“I stumbled across your site while checking out the Casbah page,” Bill Starling writes. “I really dig what’s on your site. I went to many shows in the early and mid ’80s. I recognize a lot of the flyers but I was also blown away by all the flyers I have never seen.
“I have quite a few flyers that are all in great shape. They are all originals from the day and I’ve saved them over the years. Many are from the Adams Ave. / Wabash Hall / Fairmount Hall days.”
Like recent contributions from Ken Fugate and Jason Seibert, the Starling Collection appears here in downloadable PDF format, about 80 flyers in four files spanning approximately 1981 to 1986 and beyond:
The Bill Starling Collection features local bands including The Front, Solucion Mortal, Personal Conflict, Battalion of Saints, Ministry of Truth, Corporate Disease, the Executives, Violation Five, Red Brigade, Neighborhood Watch, Diatribe, Manifest Destiny, the Insolents, Eleven Sons, the Penetrators, Tom Troccoli’s Dog, the Unforgiven, ASC, Uniform Choice, First Offense, D.Y.P., Don’t No, Moral Majority, Exobiota, Youth Authority, Faces of Drama, Corrosion of Conformity, Funeral, 5051, Skull Busters, Men of Clay, Sacred Lies, District Tradition, Mirrored Image, White Trash, Forbidden Chant, the Injections, Skrap Boys, Black Tango, Terms, Doggy Style, Youth of Today and the Wallflowers.
Out-of-towners include the Descendents, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Suicidal Tendencies, Broken Bones, Justice League, the Minutemen, Negative Approach, 7 Seconds, Tex and the Horseheads, the Adicts, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Saccharine Trust, the Meat Puppets, DC-3, Bad Brains, U.K. Subs, Vandals, Scream, TSOL, the Weirdos, the Dum Dum Boys, Agent Orange, Narthix Structure, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Christian Death, the Web, Toy Dolls, Effigies, Husker Du, Meat Puppets, Fear, Dead Kennedys, Raw Power, Riistetyt, Samhain, J.F.A., D.O.A., Abrasive Wheels, Broken Bones, Motorhead, Agression, Channel 3, the Exploited, Toxic Reasons, Kommunity FK, Alien Sex Fiend, Angelic Upstarts, Power Trip
Plenty more intriguing historical footnotes on these flyers, including this aside under “Tim Maze Presents” on a flyer by our own Mike Stobbe from July 7, 1984: “Give this guy a break — at least he’s doing something!” Amen to that.