(Bart Mendoza of Manual Scan and the Shambles — San Diego music historian extraordinaire — shares some highlights from his stacks.)
Some call it being a pack rat; I prefer the tag “archivist”! The dream is to put together a DVD/book with the rooms full of stuff I’ve accumulated in 30 years of collecting San Diego music memorabilia.
But in the meantime, in honor of the recent Che Underground reunion shows, here are 20 relevant vintage photos from my archive. For this fifth picture post, I’ve included a little bit of everything: random photos from 1982-1990 (+1), including bandmates and other friends.
1) Dean Curtis at Club Zu. You know it’s a good show if Dean is in attendance.
2) Dimitri Callian at New Sounds 1989. Alongside Secret Society S.C., Matt Fidelibus, Ron Friedman and Scott Harper, Dimitri was a vital part of making New Sounds happen. This is in the loading dock behind Montezuma Hall, probably at the end of the night.
3) Patrick Works and Peter Miesner at Club Zu. I don’t recall if this was a Crawdaddys gig or an offshoot band, but I know it smoked! Peter has played with the Crawdaddys, The Tell Tale Hearts and The Riot Act. He currently performs with hot jazz combo The Zzymzzy Quartet.
4) The Roosters at New Sounds 1985 / JP’s. That’s Ritchie Brubaker and Kevin Donaker-Ring’s arm – dancing the night away are Marcie Morgan and David Anderson (The Trebles, Gravedigger V, Skid Roper etc.) Note DJ Dennis Borlek in the window above the stage.
5) Mick (London) Hale at Club Zu. Frontman for the oft-mentioned, New Jersey-based Mod Fun. Mick would later front Crockodile Shop, though Mod Fun is still gigging today.
6) Karen Shelver. From what I can gather from this series of pictures, my camera was passed around and used by friends for random snaps at a gathering at my house. This one of Karen turned out nice.
7) The Nashville Ramblers in rehearsal.
8 ) Tony Suarez at The Adams Avenue Theater.
9) Dorothy Norton and Simon Smith (Merton Parkas, Mood Six) pre-New Sounds. Simon also drummed with Small Town Parade and The Times.
10) The Wickershams and friends, post-gig at Club Zu. Jim Davies, Shari Graham, Bart Mendoza, Ron Silva, Tony Sanchez.
11) David Klowden, Kevin Donaker-Ring and Jerry Cornelius hanging out.
12) Paul Bevoir taken at The Jetset’s 100 Club show in November 1986. I like the way the spotlight works in this one. I recently worked on a Jetset tribute album, released earlier this year by British label Twist Records, with liner notes detailing Bevoir’s time in San Diego.
13) Steve Griggs. Steve has been a great friend for just about as long as I can remember. This pic captures him perfectly! It was taken on the way to a New Year’s Day scooter rally in Pasadena.
14) Mod Fun. The band stayed with me a few times during the ’80s. This pic of drummer Chris Collins and Bob Strete was taken on the steps of my second-floor apartment at 1710 Madison Avenue.
15) The Purple Hearts. One from the same time frame for the British readers of this page. This is a snap I took stage side at the London Hippodrome in 1986. If you haven’t heard this band, I recommend you start with the song “Beat That.”
16) That’s Paul Fehlman introducing Mod Fun at Club Zu. Paul was the promoter, post X-Offenders. I like the composition of this one: the two girls watching, the band about to start, Paul kicking things off. … It’s Chris Collins on drums.
17) Joel Kmak recording the song “Rock ‘n’ Roll Girl” (a Paul Collins Beat cover) at Blitz Recording Studio for Rachael Gordon, with the band credit: The Very Idea. The newest pic here. I really like the eye image in particular. Joel was in Manual Scan for a short spell and was also in the Hitmakers; Powerthud; and latter-day Penetrators, Beat Farmers, et al.
18) Ed Ackerson at a 27 Various rehearsal in Minneapolis. The band played New Sounds 1991 at Soma, stayed at 4160 with us. What an incredible songwriter. Ed has been in great bands including The Dig and produced a lot of cool bands as well. Ironically, the next time Ed returned to San Diego was in the late ’90s at the second Soma, when his band Polara was touring with Garbage. Check out Polara’s tune “Avenue E.”
19) Dennis Borlek in DJ mode at Club Zu. “Dennis the Menace” was definitely the best DJ and was manning the turntables at pretty much every gig of note during the era.
20) Manual Scan at Balboa Park’s Organ Pavilion. I’m a huge fan of black-and-white photography (as opposed to color pics being “decolorized”), and I love the scope of this photo. It doesn’t seem like this image was taken that long ago, but I can’t imagine the park being this empty during any daylight hours today.
— Bart Mendoza
More from the Mendoza Collection:
dean at zu. helping kelsey paint that place was the best time i ever had getting super grimy and paint covered. we had too much fun getting that ready for action. but seeing dean there makes me smile. i always remember zu as a madhouse for the newro kids. i don’t think i went to a single mod show there.
but check out the posters behind dennis, that is what was going on there most nights. abc, prince, duran duran, soft cell… sheesh…
one night at dirks house he and paul phipps put a copy of an abc album in the oven. they warped it to hell and then hung it on the wall. dirk was trying to say something… 😉
>>i always remember zu as a madhouse for the newro kids. i don’t think i went to a single mod show there.
Ava: Me, too … me, neither.
Ironic that this Solana Beach club was in my Encinitas back yard, and I’m having a very hard time recalling the dates or even finding the address of the place. I think it started in … ’83?? When’d you all have the painting party?
Gonna try to go to the source on this one.
ahoi bart -- kool pix mate, cheers!
i am pretty sure it was in 84. is anyone still in touch with brian heatherington or kelsey? they were such fun guys. we met through todd tomorrow.
matthew, i think there is a pizza place there now.
what was it that took over studio? wasn’t it a ladies gym?
>>is anyone still in touch with brian heatherington or kelsey?
Ava: Kelsey’s a friend on Facebook — you should friend him, too — and I asked him to weigh in.
And Brian lives here in NY … We’re in touch sometimes, although not often enough!
i remember riding on brians moped up pac hwy. hilarious. carrying paint cans and going 20 as the rich folk sped past us in their lovely del mar cars.
Here’s Kelsey Farris on the birth of Club Zu:
That photo of me was a Sovereigns show at the Adams Ave. theatre. Thanks for posting it. The wickershams photo is awesome as well.
Thanks Bart! Love the pic at the organ pavilion. Classic 60s as I recall many 60s films with scenes at outdoor auditoriums like that. Cue: Guy chases girlfriend through benches until both fall on bench (or lawn) exhausted and embrace each other.
Cool to see picture of Joel Kmak in a new band. He goes way back! I never knew he was still involved in music.
Thanks for posting these Bart. Great stuff.
Frank Glaser and I promoted a bunch of these shows using Club Zu as the venue & always used Dennis for those gigs. Great to see all of these here.
Can’t find the Injection thread but I thought some people may have missed this. Circle Jerks from the Decline.
In the pit is Marc Rude, Terry marine, in yellow, Chuko Tony from FONO, Lou Skum….Lots of SD folk.
They throw EVERYBODY off stage but at about 3:30 on they let Lou come up on stage, dance, sing, etc… I doubt they knew who he was, but he DOES have a certain presence. Cool vid!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYVUTlSWcq0
>>Can’t find the Injection thread
Bruce: Here’s the thread, and here are four ways to find it or any other thread if you misplace it in the future.
1. Use the “Older Entries” arrow at the bottom of the home page to click back through time.
2. Use the Archives menu on the right-hand side to look month by month. This post is dated Feb. 21, 2009. Whenever you want to find the Injections thread, click on February 2009 to find it.
3. There’s a Search box at the top of the right-hand nav. Type “Memories of the Injections” in and click Search. It’s the first result.
4. Go to Google. Type “memories of the injections” into the search field and click Search. It’s the first result.
Wrote a history about the Mod nights at Club Zu for my zine VOXed In. Yes it was turned into Pizza Port in Solana Beach which I think is still there?…lived in SB during the early 1990’s…some great shows..and the best was Mod Fun live!