THE RAMONES- Rumrunners of Oyster Bay

Written by Backstage Bruce     

    The Ramones were a great band and their music lives on. They were the originals, often cited as the first true punk rock group, releasing their first album in April 1976. 

The first punk album

    I had always wanted to see them. They performed at my college once and I did have tickets, but I couldn't get out of work. Fortunately for me, and all of us, they have played thousands of concerts so there was always a chance to catch them somewhere. For me that was a club on Long Island, that has since shut its doors, Rumrunners. The name was paying homage to the history of the area, during prohibition, when the runners would run rum all around the island with their boats. 

        I had no tickets, but... I tell a friend of mine my plans and invite her along, knowing I have no tickets whatsoever. We were just going to "wing it". She's cool, she was down. We get there and nothing. The box office is completely sold-out and there was not a scalper in sight, none. They don't do that out there in Suffolk county, culture shock. 

    So now we are just kind of walking around the area pondering our next move. We drove all the way there, we were not ready to throw in the towel and leave just yet. We needed a miracle, our hope was for someone to arrive and just happen to have an extra pair of tickets to sell us. That is where we were at.

    While we are standing there, we could hear burst of loud music. It kept happening. That is when we looked behind us and realized we were standing in front of a 8-feet tall, chain-link fence. On the other side of the fence was the patio. The burst of music we were hearing was when the door was open as people went out to the patio area to smoke. 

    I half jokingly said that we should just climb the fence. We both had Chuck's on, perfect for climbing. She shrugged her shoulders and away we went. I mentioned she was cool, she was with me on a few of these adventures, or misadventures, depending on how you look at it. 

    I thought for sure that once we got halfway up our heads would pop up over the fence and security would be on it. Thank goodness that did not happen. We get to the top and hop on over. Landing safely on the other side we did turn a few heads, nobody said a word. They were probably wishing they had done the same exact thing.

    We immediately get our bearings, locate the door and walk right through it. We were inside and the show hadn't started yet. The music was coming from the DJ spinning. We did it! We make our way over to the bar to get beer and it was mobbed, we get our beer and the show starts.

Joey and Johnny

        That night three out of four of the original members were there. Joey on vocals, Johnny on guitar. (Those two would be with the band from start to finish.) Dee Dee was still on bass then and that night on drums was Richie Ramone. 

A drummer that can sing, Richie Ramone

    They sounded great. The audience slam danced all night long with so much energy. It was infectious. We went right up front to the mosh pit and jumped in, quite raucous. The band played about 30 3-minute songs rapid fire. Incredible, they didn't let up. I loved the entire show. I recognized about 10 songs: 'Blitzkrieg Bop', 'Teenage Lobotomy', 'Rock & Roll High School', 'I Wanna Be Sedated', 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker', 'Bonzo Goes to Bitburg', 'Rockaway Beach', '53rd & 3rd.' etc...

 

   The entire night was an absolute blast, I'm glad we decided to jump over the fence to get in which in itself is pretty damn punk rock. 

BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE- Irving Plaza

written by Backstage Bruce  

    Mick Jones, former guitarist and vocalist for The Clash, along with filmmaker Don Letts, launched the band 'Big Audio Dynamite' (B.A.D.) in 1984. Mick had spent his time after The Clash and before B.A.D. playing guitar with General Public and Sid Vicious along with other projects. 

    Unofficially the name of the band comes from the animated series, The Flintstones. Fred Flintstones' best friend, Barney Rubble, has his own band and the name of that band is Big Audio Dynamite. It is unproven, yet this urban legend has been around for 30 years and it does sound plausible, so I'm going with it.

 
    B.A.D. started with Mick Jones on vocals and guitar and Don Letts as sampler and videographer. To round it out, the great bassist Leo 'E-Zee-Kill' Williams was added in, along with the phenomenal drummer Greg Roberts. Dan Donovan on keyboards completed the quintet. Their first album was 'This Is Big Audio Dynamite'.

From my personal collection, 1)-My very first Backstage Pass ever. 2)- An invite to the after after-party. 3)- Ticket stub, from one of the shows, WLIR presents

    It was a huge success, yielding three singles: 'The Bottom Line', 'E=MC2' and 'Medicine Show'. My favorite number on that one is 'Sudden Impact'. The album's cover was a picture with four of the band members, dressed in cowboy attire, as Dan Donovan (keyboardist) was also doing photography duty. He designed the album cover as well. The album was great then and still is now.

    The music video for the song 'Medicine Show' is really cool and has a few great cameos: Johnny Rotten's in it as are two former members of The Clash, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon. 'MEDICINE SHOW' music video

    Fast forward two years later and the band released their second album, 'No.10 Upping Street'. It is a play on words. The band is from London and in London there is a famous address, No.10 Downing Street. It is where the Prime Minister of England lives. The band just changed downing to upping in this mixed up world, quite clever in fact. The first single, 'C'mon Every Beatbox' was a hit. 

    The tour came to New York City for five sold-out nights at Irving Plaza. I wound up going to all five. The name of the venue comes from the famous writer, Washington Irving, who grew up just steps away. Across the street is the Sleepy Hollow Pre-School Academy. Myself and friends were able to get tickets to night four. 

    Night one, I had nothing else going on so I decided to drive into NYC from Long Island. I get there and parked right up front, I couldn't believe it. I scalped a ticket and got in. The show starts, they looked and sounded great. They were wearing the same outfits they wore for the photoshoot for the album's cover. All five made the it into the photo this time. 

    The crowd was super pumped, very enthusiastic and danced the entire concert. B.A.D. played 12 songs, the three singles from the first album, plus the new ones, 'Limbo the Law' and my favorite from the second album 'Hollywood Boulevard'. 'A Party' was in the repertoire too, that is a party song. The final encore was 'C'mon Every Beatbox'.

A picture snapped that week at Irving Plaza

 

    The show comes to an end and everybody starts to file out, myself included. Almost everyone was gone, as I was walking toward the door to exit I hear music coming from above. I passed a staircase and I looked up and realized that is where the music was coming from. I started to climb the stairs. It was two floors. I get there and ask myself "What is This?" "It appears to be the after-party." I walked right in. It was an open bar and the DJ was spinning. People were dancing, this was a party. 

    I go to the bar and get a beer. Drink it on down and get another. I had a blast, I danced, I mingled. I saw Matt Dillon there. He and Laurence Fishburne did the spoken-word dialogue on the song 'Dial A Hitman'. I ran into the radio DJ Donna Donna from WLIR. We said our hellos. She asked me how I got in, she knew something was up. I met the entire band and asked for autographs because it was 1987 and it was my first time, so yeah I did that. I asked Dan Donovan if he would put me on the guestlist for the next night and he did! The routine had started.

 

    I arrive the following night and was able to park right up front again. I couldn't believe my luck. I park, enter through the stage entrance this time and talked to the guy there holding the clip board. My name is on the list and I am in. The show was fantastic again. They wore the same outfits. I went to the after-party again. I asked Dan to put me on the list again. This went on night after night. I was having a blast. 

    During the third night after-party I gave Dan a brand new NY Yankee hat as a way to thank him for putting me on the list every night. On night four, he wore it on stage! Instead of the white cap, that he usually wears, he wore the Yankee cap. I went with my friends that night and we were able to bring even more friends since I didn't need the tickets I purchased anymore. I brought all my friends to the after-party, what a great time! 

B.A.D. sent me a letter from London with fan club info, really cool postmark. 

    The final show, night five. I arrive and I start to walk through the door and I see two people sitting by the stage door, kind of dejected, like all hope of getting in was lost. I recognized the guy from my college. He worked in the concerts department. I am just one of the thousands of students there, so he wouldn't recognize me at all, but I am familiar with who he is. I tell him I've seen him around campus and asked if they were trying to get in and invited them to come with me. 

    They do, we walked in. I'm on the guestlist plus one. Here I am with two, clipboard guy has seen me all week long. (I was so sure he was sick of me by then, 23-years-old, Bridge & Tunnel, uh) He just lets us all in. It was another really fun show. The band's energy was just as high as it was the first night.

 

    I had just moved to New York in September of '85, and now here just 18-months later and I get myself on the guestlist almost every night to five sold-out shows in a row. This is where it all started, this was a whole new experience. And I never looked back.

 
    Over the years, the band changed line-ups and the name to become Big Audio Dynamite II. The fans were with them for the entire ride. 

    In addition to those five shows, I was fortunate enough to see them five more times in four-different clubs. Three of those clubs are permanently closed: Sound Factory Bar, 10-18, Roseland (twice, including a New Years Eve show in Times Square, Moby opened.) I am so grateful for every show that I was able to make it to.

 

    The last time we would get to see Big Audio Dynamite was during the reunion tour of 2011. The original line-up was back in place and that is what the fans wanted. The show was superb, the set list was a great mix of their career. 

    Brooklyn Bowl is a bowling alley/ live music venue. It was the site of B.A.D.'s performance when the reunion tour rolled through our area. The place is very hip, it is Brooklyn and we love it that way.