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OCTOBER 2011
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COVER & CONTENTS PHOTO: THURSTON HOWES
CONTENTS
RICKY AND THE WHITE BOYS
SUNSET LOU
DENNIS’ PROBLEM
RED CROSS
TOURING BANDS
GWAR
HONOR ROLE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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18
22
26
34
48
58
PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE
UNSEEN FORCE
SORDID DOCTRINE
mudd helmut
ABSENCE OF MALICE
The Prevaricators
WHITE CROSS
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GAIL WRONSKY, FRANK GRESHAM (TOP) AND BILL FREIMUTH
ressed up and heading out to see Ricky and
the White Boys at The Pass: Bill actually
has a kielbasa sausage around his neck, lanced
and bleeding down onto his t-shirt. This being
our very first ever “punk” show, this is how we
thought we should dress. Bill is now producer of
the Grammy Awards; Gail is now a poetry professor.”
-Frank Gresham
D
15
RICKY AND THE WHITE BOYS SHAFER COURT, 1978
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17
SUNSET LOU
Lou is a madcap musician and
Sunset
inventor who got his start in late 70s
CLONE JUBILEE
18
Richmond leading a band called the Fabulous
Daturas. His music was more bluesy than
extreme, but if punk is an attitude, Lou was
one of Richmond’s first true punks. One
of the most notorious stories about Lou
involves him showing up drunk at a Ramones
show at the VCU gym--this would have
been 1978 or 79--intent on committing
a “performance art assassination” of the
Ramones. Lou was then a proponent of his
one-man art movement, “diarrhealism,” of
which this was to be the crowning moment.
Wearing a modified stereopticon mask (see
alley photo), with a beak that had been fit-
ted with razor blades, Lou ventured into the
mosh pit, attempting to slash people with the
sharp edges of his mask. Several people were
injured, and the police providing security for
the concert were quickly alerted, at which
point he was arrested, beaten up by the cops,
and thrown in jail. For some reason, though,
he was given a suspended sentence. Fortunately, he never attempted to repeat this
particular escapade, and the story passed
into local punk legend. For all we know, the
version of the story we heard is loaded with
hyperbole and falsehood; only the people
who were there at the time know the truth,
and none of them are talking.
19
MEMBERS OF PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE AND OTHERS HARDTIMES
20
UNSEEN FORCE
GRETA BRINKMAN
PHOTOs: ADRIENNE OWNBY
1982
YFA HARD TIMES
Dave BrockiE
TAYLOR STEELE, BEN SCOTT and MARC CORBETT
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DENNIS’ PROBLEM THE PYRAMID, 1987-88
GEORGE SOFFEE, FRED LAPIER and MARC CORBETT
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PHOTOs: ETHAN ISENBERG
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HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY, 1985
CAMERON THOMPSON, SHANE WAMPLER, PHIL FOXWELL, AYNE BALES, AARON ISRAEL,
ADRIENNE OWNBY AND GALEN TAYLOR
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GRACE ST., 1985
Hollywood Cemetery, 1985
YOUNG SKATE PUNKS
1985
Cameron Thompson, Wendel Poore, Philip
Perrine, AND Phil Foxwell
Photos: Greta Bollinger
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26
RED CROSS
E
veryone knows about White Cross, one of
the first Richmond hardcore bands. But have
you heard of Red Cross? There were actually
two American punk rock bands by that name
in 1981; one was from LA and are now known
as Redd Kross. The other was from right here in
Richmond. After intervention by the international charity organization of the same name,
Richmond’s Red Cross became White Cross, but
the well-known later lineups of that band were
almost completely different from Red Cross’s
original lineup. Coming together in 1981, Red
Cross quickly made a name for themselves in
the city, for better and for worse. Their wild,
raucous stage show resulted in them being
banned from a bunch of local clubs, including a
few (Benny’s, Hard Times, Going Bananas) that
would be hosting punk shows regularly within a
year or two. Their confrontational performance
at a Halloween show in Shafer Court ended their
ability to play on the VCU campus. Singer Frank
Gresham tells the story: “We opened for
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our pals the Orthotonics. By the time they got
to the stage, I’d broken glass bottles all over it,
and then bombed the audience with plastic bags
packed full of white flour--which exploded on
impact. The place looked like hell afterwards (a
foul “batter” of beer, flour, and glass) and I got
the band into trouble for it.” In a 1982 interview
from Throttle magazine, bassist Alford Faulkner
disavowed all involvement in the Shafer Court
massacre. “FRANK did it! We had nothing to do
with it! Frank did it all!” Not long after that interview, Frank left the band and the name change
occurred. White Cross went on to a more
respectable and widely-known history than their
short-lived predecessor, but Red Cross have a
distinct role in Richmond punk history.
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CASABLANCA, 1982
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SHAFER COURT, 1982
FRANK GRESHAM, ALFORD FAULKNER, SCOTT PRICE, AND MIKEY RODRIGUEZ
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PUNKER BIKE RACE SHAFER COURT, 1983
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Photos: mary ann golden
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DEAD KENNEDYS THE MOSQUE BALLROOM, 1983
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PHOTO: CINDY HICKS
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THE EXPLOITED HARD TIMES, 1985
PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
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MINOR THREAT BENNY’S, 1983
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PHOTOS: CINDY HICKS
39
BLACK FLAG
hard times, 1984
40
PhotoS: THURSTON HOWES
Rockitz, 1985
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BROKEN BONES GOING BANANAS, 1985
GBH HARD TIMES, 1985
COC 538 CLUB, 1983
SCREAM MOSQUE BALLROOM, 1983
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GBH BENNY’S, 1983
PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
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PSYCHO DRAMA HARD TIMES, 1984
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PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
sycho Drama were a Washington DC band
who came down to Richmond for a couple of
Pmemorable
shows in the early 80s. These pho-
tos are from Hard Times, taken when the singer
climbed a ladder midset, only to fall and injure
himself, ending the show and requiring a trip to
the emergency room. Legend has it that he was
proclaiming himself to be Jesus as he climbed
the ladder. Legend also has it that he appeared
to be wearing a fake tail during the set, which
later turned out to be one of those horse-tail
buttplugs that you can find on fetish websites
these days. Who knows whether you can trust
the legends? One thing is for sure, though--these
guys freaked everybody out when they played.
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LEFT TO RIGHT:
CRISPY
BROKEN BONES
UNKNOWN
SEAN SUMNER
JOEY SHITHEAD
WIMPY ROY
GBH
BOB SCHICK
GBH
BROKEN BONES
ROB MOSBY
GRAVES TRUESDALE
TOMMY RODRIGUEZ
DEWEY ROWELL
OPPOSITE PAGE:
CIRCLE JERKS
BROKEN BONES
GBH
TOXIC REASONS
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GWAR backstage at pb kelly’s
DAVE BROCKIE
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PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
ROCKITZ
PHOTOS: KIT HALSTED
G
WAR started out as a side project of an
early 80s Richmond hardcore band called
Death Piggy. They were having trouble finding
opening acts for their shows, and decided to
create a joke opening band made up of Death
Piggy members playing different instruments
and pretending to be hostile aliens here to
conquer the world. Perhaps unsurprisingly in
hindsight, that concept was a bigger hit than
Death Piggy ever managed to become (ubiquitous cartoon pig graffiti notwithstanding),
and soon GWAR had completely eclipsed the
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PB KELLY’S
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PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
SHAFER CT. VCU, 1986
group it had originally opened for. Members
of local instrumental prog/punk group the
Alter Natives became the musical backing
for a troupe of wildly costumed performance
artists. They were working with very limited
budgets, but that didn’t prevent them from
coming up with wildly outrageous costumes
from the outset of the group. With the addition of shocking onstage antics and wild
public stunts, GWAR soon began to take
over Richmond, at one point talking their
PHOTOS: CINDY HICKS
way into a one-minute segment on the
Channel 6 evening news. Dave Brockie told
Throttle that the members of the band had
barged into the station, fully costumed, and
“demanded that we be put on television
immediately or we’d kill everyone in the
room.” It worked, and the band were shown
on tv that night, climbing on snowbanks
and waving makeshift foam weapons at
passing cars.
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Dead Kennedys the Mosque, 1983
Doug Dobey stagediving
52
Photos: Thurston Howes
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DOUG DOBEY HARDTIMES, 1984
STEVE HUNTER 1984
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ANDY MARCUS HARD TIMES, 1984
DIRTWOMAN
PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
55
538 CLUB, 1983
56
PHOTOS: CINDY HICKS
57
Honor Role 1986
Pen Rollings
58
Photo: SAM MAUNEY
1989
Photo: JOEY ODETTE
Casablanca, 1982
LINDA GRIGGS AND Pen Rollings DANCING
BOB SCHICK
CHIP JONES
Photo: SHARON FRIEDHOFF
59
PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE PB Kelly’s, 1985
Bo Steele, George Soffee, Taylor Steele AND Marc Corbett
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P.B. KELLY’S, 1985
PhotoS: Chris Stoddard
61
Unseen Force PB Kelly’s, 1985
Bob Verderame AND Scott Badger
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PhotoS: Chris Stoddard
GRETA BRINKMAN
DEWEY ROWELL
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SORDID DOCTRINE 1987
Bryan Bridgman, Dwain Curd AND Nick Smilek
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PhotoS: Adrienne Ownby
65
CLIFF BENNY’S, 1983
CLIFF FARRAR
66
Photo: CINDY HICKS
67
MUDD HELMUT 1989
ben lawes, rob mosby, dan deckelman, wes freed and mike rodriguez
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rockitz, 1986
photos: cindy hicks
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7171
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DAVE BROCKIE BENNY’S
KAREN BRYSON BENNY’S
538 CLUB
DAVE BROCKIE ROCKITZ
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JON GRAFT BENNY’S
TAYLOR STEELE HARDTIMES
BENNY’S
538 club
PhotoS: THURSTON HOWES
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GOING BANANANS, 1985
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PhotoS: BRIDGET CAMDEN
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ABSENCE OF MALICE DUPONT CIRCLE (DC), 1986
Shane Wampler, Graves Truesdale, Joel Benson, AND Tim Hohmann
78
PhotoS: Chris Stoddard
Photo: AYNE BALES
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PhotoS: Ayne Bales
81
PREVARICATORS 538 Club, 1987
CLARK BALL AND DAVID STOvER
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PhotoS:CINDY HICKS
STEVE HUNTER AND FAN
83
ALTER NATIVES 1986
84
Photo: KIM K
THE GOOD GUYS 1982
BEEX 1982
THE DADS 1981
PhotoS: CINDY HICKS
85
WHITE CROSS BENNY’S, 1983
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PHOTOS: CINDY HICKS
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538 club
MIKE RODRIGUEZ
88
PHOTOS: THURSTON HOWES
89
DWAIN CURD GRAVEN IMAGE 7 INCH COVER, 1983
ne night at a gig, Honor Role started handO
ing out these stickers to people, after calling
their names off a list. There were names of peo-
ple in the scene, and these stickers said “kicked
out of the scene”. It turned out that it was just a
sarcastic joke on their part, making fun of some
girls that had actually kicked this one girl out of
the scene.”
-Mike Rodriguez (White Cross)
From interview in Maximum Rocknroll
90
CONTRIBUTORS
THURSTON HOWES
CINDY HICKS
FRANK GRESHAM
AYNE BALES
ETHAN ISENBERG
MARC CORBETT
LINDA GRIGGS
ADRIENNE OWNBY
CHRIS STODDARD
KIT HALSTED
THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT PROVIDED IMAGES
AND INFORMATION: THURSTON HOWES, CINDY
HICKS, FRANK GRESHAM, ADRIENNE OWNBY,
MARC CORBETT, LINDA GRIGGS, ETHAN ISENBERG,
AYNE BALES, CHRIS STODDARD, KIT HALSTED,
SHARON FRIEDHOFF, AND OF COURSE,
THE INTERNET.
THANKS TO CHRIS BOPST AND PETE HUMES FOR
INSPIRING THIS PROJECT.
THIS MINI-MAG IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY
OF BRYAN HARVEY, STEVE HUNTER, DWAIN CURD,
GRAVES TRUESDALE, CHRISTINE GIBSON,
AND SEAN SUMNER.
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