Now Serving Tea & Crumpets

Getting Social: Rockers Hanging Out Pt.1

Here’s a selection of photos of various rock & roll stars hanging out and partying with various friends of various bands from the 1960’s & 1970’s. It’s like one big club!

David Bowie, Iggy Pop & Lou Reed

Rick Derringer & Steven Tyler

Grace Slick & Janis Joplin

Brian Jones, Yoko Ono, Roger Daltry, Julian Lennon, John Lennon

Mick Ronson, Gloria Jones, Marc Bolan

Aynsley Dunbar, Lou Reed, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Jeff Beck, Mick Ronson

Deborah Harry, Suzi Quatro & Joan Jett

Janis Joplin & Peter Tork

Robert Plant, Linda Ronstadt & Ron Wood

John Lennon & Keith Richards

Diana Ross & Brian Jones

Eric Clapton & George Harrison

Joan Jett & Debbie Harry

Ellen Foley, Pat Benatar & Ellen Shipley

Liza Manelli, Mick Jagger & Raquel Welch

Little Richard & The Beatles

Marketing Rock Old School Style Pt. 3

Back in the 60’s & 70’s, decades before the internet and instant access to information, a lot of us didn’t know when bands were putting out new albums until we heard them on the radio. Some advanced news would filter in a head of time, minimally, in places like Scene, Creem, Circus, Rolling Stone, Rock Scene, Hit Parader, Trouser Press, etc…

For those of us who bought all the magazines and tabloids (Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Sounds) we’d often get advance word that a new album was being released by the record company advertisements that were placed in the media. They were usually timed to see print just weeks prior to releases so we’d have a heads up on what was coming out.
 
Here once again are some random samples of various advertisements hyping new album releases from back in the day as seen in various music publications.

Click on images to enlarge!

Marc Bolan & Friends

Here is a collection of photos of Marc Bolan hanging out with some of his better known friends. In addition to appearing on stage with various bands & performers throughout his career Bolan also appeared on numerous singles and albums by other performers. Just a few examples are:

Marc Bolan contributed to Ike & Tina Turner’s 1970’s singles Nutbush City Limits, Baby-Get It On & Sexy Ida. Bolan’s second wife, Gloria Jones, was a one time back-up singer/Ikette for the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.

Marc Bolan plays guitar on Ringo Starr’s “Ringo” album. The hit song, Back Off Boogaloo, was written by Starr as an acknowledgement of a slang term coined by Marc Bolan.

Marc Bolan was invited to Alice Cooper’s recording sessions in London during the recording of Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies. Bolan played guitar on Slick Black Limosine, Hello Hooray & Elected.

Alice Cooper, Keith Moon, Harry Nilsson & Marc Bolan

Marc Bolan played guitar on David Bowie’s single, The Prettiest Star.

Marc Bolan played dual lead guitar on ELO’s Ma Ma Ma Belle with Jeff Lynne.

Marc Bolan & Jeff Lynne

Marc Bolan played guitar and did some prodcuing for Donovan in a Munich recording studio for Donovan’s 7 Tease album.

Marc Bolan & Donovan

Marc Bolan played guitar on Cockney Rebel’s lead singer Steve Harley’s Amerika The Brave album and co-wrote the song Madmen with Harley.

Marc Bolan sang back-up vocals on Marsha Hunt’s recording of My World Is Empty Without You.

 

Bowie & Bolan

 

Marc Bolan, just months prior to his untimely death, performed with David Bowie doing the song Standing Next To You on Marc Bolan’s MARC television show.

Marc Bolan & The Rats

Billy Idol & Marc Bolan

The Ramones & Marc Bolan

Elton John & Marc Bolan

Elton John, Marc Bolan & Rod Stewart

Keith Moon & Marc Bolan

Stan Lee (!), Marc Bolan & Roy Wood

Bowie & Bolan

(c)2012 Doc Lehman/Bangagong!

Local College Grad Makes Good: Duncan ‘Zowie Bowie’ Jones

Last week I’m in a retail store and on the way out I run into an old acquaintance of mine that I hadn’t seen in a number of years. We get to talking about the old days, the music we were into, the concerts we attended, all that. For some reason the College of Wooster came up (a college about 6 miles from where I live), we may have been talking about some of the concerts that were held there, but he laughed and said a long time ago he heard a rumor that David Bowie’s son, known as Zowie Bowie back in the day, had attended and graduated from the College of Wooster.
 
He was slightly taken aback when I confirmed that, yes, Duncan ‘Zowie Bowie’ Jones had indeed attended and graduated from the College of Wooster. He seemed dumbfounded that the son of an international superstar would attend college in a small, quaint, rural community in Ohio. C’mon, you even see, on occasions, an Amish buggy slowly meandering down a street.

Well, he did, as I explained, and it wasn’t really a secret and that word was most everyone treated him as just another student. He still wasn’t convinced until I told him my brother was a supervisor at the College of Wooster during Jones’ time there and in fact, commented at the time how cool it was that David Bowie and his wife, Iman, had attended graduation ceremonies. And yes, it made the local papers.
 
Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones was born on May 30, 1971, and at the time David Bowie and then-wife & mother Angie dubbed the young boy Zowie Bowie. On Bowie’s Hunky Dory album the song, Kooks, was written for his then newborn son. After the couple divorced in 1980 David Bowie was awarded custody and raised his son. (In 1992 Bowie married model Iman and they subsequently had a daughter born on August 15, 2000 named Alexandria Zahra Jones.)

 Entering the College of Wooster, he then decided on using Duncan Jones as his personal and professional name. He graduated in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and then pursued a PhD degree at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee but departed to attend the London Film School, where he graduated as a director.
 
Why the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH? Jones once told an interviewer it was because of it was “Comfortable, multicultural and multinational.”

In this Daily Record staff photo proud father David Bowie is shown taking photos of his son’s graduation at the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH in 1995.

Jones appreciated his time at the College of Wooster, a private liberal arts college that has a renowned Independent Study program. Jones once told a College of Wooster publication:
 
“Wooster hit me at just the right time in my life. I was just starting to get excited about what I could do with my life. I took creative writing and art classes, and tried to spread out as much as possible. One of the wonderful things about Wooster was it gave us all a sense of empowerment. We wanted to make a difference and do things that people would notice.”

Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones

Since graduating he has went on to become a highly successful film director and has garnered respect and attention with the science fiction films Moon, in 2009 and Source Code in 2011, which starred Jake Gyllenhaal.
 
For a while Jones was one of the leading candidates to direct the upcoming Superman reboot film and the next X-Men film. He turned down the director’s role for the upcoming Judge Dredd film instead writing the script for his third, still untitled film.

Son & father

During the past couple weeks Jones has made another big step, becoming engaged to photographer Rodene Ronquillo, his long-time girlfriend. Ronquillo, after the engagement became public, joked on Twitter, “Even if he is just after a green card, he’s all mine now.”
 
Whatever the future holds, we haven’t heard the last of Duncan Zowie ‘Bowie’ Haywood Jones.

Duncan Jones & fiancee Rodene Ronquillo

(c)2012 Doc Lehman/Bangagong!

Rock ‘N Roll Eye Candy

The previous post featuring the Sunset Strip in 1974 sparked some memories after seeing the Mott The Hoople and David Bowie billboards. I can remember once in the mid-1970’s driving north to Cleveland and being shocked to see a billboard along I-71 advertising KISS’ Destroyer album. I knew they had the coolest rock ‘n roll billbaords in New York, London and L.A. cause magazines like Creem, Circus, Hit Parader and the like would on occasion publish a photo of one. Seeing rock ‘n roll themed billboards promoting new albums and upcoming concerts (World Series of Rock, etc…) would be a bit more frequent over the next couple years around Cleveland and Akron but like all things, they too faded.

Here’s some billboards from ‘back in the day’, the glory years of rock ‘n roll. Click on images to enlarge!

Time Traveling

The Sunset Strip in LA in 1974. Photo taken by the great Larry Jandro. Bet there were some amazing gigs happening in LA the day this was taken.

Click on image to enlarge!

Proper Fashion Taste (?)

 

I very, very rarely wear T-Shirts. Hardly own any compared to most. Only have a couple rock ‘n roll shirts, a Mott The Hoople ‘The Hoople’ and T.Rex’s ‘Electric Warrior’. Had a T.Rex ‘The Slider’ shirt years ago but it’s long gone, so imagine my surprise when I walked into a shop at a mall in New Philadelphia recently and there, amongst all the Michael Jackson and Bob Marley shirts, was one T.Rex t-shirt depicting ‘The Slider’LP.

 

Yeah, I bought it, thanks to a wave of nostlagia. And thanked the young lady for remembering us old folks.Anyway, I’m the last person who knows anything about fashion taste, but I’m not in bad company owning a T.Rex T-Shirt, to wit (below); Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Robbie Williams and Kelly Johnson of Girlsschool, Iggy Pop & Alice Cooper (above).

Among many others, I’m sure….!

 

 

 

 

 

And, of course, this (as-of-now) unkown future superstar!

 

 

 

Mick Ronson Remembered

Mick Ronson – One of the greats!

A recent conversation with a friend about Mick Ronson brought to my pal the startling realization that Mick Ronson has been gone for 15 years now which is hard to believe. Ronson was a gifted guitarist, arranger, songwriter and producer who made his mark in rock ‘n roll and to this day has a strong following. Ronson lost his battle with liver cancer on April 30, 1993 at age 47 but his accomplishments won’t soon be forgotten.

I first became aware of Ronson during his stint with David Bowie in the early 70’s as Ronson led the Spiders From Mars and helped Bowie construct more than a handful of now classic songs and albums, particularly The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars. The first time I saw Ronson perform live was with Bowie and the Spiders on September 22, 1972 at the Music Hall in Cleveland, OH.

After Ariel Bender had left Mott The Hoople in 1974 Ronson joined the band in September of that year. I was ecstatic! One of my favorite guitar players was joining one of my all time favorite bands. I couldn’t wait for Mott The Hoople to tour the USA so I could catch Ronson with the band but alas, they never made a USA tour as Ian Hunter fell ill and soon after left the band with Ronson in tow.

When Ian Hunter started his solo career Ronson was on board and eventually the Hunter-Ronson Band started gigging throughout the USA and I was fortunate to catch several of their shows, the first on April 26, 1975 at the Music Hall in Cleveland, OH with the band Bonaroo as support.

A really cool gig I was fortunate to see up close was on June 18, 1979 at the Cleveland Agora with the Iron City Houserockers opening. Another reason I remember this gig is two days later my daughter was born two months early (and she spent consider time in an incubator at Akron Children’s Hospital)! Hunter and Ronson and company were just totally on fire that night and an appearance with the band by Ellen Foley capped a great night.

The Hunter-Ronson Band came back to the Cleveland area three months later headlining the Richfield Coliseum with the David Johansen Group. Hunter’s You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic was red hot in northeast Ohio and the band, once again, was on fire. Great show.

The last time I saw the Hunter-Ronson Band in its original incarnation was the following year when they returned to the Richfield Coliseum on June 7, 1980. The show was advertised with Hunter-Ronson headlining but when we showed up for the concert the promoters put Heart as the headliner. Mistake. While Heart did a great job, it was a bit of a let down and anti-climatic after Hunter-Ronson and associates had the huge crowd rocking the rafters. Intense performance by the band and Heart had to be dismayed following Hunter-Ronson that night.

I bought everything on vinyl that featured Ronson back in the day, including his solo LPs Slaughter On 10th Avenue and Play Don’t Worry. He continued working with a number of bands and performers but to me, his best collaborations were with Ian Hunter on his studio LPs and his, to me, classic live LP, Welcome To The Club.

For those unfamiliar with Ronson spend some time on the Mick Ronson website and find out how much of an impact he had on rock ‘n roll. His resume is one of the most varied and impressive of any rock ‘n roll guitarist. And be sure and check out Ronson’s daughter Lisa’ s band, The Secret Society (Lisa Likes Rock ‘N Roll, ya know!).

Yes, he was THAT good!

 

Ian Hunter & Mick Ronson – They had some great shows.

 

Albums My Mom Bought For Me

In less than 10 days it will be one year ago that I lost my Mom, so naturally she’s been on my mind a lot here lately. One memory that came back recently was when, after I became a teenager and she saw my growing record collection (and my sister’s and my brother’s), she would ask each Christmas for a list of three or four album titles, in case they were sold out of one or two selections. She would always make it a point to tell me to only expect o-n-e album, if any at all, yet invariably each year there would be two or three albums under the tree (it was that or another bottle of Hai Karate cologne!). Shown here is just a small random sampling of some of the albums my Mom bought me over the years.  Looking back she was younger than I am now when she bought these for me (she was in her early 40’s). God bless you Mom. You were always hip!

Biology & Rock ‘N Roll ‘Literature’

Way, way, way back in the early 1970’s when I attended Orrville High School I had a pretty good time (more on ‘good times’ another time soon) and for the most part the academic end of the high school experience came somewhat easy for me considering I never took a book home after my freshman year. I got decent grades, in some classes damn good grades, but there were two subjects that I just couldn’t get into no matter how hard I tried.       One was math, and the other biology. During my sophomore year biology was a required course and the lecture part of the class was taught by John Wiant who was a brilliant and extremely intelligent teacher but I just could not get into it.       After the first couple weeks it became obvious that I’d rather read my rock n roll magazines during class than listen to Mr. Wiant and take notes. A buddy of mine, who sat to the left of me, was Bug Jones and he shared my apathy for the subject.       To the right of me was a girl named Brenda S., a very pretty cheerleader who was pretty hip, too. She got Bug and myself through that course.     You see, why we laid back and read the newest issues of Circus, Creem, Rolling Stone, Rock Scene, Scene and the rest she was busy taking notes and when quiz time came around would pass her paper over to us to copy. Of course, we’d always miss a couple to get that ‘C’ grade as Brenda always got ‘A’s’.       The lecture class was held in the school auditorium and we sat back far enough that Mr. Wiant never realized, or let on, that while the majority of the class was doing the right thing (once we set a chair on fire, nevermind…..), Bug and I were reading about the latest exploits of Led Zep, Mott The Hoople, T.Rex, Rolling Stones, Montrose, David Bowie and the Spiders, Alice Cooper, Slade and all the rest.       We made it through the whole year reading rock n’ roll magazines and I passed with a ‘C’ on the year….thanks to Brenda S.!         I recall a lot of people used to borrow my rock magazines especially in study hall (hello Beth C.!). I tried to use study halls to do whatever homework was required for the following day because when that final bell rang for the day school never entered my mind until the next morning.         Throughout the 1970’s, until the end of the decade, I had complete 1970 runs of Circus, Creem and Rolling Stone with stacks and stacks of Hit Parader, Rock Scene, Crawdaddy and any others that came along that featured hard rock. Including stacks from the mid-to-late 1960’s.         I also purchased, when I was able and could find them, music newspapers/magazines from England like Melody Maker and New Musical Express, among others. Those two were, and probably still are, the top music rags in Britain and the newsstand store at Rolling Acres Mall in Akron back in the 70’s carried imported magazines including NME and MM, among the occasional other rock publication from the UK which I dutifully would buy.         I devoured all of those magazines from both sides of the pond and I think it was a huge influence after high school when I published Bangagong Magazine.       There were places around Orrville to buy the magazines, like Buehler’s grocery store, Bigler’s, and Dick Zarle’s drug store uptown (good ‘ol Dick once told me, I swear to God (!), “Hey, kid, this ain’t no library!”) and it seemed like the magazine rack at the Three Sisters Restaurant always had a good selection and often got them sooner than the other places in town, plus they were always open for breakfast as I headed for school (and sometimes stopped for breakfast, too).     Wish I still had all of them!   And rest in peace Lester Bangs!