The first time I heard Hair Theatre was a party at Margarat Nee’s house in Leucadia in the summer of 1983. They came out of nowhere (a k a Carlsbad, a few miles north of my sphere of activity), and I knew from Note 1 that we needed to invite them to join the scene coalescing around the Che Cafe. What an incredible band! What fantastic stage presence!
Making its digital debut on Che Underground: The Blog, here’s Hair Theatre doing “Meet Me Outside.” Listening to this, who else can clearly picture Sergio in action?
Oddly (oh yeah, the drugs), that party at Margarat’s house is the first time I remember experiencing Hair Theatre as well. If its the same one, it was the first time I played w/the band. The first time I saw Sergio, he was singing a few songs with the Answers, a Psychedelic trio featuring David Fleminger on guitar, Jeff Lucas on bass and David Anderson on Drums. Around this time I was learning about all these great local rock bands that did not sound like Van Halen or AC/DC.
That was another great MRAT party! This first gig was before the band had met the Answers — or anybody from downtown. Sergio, Sergio, Cesar and Howard Palmer on drums … Joe Palmer, Howard’s brother, was actually the first member of the Hair Theatre crew I met that night. (Where is Joe??) I did my best Brian Epstein and sweet-talked the band into joining the bill at our next Che Cafe appearance with the Answers — July 29, 1983.
I’m betting the show you saw Sergio fronting the Answers was this subsequent gig, the date of which still confuses me … A surviving live tape of that supergroup’s debut features an apocalyptic reading of “Dizzy Miss Lizzy.”
I think the show I saw w/Sergio and the Answers was in Chula Vista or somewhere else in south county. They may have been the only band. I’d love to hear that tape! I remember when I heard (from Stacy Swapp) that she was going to a party with bands in Escondido or Encinitas I thought, wow, there’s stuff going on outside the city of San Diego. Until then it was mostly Adam’s Avenue Theater or San Diego State Amphitheater (where I sat outside, listening to bad sound for free).
P.S. The photo of Sergio w/the Answers appears to be outdoors. The little club I went to was an indoor club.
Wow, where did this nice clean recording come from? The dub that Dave F. had sounded really muddled compared to this. Actually, Ive had my own (even worse quality) dub of this and the three other demo songs for years…but this is the first time Ive heard this one sound so clean. So my question is: are there good quality dubs of the other songs too?
I miss Hair Theatre…they were such a great band. The last time I saw them play was at the old Casbah, around 1991 (Im guessing). The last time I saw Paul was at Granny’s, sometime in the mid or late 90s. There was a jam session going on and he let me play his black Explorer. Im pretty sure he always played that guitar in Hair Theatre…am I right, Paul?
Dave E.: “Little” Sergio Castillo, transcendent Hair Theatre bassist we met at age 13, has come through with some rockin’ audio … We’re hoping for photos soon, so I don’t have to keep recycling the one shot I have of Sergio! 🙂
And both Sergios have made tantalizing reference to some Hair Theatre video. Here’s hoping!
What-if game I’m playing right now: Listen to this song and imagine if Hair Theatre had made its way up to Seattle by about ’87-’88. …
I saw probably all the Hair Theater gigs, from the Che debut on til I left in Sept, 85.
What was the weird, mirrored disco stage on El Cajon Blvd, attached to a hotel? They shared the bill with Funhouse, I think. What an incredible gig.
Also, I remember all of us at the Spirit Club -- none of us old enough to drink. Dave Rinck & I ran the lights for the stage on that one, I think. Sergio was over the top -- a couple of jock/sailors were there. I was beginning to sense trouble, but Sergio sang “Suck my creation!” at them and they began to believe that they were witnessing the rebirth of Jim Morrison. He turned ’em all the way ’round!
I don’t have the reels for this session unfortunately. I had actually taken the cassette we got from that session way back then and did a little work at home.
I transferred from that cassette through this echo box and then on to a boom box which also had this “wide” switch. Turned that on and that big cavernous sound is the result of that experiment. Paul already had some really heavy reverb on his guitar and this extra effect gave it just that extra ominous sound.
Purely accidental by the way. I really hadn’t intended it to sound the way it came out. Basically, it was a poor man’s mastering, ha, ha.
A couple years back I decided I need to preserve them, so I digitized them.
Paul did some pretty awesome work on all our stuff, but this was really one of the best captured moments for HT.
“What was the weird, mirrored disco stage on El Cajon Blvd, attached to a hotel?”
Jeremiah: That wouldn’t have been the New Generation club, would it?
The New Generation was downtown on 11th…I was trying to figure out what club that was too, but I dont think I was ever at any place like that.
The tape I have seems to have the same version heard here. I thought the engineers added echo, it’s cool to know you did that on a boombox Sergio. It sounds really spooky. I never felt that that tape, which as far as I know is the only recording of HT during the time I was in it, was my best work of the time. It was recorded one instrument or vocal at a time on an 8-track recorder. I was the last instrumentalist to play and wasn’t familiar with recording, so by the time it got to my turn I didn’t have the exciting feeling you have when you’re about to go onstage. Still, its cool to have a record from that time. Reading about all these shows is slowly stirring the grey matter. I’m remembering a lot of those great times.
Granny’s must have been that bar in North Park, on University? That would have been the jam sessions run by the “Round Mound of Sound” Paul Howland, another great bass player. Hi Dave, same guitar, a bit embarassing but it’s still the only electric guitar I’ve ever had. My Mom bought it for me when I was 15 for graduating junior high school. It’s actually a Washburn Stage G-15 or A-15 or something like that. It’s one of the first electric guitar models that Washburn made.
Jeremiah, good to hear from you again. Still living in S.F.? I’m in Oakland.
Paul…yup, Granny’s was the bar on University in North Park in the 90s. The owners were Lana and Chris Henry. I dont know if you remember Lana… she and my wife are good friends. She’s in Austin, TX now.
As for the Washburn… you always sounded great on it! Im a big fan of your playing…you have a really unique style. Are you playing much these days?
“What was the weird, mirrored disco stage on El Cajon Blvd, attached to a hotel?”
Jeremiah: That wouldn’t have been the New Generation club, would it?
You all must be talking about the Lafayette Hotel on Louisiana and El Cajon Blvd. There was a “new wave” dance club there mid eighties, but a few bands played there as well, usually on off nights. The Tell-Tale Hearts played with a group called the Charms there.
Thanks Dave. I always dug the Rockin’ Dogs. I liked the way your cleaner, sorta rockabilly sound contrasted with Sammy’s wild, hard rock sound. I’ve gotten in a bad habit of not practicing much since I started doing electrical construction work about eight years ago. I’m trying to break it. I did jam with David Fleminger and Kristin Martin and many others including my girlfriend Annie when her ex-husband Steve Mackay, sax player extroardinaire, convened the Millenium Ensemble around the turn of the Millenium (I know I’m reaching back here). Stooges fans may recall some awesome sax work on their second record Fun House. Yep, that’s him. He’s been touring with the reunited Stooges for several years now. Got to see them at the Warfield in San Francisco. Tickets sold out for 2 shows in about half an hour. The Warfield is the biggest club in S.F. A little different than when I saw Iggy Pop at the Adam’s Avenue Theater. I think Battalion of Saints opened for that show.
Hey Ray, I listened to a few of your songs on your new(?) CD on your myspace page. It sounds great! Now that you mention the Lafayette Hotel on El Cajon Blvd., was that the place where (my neighbor) John Stoup ran a club once a week?
P.S. Speaking of John Stoup, he introduced me to Ron Silva when I was probably 12-14 when the Crawdaddys played at his sister Sue’s party. She used to have these blowout punk rock parties when punk rock in San Diego was more new wavy and weird, I think influenced by the Rocky Horror Picture Show scene, which was still recent. John told me Ray didn’t like punk rock. Ray told me, in a British accent, that no he didn’t like punk rock actually.
Hi Paul,
You also had a rockin’ party I remember as well, one at which the Morlocks played (their first gig, maybe?) and the Tell-Tale Hearts. I had laryngitis was drinking cough syrup all night.
John Stoup and I are old friends--he was the Hedgehogs original drummer actually. That punk rock/English accent story is a hoot--I must have been hanging around Ron Silva at the time!
I spent a lot of time at the Stoup house/parties. I run into John rarely these days, and Sue and Ann even less frequently. John did run a club at the Lafayette for a while, but I can’t for the life of me remember the name of it. Anyway, to you or anyone else interested, I’ll send you a copy of the CD if you like. It is a (ahem) “best of” CD which was released when the Tell-Tale Hearts reunited last year. My wife is getting more than a little annoyed at having to look at the boxes and boxes of unsold copies in the living room!
Paul,
Stoup’s house. There’s another thread here, where that came up! I met Bill Calhoun first time at a Hedgehogs party there.
Ted Friedman was the rhythm guitar for the Morlocks. I just heard from him on MySpace. Doing pretty good in SD -- he runs some open-mike nights. His dad’s copy shop on College avenue was the original meeting place for many of the folks in TTH, GD5 and Morlocks. It was next to Dave Klowden’s family Greek Restaurant, and Mike Stax was among those who worked first at one, then the other. I have little doubt that many of the flyers in the gallery were produced there.
OK. Speaking of folks we met at Aesop’s Tables and the Copy Shop: what’s become of Rick Wilson?
Rick Wilson! Lots of great stories there, including being stranded in Los Angeles with him for a week without a car or money, sleeping on the couches at Ron Rimsite and Paula’s apartment.
I ran into Rick from time to time over the years, but the last I saw him was an awkward, eye-contact avoiding episode when I took Raquel to see the circus that is the Viejas casino, about eight years ago. He was working as a security guard.
Ray, that sounds like every time I spent a week in LA. 🙂
I hope he gets a chance to gawk at all this stuff. He was such a naturally talented illustrator. Maybe some of his artwork will turn up in the flyers section.
I remember the Wallflowers show at the Rock Palace with various percussion instruments and horns. I couldnt remember if it was an actual gig or just a big jam session…but different people were coming up to sit in. I got up and played timbales on a few songs myself (not that I had any idea what I was doing).
Paul…I remember one party at your house where various members of 45 Grave showed up with their moster makeup running down their faces from a sweaty gig they’d just played in SD. I dont remember what band played at your house that night, but the amps and drums were still set up…so 45 Grave and some other people were jamming. I met Chris Gast that night, and recruited him to play in the band I was forming, the Wild Desires. He played with us for a few rehearsals…sorry to hear that he died.
Dave, I think I might have sung something that night at Rock Palace, with the Wallflowers, too. I know I was having the time of my life.
45 Grave? They played with the Morlocks in SFO -- at the Farm -- in 1986. Stax and friends were visiting from SD that night. I think I heckled them -- jokingly -- with a “Count Floyd Robertson” routine from the audience. They stopped playing for a couple minutes…
I saw the original mention of Chris’s passing. Still, I don’t know. Matt Rothenburg can back me up on how often he would talk about faking his own death…
It is at the very least eerie that Chris spoke repeatedly and admiringly about the PR value of false rumors about Leighton Koizumi’s death — and specifically said that he’d like to engineer precisely the same sort of thing.
Oh, and Paul: Marky “Morlock” Mullen was in the Wallflowers after Aaron Daniels. He’s living in Florida now, according to Eric Rife; I got an e-mail address and invite him here … Hoping he’ll turn up sooner or later!
Che Underground PR news flash: Big, recursive props to Mario, the young proprietor of the blog Say a Word for Jimmy Brown, for his enthusiastic response to Hair Theatre and “Meet Me Outside.”
“It’s like a goth version of the Stooges and it’s pretty great,” Mario writes. “This gives Carlsbad at least a few cool points. Still have a lot of work to do.” Hee, hee!
I’m afraid I can’t get back on topic either Tom, but here’s some fascinating history of the Lafayette Hotel that was written in 2003 when developers threatened to demolish it for condos. Thankfully that has not happened and it is a working hotel again. And the Red Fox Room is still going strong, though without Shirley Allen on piano (Rest In Peace).
“The hotel still exhibits a wealth of photos from its halcyon days, including Imig with beautiful women and of the hotel’s official greeter, the 47-inch-tall Chico Colla, who posed in top hat and tails or in traditional Mexican garb with celebrities, which included such starlets as Lana Turner, Betty Grable, Ava Gardner and swing-band giant Harry James, who drew large crowds to the hotel’s Mississippi Ballroom. Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller is said to have designed the terrazzo, Olympic-sized pool in the complex’s central courtyard.”
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?id=880
The new wave discoteque that occured there in the 80s was called Club ID.
Club ID. Dean, you got it.
Tom…Yup, that was me… I was a banquet waiter in Balboa Park for a few years in the late ’80s.
I dug up a listing I kept from the Roxy Club & Cafe on 2201 El Cajon Blvd, billing itself as San Diego’s Most Progressive Dance Club. It lists “club i-D” Fridays and Mondays, students w/ID get in free, D.J. Blackstone, the master mixer. Then it lists “Club Cult, Dark” after Christmas party with Hair Theater (sic) & Morlocks on Wed. Dec. 26 (’84) w/Hard Core music 8:00-9:30pm.
Club Cult would have been John Stoup’s club. I remember he didn’t pay us, but that was par for the course. The only times I actually remember getting paid was $20 from Tim Maze, after they bumped us to a lower spot in the lineup in favor of Gary Heffern from the Penetrators, and $60 plus a small bar tab at some club in Orange County. By the time we left the bar we ended up owing the club money!
3 Guys Called Jesus played Club Cult a few times … It moved around a lot — our last gig (my last gig in San Diego) was Jan. ’87: Club Cult at a Chinese restaurant called Wok Express.
Right, when Hair Theatre played there, Club Cult was at the Roxy Club which was at the Red Fox Room at the Lafayette Hotel at El Cajon Blvd. and Louisiana St.