Punk rockers are writers too… Three of them from the Cleveland scene are on tour to promote their books during ‘The Cleveland Confidential Book Tour’, and they stopped at Vacation Vinyl on Thursday night to read some excerpts.
Bob Pfeifer, founding member of ‘Human Switchboard’ and ‘Tabby Chinos’, and later on president of Hollywood Records, read a passage from his first novel ‘University of Strangers’, a mix of fact and fiction which combines conspiracy theories, a secret society, and the famous story of Amanda Fox, the American student who was convicted of murder by the Italian authorities. Since the book is written in the forms of interviews, journal entries and news reports, he read a passage about a pregnant junky hooker. Also, the book includes a card to download five new songs by the Tabby Chinos!
Mike Hudson, who founded the Pagans in the late 70s, but who is now the Niagara Falls Reporter’s editor, read from his book ‘Diary of a Punk’, a collection of 32 autobiographic, brutally honest stories about touring, and seeing people around you dying, according to the excerpt he chose to read.
Then, lastly, Cheetah Chrome’s book ‘A Dead Boy’s Tale From The Front Lines Of Punk Rock’ was presented as his no-holds-barred autobiography, a tale of success, drug use and resurrection, about notorious days of ‘fist-fighting with Iggy Pop, roller skating with the Rolling Stones, partying with John Belushi, playing with Nico’. He collaborated with numerous people, was the lead guitarist of Rocket from the Tombs and The Dead Boys, and talked briefly about Batusis, his new project with Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls, which should give birth to a new record this fall. I saw that the book had the approval of Slash on the cover.
I must say I’m not familiar at all with the Cleveland punk-rock scene and a lot of native people were there and began to ask questions about bands I had never heard about. At the end, they played that little game, punk or not punk? Dropping names…. Michael Stanley? (a popular songwriter popular in the 70s in Cleveland), ‘He was shit!’ Tough Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk? NFL football player Jim Brown? Punk! Haaa sorry, there were other names, but I am not from Cleveland!
Comments are closed.