., especially poor Brian and after hanging out for years in that scene and living at the Fillmore and lucky enough to know the right people I was always backstage ., I never had to pay, and I never had to fuck a roadie or anything like that in case your wondering, The fact I was published and I'd show people, bands my work gave me some credibility and I got press passes, It seemed kinda precocious of me a little girl walking around calling her self a photo journalist but that's what I thought I was and I did get published so with that and the time I had hung out at CBGBs and Max's I felt well I've seen it all and the people at Max's and CbGbs's were ..., some of them were too crazy some of the bands sucked., I was just tired and fed up with everyone/everything, that's why I even moved out of the city. But it was almost as if I could not escape it. I laugh when I hear Al Pacino in the Godfather say something to the affect everytime I try to get away they draw me back in... and it was like it followed me...

"Goodlookin Frankie" - photo by Deborah Olin

I met this boy when I moved to Brooklyn. I dialled the wrong number but I thought it was a friend of the person I called playing a goof on me saying there's no one here by that name and I said please stop F**king around. Then I believed them then we started talking., so who are you and what do you do? It turned out he was a bass player in a band that was playing the downtown scene circuit., and knew people I knew, hung out were I had and that was pretty funny to me ., and he lived around 10 minute's from the area in Brooklyn I said I was living. He was really very nice and we talked a few more times and then we met. His name was Frankie Audinuncio and his friends called him "Goodlookin Frankie" and he was very very goodlooking and he was a really sweet guy. So we started seeing each other. Then he wanted me to come to rehearsal with him., meet his friends come see the band play and I really didn't want to. I didn't want to get sucked back into the whole scene. But I did.

His lead guitarist was this guy Luigi Scorcia who later had his own band Luigi and the Wise Guys and then he played and toured with Johnny thunders and was a good friend of Johnny's., and probably one of the few people close to Thunders that didn't take ANY drugs of any kind or smoke cigarettes., Luigi really hated that , but he loved Johnny, Johnny had a huge influence on him., I saw that right away, he hadn't met thunders yet when I first met him but watching him I thought hmm someone is into Thunders, except Luigi was really tall, he kinda looked like him very NY Italian., and very what is known as old school Italian that's Johnny too, very much so..and Louie.

Then after 6 months I broke off with Frankie and that's when someone said come down to Max's see this band Public Problems Fred Bells band, which I told earlier is how I met Marc at Max's. And then I was right back into hanging out. I missed alot of people. I missed Chris and Debbie and Lance Loud (The Mumps) whose band I tried to promote and put in a concert I put together a few years before. It was the FIRST Punk Rock mini Festival..2,000 kids going crazy in a gym with Blondie the Dictators, Mink DeVille the Mumps had to cancel last minute thanks to Pattie Shit stealing Lance's drummer, I think we had the Miami's why I'm not shure I dont know..and Elliot Kidds band the Demons. Elliot also later played in one of Thunders bands and sang, theres a great tape of Elliot floating around he and Thunders on acustic guitars and Elliot sings "Why must I be a teenager in love" he looks like the original singer who had a hit with it Ricky Nelson and he sings it better, too bad you cant get video in here I'd send you the tape..

Elliot Kidd at Johnny Thunders memorial - photo by Deborah Olin

So there I was back hanging out., I thought everyone forgot me but they didn't., and I was still on all the guest lists at all the clubs., Hilly from CbGb's.., the new owner at Max's Tommy Dean and his wife etc. And in the short time I was away it became a much bigger scene

I went to see Debby Harry and Chris and the band., they were playing CbGb's so I went by the place early when I knew they'd be doing sound check. It was the late afternoon and there were kids lined up outside already! I never saw that at Cb's, I was pretty surprised but thought it was fantastic. Merve the bouncer at the door let me go in, he remembered me and knew I was friends with the band from way back before he was even needed and hired. So I went over to Debby she was hanging around drinking tea while the band was tuning up and doing all the technical stuff. I was so happy to see her., she said were have you been! hey where were you on vacation ? you look so great and she yelled over to Chris and everyone LOOK who's back doesn't she look great!.., because I was pretty tan but I hadn't gone father than Brooklyn, so I told her yeah "Tar Beach" which in NYC means on your roof of your house!

They had finally gotten an album out and it was doing really well and I was really happy for Debby because I remember how hard they tried, how they always rehearsed, how they went through different band line ups and ideas and I always thought Debby was the best and just HAD to make it big I told her once when she first made her hair blonde ( it had been red and curly for awhile when Chris first bought her home) I was a little drunk and said NOW your a star that hair, that's YOU!..what a little ass I was! I told Debby you got alot of fans lined up out there and a whole bunch of little gay boys with tons of gifts and flowers for her, and she said well we hope we appeal to everyone and thought it was great. When I got there it looked like over a 100 people were on line with police barricades and when I was let in alot of them started screaming to me "tell Debby I love her and I have something for Debby" It was so weird! So I went back outside and they started screaming again and I collected all the flowers and letters and things., and they were very emotional just wacked out over Debby and asking me a million questions about her and what's she doing "NOW". Uh drinking tea.., there doing sound check and there going to run through tonites set. She'll probably come out later to leave and come back tonite. and a lot of other questions like "what's Debby really like"? THE BEST I said! it was kinda bizarre to be asked all this

But I understood this was just the beginning for Debby., that yeah she's gonna to be a big star, these are her fans ! I was so happy for her. I went back in and said oh god Debby they just love you its incredible and she was very happy I had to give her another big hug and say how excited and proud I was., they were well on there way. And something told me this was going to be a hell of a summer and I was thinking "Oh I'm back" I'm going to be hanging out and having a kick ass time" I arranged my work schedule., so Id start at 1;00 in the afternoon till 9;00 so I could go from work hang out and have time to get home sleep and get to work on time., I was still in the food business., though I was sick of being a chef., though instead of running a huge kitchen it was a small pub., then I switched to another place.

Then I had some old friends and made new ones. One was this girl who was a singer in this great band "Slanderband" Jessie Blue, they were very popular at CbGb's always packed houses and often double-billing with the Dead Boys. The crowd was pretty wild and the Hells Angels loved The Slanderband too, they were more Rock OUT than Punk and Jessie wore corsets long before Madonna and she had this biker -leather chic thing going on. She became one of the best friends I ever had. Years and years later after her unfortunate early death ( she O.D.ed) I named my daughter after her Sasha Blue because Jessie was so good so real so brilliant and funny and talented and just the best person. Her band was mostly from Brooklyn as I originally am., and it turned out her guitar players were old good friends of Marc and Fred Bell.., and if I'm not mistaken at one point there was talk of Marc joining Slanderband. Marc was a big fan of them. So I think that's how I ran into Marc again so often and Freddy but Fred was more a Max's boy. There was a difference in the type of people, the music, the way they dressed, where they grew up, even the drugs they took between Max's and CbGbs., I was talking to someone recently from "those days" a drummer who played in "Cherry Vanilla's" band.. and then later the Brats, Michael Mancuso (and still is playing around with them) and mentioned all this and he agreed., and Michael said "you know I never thought about it but its true its really true". I'll get into that another time though.

I'd say around that time the best bands were Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers., who I thought were better than the NY Dolls because I am so into that kind of bluesy-rock guitar that Thunders did so well and he had such a unique sound all his own., he didn't sound like anyone else though I can hear his influence very early stones, the Ronnettes ,Chuck Berry, Dion, Dylan, John Lennon, Page , Beck the motown sound the girl group Phil Spector thing. It was all there in Thunders but it all came out his own flavor and he was like the Lenny Bruce of Rock and Roll, Thunders really had it above everyone., just being himself it just flowed so naturally., I think of him as the "Man who coulda been King"

So there were The Heartbreakers, Voidoids, Television were just incredible too and Fred Smith on bass was just the perfect, he's a very skilled bass player and it just blended in so well and the band wasn't split between doing Hells stuff and the others. They were a guitar band and they would get so into it and you'd trip out on it., they were incredible, sometimes they get together still and pop up and do a show and if you get a chance GO! I cant imagine them not still being great!.., though they might not be as pretty as they were, Richie Lloyd was beautiful ..fucked up on drugs, I thought alot worse than people went on about Johnny Thunders, I never saw Thunders totally out of it and crawling and talking crazy shit like Richard was known to do. Actually I always thought that despite the problems Thunders had with his escalating drug problems he was a normal guy., a New York Italian guy from Queens., he wasn't a weirdo, had no bizarre delusions or said freaked out shit! He was funny as hell and very quick and bright, I think Thunders was the scapegoat in a way and they, the record people crucified him put him up on the cross because there were so many artists out there that were junkies., from Aerosmith to Guns and Roses. I'm not saying it wasn't difficult to work with Johnny - he'd disappear he'd get too high on studio time he'd be late, and a pain in the ass to work with, arguments over money etc but it pisses me off they held him up for an example when there was so many others totally fucked up with less to offer that no one bothered.

So Television were on top of their game., talking Heads were getting very big. The Mumps were really packing them in. ,Blondie was already starting to get really big and the Ramones were probably the most successful., they were touring alot there album was doing really well they were recording more, They were bringing in so many people that Hilly would book them for several days in a row two shows per nite and packing the place to overflow. There were alot of other popular bands The Shirts the Cramps Mink de Ville was recording and touring, Patti Smith had an album out doing really well, Suddenly everyone was coming down to CbGbs.. there would be camera crews and reporters from all over from Boston to Japan. Celebrities started hanging out and coming down actors., other established Rock people., you know when Frank Zappa shows up something interesting and great is going on and Mick Jagger and Keith., ,A British band The Police started playing..I called them "the bleached blonde boys from Britain".., and ACDC who blew the house up.., big record people were checking things out. It was a very exciting time especially considering not longer before it was a band and just friends in the audience and some wino sitting at the bar who lived in the charming flophouse next door.

CBGB's with the Palace Hotel to the left

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