Punk Performers & Theories Of Ideology ('Punk Mass' 1970 - )

* Some punks in the U K consider punk rock to be a British invention kickstarted by the Sex Pistols who were still playing a lot of covers when they debuted in November 1975. Paris and New York have a very strong relationship when it comes to the arts which is why French musicians got into punk early; these cites have always looked to each other for ideas and inspiration. Punk in Germany was connected to avant-garde experimentalism and the dates in Berlin get pretty blurry. Canada and Australia also developed punk movements that were seeded in the mid-1970s. This is great though, when I come to think about it ... punk truly does transcend all borders.

* It's the records that really matter now - I think most fans feel this way.

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There have been underground filmmakers over the years like John Waters, Amos Poe, Richard Kern and Nick Zedd who have become known for their outrageous takes on punk sensibilities. If I try to pinpoint when I think east coast cool collided with the industrial midwest in purely cinematic terms, I always think of filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. Spike Lee, who would make his own punk-influenced picture with 'Summer Of Sam' (1999), said he was inspired to go out and make a feature-length movie after seeing Jarmusch's New York picture 'Permanent Vacation' (1980).

Jarmusch is interested in cities with character. He returned to his adopted home of New York for 'Night On Earth' (1991), which also travels to Los Angeles, Paris, Rome and Helsinki. In between he'd made 'Down By Law' (1986) and 'Mystery Train' (1989) which visited the musical heritage of New Orleans and Memphis, as well as making an unexpected return home to Ohio to realise 'Stranger Than Paradise' (1984) which utilises several locations in Cleveland (about 30 miles direct from Akron, 40 miles drive). 

In 'Stranger Than Paradise', Willie (Lounge Lizard John Lurie) is visited in New York City by his 16 year old cousin Eva (Hungarian violinist Eszter Balint) on her way to Cleveland to see Aunt Lotte (Clevelander Cecillia Stark). Willie and his pal Eddie (Sonic Youth drummer Richard Edson) decide to head to Ohio to see Eva and then they all go to Florida in search of excitement.

Jarmusch has strong ties to the large Hungarian community in Cleveland; there are many Slovaks living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Poles living in Chicago, Illinois and Czechs living in Miami, Florida. Jarmusch himself has Czech ancestry.

The minimalist music score for 'Stranger Than Paradise' is composed by John Lurie. The one song heard again and again is by Cleveland shock rocker Screamin' Jay Hawkins who would later appear for Jarmusch in 'Mystery Train'. Willie and Eva watch cartoons, NFL games, sci-fi & horror movies together. They do get bored, as does Eddie who wants to go to a Cleveland Cavaliers game even though he's heard they stink. When the three of them see the snow in north-east Ohio, they have a spiritual awakening, though it doesn't feel much like it at the time.

Filmmaker Sara Driver is in the cast of 'Stranger In Paradise', which is photographed by her fellow director Tom DiCillo. Jarmusch's friends and contemporaries Spike Lee and Wayne Wang have also documented the immigrant experience within a vibrant city on celluloid.

In 2002, 'Stranger Than Paradise' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Penelope Spheeris has made a few different music documentaries over the years but remains best known in this field for her trilogy consisting of 'The Decline Of Western Civilization' (1981), 'The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II : The Metal Years' (1988) & 'The Decline Of Western Civilization Part III' (1998). 'The Decline Of Western Civilization' is widely regarded to be an essential existing document of the California punk scene of the 1970s, filmed on location from December 1979 to May 1980.
Alot of musicians active at the time were written out of the picture so that Spheeris could create a cut + paste portraiture of the 'hardcore' punk colony as raging inbreds who were always getting high. It offers a searing study of the scene, so you could say Spheeris took the right approach, though many of the musicians involved felt it was a far cry from the reality of their working lives (though most acknowledged it to be an affecting piece of work).

What's great about 'The Decline Of Western Civilization' is getting to spend time with the musicians themselves. The Germs, for example, appear as domesticates while being interviewed in their tiny kitchenette, expressing real worries and concerns while eating green jelly sandwiches, expounding upon their own personal philosophies while doing the washing up. By contrast, you have a tight outfit like X who seem relatively sober and totally switched on to what's going on around them, an asset of this particular band that Spheeris the interviewer finds tough to counter.
A top student at high school and keen self-promoter, Spheeris' carefully sculpted documentary films put her on the Hollywood map. Though she claims to have been handed a rough deal in Hollywood because there aren't the opportunities for women that there are for men, it was most definitely her own choice following the enormous success of 'Wayne's World' (1992) to strike the kind of huge cash deals that enabled her to direct the television updates 'The Beverly Hillbillies' (1993) and 'The Little Rascals' (1994).






In between operating as a ground-level documentary filmmaker and becoming a major studio director, Spheeris struck a deal with independent film producer Roger Corman to make the fictionalised feature 'Suburbia' (1983) which pays tribute to the punks of California. Having taken some serious criticism for the way in which she portrayed the musicians in her first feature-length documentary, she made up for it with this heavily romanticised vision of the scene she'd left behind. It's a film I'd recommend to anyone interested in punk rock cinema. It's also my joint favourite among the fictional features she's made, alongside the crime picture 'The Boys Next Door' (1985).

For an alternative take on Californian punk that also captures the scene in vivid detail, I'd recommend two spirited films made by David Markey - 'Desperate Teenage Lovedolls' (1984) & 'Lovedolls Superstar' (1986). Redd Kross play a key role in proceedings and contribute music, while other musicians from the punk scene also make appearances.

These small-scale films are roughly made and really put the viewer inside the milieu. They're funny too and the second one has some nice parodies of '80s pop culture. I find the geography of Californian punk interesting because bands were frequently coming together in Los Angeles having travelled from locations like San Francisco, San Diego and Sacramento; they weren't all formed in the same big city.

Alex Cox has had one of the stranger careers in cinema, but a career that befits the former presenter of the film screening show 'Moviedrome', where his provocative introductions to films had British kids of my generation staying up late to watch all manner of unusual movies that operated within all kinds of fantastical genres.

In recent years, Cox has made the lamentable 'Repo Chick' (2009) - a failed spin-off from his Californian punk feature 'Repo Man' (1984) - and put together the deluxe redux 'Straight To Hell Returns' (2010) which it seems no-one has seen. He's also shot material for Wah and The Pogues but more often we've heard from him in his capacity as critic, observer and interviewer. Openly nostalgic, Cox waxes lyrical about returning to places he's visited many times before, providing the perfect punk recipe book for cinema, as boredom breeds repetition (cue refrain).



Everything was going right for Cox up to the release of his acclaimed rock biopic 'Sid And Nancy' (1986), a movie that gained a wider audience when John Lydon of the Sex Pistols suggested it was pure fantasy. For me, Cox's masterpiece is 'Repo Man' which came about as a result of his time studying at the prestigious film school UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). 'Repo Man' is arguably the definitive Californian punk film; imaginative, absurd, theatrical and funny. 'Suburbia' (1983) would be in the running too, but I'd give the slight edge to 'Repo Man' in this regard.

Having enjoyed his time spent studying and working in California, Cox embarked upon a new project with numerous 'Repo Man' cast members in tow. He assembled a bunch of punks to make the stranded western 'Straight To Hell' (1986) in Spain. Cox felt this small-scale project would help him to grow his own repertory company while teaching him about how to film in foreign languages, how to budget and operate in secluded destinations, and how to handle hot climates. At the time the idea was conceived, he already had his disastrous political picture 'Walker' (1987) on the horizon (which to my mind remains a really interesting movie).

I enjoy the colourful visions that make up 'Straight To Hell' but its reputation with critics is extremely poor and it's been tagged as being an "indulgent punk workout" that killed Cox's career. This view glosses over the fact that he went on to make some intriguing pictures soon after, such as the Mexican crime drama 'Highway Patrolman' (1991), and 'Death And The Compass' (1992) which was expanded from a television piece he'd directed based on a story by Jorge Luis Borges.
Cox maintains that his lift-off point for 'Straight To Hell' was spaghetti westerns, in particular the work of Giulio Questi who is thanked in the end credits, but it feels like a random assortment of artistic references and literary allusions. Its success, if that's not too bold a claim, lies in it being an authentic D.I.Y. project filmed within a miniature township in the Andalusian city of Almeria that was built specifically to be the ideal location to house American actor Charles Bronson for the western 'Chino' (1973). Cox dresses up his cast as grotesques and lets cinematographer Tom Richmond light everything brightly so the entire film feels like it's set in a place of everlasting light. An unruly slab of improvised punk theatre, it brings together faces from Manchester and Liverpool to act alongside a batch of musicians plucked from the London arts scene, representing two closely connected northern English cities that proved to be just as exciting for their emerging bands in the late '70s as the capital.



'Straight To Hell' plays with corporate identity and conspiracy theories, drawing from history to do this, and there are some funny branding exercises just like in 'Repo Man'. The performances are pitched near delirium and Cox took suggestions from his stock company players as to how their characters should meet their fate (Cox and Dick Rude came up with the basic story while hungover in Cannes, France). The international cast speak with many different accents which makes the town feel like it exists within its own time and place. This dislocated sense of time and place is one of the film's enjoyable aspects.
Alex Cox commissioned a soundtrack from California collective Pray For Rain and The Pogues. There are musical contributions made by musicians in the cast who'd initially been brought together for a proposed tour of Nicaragua. Courtney Love said she based her femme fatale Velma on Carroll Baker's iconic performance in 'Baby Doll' (1956).

I think Alex Cox is a great British filmmaker. He's the first English director I think of when I think of punk rock movies. Other directors like Derek Jarman and Julien Temple may be more readily recognised by critics - perhaps in part because Cox has frequently travelled overseas to shoot his movies - but he's my favourite. Filmmakers Dennis Hopper and Jim Jarmusch play character roles in 'Straight To Hell' which has been restored to dvd by the British Film Institute for future audiences to enjoy.

Obnoxious self-promoter and self-styled impresario Kim Fowley was as despised in sections of American music as Malcolm McLaren was here in the U K, though I'd contend Fowley was more talented than McLaren. In fact, he co-wrote some great songs during his lengthy career in music, working with a wide variety of musical artists from the 1960s onwards.

In the mid-1970s, Fowley witnessed the emergence of punk rock. He recognised this as an opportunity to fashion something dangerous on the west coast and started recruiting teenage girls with musical skills for a range of creative projects. Before long, accusations of horrific abuses were being laid at Fowley's door and it's hard to separate the artist from the scumbag he appears to have been (though I don't think he was ever tried, convicted or prosecuted over these alleged sex crimes and infractions). I was never a Fowley fan and haven't given him or his career much thought, but I enjoy the Runaways' music immensely. I need to pick up a copy of the 2010 edition of 'Neon Angel' and give it a read.

I'm not sure I'd recommend 'The Runaways' as I didn't particularly enjoy the movie. I'm more keen to get a copy of the book, but the movie's done a good job bringing the band's music to a new generation of fans. The Runaways' guiding light, Suzi Quatro, is among the musical artists that appear on the film's soundtrack.

"The Runaways is a curious mix, an exhilarating story of female self-expression that's also a cautionary tale of female exploitation. So as the '70s girl group The Runaways comes together and then slowly disintegrates, there's a simultaneous rising and falling arc — which would be thrilling if writer-director Floria Sigismondi had a structure that could hold it all together.
What she does have is punkish audacity: Her first shot is a splotch of menstrual blood on the pavement, as 15-year-old future Runaways vocalist Cherie Currie gets her first period. What makes this even more outrageous is that Cherie is played by Dakota Fanning, now stretched out and filled out. It's as if the director is saying, "Here's your adorable little child star. What do you make of her now? What will she make of herself?"
After she's teased by her more worldly sister, Cherie dolls herself up and heads for Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, a well-known L.A. club that's also where Kristen Stewart's Joan Jett heads, after buying herself a motorcycle jacket. She wants to play guitar in a rock band, but in the mid-'70s, the sexist conventional wisdom said girls didn't play electric guitar. Still, when Jett accosts the ghoulish impresario Kim Fowley, played by Michael Shannon, the idea for The Runaways is born."

- David Edelsetein, National Public Radio

I would, however, happily recommend Victory Tischler-Blue's in-house documentary 'Edgeplay : A Film About The Runaways' (2004). The soundtrack for this film showcases songs by Lita Ford and Suzi Quatro. Blue directed the music video for Quatro's cover of Goldfrapp's single 'Strict Machine'.

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Cheryl Smith is my favourite American actress from my favourite decade for American film, the 1970s. I have all her feature-length movies on dvd and the only one I've not yet watched is her final film 'Independence Day' (1983). Of her films I've seen, the only movie she made that I really don't care for is 'Boogievision' (1977), in which she appears briefly on a motorcycle (but I do have it on dvd to complete my collection).





Back in the 1970s, Pam Grier was the reigning queen of low budget crime cinema, and she quickly established herself as a dominant force in the W.I.P. (women in prison) crime subgenre alongside Roberta Collins. Like Grier and Collins, Cheryl Smith appeared in some of the best low budget crime films of the decade. Smith also made an indelible mark in fantasy, science-fiction and horror.

Smith was almost inarguably the greatest movie cheerleader of the decade, starring in three of the best pictures to emerge from the original cheerleader cycle. Her 'Caged Heat' (1974) co-star Erica Gavin described Smith as "cosmic". Smith herself often mentioned the fact that she was a gemini and retained a general passion for astrology throughout her life.

Even though she had already wrapped up her film career by the time I discovered her, when I was 13, I always looked out for news on how Rainbeaux was doing, and was lucky to find occasional interviews she would give. It's no secret that she had a troubled life, but many of the people that knew her said she was one of the sweetest, most sensitive people they'd ever met. 







Smith admired many singers and musicians, such as the great Polish singer-songwriter Urszula Sipinska, and she herself sang well too; one of several movies she made with producer Charles Band was the musical 'Cinderella' (1977) in which she plays the title role.

Cheryl Smith was friends with filmmaker Jonathan Demme who directed her in 'Caged Heat' and 'Melvin And Howard' (1980). She acts with Demme in William Sachs' gruesome creature feature 'The Incredible Melting Man' (1977). Demme knew experimental filmmaker Leland Auslander who'd directed Smith in his short subject film 'Birth Of Aphrodite' (1971) which was entered into official competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

It's sometimes said that Cheryl Smith was briefly a member of The Runaways, but I think there's a bit of mystery and confusion surrounding this claim. Smith was such a talented drummer and percussionist, she was asked to sit in with a lot of musicians working the L.A. music scene. She was a member of the punk band L.A. Girls and enjoyed a stint playing drums for Joan Jett. She appears as Jett's drummer in the semi-documentary Runaways feature 'Du-Beat-E-O' (1984 - filmed on the road in 1979), but by this point the band had fragmented beyond the point of recognition. Smith worked with Cherie Currie on the ambient science-fiction horror 'Parasite' (1982).

Smith's fellow actress / musician / model / gemini / designer and friend Linnea Quigley would cameo in a movie with Joan Jett herself in the 1990s. Quigley portrayed Sleeping Beauty in 'Fairy Tales' (1978) which is the sequel to 'Cinderella'. Quigley appears alongside Smith and Skirts bassist Haydee Pomar in the fictional band the Hot Rollers, the rock group that encounters Cheech & Chong with Pee Wee Herman while dining at a busy restaurant in 'Nice Dreams' (1981). Smith and Quigley were jokingly referred to as "the gemini twins" by the Los Angeles local music press (in film, they both worked for low-rent movie producers Roger Corman and Charles Band in the 1970s).

On a sidenote, Smith was a collector of antique clothing which is mentioned in one of the quotes I posted by Chris Barbour - that Jonathan Demme utilised some of her outfits during the filming of 'Caged Heat'. In 1982, filmmaker Carl Reiner hired her to wear one of Veronica Lake's original dresses for the comedy 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' (1982), in which she doubles for Lake from behind (the film interpolates archive footage into its narrative). I feel sure this would have meant a lot to her.

I really hope Cheryl Smith is at peace now. I'm extremely grateful for all the creative work that she left behind, and I'll always remember just how much she said she appreciated her fans. There's an informative site on the internet that preserves her memory, with pieces written by some of her friends and those that knew her. It's nice to know she made such a big impact on so many peoples' lives.

'The Go-Go's' is a new documentary about the Go-Go's directed by Alison Ellwood who made 'Magic Trip : Ken Kesey's Search For A Kool Place' (2011) with documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney. There's some nice footage of the band and interviews with all the key band members. It's basically a promotional film so you don't learn much about the music and it skirts over three of the group's four studio albums, preferring to focus on the evoluton of their debut record, 'Beauty And The Beat' (1981). If you accept it for what it is, it's enjoyable. I'd like to get it on dvd someday just for the interviews.

Speakers include the band's original manager Ginger Canzoneri, music producer Richard Gottehrer, poet Pleasant Gehman, guitarist Lynval Golding (The Specials), saxophonist Lee Thompson (Madness) and drummer Stewart Copeland (The Police). British bands are represented as the Go-Go's were massively inspired by British punk music and became a crack road unit by touring the U K. Around this time, Holly And The Italians were also gigging in Britain with bands like Blondie and the Selecter.

Looking at some of the reaction to 'The Go-Go's' online, it seems fair to say this isn't the documentary many fans were hoping for but that doesn't mean it's not worth seeing. The interviewees are honest, frank, courteous and funny, with some great stories to tell. Hopefully somebody will make a documentary that focuses more on the music but that's for the future. For now, I'm fortunate to have seen this documentary as it's screening on the SKY Documentary channel. I believe it's also available to see through Showtime.

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Linnea Quigley was born on May 27, 1958 in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of homemaker Dorothy Quigley (November 29, 1922 – December 21, 2009) and psychologist Doctor William Heath Quigley (June 27, 1915 – May 18, 2006). Her father was a pioneer in the field of chiropractic who authored many influential scientific papers, some of which are available to read online. He was a Dean of Education and the Vice President at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport. An only child, Quigley attended Garfield Elementary and Sudlow Middle schools in Davenport. She later attended Bettendorf High School in Bettendorf, Iowa.

Quigley is my favourite living horror movie performer. In 1978, she made her first two films. 'Deathsport' (1978) was produced by Roger Corman and 'Fairy Tales' (1978) was produced by Charles Band. Quigley became the first woman elected to the Fangoria Horror Hall Of Fame when she was inducted in 1993.

Folk-infused Iowa has been a historical home to some of the American midwests' renegade jazz wranglers. It's also a state with a proud literary tradition. Quigley's own career in music and songwriting took off when she moved west to Los Angeles, California and became a member of punk outfit Mad Whistle. Guitarist Lucrecia Sarita Russo was the main songwriter in Mad Whistle and she was married at the time to Jeffrey Spry of Felony. Quigley appears with Felony in the film 'Graduation Day' (1981).

Quigley also studied with comedy troupe the Groundlings in the late 1970s, where she fell in with stoner musical duo Cheech & Chong whose entourage populated the Rainbow Bar & Grill on Sunset Boulevard. Drummer and actress Cheryl Smith was a core member of Cheech & Chong's stock company and a mainstay at the Rainbow (which gave her her nickname Rainbeaux). Quigley appears in Cheech & Chong's movies 'Nice Dreams' (1981) and 'Still Smokin' (1983), and Smith appears in 'Nice Dreams' and 'Up In Smoke' (1978). Quigley's day job during this time was as an attendant at a health spa owned by fitness guru Jack LaLanne and she sends herself up in this regard with her role as an eccentric spa girl in 'Still Smokin'.

Linnea Quigley's legacy in horror is now often being spoken about, but I think it's equally beneficial to remember her contributions to fashion and music too. For those of us that are devoted to punk rock and horror cinema, she's a genuine icon. Long may she continue ...

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